Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Walking On Sunshine

Birthday breakfast with darling


Perfect setting for an intimate valentine birthday

Commando ironman turned credit card officer

Citibank senior mgt group drops in to Operations..

To serve ice cream! This is the man whose signature grace all welcome letters to new Citibank cardholders - big boss of consumer banking Anil

Long...

long queue for ice cream and goodies

Attending a sunset wedding..

At Chalk @ Old School on Mount Sophia

Owned by the Porsche driving, multiple Ya Kun outlet owner, CEO of mainboard listed semiconductor firm bridegroom..

Sweets for my sweet :p



P.S: 30th May 2009. Midnight. Changi Village. 42.195km. 4 hours. adidas Sundown Marathon. Easy run. ..?!!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

What A Feeling

It has been one of the best Tuesdays I have had in recent weeks. The day started off with me waking up just in time to get dressed and hop on the train to reach work just in time before the manager started to ask "where's Bryan", but I had to work the whole afternoon on an empty stomach.

The first hour at work was a frenzy, running to and fro from my desk to the admin department to sort out a few customers' demanding requests, all the while with my stomach groaning and pleading to be filled with food. After clocking my five hours, I packed my stuff and made a few calls to my mates who would be meeting at City Hall for dinner.

The night before, I sent out a message that says to meet from 6pm onwards but no later than 7. I thought I was being very thoughtful in my flexibility on the meeting time, but apparently that ruffled some feathers early on. A hungry man is an angry man, and Matte certainly was grouchy when we met up. His first sentence to me was,

"Why did you have to say meet between 6 to 7? You could have just set a standard time."

I replied,"but there are people who has work and school, so must give them time to travel."

He retorted,"Yeah, but I pity those who actually come on time at 6", in an obvious reference to himself. So to prevent him from becoming like the Chelsea and France footballer Nicolas Anelka, famously known as Le Sulk, I quickly ushered him towards the counter to get his dinner served. Suddenly the world seemed such a brighter place.

By seven, everyone who was supposed to be there was there. We tucked in to our food and had a great time chatting away. Close to the end of dinner, Timo and CY, after slipping off rather unnoticed, emerged with a birthday cake from Canele. The group then burst into an embarassing and rowdy rendition of 'Happy Birthday'.



Having had our fill, we proceeded to TCC at CityLink for drinks. We chatted even more about all things under the sun, and only left at close to 11pm.

Well, as I had said, my birthday is just an excuse to ask everyone out for a get together. The whole point was not to celebrate my 23rd coming of age, but rather, more of a water point in our marathon called the race of life. I thoroughly enjoyed myself tonight with the friends who know me best and with whom I had the fondest memories. Thank you Matt, Elvin, Wendy, Huiying, Timo, Samski, Eve, Tiang, Nic, Yu Xian, Siew May for providing yet another enjoyable evening.

Also, I dunno if she is old enough to use Nic's MacBook, but to the adorable Naomi, thank you for your birthday card. Even though you fell asleep writing it, seeing the words 'Happy Birthday Kor Kor Bryan' just floored me. I will drop by to play Raving Rabbits with you real soon. :p

Another piece of good news reached me when I got home which made the day even sweeter...

"Dear Mr Zheng Yuan Bryan Koh,

Thank you for your application to the LSE Summer School 2009. I am very happy to write to you to inform you that you have been accepted onto the following course(s):

AF330 Alternative Investments

Due to technical difficulties with our database, we are not yet able to send out your formal offer letter. We hope to have the problems fixed by next week, and we will email you again to confirm your offer, and to let you know that your offer letter is on its way.

In the meantime, congratulations once again, and we welcome you to explore the Summer School on our Facebook group.


Kind regards,

Simon Briercliffe

LSE Summer School Office"


I am going to Londontown! Now my school has posted a message to say that there will be 12 scholarships up for grabs to go to six chosen institutions for summer school, and LSE is one of them. Even though my mum has very kindly agreed to sponsor my trip, it would really be a huge financial relief to get the S$4000 grant to cover the school fees and accommodation.

Matt would be there by the time I land in Heathrow, as will my cousin Vanessa, who is studying at Goldsmiths, University of London. It may be many months away still, and I have to tackle my prelims and UOL exams in May, but that has not stopped me from doing some preliminary planning on my itinerary.

I have been giving a lot of thought in the past one month or two, on whether it would be wise to hang on to my part-time bank job. On one hand, the exposure and remuneration I receive is very useful and handy, but on the other my first priority should be my studies.

Since secondary school to poly, my results has been straight Bs. Given the amount of effort I put in, I ought to give myself a pat on the shoulder. But I know I can do much more than B, and as much as grades are important, the process of learning and acquiring of new knowledge is what I learned to appreciate.

My annual leave allows me to absent myself from work for the duration of my exams, but leave me with no time off to prepare adequately. I am thus faced with a very difficult decision to make, one that I have already decided internally but find very hard to put into action. The loss of financial independence and reverting back to state welfare aid a.k.a my mother's son has caused me sleepless nights. At 23, I do not expect to be an additional strain of financial resources, especially in light of the current economic situation, but I am just a student. What to do?

To comfort myself, my friends in NUS, NTU and SMU who are 25 are also surviving on allowances from mummy and daddy! Ha! That really reduced the frown lines.

I am looking forward to what the coming months will bring, and I relish the prospects of challenging myself academically for the first time proper in 3 years. Following the strict regime of revision and running seems a tall task right now, and thus I shall encourage myself by posting the outcomes weekly on this space as a reminder of the promises to myself and as a reflection.

Fingers crossed, impossible is nothing.


Today was a blast! =)