Someone say Cupcakes?

Is this not the cutest picture? Who can say no to a cupcake, let alone one that is covered in frosting and being lusted after by Bambi?

Thanks to Otin for sending me his deer cupcake award - rules (since when have awards come with rules? Although I guess the silent rule to any award is maintain the status quo, be it for Nadal to continue beating Federer or for the beauty queen to continue facilitating world peace...) are to respond and rework. Answer the questions on your blog, replace one question you dislike with a question of your own invention, and add one additional question.

1).What is your current obsession? Broadening my horizons - I think I am having a recession-driven epiphany.

2).Where are you right now? A strangely sunny London

3).Coffee or tea? Coffeeeee!!

4).What's one of your favorite movies? Roman Holiday

5).What's one thing you're looking forward to? June 8th (day after my exams) and the start of the summer - rock on!

6).Who was your childhood crush? The enduring crush is Jensen Ackles (he's now looking mighty hot in Supernatural) but with age has come a desire for substance. I like high achievers now.

7).What is your current favorite Song? The man who can't be moved by the Script. Trends find me slow...

8).What would you like to get rid of? Self-doubt. I am woman - hear me roar!

9).What in life are you waiting on? An early retirement with an intelligent man (who will also happen to be a mediterannean millionaire) in a Tuscan villa surrounded by cypress trees. We will drink wine from our land and I would blog every day - haha

10). Why did you start your blog? It was one of many tactics to delay revising! It's strangely captivating though - I can see how people get addicted.

11).If money was not an issue, what is one thing you would purchase for yourself? A Formula One team.

12).If you could live in a foreign country, which one would you choose? Italy - I want la dolce vita!

13).What is one trait about yourself that you wish you could change? Probably a little too probing for the morning after the night before...

14). Tipple of choice? I love cold and dry white wine. I like my cocktails fruity although on a first date I would probably go for a martini to be less girly and my best holiday ever was drenched in limoncello!

And now, for the nicest part of all. You don't have to do the questions, but your blogs are deer to me!

Otin - I offer you the option of answering the new questions and I love Otins Chat

Cris - In the bleak days when I was a blogging newbie, you gave me much joy by leaving me comments. You know what they say, you never forget your first.. haha

Hit 40 - I think you already receive every award going - but here's another just because teachers shape our futures.
Madeline - I don't know where you've gone, but I really enjoy your snapshots.

Marathoner81 - Like Hit40 on the awards front but keep up the training - I want us both to finish come October!

Friday Funny

Can I pretend it's still Friday somewhere in the world?

I was reminded of this because someone was having frozen pizza for dinner last night.

Bad Vs Evil

Welcome to the House of Shame.

The war between the bankers and the politicians continues, and as biased as I may be, the bankers seem to be winning by default. The government have shot themselves in the foot once again this week as their frivolous past manipulation of allowable expenses has been brought into the scathing eyes of the general public. Hot on the heels of their intention to raise taxes to 50% next April, we find that our taxes have been used to pay for politicans' late night pay-TV, home improvements (someone even had a new wet-room installation paid for!) and fine dining experiences. Even our Great Leader has been paying his brother £3k per year to clean his house.

Words that spring to mind are rocks and glass houses. Pretty poor form to be advocating national belt-tightening and quantatative easing when the Government are using our taxes to pay for their second, third, fourth homes. Some politicians are exploiting some pretty dubious loopholes to try and justify the £15k kitchen they've had put in, but it all sounds a bit Enron-esque which I'm fairly sure they all deemed morally corrupt at the time...

I've got nothing against rewarding people who are doing a good job but I don't think any one in politics is deserving of that accolade just now.

It's as easy as A - B - C

I have finely honed revision skills that involve leaving everything til the last minute whilst accumulating a growing level of stress (inversely proportional to the number of days left) and then working through the night on d-day whilst my pencil races against the dawn - it takes a week after the exam period to rebuild my sanity!

It all started in high school when exams used to stretch over 3 weeks. It was a time I used to look forward to because for those 3 weeks of the year, we were allowed to come to school in our own clothes. It was supposed to help us feel comfortable, but going to an all girls school, this was an open invitation for us to wake up an hour earlier to match our belts to our pencil case, straighten our hair and showcase our newest jeans. One time I was so exhausted and sleep-deprived, something had to give. There's still an urban legend at the school now of a crazy, one-eyed, hunch backed girl who suffered a mental breakdown and came to school in uniform on own-clothes-day. *shudder*...

It all switched at university as the only time I was told what to wear was during exam time. I kid you not, I had to wear a black skirt, white shirt and a black ribbon round my neck whilst the boys had a wear a full black suit and a white bow tie. Can you imagine anything more stressful on the morning of your exam than trying to tie a bow-tie? We also had to carry our graduation hat to every exam - even though we're not allowed to put them on until graduation day. This proved quite useful as it turned into my pencil case - as an engineer I had rulers, calculators, protractors, compasses and as a hypochondriac I had 10 super sharp pencils, just in case... If we weren't dressed properly, we were turned away from exam schools! Those sleepless nights ironing shirts to be granted exam entry - best days of my life...

Now I'm sitting for a professional qualification that is supposed to make me a better financial analyst and give me three more letters after my name. As a US corporation, they charge us $1000 for the pleasure of sitting a 6 hour exam on a Saturday (my company is paying, for those of you thinking I really am a crazy, one-eyed hunch-back) and you have to pass 3 levels to get the qualification. So whether I pass or fail, I will still be taking another exam next June! The same crazy long exam is sat across the world on the same weekend and in London alone, there are 40,000 people who turn up at this huge warehouse where all you can see are rows of desks stretching back to infinity. As zero hour approaches, the shutters start to roll down and desparate candidates roll under the gap (very Indiana Jones) and I begin to frantically re-sharpen all my pencils. Only a month to go - wish me luck!

Is it too soon...?

Got an email from the exam regulators this week saying they are taking into account the recent flu epidemic and they are working hard to ensure there will be no disruptions on exam day (a 6 hour exam on a Saturday that takes place simultaneously all over the world - I'm sure there's an arbitrage opportunity there somewhere with the time differences but I haven't quite figured it out yet...)

Cow Economics

Something funny just because it's Monday. I tried to google an original source for these jokes but all I got were many many many variations. Think I need to relocate to France or Italy. Have fun adding your own

SOCIALISM

You have 2 cows. You give one to your neighbour.

COMMUNISM

You have 2 cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM

You have 2 cows. The State takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM

You have 2 cows. The State takes both and shoots you.

BUREAUCRATISM

You have 2 cows. The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away…

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM

You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies. You then employ someone else to do the work and you graball future profits to fund your indolent lifestyle.

SURREALISM

You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION

You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.

A FRENCH CORPORATION

You have two cows. You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows. You break for lunch. Life is good

A JAPANESE CORPORATION

You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'Cowkimon' and market it worldwide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION

You have two cows. You re-eng ineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION

You have two cows, but you don't know where they are. A beautiful woman walks past. You decide to have lunch. Life is good

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION

You have two cows. You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 2 cows. You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION

You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you. You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION

You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity. You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION

You have two cows. You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION

You have two cows. Both are mad.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION

Everyone thinks you have lots of cows. You tell them that you have none. No-one believes you, so they bomb the **** out of you and invade your country. You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of Democracy….

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION

You have two cows. Business seems pretty good. You close the office and go for a few beers and a barbeque to celebrate and ponder why none of the cows have pouches for their young

A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION

You have two cows. The one on the left looks very attractive.

Let it be me

This week involved interviewing interns. Those who have made it through the rigorous screening process, which every year sees my colleagues hanging about after work one day with a few bottles of wine as we sift through the many CVs. My team is young, with the majority of us being under 30, so it’s not that long since we ourselves were the interviewee. Life is tough – there are slim margins between applicants on the academic side as they all seem to be excelling at top notch universities – so more often than not, it comes down to that special chance that one word somewhere on the CV makes a connection with the interviewer – be it a shared interest or the same home town. At the end of the day, they are all plenty smart but you want them to fit in with the existing team but also to bring something new.

At university, I was much like any other student, with that subtle arrogance from the belief that I was en route to something big. The place was full of high achievers who spent their free time perfecting their tennis serve, protesting for human rights or running for university president – all things I believed I could achieve too if I chose to. Then comes graduation, which for many is the final curtain on their childhood, and we are released to once again, become the smallest fish in a very large pond. My self belief is eroded away with every unsuccessful job application and I’m left with regrets. I had a unique four year window of opportunity where I was free to chase after any dream but was too lazy to take advantage of it.

And now it gives me great pleasure to meet these hopeful interns, who are trying to plan their summer vacation to include experiences that will help them on their road forward. Their new suits, straight postures and eager eyes takes me back to a happy time – although with every passing year, the edges become a little more frayed with thoughts of what could have been.