Beansprouts!! I just met someone in the office who has a Hakka father and a Teochew mother. Together with yours we can now form a Hakka clan together and light Hakka lanterns XD

He was also almost in chinese dance *keke as he was in chinese drama and was almost pushed to join that. Do you remember how I used to be in Chinese dance? My chinese teacher was so mad when I quit she was perpetually having a feud with me for the next 4 yrs.

Anyway I am falling asleep over the computer now…I have been transcribing for the whole day eeps….wondering how to stay awake…the next drink shall be coffee….

Beansprouts, the thought of your dream simply makes me so happy!! To sit and (fill forms, nevertheless) and me with a little star headband (can I have triple stars, like the cartoon?) and do highlighting with you. To ignore figures in red coats doing murky things. Us against the world!!

Last night I was thinking about you again, and ST who has gone to Munich. Sigh. So far away…I wish I could send stars in little envelopes to you. Or that either of us can win a jet plane in one of those supermarket contests, and I can fly to you every night and we can draw stars and fill forms and talk about our days in law firms and the banks together.

How about Paris instead of Switzerland?? What do you think? Do you think your parents might be more amicable as to the idea? Then I can show you the little Shakespeare bookshop that I love so much, and we can leave best friends messages on the mirror on the second floor just as Ernest Hemingway did and read children books ….my parents are SO NOT bookshop people so we’ll def be able to run away together like the magic chair children.

The magic tree children—by Enid Blyton. For they could only run away to the tree when their chores are done, and the red squirrel would throw down a cushion so they could go up the ’slippery slip’. Imagine!

On steamboats;

ST always claims that the steamboat in Korea is the best — it has meat and fish etc. etc. C says sharing in a Korean steamboat is ‘an art’, you need a specialized way of cooking and for a specified estimated number of minutes.

I disagree, I love the Asian version of steamboat – a charcoal fire steamboat is the best, fish head steamboat!! Fresh fish and vegetables and soup which has been stewed for more than 8 hours. The taste is absolutely local-heavenly and I could have it for hours.

So today my parents had such a steamboat and it really made my day to see it again. I think if I was better in science I’ll invent something to make cooking by charcoal convenient because I would love a charcoal iron so much. Imagine, my husband coming home to see me covered in charcoal!

Today I got upset for quite awhile to learn that my mother had secretly sunk a significant part of investments – the whole university fund worthy amount, into a structured investment professing to be ‘akin to a fixed deposit’. I haven’t read the papers, but already suspect that it is a zero coupon messed up with derivatives, and not as capital guaranteed as it holds itself out to be.

Its not the first time, because my mother is constantly sinking tens of thousands into unsecure bond structures, and is susceptible to any salesperson, be it insurance, beauty care or anything else. I spent some hours talking to her about structures in an analogical simplified way, to demonstrate to her why her dividends weren’t really ‘dividends’ in the equity sense, and why, fundamentally, what she bought was really a zero coupon bond. She denies it on the worth of the said intermediary. But even the worth of a bank, itself acting as an intermediary, is very different, and she fails to see the difference between the investment elements of the structured investment and a fixed deposit.

It is the same for certain friends who constantly profess the worth of certain reits still, and how the equity market is set to turn, and the contra trading ads all around the train station. I feel as though in Singapore, the element of gambling seems to be a better word for what some said ’speculators’ are doing.

Take a contra investment, where you hope to turn over cash by t+3. Most people who engage in contra then rely on turning over trades quickly, and to catch the fundamental first part of the wave, which is more luck than anything else, and does not even turn to even any profession of efficiencies or best price – it is a volume based transaction, basically, trading to trend, to catch the fervour of the market.

Which is all well and good if you caught the first leg, but after that it is bound to turn sour, and be like a game of poker where the fundamental rules are irrelevant, and probabilities discarded. The types of shares do not matter. The crucial element is time, and yet the markets are so volatile and unlikely that you are riding on chances…  chances that people will follow, chances that there will be sudden bumps for no rhyme or reason. In short, you are trading those accidental irrelevant snaggles which occur in the daily tale of the markets.

I find even the idea of playing contra trade as a constant endeavour akin to the ‘will the restaurant be empty’ game we play every once in a while.

Take away the charm, and focus on the psychology of the markets, but not don’t ride on the technical blips and inefficiencies. And don’t expect to get lucky from technical blips, unless you are a seasoned arb trader. And arb traders are quickly washed out, only the most brilliant are left, in the end.

What do you think?…

I hate going to the doctor on Saturdays.

I love going shopping on Saturdays

I hate travelling to anyplace on Saturdays :(

I love having sashimi on Saturdays

I hate not finishing my emails or having the pressure to finish my emails on Saturdays

I love thinking everything can get done on Sunday.

On Kuomingdan Taiwanese fathers and Venice;

“Language is a skin: I rub my language against the other. It is as if I had words instead of fingers, or fingers at the tip of my words. My language trembles with desire.”

To hide a passion totally (or even to hide, more simply, its excess) is inconceivable: not because the human subject is too weak, but because passion is in essence made to be seen: the hiding must be seen: I want you to know that I am hiding something from you, that is the active paradox I must resolve: at one and the same time it must be known and not known: I want you to know that I don’t want to show my feelings: that is the message I address to the other.”

- Roland Barthes

Sorry for taking so long to *properly* update Beansprouts, but you have not been such a good Snoopy yourself, until today when Snoopy decided to reply Lila’s letter, which sent me into little fits of delight reading what you had to write! I still have a little shudder of delight when a little bit of memory conjoins with reality and reading letters is a bit like that, especially when a letter like Beansprouts’ letters always give me the same feeling of seeing primary school alphabet animal biscuits or the moment of trepidation before you have a bowl of good mushroom soup (which was exactly what I had tonight).

It is fascinating how you are constantly confronted with the new – aka the ones with *Guomingdang taiwanese!!* fathers and Vietnamese mothers yet lived in Belgium and have both an lpc qualification and nyc bar credit… on the other side of the world, I have been reintroduced into the familiar…in very small ways…

It starts from the morning, from the walk to the train station (yes train, not tube station)…morning breakfast (dou hua,  pronounced dou-huay in Singaporean terms)…the mifen with little styrofoam boxes and everyone seemingly remembering my habits and idiosyncracies. Then, there is the work, with everyone being an overwhelming compilation of traits from people I used to know, and being confronted with a seemingly assiduous usage of Singlish, the finance classes (in Singaporean context) which were thankfully easy (internships have helped!) and insurance which was utterly new (given by a polished Hickman type personality, though I could not help but constantly imagine Spinach giving the talk…)

Everyone is frightfully nice, but I sometimes feel terribly shy, because of the effusive quality of the conversation! Conversation, I notice is less charm but more generous detail. I started off my official day yesterday, and have a little cubicle tucked in the center of the office, and have been told it is the ‘favoured’ seat (because it is away from the boss haha!)  The team is a more consistent mix of lawyers (ex Drew, Herbert Smith, litigation etc.) and other more finance and IT personalities).

I had some misconceptions cleared- no the team doesn’t bring everyone to court that often, and corruption is dealt with by another dept, but there is still a substantial extent of market manipulation and insider trading cases. And they are not as straightforward as one may expect. They also seem to be nicer to suspects, and more giving in their investigations. Meticulousness counts for alot in the department, and I feel a little worry for that is my weakness, for I always managed to smudge that lacking with range and fluffiness (I am one of those who writes like a pink fluffy rabbit, as S always noted, and one way to get past law is to actually write with pink fluffy concision, as ironic as that sounds)…but I will indeed try my best.

Very ironically, the whole of my second day has been spent…transcribing! Does it sound familiar? It was exactly what I was doing when I left. And now I also still have an exciting project to finish up – as it is confirmed, my tutor introduced me to publish a paper on swaps in the ICR! I will work on it, and it is so exciting to have a two page feature- now we are joint publishers Beansprouts, and I will also get to draw little clouds and kittens in your top essay publication this year in the Jurisprudence Review! I often think about how, HOW nice if you were in the same office so I could rant to you and see you and tell you all those secret thoughts and write a book together.

A guy from my dept incidentally, lives near where I live and went to the same primary school and now attends my childhood church and he has the *same* little stained glass verse of footprint in the sands I used to have in my first home… my buddy in the dept (another guy) is awfully nice and polite and reminds me of my boss in Drew, and is wonderful to work with. I also managed to attend my first official weekly meeting, and actually much of random parts of law (subjective/objective), legislative interpretation etc. comes in naturally when I read the cases!

But enough about work.

Perhaps I’ll share a little about Venice! For since I went I believe I have not breathed a proper word to you about it, Beansprouts! My favourite about Venice was the nights, for walking around San Marco, with the violin playing the familiar musical tunes, rain on the pavement shimmering under the lights, and St Marks in the distance in pink/peach pallor.

After your horror stories of Venice seeming *four star* apartments when you got electrocuted in the shower and M got caught in the bathroom…I was most worried about the hotel… and Spinach and I are spoilt and will not re-stay in hostels *ever* after that one experience in Greece anymore! Haha!  I stayed in Hotel Selvadago, which belonged to the Hotel Monaco chain, and the lobby itself was so illustrious and looked like a romanticized scene of the canals… and there was even a lovely Italian lady in haute couture on my second day taking her wedding photographs in the lobby…she was like Grace Kelly in personality and grace and I was so absolutely besotted… (with her and her dress…!)

The bathroom (yes the crux of my worries dear Beansprouts) was wonderful (no electrocuting experiences) and the room even had wood panelling…a mirrored wardrobe room, a beautiful carpet, Thai fragrance in the morning, a long passageway mirror… I adored it terribly, just missing a view, but I would gladly go down for a walk along the beautiful canals!

There is so much I am wanting to write and share about…the first day itinery consisted of a visit of St Marks (the most glorious architecture I have ever seen, and usage of colours and patterns, and the gold mosaics) and squid ink pasta in a cosy Italian restaurant. For the second, the hotel provided a trip via river taxi to Murano, where there was a glass-blowing experience, and later I went to the Bieannale (modern art which eludes) and a long walk alongside the cruises, and grilled fish by the Grand Canal. For the first night as I mentioned to you earlier, there was a visit to Venice Jazz Club, a cosy little bar which featured a tribute to Miles Davis (perfect for a drunk jazz fan like me…and I adored it tremendously!) over a selection of meats and cheeses…and prosecco! I adored the jazz guitar, they played with utter abandon and playfulness, a little enthusiastic drummer, and just missing a Billie singer.

On the way back I had the fifth gelato for the day (I had pistachio, melon, yoghurt, strawberry, meringue (my favourite) and so many types!) I also had fantastic pastas, walked into one too many glass shops and bought a tiffany blue jewelled ring… and spent so much time just luxuriously walking around the square…and yes, went for one of those walking tours which featured talks about how Venice is shaped like a fish, how courtesans wear yellow, and how there is a street called d’Assassin!

Of course, did the customary gondola ride as well, but enjoyed it less compared to the river taxi where we were hanging on to the bars with water splashing everywhere! I am a lover of speed and miss those water speedbike things which I must try again!

I think I could grow to love staying in a water locked place like Venice! And live on squid ink pasta and gelato!

 

And meet little birds in the morning as I have breakfast in front of the grand canal….

Scrambled eggs with cheese, six different kinds of jam and honey, to camomile tea and orange juice! Still a Singaporean congee with century egg is still the winner any day…

My favourite two Bieannale exhibits…

Yes, this follows the sequence of geometry of the black widow spider! Which I thought was insanely cool! And there was my favourite shadowplay…

I also had that tiramisu by the cafe where the violinists played…not the best tiramisu in the world….but definitely the most enthusiastic violinist, who even played a rendition of Phantom of the Opera and could this violin flip I wanted absolutely to learn! I taped some songs down, and will try to upload them sometime.

Do you remember…you are supposed to bring back your little violin from HK, and play for me my favourite Kreisler piece from Perlman, and do those jaunty bird movements that Perlman does when playing it? …if you don’t do it I’ll kidnap Harvard law cupcake girl and you will pine for her always!! And put peas in the scones when we have English tea and clotted cream scones again, make you walk with your shoelaces tied together, replace your Linklaters file with *gasp Clifford Chance, say we are taking a trip to Switzerland and bring you to Abu Dhabi *by mistake*….

I will be meeting best friend L on Sunday! We are going food shopping and insane hugging in between swimming sessions and forced salon sessions (my mother is obsessed about me going for facials, slimming, hair etc. Obsessed. It is the first thing she talks about when I wake up and the last thing when I sleep. I know I have to look like Gemma Ward when I return to London for my graduation (orders of SP) but this is starting to feel like home camp…

I missu Beansprouts, very tiramisu-ly. You are going to Banking dept next! I used to find the Banking dept very boring, with lots of proof reading. So sad that you are not staying in Competition law any more! I am taking accounting and financial analysis classes next week. Sigh. I wish I could just work and have no courses, cause it is very very embarassing to fall asleep in the front row (I feel like I never have enough sleep…!)

I wish often that you would suddenly pop up, and tell me London/HK/Singapore have now merged to become the same political entity and because of that we can have scones and mifen in the same breakfast.

I wish that it was like the past and we were performing You Could Drive a Person Crazy on the streets of London.  Streets meaning, Marchmont street third floor (cause you have the biggest room and because we can have the space of your walk in wardrobe).

I wish there was someone who would tell me law metaphors in the morning and talk in insanely complex subtleties which no one understands until they study certain Companies Act provisions. Or feed a horse (contract law) or have amazing rosebud tea conceptions I am discovering every day about you. I know that you try very hard to remain a ‘mysterious dark person’.

Lila writes in her letter, thus…

This morning my cat got stuck outside the house and began mewing and knocking on the door to come in…and alas, I had no idea she had snuck outside, so was happily listening to a morning programme… but she managed to have a kind neighbour press the bell for in, and practically zoomed across the front door with her tail between her legs. Happy to be home, her speed seemed to indicate!

Can anyone fathom that it is already Friday? Yet I am so tired and think there must be something wrong with my metabolism since I am sleeping already a ridiculous amount of 7 hrs a day – (didn’t Einstein sleep 3 hours and manage all the experiments?) and yet feel I am about to doze off any second often, and have the most ridiculous allergies. I often wish, wish wish that I have much more energy as in all honesty the work is actually very exciting. But I keep being worried about making mistakes etc. so am reading everything very carefully. But learnt about contra trading etc. today and never knew you could do such things as cross trades! ps: isn’t everyone misinterpreting the term ‘beneficial ownership’ in the Securities and Futures Act?…

Beansprouts, I have yet to find someone like us yet. I do wish so, for everyone is a kind face here, and I have so much fun, but I do wish there was one like us, like us too! I spoke to T that day who forewarns that our best friends/close buddies are fixed by the time we finish university, and we will never find that level of bosom buddies again!

I also keep taking lemon tea from the pantry and cross my fingers that it is not (*it is not*) someone else’s lemon tea.

I am thinking of retaking golf again. But sometimes I think it is such a bother. Ah well.

Will write more soon, you too Beansprouts! Tell me whether we are all going to take a big, ridiculous trip to Switzerlands soon kay.

This is turning out to be a blog dedicated to Beansprouts-letters.

Its been a short hiatus since I last wrote, but writing again on the weekend! Have been terribly busy since I started work, but its been reasonably enjoyable (though sleepy) so far, and the weather’s very bizarre (hot like anything one moment, and a thunderstorm the next). The people are less tropical than the weather.

Beansprouts, I am still looking for someone who understands Little Prince as we do in here…do you think there might be even one little person who will understand the snake picture?…

Where the gin is cold and the piano’s hot and;

Beansprouts, I miss having someone complete my sentences, and to sing musicals with me too!! I can’t wait till you are back from Links.

A series of quotes I found on Baudelaire (I know him because he is quoted quite a bit in one of my favourite books, Discourses of Love by Roland Barthes). I am a big Roland Barthes fan! I think I learn more about authors through reviews done by my favourite authors more than anything else. That is the way it is with life perhaps, for someone to first arouse your curiosity?)

“A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors.”

“A frenzied passion for art is a canker that devours everything else.”

“A sweetheart is a bottle of wine, a wife is a wine bottle.”

“Always be a poet, even in prose.”

“Any man who does not accept the conditions of life sells his soul.”

“How little remains of the man I once was, save the memory of him! But remembering is only a new form of suffering.”

“I can barely conceive of a type of beauty in which there is no Melancholy.”

“I have cultivated my hysteria with pleasure and terror.”

“I love Wagner, but the music I prefer is that of a cat hung up by its tail outside a window and trying to stick to the panes of glass with its claws.”

Charles Baudelaire

SK, EK and I went out to the Imperial Museum yesterday (my sixth museum in just two weeks…in my sudden flush of desire to go see museums!) and I found it fascinating, I think it is my favourite museum in London! I am not that curious about military weapons/ships/tanks and the like, though I have a special affection for military ships because of my father – I used to be on tours on ships and remember sitting in the captain’s seat, with the most amazing views and the sudden adrenaline turning the wheel! Sometimes when I am in the beach I also fantasize a little about how I am seeing the same stars as those on the ship- and wonder if I was a crewman (like Joseph Conrad) what I would be experiencing on a ship. I think if I was male, I could possibly have a strong secret desire to be a sailor.

 My favourite section was entitled ‘The Children’s War’ – which featured exhibits of memorabilia of children in Britain who had grown up experiencing the threat of war – the time of gas masks, living on rations, air raids and collecting shrapnel as home games. The best part was meeting an evacuee who had grown up in Birmingham- his school had been bombed by the war, and yet as a child he felt the war to be like ‘a game’, as it was to the children who worked hard to raise money for the war effort. They faced life courageously, cherished the items and resources they had… As a child, loving the ice cream from a certain ice cream shop, he would cycle 10 miles every Saturday to have that precious ice cream, then cycle that 10 miles back. Paper was a scarce resource as well, and even now he takes good care of what he has and is thankful for the things around him. His rendition of his army life then reminded me of NS- for he said he found in very boring and wished he had been sent to elsewhere, like Vietnam or Thailand! It was the opposite of what I would have thought. Despite being of an old age, he seemed energetic and vivacious, and I could see a little spirit of that child in him still in his old age…Just look, the photograph next to him is his photo when he was just a young boy!

I cherish stories I hear from the older generation very much. I think they have learnt so much that there is always much to be learnt from them.

 

Will update more in time! Visiting the Tower of London tomorrow, and commencing packing. So many things to do and there’s Scary Friday. Lots of memories being made, writing to happen later!!

You could drive a person crazy;

Beansprouts!! I can’t believe I never introduced this song to you!! It has always been one of my childhood favourites. I shall relearn it and sing and dance it for you! Haha!

One of my favourite fashionistas is actually a Singaporean, Fiona Xie….

Her jackets and belts are so gorgeous!