This is it.

The one last hurdle.

Wish me luck!

P/s. Thank you to those of you who brought me dinner, ice-cream, tiramisu, chocolates and also those who cooked dinner for me during this period. Thank you for the calls and messages, I really appreciate it! :)

10 things to look forward to...

after 16.15 on MONDAY...

1. It may possibly (please, let it be) the last time that I have to take another exam.
2. It will be my first (and hopefully the only one) attempt for the FIA qualification.
3. I can have face to face interactions with human beings again (I've been holed up at home for the last 7 days and I still have another 5 days in solitude... sigh...)
4. I don't have to eat dinner with the TV as my companion every night anymore.
5. I can actually meet up with friends and have a my long-due housewarming (Yes, I know I've moved in for almost 3 months by now!)
6. I don't have to think about the exams even in my sleep (how can I not... when my whole day is all about studying, more studying and even more studying... from the time I open my eyes to the time a get to bed at 3am again...)
7. I can go out shopping, read that book that I bought a few months ago and enjoy whatever that is left of the summer (although the British weather is not worth shouting about... still... I just want to get out of this routine...)
8. My birthday is coming ;) (and hopefully, promises will be kept)
9. My mum and sis are coming to London to visit me!
10. I'm going to Germany. (Yipee... holidays! :) I want and desperately need one...)

Actually, I can think of more than 10 things... the list is just too long because there's so much to look forward to after the exams!

But before MONDAY comes, there's still Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday that I need to get through.

Sigh.

Okay, back to studying or I'll not be able to keep up with my crazy study timetable which is glaring at me right now.

Yes, I'm on my way to insanity. And oh, by the way... the Marine Insurance Act was enacted in 1906.

Bothered

Why am I bothered by it?

Can't things just stay the way they are?

Give me a break.

The Hardbread invasion

Yes, my blogger has been invaded by the Germans!

All of a sudden, I have German texts on pages of my Blogger although I've set my location to be UK and the language to be English UK. And I can't seem to make it go even if I tweak my settings. But I guess, I've used the blog long enough to know what the German text means!

Fine, I'm just bored from studying... hence the rubbish and irrelevant post.

And don't ask me why the Germans are called Hardbread. My younger sis and her friends who are all studying in Germany now use that name when they refer to Germany... and I'm presuming it's because their bread is hard?? Go figure.

Hibernation in progress...

Yup, it's the start of my hibernation period. And this time, it's literal hibernation because I'm now living alone so I'll be spending the next 12 days in solitude. Well, I have my past year papers, actuarial journals and papers, notes, word lists and mind charts to keep me company.

Do drop me a text, call, email, message or any form of communication once in a while to check for my sanity and that I'm not rotting in here okay?

Back to work.

5 Minutes!

Yes, that's the time that I took to get out of the house this morning!

Somehow, I forgot to set my alarm yesterday night and only woke up at 9.26AM when I'm supposed to be in the office by 9.30am! And in my frenzy, I somehow managed to get out of the house by 9.31am and make it to my desk by 9.47pm.

It does involved a lot multi-tasking and sprinting though. Like changing while brushing my teeth. Putting on my make-up and combing my hair on the tube standing. And sprinting from my flat to Canada Water tube station and then from London Bridge station to my office.

Don't know how Bin2 managed to do this every morning! It's so tiring and too much exercise in the morning!

Better go set my alarm now before I forget. Otherwise, I'll end up having another workout tomorrow morning...

Thank you and good bye

Thank you for...

Being a mentor to me in the past 2 years.

Having faith in my abilities even when I doubted myself at times.

Guiding me in the right direction when I was lost.

Pushing me beyond the boundaries.

Giving me opportunities that I wouldn't have dreamed of otherwise.

Helping me to identify my weakness and developing my strengths.

Fighting for me when I needed someone to rally behind me.

But above all else,

Thank you for being a friend.

I wish you all the best in your new job, and hopefully you'll find the recognition that you deserve.

Good bye.

How long does it takes to...

Retile a 6m square of wall?

The initial answer was: "Oh, don't worry. It'll be done in the same day."

BUT

Somehow, after the first day... he hurt his hands (please refer to the post below for details) and said that he needs to come back the next day.

Then, the next day... it was no show without any news... When I finally tracked him down, he said the walls need to dry off before he puts on the new tiles or they'll fall off.

FINE.

Then I had to endure a whole weekend without the use of my shower.

On Monday evening after work, I came home only to find that he didn't turn up again. This time, he said his car broke down.

FINE.

He promised it'll be done the next day. (No prizes for guessing what happened when I came home). Yes, it's still not done yet. Now, it's because he ran out of tiles. He needs to come again tomorrow morning.

WHAT NEXT? WHAT OTHER EXCUSES CAN HE COME UP WITH TOMORROW??

It's no fun...

... to be stuck at home on a Friday night to study...

... when everyone else is...

(We have a new poker table! Looks professional eh? But does that means we're professional gamblers?? Oopps...)

Sigh.

Bleh.

Back to studying.

Weird events

Two bizarre events this week.

EVENT 1

I woke up with a really bad bruise on my knee and have no idea how I got it. Unless I somehow have been walking in my sleep... or that unconsciously, I've been doing a lot of bad things at night e.g. climbing over fences and breaking into homes... I DON'T KNOW HOW THE BRUISE CAME ABOUT.

And it's a big black bruise that you can see miles away.

EVENT 2

I noticed a tile falling off in my bathroom the other day, so I called the agent up to let them know. Then, the workman that they sent over concluded that he can't fix ONE tile, but instead, he has to redo ALL the tiles in the bathroom. What??

Never mind that, this afternoon the guy came over to try and fix it but somehow in the process he managed not only to injure his own hand but also left a BIG hole in my bathroom wall.

And I thought I was bad at DIY.

Now, this guy is supposed to be a professional (or so I thought) workmen who should know what he's doing... but it was really a weird situation when he came to me asking for a first aid kit with his bloody hands and then announced that he can't finish the job today, leaving me with no place to shower!

The blood stain that he left on my bathroom wall.

And the big hole that I now have by my bath tub. From ONE falling tile, I get a big gaping hole. What a bargain.

The weirdness of life events.

Customer service is dead

I hate all customer service helpline. Period.

First, they make you call those expensive premium numbers to get in touch with them when you are already paying for whatever that you signed up for.

Then, their lines are always busy.

When you finally get through, they present you with 1001 options to choose from, but no human being to answer your call.

After pressing multiple numbers on your touch phone, they put you on hold for eternity and play the most irritating tunes over and over again, coupled with the pre-recorded message of "Your call is important to us, thank you for waiting. You will be next in queue." If my call is so important, why am I put on hold for a million years??

And if you have the patience and time to wait while the phone receiver heats up, and finally have someone at the end of the line, you sigh of relief... only to be told that this is not the right number to call although that number is printed on the stuff that they sent you. So, they put you on hold again and you're back in the queue again.

After numerous transfers and being put on hold, you finally get through to the right department. All this while, you're probably on the phone for more than 30 mins without even getting to the point of why you called in the first place. Heck, you might even be so frustrated that you don't remember why you're calling as you start to boil with anger.

But if you still managed to keep your cool and proceed to tell the operator your problem, they'll put you on hold AGAIN to check it up. And when they finally come back to you, they'll give you utterly useless responses e.g. call someone else up as it's not their problem and/or fault or tell you that they can't do anything right now and ask you to call back in 5 working days time when they'll let you know what's wrong.

Then, they will still have the guts to say "So, is there anything else I can help you with today?". What else can they possibly help you with if they've just told you that they can't do anything with the problem that you've just called them up for??? Grrrrrrr.

Fine, you hang up and after 5 working days, you call up again, only to go through the whole process and they'll tell you to call back again in 5 working days.

And when you finally decided that it's enough, and that you're not going to go through any of these nonsense anymore, you call them to cancel your account and their service.

At this point, they finally get you through to someone in the UK and not some call centre in India where these people don't even know what's going on (let alone what's wrong) with your service on this side of the globe. Then they plead and say that they'll put things right and have your service in priority order.

But you know that it's a lie, because every time you call the call centre in India, they say the same thing before you hang up each time.

So, you persevere and with determination, you tell them it's fine, you're still cancelling your account. And at this point, they'll tell you: Oh, by the way... you can't just cancel your account. You've got to do this.. that... and a million other things before you can cancel it. When you've done that, please call us back and we'll cancel your account then.

WTF???

Since you've gone this far, you tell yourself that at least you can eventually get rid of them. Once you've done those million things, you call them back letting them know that YOU WANT TO CANCEL YOUR ACCOUNT IMMEDIATELY, then they'll reply saying that it's fine for you to cancel your account but there'll be a charge for the set-up cost when they provided the service to you.

WHAT??? WHAT SERVICE ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?? THE ONLY REASON WHY I'M CANCELLING THE ACCOUNT IS THAT YOU'VE NOT PROVIDED THE SERVICE YOU PROMISED WHEN I SIGNED UP FOR YOUR PACKAGE, YOU IDIOT!!!!!

Well, according to them, there'll be a charge whether or not the service is running. And at this point, you're just too tired to argue with them and you've already spent so much time waiting for nothing and you know that they'll never get it sorted out even if you stay with them.

So, you pay for the cost and just console yourself that it's a bad dream and paying is the only way to wake up from it. The financial loss is nothing compared to the stress and frustration that they put you through. You might even end up with high blood pressure because of it.

ARRRGGGGGHHHHHH.

Lesson to be learnt: There's no such thing as free lunch in this world. Everything costs. From the start to the end. And there's no such thing as customer service.