Didn't know Edwin has passed my contact number to his financial consultant, Brian, until he broadcasted the message out on whatsapp. Afterall, we seldom whatsapp each other and this certainly brought some alerts to me. 突然whatsapp來，而且內容竟然是關於financial consultant，覺得很奇怪咯……
After one month (that was around end of August), Brian called me up and asked me to meet up. Ok, since I'm quite free, decided to meet up and see what he has got to say about whatever...
Supposed to meet at 1pm at Clementi's Mos Burger. As usual I try to reach on time, but he was early~ Ok, that's good, at least didn't waste my time waiting for him haha. But I was not late neither.
The first thing I immediately noticed from the chit-chat was that, he's rather channel 5 while I stick to channel 8. Furthermore, I haven't been using conversational/spoken English since end June, my English has deteriorated until cannot get anymore worse liao. Then he spoke so fast, if it's engineering context, I still can catch. But coming from an engineering background to listen to something quite financial/insurance stuff, I can't even catch him. That's the problem with FASS(?) or English very good ones(?), they speak so fast until I cannot understand. Haiz...
Anyway, the whole gist of the session was that I need a huge amount of money to have myself covered up in almost every possible situation, due to inflation. I see the monthly 'premium' (if I remb correctly), about 800+ something, was rather shocked actually. Seriously how to cough up that amount of money for a fresh grad who has just started working? A typical salary is about 3-3.2k, minus off CPF, minus off expenses, minus off household + parents' money, 幾乎沒什麼剩了. Some people already started saving up for HDB, marriage, children bla bla bla. 現在生活不簡單啊！
My answer to financial consultants is always simple - I'm currently jobless, this type of talk 再講得多麼大多麼好也只是紙上談兵或天馬行空罷了。No job no talk... Suddenly the excuse of jobless 還能派得上用場喔
Don't think I want to meet up for a second time. First of all, I feel that what he or anybody who has painted that picture may not be that jialat when due. If not, everybody could become beggar liao. Secondly, FCs also want to earn, so they earn from your so-called 'monthly investment' lor. Thirdly, Brian said he wanted to find out if we have any common interest or something that can click. But I find we have nothing in common leh, he angmoh pai, I channel 8 one. He spoke rather good English and I speak Singlish/mandarin. I from NTU engineering and he from NUS social science. School and course studied are different. Sec sch and JC are also different as well. NS confirm different again. How to click like that?
I may look at things rather short-term, coz the current situation is quite critical to me. Only I got a job, then I would like to see what I can do for mid- and long-term. I would want to have some passive income, probably from buying and selling stocks, but that involves quite an amount of money and certainly I would not touch it until time and money allows.
27/9/2013 Interview + Meetup with JX
Morning had an interview at Dyson. First Interview since July. LOL~ I think I started quite late looking for jobs. Well, some job position gave me false hope as I kept waiting and waiting. If you are not hiring, then don't put up the job position and waste my (or any applicant's) time. Zzz... I even called up and inquire about the status and the person told me there is someone working on it. If that's the case, I should have expected at least a change in status, better than nothing.
Anyway back to interview. Really, it was something quite different from what I have expected. I knew there is a technical test, but the test was essentially university exam standard. Zzz... I wondered what would have happened if the interview was on Wednesday, the next day after I got know my interview. No need to prepare liao. Nonetheless, nothing has been stated for the test, so I don't know how to prepare also.
The second half was the face-to-face interview. I felt that the interviewer is something similar to engineering team lead and wow, he really knows EEE stuff well. My guess is that he's probably graduated from Masters or PhD in EEE. The whole interview was about EEE technical stuff. Very very very technical, no general interview questions, no hard-selling myself - all were technical questions. I would say it's like meeting prof for FYP presentation or for tutorial or something like that.
Brain dead after the interview liao.
Went Pasir Panjang to have lunch with Angie. YH and the rest too busy with work I guess. My favorite wanton mee stall wasn't there liao, heard from Steve it has moved somewhere nearby. 取而代之的是客家擂茶，不錯喔！感覺有一點小貴。隔壁的香港街，如今不懂變什麼店了，還在裝修中。不知道對面的煮炒檔還在不在。According to her that drastic changes had happened to the company I used to work part-time. I don't know is good or bad lor. But it's a fact that quite a lot of people have left. 歲月不留人啊…… But Angie hopes I could go back and work part time. TBH, I don't mind but I have to see if there are any job offer made to me this coming few days. Job market is real bad this year. Last time think 2nd upper getting 3.2k probably a bit low, now I think it's quite good liao lor. Gone were the rosy days~
Afternoon met up with JX. According to him, he's also jobless and also on a job hunt. He's not restricting on the job type, but prefers research ones which I think his situation is working against him. Otherwise, he would have started working liao. Times are bad now. Anyway, we walked around city hall area as JX wanted to get a personalised birthday cake for his upcoming 21-years-old cousin. 現在的人過生日pattern真多，21歲要越高越大才好，不懂為什麼咧。想當年我21歲是平靜度過，什麼都沒有，因為我覺得年紀再大，生日越會變得只是普通一個日子而已。21歲之前跟之後的自由，我覺得沒不同——一樣自由。
After scouting around for cake shops, JX finally decided to place order with some online cake shop and that ended our recce trip around city hall. Then, we moved to Sunshine Plaza for Thai cuisine where PG joined in also. First time patronizing Thai Gold Food and I felt that their Tom Yam was something a little bit special, spicy and yet refreshing too. Ordered Thai fried kway teow, nicer than local ones. $5, very affordable.
JX的炒飯！現在我看上去好像真的很好吃耶！
雖然賣相不怎麼樣，但這間的綠咖哩還不錯味道
As the dinner was too fulfilling, we walked around Dhoby Ghaut area to The Cathay where PG wanted to have some waffles dessert. But before that, we sat around the water thingy at basement to rest for a while to digest and enjoy the aircon. Noticed that gramophone has closed down its business. Both bookstores and music stores suffer the same fate under the digital era, where books and music can be purchased online and they save a lot of physical space and are more convenient. One thing I didn't expect was Saizeriya has opened one branch at The Cathay! What a surprise! If I remembered correctly, there used to be a Chinese restaurant last time and now it's gone.
We moved up one level to CreaTeaf Waffles. Ordered one stacked up ($12.90) where scoops of 3 different flavoured ice-creams were kiap in between waffles. Waffles were nice! Not soggy but harder and 'crunchy', I don't know what's the exact word to describe this. Interesting idea, but it toppled too easily =.= Lastly, thanks Lance for charging me at a lower price to pay for the desserts!
這是它倒塌下來前拍的，那個煎餅好吃喔！
28/9/2013 Karaoke @ Party World with Bay
MRT service is getting bad to worse, I couldn't be expecting the travelling time to be shortened or maintained at least. Trains are moving slower and slower and it's taking longer and longer to reach my destination.
Had karaoke session with Bay at Woodlands Party World. As usual, it was not crowded. Firstly, the remote or the system wasn't functioning well. Secondly, to our horror, the door handle was broken by the service crew! We were given another room but the time continued to count! Eeee, sibei disgusting lor. Would appreciate if they restart the timer, not as if we started the session after a long while.
Bay was getting very high with 夜訪吸血鬼 as usual, while I chose mostly 抒情歌. $20.95 per pax. For such a price, I rather go JB to sing. Cheaper and better service lo.
Dinner was KFC Fish burger meal ($5). Chatted about job and work life. Could see what is Bay looking for in his career progression... What about me? Still unknown.
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