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I got dropped by the NRB #2

Who am I kidding? I’ll never keep up…

Anyhow it was a chilly morning and my fingers and toes were numb by the end of it. Otherwise same story, roundabout at Mordy everyone slows down, then it all stretches out as you see the pace pick up, and the first little incline at Mentone pub and I am dropped! It didn’t help that I was towards the back end of the bunch going into Mordy to begin with. Maybe I’ll try to be closer to the front next time…

Oh and some of you may have read about this article on a man being killed by a cyclist on the weekend. Prior to the beginning of today’s ride, some guy was going on about stopping at the scene for 5mins on the Friday ride in respect of the victim to show that cyclists care (I think it was something like that. I got there a bit late and couldn’t really hear him properly).

Maverick

Iceman: You two really are cowboys.
Maverick: What’s your problem, Kazanski?
Iceman: You’re everyone’s problem. That’s because everytime you go up in the air, you’re unsafe. I don’t like you because you’re dangerous.
Maverick: That’s right! Ice… man. I am dangerous.

I’ve decided on a new nickname for Nick – Maverick.

Continue reading…

I’m back…

Here’s a story you guys are going to love…

I accepted a position a week ago with Credit Suisse as an Operations Analyst/ Product Controller and was promised by the manager during the interview that the position involved only 25% product control (generating daily P&Ls). Unfortunately when I arrived to start work on the first day, it turned out to be more like 80% product control. Here comes the worst part, the person who i was going to be taking over from and who will be my supervisor for the next month was going to be an absolute clown who i worked with in EY melb called Sam XXXXX…seriously. I travelled half way around the world and they put me together with sammy. I was devastated. I knew his work is poo and that he was gonna leave me a massive mess to clean up so after 6 hours I decided to give my new job the ar$e….too funny.

Also went for an interview with Morgan Stanley and the role was pretty much perfect I reckon but two things scared the crap out of me…
1) the manager said “i dont mean to scare you but our usual days are 8-7 and they are intense days”..WTF
2) we are payin you 29paye per hour and there’s no negotiation cos we think we’re the best and everyone wants to work for an investment bank…29Paye means you get taxed at personal income level and not the company tax level. Also u cant claim expenses under PAYE so effectively you’re getting paid about 15-20% less.
so I gave this the flick aswell….

After a month in London, penniless and nothing to show for it I have now landed back where it all started…EY. I got a tempting phone call two days ago and went for an interview with EY in the FS division. Figured it would be good to get some futher FS experience in the UK (that’s what i try to tell myself anyway) and it always helps when they are throwing $$$ at contractors to get back into practice. As Janey put it here very nicely…”basically James, u’re prostituting yourself”….hahaha…exactly!! So as of next wednesday I’ll be working contract with the London office. I had to resigm from EY melbourne but it was a small price…

take it easy guys and we’ll speak soon…
Also, going to valencia and barcelona this weekend cos its a long weekend with the crew here. although we have to leave at 3:30am tomorrow cos of the terrorist thing in the airport it should be great…bring on the paellas and sangrias!!!

Vietnam

We’re going to Vietnam tomorrow for 3 weeks!

Lots of photos of ‘nak-nak’ when we come back…

YPR#5 Port Melbourne to Frankston

For the second time, all 5 of us got our act together and met up at 8:30am for a Bicycle Victoria social ride today. (HP, Yang and Al rocked up at 8:45 because of ‘traffic lights’). The route was from Port Melbourne to Frankston covering about 100km, with Nick and I taking off from my house and the other 3 amigos starting from HP’s place.

As usual, I’m expecting a write-up on wurple.net but weather was overall good (sunny), albeit a headwind on the way home. We actually all managed to stay together for pretty much the entire trip down and we even managed to do a bit of pace making from Mordy to Frankston. But as usual, HP and Nick were shooting off at the front. Could you get any worse a combination than that for pacemakers??

And oh, HP tried a new trick on us today… dropping his knicks while doing his pacemaking. Wasn’t about to risk getting my camera out for that one…

Some good work from Al in keeping up with a fast pack on the way back from Frankston to Mordy and HP you’ll have to tell me about your near call at taking out the entire bunch on the return leg. (See I told you to fix your bike! But you’re like ‘no, there are other more important things to be looking at right now’).

Anyway, next weekend is looking to be good weather again. Dromana anyone? I’ll be making a day trip of it.