I had quite an extraordinary day yesterday. I later mulled over the numerous sentiments I felt...
My company organised a Finance Community seminar, in conjunction with the Hari Raya celebrations. During the seminar, we shared highlights and successes of the Finance community in the last quarter. My Finance Director, Mike, commemorated the event with his presence.
The seminar was ended with a slightly different flavour this time... a group of executives from Std Chart (SC) was invited to share with us the basics of foreign exchange : the Ringgit's co-relation with the economy's trend. This group of executives arrived in a fashion of their own...all dressed in 3-piece black suits, and then they clipped and clopped their way in on the laminated floor. Wow, talk about an impressive-seeking entrance!
When the time came for them to speak, not 10-minutes had gone by when the laptop battery decided to take a break from all that finance terminologies. One of the speakers, JT, an economist with SC, (whom I thought was pretty cute) carried himself well speaking about forex in a hall of strange faces. It wasnt long before a backup laptop was fixed up, but not before JT "instructed" one of our senior Finance management to move the whiteboard upfront! JT could NOT be more than 30 years old really.
After the seminar, a makan-makan Hari Raya was served; there was yummy lemang, satay, satay sauce, mee jawa, and lots more. Out of the 4 SC personnel who came, 3 of them had to rush off to catch their flight back to KL, with JT alone leaving for Singapore the next morning.
I was quietly enjoying my second helping of lemang with satay sauce when JT approached, declaring that he was having the best beef rendang he had ever tasted. Well, of course, Malaysian local food is a class of its own!
Shortly after that, another colleague of mine joined us. During the ice-breaker conversation of who came from where and a bit of career history, JT mentioned that he liked the slower pace of Miri life. He went on to say that he loved going to his "holiday houses" in Bali, Australia, etc (I think I kinda shut off at that moment), blah, blah, blah, and he lives in a semi-D in Singapore. Show off? Nevertheless, I was impressed (with his financial position), and started to ponder about my own predicament.
Owning just one house sucked me dry! Then I took this job in Miri with a paycut...was I going in the wrong direction? Having said that, things havent been so bad since I came. Pretty good work-life balance, you take some, you give some. All I need was one house, I didnt need so many all over the world anyway. I think I'm ok.
I recollected this exchange to a colleague this morning. He thought JT was trying to impress me...was he? JT did ask me to join him for a drink, which invitation I had to turn down though. Perhaps his many properties didnt catch my attention the way he planned. Should it?
My company organised a Finance Community seminar, in conjunction with the Hari Raya celebrations. During the seminar, we shared highlights and successes of the Finance community in the last quarter. My Finance Director, Mike, commemorated the event with his presence.
The seminar was ended with a slightly different flavour this time... a group of executives from Std Chart (SC) was invited to share with us the basics of foreign exchange : the Ringgit's co-relation with the economy's trend. This group of executives arrived in a fashion of their own...all dressed in 3-piece black suits, and then they clipped and clopped their way in on the laminated floor. Wow, talk about an impressive-seeking entrance!
When the time came for them to speak, not 10-minutes had gone by when the laptop battery decided to take a break from all that finance terminologies. One of the speakers, JT, an economist with SC, (whom I thought was pretty cute) carried himself well speaking about forex in a hall of strange faces. It wasnt long before a backup laptop was fixed up, but not before JT "instructed" one of our senior Finance management to move the whiteboard upfront! JT could NOT be more than 30 years old really.
After the seminar, a makan-makan Hari Raya was served; there was yummy lemang, satay, satay sauce, mee jawa, and lots more. Out of the 4 SC personnel who came, 3 of them had to rush off to catch their flight back to KL, with JT alone leaving for Singapore the next morning.
I was quietly enjoying my second helping of lemang with satay sauce when JT approached, declaring that he was having the best beef rendang he had ever tasted. Well, of course, Malaysian local food is a class of its own!
Shortly after that, another colleague of mine joined us. During the ice-breaker conversation of who came from where and a bit of career history, JT mentioned that he liked the slower pace of Miri life. He went on to say that he loved going to his "holiday houses" in Bali, Australia, etc (I think I kinda shut off at that moment), blah, blah, blah, and he lives in a semi-D in Singapore. Show off? Nevertheless, I was impressed (with his financial position), and started to ponder about my own predicament.
Owning just one house sucked me dry! Then I took this job in Miri with a paycut...was I going in the wrong direction? Having said that, things havent been so bad since I came. Pretty good work-life balance, you take some, you give some. All I need was one house, I didnt need so many all over the world anyway. I think I'm ok.
I recollected this exchange to a colleague this morning. He thought JT was trying to impress me...was he? JT did ask me to join him for a drink, which invitation I had to turn down though. Perhaps his many properties didnt catch my attention the way he planned. Should it?
