YES!

My sister, Dori, and her boyfriend, Balu, were supposed to visit us two weeks ago. Dori, however, realized at the airport that her passport had expired, so they had to turn back. A few days later she received her new passport and they were on the waiting list for other flights for a few days. Unfortunately, they couldn't make it in the end.

I proposed to Sylvia last Thursday, and she agreed to marry me. I am the happiest man on the planet. We will start planning the wedding now. All we know is that we'll have the ceremony in Singapore, and banquets both in Singapore and Hungary.

I surprised Sylvia with a Sky Dining, which is a dinner on the cable car from Mount Faber to Sentosa. You go three rounds, and each round they serve a new dish. Unfortunately, she felt nauseous while having the soup in the moving cabin, so we had to have the rest of our dinner on the mountain top. It has an amazing view, still, it's not as romantic as the cable car, and lacks the privacy either. She was suspecting the reason, so she said we can finish our ride after the desserts. I wasn't able to propose though, as she didn't take it well again.

Afterwards we went to the Night Safari. We had an amazing time there, it's really special. Finally, we were able to see leopards moving around, not only lazing in the shades.

In the night, we stopped by the playground where we first talked about our future, about family and kids, and that's where I asked her to marry me. And she said 'yes'. Actually, she didn't say it, as she was flooded with tears, so she just nodded happily. I was a bit (a lot) nervous, so I almost pulled on the ring to the wrong hand. But it was really romantic and I'm sure we will remember it for the rest of our lives.

The ring I proposed with is a white gold ring with a 1.12 carat oval-shaped brown Gabrielle diamond, two smaller heart-shaped white diamonds and lots of chip diamonds. I bought it from Charlotte Attelier, and have never seen a more beautiful ring in my life. If you haven't heard about Gabrielle diamonds, then you'd better research on Gabi Tolkowsky. He cut quite many of the most famous diamonds, and also created the 105 facet Gabrielle diamonds.

Retrospective #1: Job Hunt

During INSEAD I revised a few times what I really wanted to do after graduation. One thing has always been fixed. I knew that I wanted to stay in Singapore. On the one hand, I love being here. I have Sylvia and so many of my friends here. Other amazing places within Asia are just a short ride from here. The summer lasts from the 1st of January until the 31st of December. And I wouldn't be a Singaporean, if I didn't compliment about the food, which is indeed great here. On the other hand, the job market is hot, there are amazing business opportunities here.

But it wasn't an easy ride. Most of the opportunities for me were in Europe. The strategy consultants wanted me for Hungary, the banks for London. And there was always something else missing too. None of the positions was really exciting. And the ones I found in Singapore, didn't even consider me for an interview. It gave lots of frustrations, which made me re-write, re-structure and re-format my resume again and again, change the focus during interviews and change the strategy too.

I really wanted to go back into sales within banking. The feedbacks I received were always positive on my background, experience and personality. Still, most of banks were afraid that I wouldn't fit into the sales team, wouldn't be able to handle Asian clients or just decided to head back to Europe shortly. So they considered me too risky.

In the end, through a headhunter, I received an opportunity to interview with Standard Chartered, a British bank, one of the main banks in the region, focusing only on Asia, Africa and Middle East. Within 36 hours of my first interview I received an offer. Besides that I really like my job scope, I'm happy to work for a company that is responsible and cares about all its stakeholders.

I've been working there for a week now. I'm an associate director in the corporate sales team. Each morning I go to work with the same excitement. The work is really creative and highly analytical at the same time, which is perfect for me.

Ten

Sylvia and I had our 10-month anniversary yesterday. Although we went to Spagheddies for our first date, and that's where we celebrated earlier, we chose Da Paolo this time. I really love the pizzas there, the best I had in town. Sylvia had her favorite Salmon Pizza, while I decided on Diavola, the one with salami and chili. Yummie! Their dessers are also phenomenal. This time we shared a tiramisu.

On Popular Demand...

... I'm back to publish entries again. It's not that I didn't enjoy writing but my priorities were on job hunting and researching for the last few months. Lots of great things happened lately, and I will publish a series of retrospective to tell you about them. I'll have a few more days before I start work (hint: one of the retrospectives will be about my job hunt), so I'll try to publish quite often.

Back on Stage

11 years have passed by since I last performed live on stage. Back then, it was in front of a few hundred people at the Sziget Festival '95. Last Thursday, around 150 of my classmates watched us to perform at the INSEAD Cabaret. It was a great night. We started rehearsing on Monday. Jackie and JB sang, James played the guitars, Daniel the drums and I played the bass.

We started with AC-DC's Highway to Hell, dedicated to those who will start their careers as consultants after graduation. Then we continued with Boys Don't Cry from Cure. The third song, Lenny Krawitz's Fly Away was my favorite song from the gig. Then came Van Morisson's Brown Eyed Girl, which I have never heard before. We continued with the always successful I Will Survive, but JB changed the lyrics for our INSEAD memories. And we closed the concert with Kim Wilde's Kids in America. Of course we sang it as Kids in Singapore.

Wounded Flower by Jarred Blaze Lindenfeld

Time flows backwards
Dawn brings darkness
The  prince guards the fragile light
Forest survives
Rose will blossom
Thirteen angels for her fight
I will be there
Bird and feathers
Blaze will appear through the night
Come with me dear
See where we reach
Don't be afraid of the height
Rain and sunshine
Wind and teardrops
Those who believe will be right
Cupid suffers
Don't shut your eyes
True love swings us with full might

Happy Birthday, Dóri!

Today is the 29th birthday of my little sister. On this photo, I'm hugging our great-grandmother, Dóri's is hugging our grandaunt, Margit nénje. It was shot on the backyard of our grandparents' house. This is the only photo I have of myself with great-grandma. Hopefully I can negotiate about a job soon, and head back home for Christmas. I miss my family. And I haven't have grandaunt's delicious cookies for a year now. Sylvia will learn how to do my favorite Hungarian dishes.

A Cartoon Can Start a Landslide

Calvin is always true, and I really love Hobbes' sarcastic comments. I guess every person on this planet knows the most important thing that happened during the last week: Britney Spears didn't wear underwear and was fully shaved. But how many read Stephen Hawking's comments on colonizing other planets? That reaching planets orbiting other stars would be possible with spaceships using matter/antimatter annihilation. Still, an incredible article, like this, on CNN.com should be filled with celebrity informations like "a 64-year-old father of three", "the wheel-chair bound Cambridge University physicist" and "who was crippled by a muscle disease at the age of 21 and who speaks through a computerized voice synthesizer". What do those facts have to do with his comments?

People don't become celebrities by their achievements but by their private lives. Who would care about Paris Hilton if she didn't appear in a home porn? She wouldn't be able to sell a single CD, because she doesn't have a voice. Or who would have given Monika Lewinsky money to come up with her line of luxury bags if she didn't like cigars? And why did people have to talk for months about Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunctioning"?

Well, this is another pet topic of mine. Kids can watch killing on television but are not allowed to see a pair of breasts. What's wrong with naked people? That's how we were born, how we were created by God/nature/our parents/etc. Why is the world so prude?

3 Days, 2 Films, 1 More Congee

On Friday, Jordan and I watched the new James Bond film, Casino Royal. I didn't really like Daniel Craig. Probably, if he were the one following Timothy Dalton, I would have rated him higher, but it's just too tough to fill Pierce Brosnan's shoes. For me, he and Sean Connery were the ultimate bonds. Roger Moore was good too, but I didn't like George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton and Daniel Craig. The film was as expected, nothing fancy. Revealing a bit more of Bond's character and less of the actions. I wonder what Quentin Tarantino would have done with it. He wanted to direct this episode, though the producers didn't really like the idea.

After the film Sylvia joined us and we headed to Eric and Cara's place for drinks. Unfortunately, as Sylvia's grandma had an eye surgery the next morning, Sylvia became worried, and left early. Jordan and I stayed until around 2am, and we had a great time there. We drank some wine and rum, and talked about the usual stuffs: school, business and possibilities.

On Saturday, Sylvia's family and I visited ama. She was really well and happy to be able to play mahjong again as she can finally see the tiles. I like her a lot, it's a pity that we don't speak the same language. Hopefully I can pick up some Hokkien from Sylvia. I plan to focus with more effort on Mandarin, and ama would understand it. I still wouldn't understand her replies in Hokkien though. Afterwards, we went to have dinner at a hawker on Thompson road. I had chicken rice, quite a nice one. In the night, Sylvia and I played home spa, and we gave each other facial treatment and massage.

On Sunday, my princess cooked another type of congee for me, this time with meat balls and flour cake. Again, it was amazing. Afterwards, we went to Bishan to watch Happy Feet. It was a really sweet show. And, wow, Brittany Murphy can sing really well. I wonder though, how many parents ask their children after watching it, whether they have learnt anything from the film. As it is the case with the good cartoons, there's a moral to the story. Actually, there are more. On the one hand, it says that you should dare to be different, and be true to what you are and what you like. On the other hand, it educates the kids about the importance to conserve the nature and not to exploit it. Finally, as most of these shows, it's about friendship and loyalty, luckily, without being cheesy.

Dr Sylvia: Part II

The congee my princess prepared for me today was finger-licking good. Ten out of ten. I'm afraid that I will never ever enjoy it again at the hawkers.