Dance like no one's watching

Booze Queen and I went down to check out the Lenovo / F1 promotional event at Raffles City after work today.  First time we came up close and personal with a F1 driver!  Rosberg was set to race 2 other contestants on a simulator.  He won – don’t think it was a given ok!  He actually lost in the last simulation race to a Singaporean.  Heh.

There was a photo cum autograph session with Rosberg after the race and Booze Queen and I did the most "malu" thing.  We rushed to a stationery shop to buy a marker so that we could get Rosberg to autograph on our F1 practice day pass. 

Well, we managed to get back in time to get our photos taken with the rest of the cattle.  Sorry, I meant fans (we were herded like cattle!).  We also managed to get Rosberg’s autograph… signed with his own marker.  Duh.

Here’re some photos from the event. 

Rosberg making his entrance.

Rosberg grabbing a bite before the simulation race.

Getting into the simulator.

Race begins… check out the look of intense concentration.

Oops… car meets tyre wall…

Rosberg looks on as contestant #2 races… 

Rosberg and me!!  Me me me!  That’s it lah… bye bye Hammie… I now support Rosberg…  

Gosh.  Finding songs that are meaningful for the wedding is tough!  Was talking to Iceman about what songs we can use for the march in and during the dinner and it’s hard to come up with a list that’ll last even an hour.  The problem probably stems from our repertoire of songs – Iceman likes Linkin Park type of songs (which I find a little too loud and not happy enough for a wedding) and I listen mainly to Chinese music – of which I don’t really want to play mandarin songs at the wedding. 

We both agree that soppy, run of the mill songs e.g. "For the First Time" is out, and cheesy songs like "Fallen" (by Lauren Wood) is a no go.  That really limits the songs we can choose!  Off the top of my head, I’m thinking perhaps we should use Jason Mraz’s "Lucky" and "I’m Yours" for the photo montages (despite the latter being a very common song now) and Jack Johnson’s "Better Together" for the march in.  See the type of songs I’m aiming for?  Happy, Caribbean-calypso sounding, with meaningful lyrics (read: the couple gets together).

Other songs I shortlisted are songs from my favourite movie – My Best Friend’s Wedding:

– Diana King’s "I’ll Say a Little Prayer"

– Ani DiFranco’s "Wishin’ and Hopin’"

– The Exciters’ "Tell Him"

– Tony Bennett’s "The Way You Look Tonight"

– Jackie DeShannon’s "What the World Needs Now is Love"

– John Denver’s "Annie’s Song" (aka the Helium Song in the movie).

While searching for "Annie’s Song", I came across some other songs of his that’re quite nice – like "Perhaps Love".  Heh.  Iceman and I are going to compile the songs we think are suitable and do a second round of shortlisting.  Well, we have now till next July to shortlist so if you know of any suitable songs as per the criteria mentioned, please let me know!

Meanwhile, enjoy these videos I found on youtube.  🙂

Any other suggestions?

Sigh.  Iceman got a wedding invitation today that says the theme of the night is "Hollywood Glam".  Sounded fun at first… but given that the wedding is less than a month away, and I’m on a tight budget trying to save for my own wedding.  How on earth am I supposed to dig up something suitable to wear?  Sigh.  Azure’s response when I told her about it was, "Why do they make it so difficult?".  My reply to that was, "Maybe next year I’ll take revenge!  Do a Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony theme".

You know, I would love to have a outlandish theme for my wedding too.  It would make for great photos… but to trouble the guests to dress up to a specific theme?  Hmm… doesn’t seem that nice.

Thinking of wearing my ao dai for this "Hollywood Glam" thing… and perhaps do up my hair to try to gain "glam" credits.  Don’t think I have anything much more formal than that.

Will this do?

*Roll eyes*.  Yeap.  Can’t help start my post by rolling my eyes.  The Beast is one freaking petty underwriter.  One day after the blow up, Bigmac spoke to him and apologised about how things turned out – basically extending an olive branch to the Beast.  Guess what was the Beast’s response?  He said he noted the apology but he would still need to review this during renewal next year!  Bigmac had only one description for him – "petty asshole".  I can’t agree more.

I don’t want to make a sweeping statement here so I will qualify this by saying with regard to all the Caucasians I work with, the most snobbish and condescending ones seem to be the Brits.  Although the French have been regarded as the proud ones, I’ve had no problems (attitude wise) with the ones I work with so far.  Ditto for the New Zealanders, Australians, Canadians and Americans.  So I really don’t get what is it with the Brits.  Is this some misplaced arrogance left over from the days when the British empire colonised the region?  Or do they just think they’re the kings of the world?

Given the grief I’ve been experiencing from them, I’ve even considered switching to spelling words the American way.  After all, it may be more efficient – e.g.  "colour" vs "color" saves the typing of 1 letter, and this would be my quiet way of saying I endorse the Americans more than the Brits.  The only thing that’s holding me back is the thought that spelling things the British way gives due credit to the folks who came up with the language.

Sigh.  I’m still deliberating this…

Or maybe I should just use Singlish.  That Beast ah… sibeh petty lor.  Damn kena sai man.

Went for the Super Import Nights just now… it’s a motor show featuring… yes.. you guessed it – imported cars.  Here’s some pics from the show.

I thought this carbon fibre body car was damn cool…

For people who like to "zhng" their cars…

A classic Porsche.

A cute little bike!

TRANSFORMERS!

This was a super cool Lamborghini

Chio hor?

Electrifying

Check out the inside!

This car is meant for gamers.

Don’t think anyone will ever complain about long rides.

This photo was taken for Booze Queen…

The dashboard of the same car.

A luxurious Bentley.

I loved the colours on this car.

I saw these girls at the Expo foodcourt before I went into the exhibition hall.. and said to Iceman, "Wah!  Even transvestites come for car show ah!"… later… to my aghast… I realised they were "race queens".  Gosh!  I think we need some QC here…

A retro Jaguar.

Bucket seats for future racers!

I can’t wait for the F1 Grand Prix in Singapore next week!  Though I’m worried the drivers will puke after they see our grid girls… seriously… I think they were called grid girls ‘cos they look as though tyres ran over their faces…

ESaw sent me this website with funny, wildly absurd statements about actor Chuck Norris.  If you do a search online, you’ll realise this "Chuck Norris Facts" has become quite a legend on the Internet.  Heh.  Didn’t have time to read everything but I thought these few were really funny:

Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.

Chuck Norris doesn’t read books.  He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

Chuck Norris can eat just one Lay’s potato chip.

Chuck Norris is suing Myspace for taking the name of what he calls everything around you.

Chuck Norris destroyed the periodic table, because he only recognizes the element of surprise.

dear fans of me, the great, handsome and worthy to be worshipped Pinky,

my life was in grave danger just now.  a horrible horrible vagrant cat, jealous of my mom’s and my opulent lifestyle in the forbidden city palace tried to break through our fortified boundary walls! 

my mom and i heard the cat pacing along the boundary wall.  up and down, up and down.  it was looking for any weakness to break in.  there was little we could do except to freeze in our tracks and wish it would go away.  thankfully, my maid came down to say goodnight and chased the cat away.

*miffed*.  i think cats should be banned from coming within 1km radius of me.  hmph.  i shouldn’t be subjected to such distress. 

love,

Pinky

I had a pretty big argument with the Beast yesterday.  The very first policy that we did with him had a premium due date on 13 Sep (Sat).  The client made payment on 10 Sep to my overseas office.  This was cleared and remitted by my overseas office on 12 Sep to us in Singapore.  Our banks cleared the money on 16 Sep and so on 17 Sep, I rushed my finance department to transfer the money to the Beast.

The Beast was very unhappy about this.  He sent an email asking for an explanation on why the premium was late.  My reply was that the client did pay on time, in accordance to the 45 days payment terms in the policy and that we were arranging to transfer the money to him.  The Beast then replied saying that the money did not reach him and thus a policy condition has been breached.  He said if he issued a notice of cancellation, then it would be for us to explain to the client why the policy was cancelled.

I thought this was ridiculous.  Knowing that this client is based overseas and that the premium would be originally collected by my overseas office and the fact that it happened over the weekend, I think the timeframe taken for all the transfers was reasonable!  So I did what Bigmac told me to do – I replied giving the timeline of all the money transfers, and also stated that being partners in this business, I was uncomfortable that the Beast would issue a notice of cancellation without further discussion with us, and over a short administrative delay.  I then suggested that during our renewal next year, in our direct policy to the client, we will state a 45 days payment term, but in our backend agreement, we should have a 60 days payment term to allow for the due transfer process to take place.

The Beast reared his ugly head.  He shot back an email saying that our conduct was "unprofessional" and that it has been an "unsatisfactory first time doing business" with us.  He ended his email saying that he would review this again next year and consider if he wants to renew the policy, due to the "tardiness of premium payment".

WTF man.  I checked with my finance department as well as my colleagues – clients will always pay the broker w/in the stipulated payment term… and obviously between the broker and the insurer, there is an understanding that it takes a couple of days for banks to effect the remittance!  In fact, some insurers have standing arrangements with us such that both finance departments do a netting off of all the monies owed/due at the end of the month. 

Anyway, Bigmac spoke to the Beast last night and the Beast said that during the inception of the policy, he gave the client certain discounts and highlighted that the premium must be received by him by the 45th day after the inception date.  Thus, it is wrong for us to pay him a couple of days late.  I still think he’s being a jackass.  Is he not aware that even between banks, if the payment due date falls on a non-business day, the due date automatically shifts to the next business day?  Moreover, if you tell clients that they need to pay by the 45th day, obviously the client doesn’t care how much time it takes for banks to transfer the $$ to you.  To them, as long as they give instruction beforehand for the money to be taken from their account and sent to yours, that’s considered "on time" payment.

Not to mention that in this case, the Beast is fully aware that there’re many parties involved in this transaction and thus the money changes hands a few times.  If we have done everything practicable within our means to transfer the money to him, what more does he want?  Am I expected to carry a briefcase of cash and deliver it to his office on a Saturday? 

What an asshole man.  To think he has asked us on 3 previous occassions why he never sees any of our bank business.  The next time he says this, I’m going to roll my eyes and go, "DUH".

By Craig Torres

Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve Board, with support of the U.S. Treasury, invoked emergency powers to lend up to $85 billion to American International Group Inc. to save the firm from collapse.

“The Board determined that, in current circumstances, a disorderly failure of AIG could add to already significant levels of financial market fragility and lead to substantially higher borrowing costs, reduced household wealth and materially weaker economic performance,” the Fed said on a day when it left the benchmark lending rate unchanged at 2 percent.

The purpose of the “liquidity facility is to assist AIG in meeting its obligations as they come due,” the Fed said in its statement. The facility has a 24-month term. Interest will accrue on the outstanding balance at the three-month Libor rate plus 8.5 percentage points.

“The loan is expected to be repaid from the proceeds of the sale of the firm’s assets,” the Fed said. “The U.S. government will receive a 79.9 percent equity interest in AIG and has the right to veto the payment of dividends to common and preferred shareholders.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Craig Torres in Washington at ctorres3@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 16, 2008 21:04 EDT

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Well done!  AIG is now a public insurer!

AIG has the capability to bail itself out by selling profitable assets/subsidiaries.

AIG requires bridge loan of USD40b from the Federal Reserve in the interim.

Fed Reserve pressures authorities to allow AIG to borrow USD20b from its subsidiaries instead.

Quick pull on the trigger by credit rating agencies results in AIG having to post a huge amount of collateral.

Fed Reserve discourages AIG from seeking its assistance – tasks JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley to put together USD75-80b for AIG.

If AIG fails, it will bring down the US financial market with it as too many banks, financial institutions have exposures on AIG. 

Fed Reserve is forced into emergency meeting to consider helping AIG.

Maurice Greenberg, AIG’s former CEO who was ousted in 2005, still owns 11% of AIG and is currently leading a group of investors to take control of AIG through a proxy fight or buyout.

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Singapore will be waking up to exciting times tomorrow!