Looking forward to good productivity

" . Time waits for no man, but time waits for me..."

This is still the Easter holiday period for the University, and it also coincides with the National Easter holiday, so the University is closed and I was happy to stay at home for good Friday, the weekend and the bank holiday Monday. I had laid down few tasks last Thursday before retiring back at home, but yet to do any. This is actually a good thing. I probably mentioned before, but I was not very good at relaxing. However, I made some progress this time and I was happy about it. I took the baby steps. Time waits for no man, but time waits for me. Outrageous as it sounded, but it's true, and I am patient. Always wanted to feel all ready and prepared, and then I moved my next step. I know I am not that adventurous or spontaneous, but I am enjoying every minute of it.

Reflecting upon the last few days of "tasks". I can say I have decided upon the allocation of saving and how much to put in which saving accounts. I still need to think a bit about the MP AVC schemes from prudential. And today I found another alternative for my saving, i.e., the NS&I Premium bonds. This one is a prize draw. You won't earn any interest, but every month, you get to be picked as the lucky winner to win between £25 and £100000, and they are tax free. Perhaps I may put some in there to try my luck.

Today I also met up with my friend, AH in Nottingham for lunch. I gave him a treat this time, as AH was made redundant recently, but was determined to set up a simple business in his local market place based in "Long Eaton". We had a great time in this Chinese Restaurant, May Sum. It even serves chocolate fountain, and we had a fun time trying out different things with the chocolate, including Marsh Mellow. We went for a walk after that, and it was an eye opener, as I didn't quite know Nottingham. We walked around the busy shopping area and I then had an idea how the various streets were joined together. It now appeared it is a lot easier to get from one place to another than I originally thought. We even passed by the  City of Caves in Nottingham, which was really cool. I didn't know this exists at all, as the only thing legendary about Nottingham is Robin Hood.

Anyway I was quite full after the buffet lunch and fell asleep on the way back in the bus, and still felt full during dinner time and decided that I would just have some fruits.  As I began to think of my tasks for tomorrow, including the discussion of exam papers with WF, and some of the stuff I have to do for lecture notes preparation, I felt I will be able to do them at ease. I supposed  I have had "enough" when I "relaxed" since I was "focus", so the same should apply to the work as it is a "flow" that float around from one segment to another. I am really looking forward to see how this is going to have an impact on productivity, be it work or leisure :

Life Time Achievement

"but, life goes on...."

I continue to network with people at the conference. The BAFA conference normally attracts academics in the UK and internationally in the area of accoutning and finance. You see familiar people all the times and  also some "new comers", who just entered the academia. What you also see is the increasingly obvious "three generations" among the academics. The conference normally award the "life time achievement" to established professors in their areas, recognising their contributions. Obviously, these academics mostly will retire soon and new blood will be injected. They are respectful in their own areas. I feel very humble comparing their achievements with mine. However, if you asked me if I would like to be granted with such an award one day,I won't say no, but I am also not really that bothered.

I was told MT was granted with such an award before in the past, but declined it. He is a very strong academic. He stick to what he believes in and not easily giving up. He also gave an excellent paper at this conference. It seems that there are some disagreements among the academics about each other work which is normal. This can sometimes affect the type of journal you get published. This is because people can reject your research simply because they can have a different "belief". This is not to say you are of "low qualty". MT might be a humble and modest man. I think, to some extent, it is also about self-esteem, i.e.,, the extent in which your recognised your own ability. This is because only if you recognise your own ability, will you let others to do so. Perhaps MT already passed that stage in his life about "getting recognised". But I guess we all can tolerate a bit of life imperfection and still live happily with it, as it really does not affect us. Knowledge acaquisiation is an process anyway. Achieving the life time achievement does not necessarily you stop working. You can still go on, supported by your passion in what you do. Life continues to feel "full of sunshine". :D

Life's a journey

 "But this is not a good one,...."
 
Taking the public transport in the UK can be quite an experience. Today I will be travelling to Birmingham for the "British Accounting and Finance" conference for 2 days. The journey is about 1 hour 10 minutes which include 15 minutes connection at Derby. I left my flat around 9 am to catch the 9.45 am train. Upon reaching the train station, I quickly pass the entry gate, but was told my train will be delayed because someone was hit by the train somewhere on the way to Loughborough. We cannot complain this as it is an accident, so I took a copy of metro and pluck my earphone and stand aside to read the paper and listen to the music from my ipod.

After a while, I began to see people rushing passed me all going in one direction to the other side of the platform, and then I realised, after delaying for about 15 minutes now, an alternative route to Birmingham, via Leicester is now arranged, so I quickly follow the crowd, dragging my luggage behind me. I got myself up the train, obviously a relatively crowded one and I can only got a seat near to the door, and I sat down. Then a man with his bike board the train and stood near to me. After the train start, the conductor comes around to check our ticket. That man with the bike asked him, "so can I get the train connecting in Leicester to London, or do I have to ride the bike straight to London". That was quite funny the way he said it, a bit of a helplessness in his tone and the conductor said to him, "it should be fine, but there might be delay, just check the departure screen".

It took me longer than usual to reach Leicester, as it stops a few stations, which I believe is to pick up passengers affected by the accident. When I reached the Leicester station, I look up the screen for departure to Birmingham, which it says 10.49 am, possible delay at 11.07 am. I looked at my watch, it was 10.30 am. This means I have to wait for another 50 minutes to get connected! I went to the waiting room, sat there and took out a book to read, and it was freezing cold! You began to hear people not happy and complaining among themselves and finally when it is about 11.07 am, I went out to the platform, only to see that it will be expected at 11.12 am!! I cannot believe this and finally, the train arrives! In the end, I was one hour late for my journey. Ah well, Life's a journey, but this is not a good one, be as less as possible, please! Fingers crossed!

Dubai International Airpot

I have been in Dubai now for about 6 hours and the connecting flight to Singapore should be in an hour time. Then, there will be another 9 hour or so to travel. I am quite impressed with Dubai international airport and the excellent facilities it cater to the travellers. The airport is so modern and really international. Travellers came all over the world and you can interestingly see many Asian people, including those mending the shops and the stores.As this is a country in the UAB, it was also very common to spot travellers with their traditional costume and mostly in huge families, as you would expect.

This is one very tiring, yet enjoyable trip. My connecting experience has never been this satisfying. Even developed countries like the UK have to charge for the use of wireless in Airport, and mostly with bad connection, what I had experienced in Dubai Airport has certainly something the developed world can learn, that way, it will attract travellers even more.

The food was nice. We have chance to taste a different kind of cuisine, spicy Sri Lankan fish curry with local chilli and lemon rice, yum yum!:D The spicy taste just felt so authentic. I also like the whole air flight experience. the in-flight screen is a lot bigger because the plane cleverly design a folded tray which save lots of spaces for a bigger screen, and I watched the ghost writer and enjoy it.

What's more, you can even charge your mobile as it is equipped with USB port and also some seats come with power sockets. Perhaps this is a new plane and maybe a lot of other planes of other airlines had already done so. Anyway, it's time to prepare for check in, :D see you later

Chilling out

"... I supposed chilling out is also a state of mind...."

It's a day I spent "chilling out". This is actually a bit hard, because you only have the laptop screen to face every day after coming back home. When I said "chill out", I mean I try to move away from the laptop a bit, which is hard. Then, you start thinking, maybe you should do something different, like not surfing the research related information. Well, I supposed chilling out is also a state of mind, which makes it even harder. Perhaps change an environment will help you chill better? Anyway, whether I have to chill out or not, it is like a routine already that I get out at least once a day, especially even so on the weekend since I will not be in the office. I went swimming in the afternoon and later went to the library and passed by the Queen's park, which is a bit crowded, but I like, and the weather so lovely and the breeze so cool. I believe this will be the thing that I will miss most when I am back to Singapore next week.

The library was cool and I had a good time searching the book I want to borrow, finally decide on "The Oxford Murders". I heard this book is now a movie starring Elijah Wood (Lord of the Ring). It looks like an interesting story where the murderer left "mathematical clue" each time he/she killed someone. I planned to bring this book back home to Singapore, and the librarian has even kindly extended the return date of the book, so that I can save the trouble having to renew it during my holiday. Later I went home, and the weather still felt so lovely and cool, then I shaved my hair and had a shower, made myself a couple of peanut toasts and a coffee. I just felt like I was "chilling out" and I am enjoying it :D

What's the BIG things in June 2010

休息是为了写 更 多的 blogs! :D (a good rest is for the sake of writing more blogs!)

I think it's time I come back. I wanted to give myself a one month break on blogging each time I finished 100 post entries. My next "one month" break will be when my blog post entered at 200th . Interestingly, this coincides with the whole of the month in June for my break. Additionally, the break is a good time to reflect and reinvent. So, just watch out the design of my blog, it may change again. What happening in June? Here's some highlight

Work with JR - I finished my research paper with JR. He is now looking at it and hopefully when he finished his part, I will do mine quickly and then off we go, submit it to a 3* journal. So, I have one task down.

Work with JL - Unfortunately, we received a rejection from a 4* journal for this research with JL. JL, however, was as positive as usual and very encouraging. So, we are going to meet in August in Edinburgh to discuss a bit more research and other topics.

PhD supervision - Finally, I got to interview a potential PhD student. It went well and both BB and I think the student has good potential. An offer has sent out to her, and we really hope she accept the offer and can start in October. Her mathematical skills complement very well with what both BB and I did with our research, in a way that we can come in handy for her to give her the necessary support.

Exam marking - Oh, and I cannot forget to mention this. I marked about 330 scripts in total. I have never marked so many exam paper at one go. Thank god, the mark was well distributed and hopefully the external examiner won't give "sour grape" remark like he did last year. As yesterday was the external exam board meeting and nothing was heard by end of it, I believe it's been fine.

New research - Apart from JL, JR, my collaborator now include LLY, who is my colleague and also a computer scientist and specialised in neural network. We had quite a long chat last month about how her knowledge can be used to predict "buy" or "sell" decision in stock investment. I was interested as it coincides with what I did about active currency management. Today I met her and show her my data and the discussion shows some potential for further research which I am quite excited about.

Meeting with JW - Finally, I made a trip to Nottingham to visit JW. JW was my PhD colleague while at HW. She now taught in Nottingham Trent. She showed me around her 12 Billion pounds office building, which was amazing. We went for a Chinese buffet later and I would like to thank her for the treat. And comparing Nottingham and Leicester, both near to Loughborough, I think Nottingham feels a lot posher, and I love the shopping outlets. The high street brands, H&M, Topman and River island are all there. The shopping area are located so near to train and bus stations, making it so much easier to move about when it's time to go back.

Visit Singapore - Yes, I am going on holiday back to Singapore from 6th July to 6th August. I normally meet old friends when I am back, but as one friend so rightly put it, I believe I will get bored after two weeks or so, therefore, I am looking forward and strangely, also not that look forward, but a change once in a while is always nice. I am slowly making contact to meet people now, even before I am back to Singapore. I don't like the way I do this, I didn't feel very organised, but due to the time constraint, meeting friends sometimes appear quite in a rush and not serve any purpose, but then again, meeting up is always good, though not always you find the meeting really meaningful, can't help to think it is like "meeting for the sake of meeting". Anyway, I believe I will have some more to say about this in my blog at a later date

email @ 5.23 pm - Hey, I am quite happy about this email, not going to give too much away, but sometimes worth a try as it is an opportunity. Will update again if anything actually happened with regard to the email, watch the space.

P/S: thank you to those who read the blog post past few days. I know who you are and thanks for the support. Many many thanks! :D

"It's good to come to London"

"Yes it's true.."

"It's good to come to London", I said to AV this afternoon in the company that employed her, in which she was placed to do a 12 month industrial attachment. I didn't find anything "tricky" between her and her manager and thought they went fine and was quite ready to settle it that way. And then she added, "since you come this far from Loughborough to London, you must well, .......", I immediately knew what she was hinting at. Something that I increasingly learnt here is that, never gave out too much, as the more others will expect of you, even students. So I actually prepared stuff ready to tell her and as she pointed out, and so I discussed it further with her, what was expected of her for the dissertation and report, etc.

I finished the placement visit for AV in 30 minutes and then I left for The British Lending library. The library was very modern and wireless and as I took my baby laptop, I was able to go online and surf the web, and checked my emails. As it approached 4 pm, I made my way to "Pret" at St Pancras international in which I made an appointment to meet SG, my former boss. We had long chat about most things, and it looked like she quite like where she is now in Queen Mary's University of London. We also chat about research. SG is one of the few academics that I knew of, that I would consider as open minded.

She told me she is currently working on Japanese Corporate Governance with her PhD student and already there are 3 papers in the pipeline. She also has another research about post-colonial Botswana and as she spoke of this, I told her I am doing a paper about Singapore housing market and it all begins with the post-colonial Singapore, where the government was planning to re-shape the economy. My paper discussed the story of the housing market and its development. SG listened with interest and even asked to have a read about my paper, which I will definitely send her in the email.

One thing I like my job is that I get to travel to the capital for placement visits, workshop, conference, etc. In fact, I might come back again middle of June for another one-day workshop on "mutual funds industry". And then I get to meet up with friends and former colleagues and we catch up and update on latest development. I left London about 6.15 pm, felt that I had spent my time fruitfully in London. Yes, indeed, as I told AV this afternoon, it is good to come to London and it's true, not sure if she gets the irony of that, hehe. :D

"Eventful" events (1)

1) Toothpastes - forget to buy one yesterday and forget again today when I walked into Somerfield this morning, guess I must brush my teeth with my finger now , lol

2) Freeview box(es) - I called Morag this morning. The few freeview boxes she sent me aren't working well to update the teletext. UK will be fully digitalised in time to come and it seems reception in some areas are still not working well, sigh!

3) Student meeting! - I met two students today and spent a total of one hour on each, going through stuff they aren't sure. I hope this won't happen too often. It will eat up my research time

4) Surprise email - received an email from YKP, my former math lecturer from uni. I didn't see him for long time, so I should arrange to meet him for lunch in July when I am back to Singapore, not sure how his kid is doing.

5) Subject group strategy meeting - I seemed to find that things are fine at the subject group area in term of research, as far as I am concerned. I actually felt I can engage better with this group of colleagues compared to those I met elsewhere. I even crack jokes and had a laugh. I think I am relatively less shy with this group of colleagues and dare to speak up.

6) House Visit - clean my bathroom and kitchen yesterday and now await for house visit by the agent tomorrow afternoon, so I must vacuum my living room in the morning.

7) Placement Visit - brought the file for placement visit home. Must read them before the visit on Wednesday. I also fixed appointment to meet SG, my former boss, to have coffee at St Pancras International. I really looking forward to see her to catch up with latest gossips in the academia.

8) Weather - Well, yesterday was the hottest day. I heard it will be a bit colder, temperature will be a bit down next few days, so must put on more clothes

Do you know of a Middle Eastern Cafe?!

"Big city has got their excitements. Small towns also have nice pleasant surprise......"

Friends from Singapore often very curious about what "Loughborough" is all about, information on the web can only give that much, so the best way is to report it first hand. Well, today seems a good opportunity to do so, it's a sunny and lovely Saturday, 16 degrees on average throughout the day and I went out to the town area for a walk. Loughborough is a town, not a city, only 60000 people in total. I always tell friends from Singapore that it is as good as one Ang Mo Kio or one Tampines.

Anyway, a typical town in the UK normally has got roads that are narrower, and hence you find distance between shops then to be closer, the road are also flatter and you can cycle all days long without easily losing your balance (??!!). Now that I had lived as far as the North East of Scotland, I know how it felt like "being isolated". Thank god, though Loughborough is small, it is not isolated, people worked here, but not necessarily lived here. This affects their mentality and behaviour towards work. The less isolated location creates a more dynamic competitions and environment for anyone to conduct their businesses, and particularly so for big organisation such as the University.

I went to the Queen's Park, which is not too far where I lived and today it was packed with people having afternoon picnics and kids playing games. We get to the shops easily from the Park. There are a few charity shops around. Sometimes you do get good bargains in charity shops. The other day I bought a "Levi"-brand casual checker long sleeve, nice fit good cut, and only costs me £5 (or S$10.50).

Apart from the usual amenities like cinema and supermarkets, there are quite a number of nice local coffee cafe, which is very conducive and cosy in a town like Loughborough, given that they are located along pedestrian's walkway, and especially during the a warm Summer afternoon, it's really nice. The coffee cafe comes in different characters, unlike the standardised static brand such as Starbuck!

It was interesting to note today that a "middle-eastern cafe" is to be opened from 14th April! Big city has got their excitements, but small towns also have nice pleasant surprise. This has helped enrich my experience of living here because every so often you sure have got something to look forward to. :D

Dining out!

".... the thought of "food" hijack my head and took over the space for thinking..."

The office was still quiet today, but seen the sights of few colleagues, perhaps like me, they thought the office have opened today. I saw WF as well, had brief chat and gossips about the recent conference we both attended. Then, I went back to my tedious and boring exam question preparations, and perhaps too bored for WF too, he suggested in the afternoon we went out for a meal in the evening, which I agreed. Since then, I believe it is the boredom of preparing the exam questions and the thought of "food" hijack my head and took over the space for thinking for the exam questions as well. I just didn't feel I was working at full capacity after that, but very quickly it is time to meet and we headed off to our favourite Indian restaurant, "Koh-I-noor".

It was not located in the busiest part of town, and the restaurant design not considered contemporary, but the manager was always very smiley and polite, making the experience a very pleasant one. He often let us take the corner seats which give enough privacy. Compared to the other Indian Restaurant we went last time when RW visited us to present a paper, Koh-I-Noor serves bigger portion and the dishes better made. I ordered a Balti Mixed (consisting mainly seafood, chicken and lamb) while WF ordered his regular vegetable Balti with naan bread. I ordered rice alongside main dish and was also given a naan bread. I was already quite full when I finished my rice, but the naan bread was soft and nice. I tried some but didn't finish it. I thought it was one of the nicest naan bread I had tried.

We didn't order a coffee or tea to finish our meal, but we were offered two small shots of warm alcoholic chocolate cream, which was a delight. We were given free £5 voucher last time we came here to use for our future visit, though I had forgotten to bring it tonight, the price we paid was good value. WF and I had good chats and catching up in our 2 hours in "Koh-I-Noor" and therefore a great dining out experience there.

Did I just attend a "food" conference?

"I lost count of the calorie intake from those food, they were at least 2 to 3 times the amount I normally would take in for my lunch"

Today begins with the second day of the BAA conference, and I started by attending session of talks on topics about insitutional investing and voting. For a conference like this, I am often too familiar how they feed you with food and dessert and gala dinner. So, we have carrot cake for tea that is between 10.30 am and 11 am. And then lunch time about 12.30 pm with fish pie, rice and some veggie and of course with a nice chocolate with cream as dessert. I lost count of the calorie intake from those food, they were at least 2 to 3 times the amount I normally would take in for my lunch, how can I not be sleepy all subsequently in the afternoon? Thinking about the long sessions of talks one would have to attend after lunch time, it's just felt so tiring and stressful, apart from feeling sleepy. In the afternoon, I have to take a break from the talk sessions to have some times on my own.

The evening dinner was interesting. It is held in the Cardiff Millennium Stadium, in the Millennium Lounge. I was sat next to my former colleauge, RK and former boss, SG, in which she was uneasy and thinks it is "awful" when I call her as my former boss because it seems so "former", but it is just being "respectful" from my perspective. There were 5 courses for the dinner. The starters are few pieces of salmons, followed by tomatoes soups, then came the lamb chops with veggie and finally apple pie with ice-cream followed by cheese, fruits and coffee. I was struggling a bit with the lamb, have to "cut it REAL hard". I told RK they had given me a middle-age and overweight lamb, and I am just "kind enough" to give it some "fresh" behind to live on. hahahaha!

A gala dinner like this often will have a gig to end up the evening. I had known some really cool, younger academics who seemed to know how to have funs and they were quick to ask me to join in, which I however didn't want to. I was just tired, but happy that I had chat and catch up with friends I knew before and former colleagues and just want to go back to the hotel about 11 pm.

Experiencing the Wales' weather

It may be the start of the British Summer Time, the weather is still very uncertain at time. I am in Cardiff today for two days attending the BAA conference 2010. I was excited the day before and was looking forward to it. The train took about 3 hours to Cardiff and I was disappointed to find that there was not even a socket available at any point in the train. I therefore cannot even watched the "Friday night with Jonathon" that I downloaded earlier on my hard-drive to be watched on BBC iplayer.

When arriving at Cardiff about 11.35 am, the weather was unbelievably cold and windy. I think between 4 and 6 degrees. Luckily the hotel was only 2 minutes walk from the station and I do like my hotel room, very zen and minimial. Then I head towards the city hall in which the conference was held. I had lunch in their lower hall and met up old colleauges and had nice chats.

My presentation went on well. I was a little nervous to start, but later I get more encouraged knowing people were paying attention and showing some interests. There were interesting questions from the audience, and I answered them. I only wished I had a bit more time so that I can explain things a little slower and give more information. I had nice chat afterward with another participant, it was nice because I was able to engage with people about my research and they listen attentive showing their interest. I also met a German who did similar research with mine and who I also gave some feedback.

During the evening, we went out for a meal with some conference attendents and sat next to a chinese academic from a Wales University. We exchange lots of idea about doing research and he seems like having a really good potiental. I was, however, caught in a rather heavy rain on my way back, but after all, I had enjoyed my presentation and share thoughts and experience about my research. That is all that matter, never mind the weather. :D

Publisher's event

"Yes, I strongly agree, but does that mean anything to you?"

Sometimes, I feel i have the best job in the world. I get paid to go to special event organized by publisher. Publishers like to hear from our feedback about their books we used for our teaching. Today I went to London to attend one such event, along with colleague WF. The meeting also involve the author of the textbook whom some colleagues knew before, DH. When we arrived at the head-quarter of the publisher's office, which was based in Canary Wharf in London, everything presented in the room was like "state of the art" equipment, even the company mission or motivator statement was there about being individual, team and market leader.

The whole session of the meeting starts with DH telling us about the book, his motivation to do so, and we can see he SPENT a lot of time doing those. DH very smoothly took us through the whole process of his writing of the book and how he want to do it in later edition, etc, all appear to me very well organized and ambitious. In our discussion meeting, I also met lecturers from Warwick, Sweden and Switzerland.

I use DH's book for teaching, sometimes feel a little "too much information" and at times, not sure if he put himself in the shoe of the students. Often I used the textbook's examples, but put it down in a style to suit the students' level of understanding and my preference. I brought this up, referencing a competitor's' text, which some in the meeting also used, hopefully he see maybe helpful to him for his revised version of the textbook later.

I was actually more keen when come to the use of technology in relation to the textbook. There were questions given to the students end of each chapters. This helps us lecturers a lot because it indirectly gives students the advantage of "self-learning". What's more appealing however is the ability to track students performance on-line and the flexibility on the choice of questions I can release to students. Given that I have more than 200 students for a single course and given that I want to let them practice additional exercises, the way this works definitely benefits me. I can also draft up statistics on the performance of the students and let them know where they stand, compared to the whole group. They can use this to assess their standards and help them learn more effectively. This method of e-learning lessens my workload and also allows me to monitor them effectively, which seems efficient way of managing the whole progress.

I enjoyed the meeting today. What's even better is that, I brought my baby laptop on the road with me. On my way back, I find myself a little coffee corner in the St Pancras International Train Station , checking mails, suffering the web, writing my blog and with a cup of tea. I just felt the wireless technology has enhanced the minimalist's lifestyle interestingly, which is a fun and also very relaxing experience, :D

Happy Chinese New Year 2010

It's interesting that I was only reminded that Chinese New Year is round the corner by a friend.

I guess I have lived too long in this country not to have my "body clock" in tune with the Lunar Year Chinese Calender. Others in my home country might say I am now a "banana" (i.e., yellow on the outside, but white inside) man, which isn't true, because I had not forgotten my mother tongue and proud to be able to converse 100% "purely" in Mandarin with my Chinese colleagues, which impressed some, hehe!

It's not appropriate to say someone to "lose his roots" by increasingly "not celebrating" the Chinese new year. Nothing is lost, it's just the way of thinking and adapting. 人家说入乡随俗，你没听说吗？

Anyway, if you are 12-, 24-, 36- or 48-year-old after your birthday in 2010 then based on the Chinese Astrology, this is likely to be your year, i.e., year of the Tiger. There are characteristics of a tiger and those characteristics, combining the western horoscopes that may interest some. Happy Chinese New Year 2010! wishing you all many happy returns.