Goodbye 2012 - Hello 2013

It is eventually here, the end of 2012 instead of the end of the world according to Mayan prophecy.

It has been a generally good year with a lot of great things have happened, but I can't leave aside the bads. I finally graduated, got a degree like other people, got a scholarship to remain in Exeter for another year, friends in, friends out, money in, money out, etc. In order to summarise my 2012 story, for the third year, I would use Facebook album which will be uploaded later on today. I won't put a link here because if you are reading this blog, you are most likely to be friends with me already on facebook.

So, yes again, 2012 is about to end, what are my resolutions for 2013 which I have decided to put on for the first time.

- More reading (in both academics and life)
- Job application and PhD application
- A must EU trip
- Eat more properly cooked meals
- More photography (you will see the reason why at the end of this post)
- More sports





The latest member of my family is.......

Canon EOS 7D :D

Nokia 808 Pureview

Approximately 2 years ago, I wrote a big blog to welcome my superb Nokia N8. Everything happened so fast back then that my emotion wasn't really set when the phone arrived. And it has been marvellous since then.

I once said there is a connection between a person and his phone, and I still believe it. N8 has been with me through thicks and thins, goods and bads, ups and downs and it deserves a good rest now in order to welcome the Nokia N8's successor - Nokia 808 Pureview.

Apparently, a lot of people still prefer the coming Lumia 920 with better low light photos (I doubt that!). Others prefer Android and iOS. Yet Symbian is still the father of all, it's old and has been put to an end but this phone is the grand farewell!

Let's start a new journey, shall we?!

Hicksian Economic Income

I haven't written much lately. Even if I wrote, there were only a few lines to update the world that I am still very much alive (not really a case for today).

So I decided to write something today, to commemorate the day I placed the most expensive order on Amazon or elsewhere up until this point of my life yet apart from the massive amount I have put into the UK education system. The purchase reminds me of a concept most people in the finance world have heard about - Hicksian economic income.

We, accountants/or at least what we call us for now, are doing the work we call (again) income measurement. Yet, can income be measured? Even further, what is income? This is where Hicksian economic income steps in and states that income is the maximum amount we can consume today in anticipation of the future cashflow. This has led to another horizon of "income", whose income the accountants are trying to measure these days? A lot of questions and debates have been thrown out but not much taking back; and even the answer is somewhere out there among us...

For now, let's have a look at a more practical and micro situation, my order. I, at least, feel less guilty with the knowledge of the certainty of the future cash flow will come in shortly at the end of October. Thereby, the concept holds at least for now (hopefully!).

Trivial 22

So here I am, the first day of my 22, woke up and checking emails!

Sounds like a good start...

10th September 2012

September the 10th has always been the day with the most birthday parties in my life so far. And even if I don't go to those parties, there are still wishes to be said and wallposts to well... post!

But this is not the main story I want to tell today. Today is all about the last night in Vietnam this summer, tonight!

I remember roughly 3 weeks ago, I was very much excited and all ready to be back. I still am, though, there is the lack of excitement and eagerness. Strangely, I felt something this summer, something more family than usual, something more nostalgic, and something more homey than normal. It is perhaps due to the short time I spent on being here compared to the previous ones; or I may not see these people for quite a while and by "a while", I mean a few years...

It doesn't matter which reason that is, I just hope that these people will all be well. 2012 is a rough year, so take care and my best wishes to everybody. And for me, it's time to take on the new challenge - a year working and finishing my Master degree!

Good enough ;)

Eventually, everything has its endings. I had my farewell lunch and dinner with my grandfather and grandmothers. And that is probably it.

Let's call it a great short summer (a single summer haha).

A month before or after

It is 19th of August 2012 today, a month after my university graduation. I remember I said on the day that I would not leave anything unsaid, and there I was trying in vain to speak out the words I had been dying to let out for years. A month has gone and who knows what would happen to me in a month's time if we fast forward to 19th September 2012.  I may be sleeping, or playing games, or hanging out at a dinner, or for the highest level of confidence I will be working relentlessly during the welcome week.

Therefore I decided today I will say whatever I need to say, whatever I have been hiding for all those years, or perhaps just some random stuff to random people.

This, however, may have a negative effect. The message might not be delivered with the right tone or under the right circumstances, which will lead to the loss of certain important people in my life. But you have to risk it to get the biscuit.

There is nothing wrong with feeling vulnerable because vulnerability shows us how important one truly is.

PS: Happy birthday mom, tomorrow!

Graduation

It has been a few weeks since my graduation, but I still can't seem to find any word to draw out some description.

I am happy, grateful, honoured, and most of all glad to have graduated and have got my parents with me. They had never ever been around on any big occasion of my life that I did not know what to expect. Nonetheless, they appeared when it counted.

To be even more honest, I am not the kind of having a close family relationship; in fact, quite towards the other side of the scale. But I could feel the intensive emotions running around on the day through them. I could see the moments they were running around taking photos of me, even though the photos did not look as good as I would love them to be, because they were all shaking. I could see all the hard work and difficulties in life that they had been through to give me that moment in mine. And I could see the unspoken love.

Thank you. :)

Paying off day?

It is already Friday and hence I have to consider the day I am still working on before going to bed yesterday.

I woke up with good news after another.

1. My display name for my work/uni email was successfully changed to Viet, Huynh after 3 years that I had been struggling to live with Anh, Huynh. And quite frankly, the process is way too simple that it literally took 5 seconds to finish. Oh well...

2. I am back to my International Welcome Team again for the third time. Trifecta!!! Apart from my boss, no one has yet to know the news but I shall keep it as a surprise for them in September when I come back, even though this decision is just a by-product of my US$ 300 flight change.

3. My employment contract for next year was sent off yesterday and hopefully will get to me no later than Monday. I won't be able read it by Wednesday anyway...

So, let's call it a day!

61 seconds

There are rumours that the last minute of 30th of June 2012 does have 61 seconds. I can't seem to find much news about it, but if that is true, I would be grateful to live and witness that moment passing by.

And, hello July, hello a soon-to-be eventful month of my life and to mark a bizarre journey since July last year.

When a door closes, many more open. :)

It's not goodbye :)

Despite my theory that it's never a goodbye and we will all meet again, I had to say the hardest goodbye of all time today.

But then again, it did not go badly as I thought it would, thanks to the smile of the person to leave. There is no denial that I will be sad, yet I can keep a happy mind knowing she's happy with what she has chosen. :)

I hope to see you back, soon!

I made it!

As it is usually argued and told, a good song does need to have a variety of notes - bold, high, and low. People's lives, or at least my life, has been like that - probably partly because of the way I sign my name. My mother once said the signature will decide how one's life would be and it has been true to this moment.

I would love to write something big, long and slightly dramatic for today (evil grin :D), especially due to the way it happened to me - a day after one of the most awkward day of my life. But as you might have noticed, I am not a good writer and therefore I will keep it short and simple.

I made it through my 3 years of University with a First!!!

A lot more challenges are to come in due course. For now, I think I deserve a big break (as if I didn't have it already).

Thank you very much indeed for all your wishes, good lucks and prayers. Those really mean a lot to me.

My most expensive Sunday

This morning, Exeter was greatly sunny - had been to be more precise/grammatically correct before I decided to have a rare day out without any certain agenda. But as soon as I stepped out, the sky turned rather cloudy, which was not ideal for my shots once again as if I ever had a series of good free days to take photos this year.

I walked slowly and wandered on my ordinary route to town, thinking where my next destination was for the day. I heard about a coffee place with great food a while ago, I haven't been to Exeter's Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery since it reopened after years of refurbishment either, or even just a random walk around the Quay Side.

By now, you must have thought I am a guy who always stays in. Not exactly by nature but there have been certain non-negotiable circumstances.

Anyway, I ended up at the coffee place - Bills' cafe for a traditional British breakfast, which turned out to be the most expensive breakfast I have ever had for my own. It's not that I don't like to indulge myself with decent food, but I hardly or never do this on my own as I always have the need to save money for my technology obsession; moreover £7.95 for a coffee breakfast is really expensive with 10% service - ending up at £8.75???!!!

Though, the food was great and judging from the look of the menu and the surroundings, I could tell it is surprisingly healthy too (hopefully).

Having thought about coming to the Museum, I decided I can go there on common rainy day and should enjoy the sun as much as I can get. I walked to the Quay Side, with some music on and started to snap some photos of the swans.

And it's raining now, finally, hahaha :).

Throwing

I haven't written much lately thanks to all the hassles I have created myself to my mind and some of them have presented themselves around this time of the year - goodbyes. I don't intend  to talk much about the latter since I know it would take me hours to ramble about this particular subject, especially when I am so much so in fact attached to this place.

I ended this series of uneasy thoughts yesterday by starting my packing. Well, my parents won't be here for another 3 weeks, but I know when they are here it's not going to be a happy packing.

I started with boxes. I had kept a lot of boxes (if not all the boxes), from Amazon books, stuff I'd bought from eBay, from mom, etc. I tend to keep them all until the end of each year, and I will start giving them away to the recycle bins, except for those mom sent me. This year, I gave away all, even those from mom. Memories are not measured by the physical items you are keeping and holding on to, but by how much these little trivial things mean to you. I let them all out, and am getting ready to start a new turn at this place - an MSc (if I ever graduate) - a tad closer to the working life.

Then I went through a small bag of little paper items. These are bits of me from my travels, job opportunities, cards from others and cards to them, etc. Surely, a lot of things are in the bag and mounting up year by year, but the bag has never grown as fast as when I first started it. Less and less people are closely attached to me, yet certain people never leave.

- There are always traces to a certain person in the big city, and although she did promised to buy me birthday presents, I've never received any apart from those little "bánh su" - you know who you are ha!

- There are also traces to my international close friends.

- There are many things from my/our annual visits to/from my "prettiest friend".

- And there is mom. She's always there, through thick and thin, through arguments with her about job prospects or about my ex-ex-ex-ex-...-N girlfriends. I did find myself extremely annoyed at her at times and grew greatly defensive when the argument started about my "long long history". But again, she's still there, sending me Christmas gifts and cards (though most of them are just more pressure to my already heavy life). And thank you mom for talking to me as well as pulling me out (occasionally) because you really see through me and know what/who I would like at the end.

11th June 2012

I can live with that!


For a day with a lot of news :)

Some thoughts lately

In the world of too many "what ifs", I just happen to encounter the worst of all kinds. I took a step back from what has been  going through my life in the past year, and I wondered.

What if, I had gone forward to say what I wanted to say.
What if, I could make it work for a long time.

I still remember the first time I watched Letters to Juliet, there was a line about "what if" that had put me in the pause for a while until yesterday.

But then again, what if I don't "what if". What would happen from now onwards? I guess, the answer is, we all have to do what we have to do and do whatever we can, then time will make the move itself. :)

30/05/2012

These days, there is nothing much to say about me, when my days are fairly lazy with movies and news to catch, or ideas and feelings to capture. I walked out today for a meeting up in the uni, then having some catch up time with the department. And then, everyone headed back to marking papers and I walked down to town for a sunny afternoon short wander.

That could have been the end of my day, had the past few days had been different.

I made some changes to my room, changes that I thought I would never have to do or at least in this academic year since I first came back in September. But when there is nothing else I can do, changes are the only things left to do, to lead to another course of actions.

Sad? Indeed, but it has to happen.

30th May 2012.

Deeper

So, I have heard that "deep inside of me, there is....".

Of course, there is what they were referring to deep inside of me, but there is a deeper place or the deepest place for a secret. Yet, that secret may seem so transparent at times, it is still a secret since I am still trying to keep it as a secret.

PS: I sat backwards on the train, because I merely didn't want to leave.

Long lost

I just really can't wait... :)

Back for more

It has been a tremendous 2-day trip in London, back and forth.

At times, I was wondering why I chose to stay in London only for a day before the interview. Mostly, I answered to myself "because they paid for the room for one night only". But clearly, I could have stayed more if I wanted to; and perhaps I know I would never want to leave if I stayed a while longer.

Despite all of expensive living costs and noise pollution, which you will never ever have encountered in this peaceful Exeter, London surely has a lot to offer - from photography to a peaceful walk hiding at some random parks.

And on top of that, there is something else, some unspoken feelings that I always have when I arrive at this magnificent city. This time it was even more with tourist attractions touching every corner of the memories I had back in the day. A chapter was closed but when you read it back after a long time, you still realise that you have read it before. And you take a different lesson, just to know that there is still a secret buried in pieces along the pages.

Hello summer (or not?)

There is nothing much to say for such occasion, but I guess all I can say right now is that "I'm freaking free, world!". Yes, indeed, for the first time in my 4 year journey in the UK, I am now able to rest for a certain number of days and think about "fun" plan ahead. We all finished our last exam today, the last exam of our undergraduate life.

It feels amazing, yet weird to know I am graduating very soon (hopefully ;) ).

And this also brings back some memories about the same day 4 years ago, the day I graduated from my highschool.


Not much for saying, I will come back later with more news and perhaps more photos in the next couples of days. But for now, time for fun!

PS: I wonder who in the world are following this blog... :)

Berta

It is almost 1am and I should have been sleeping already. But I just want to leave a few lines to remind me that, Berta and I had a great convo this evening and that made my day.

Thank you my dear for always being there.

I will see you next year in Barcelona. :)

A good Sunday comes to an annoying end!

Clearly, some people just don't know how to step back and support!

That is all for today!

This means war

So here's the quote from the movie I just watched

- Can I love 2 people equally?
- Yes, but to be in love with 2, NO!

So?

I looked around, I looked into, I looked up and I looked for a place of peace.

And a chapter of this journey is coming to an end.

Lose

A few words to bear in mind, my theory is - a loser is not a loser if he only loses ordinary things that the outside world considers non-important elements. But eventually, he still loses something. So, what is the word for that person?

Last night, suddenly my Yahoo account went completely wrong and kept telling me my password was incorrect and it would not allow me to request for new ones either. It was, until now, a total distress and absolute tragedy and I am not sure what I should feel if one day I lost the account forever. This is the first and ever account I have ever had, and the account I am not ready to lose, at least until forever. Even though, there are bits that are not there anymore, it is still the place...

And then everything pulled me back with reality. An hour of Yahoo's distress was only the second worst thing I experienced yesterday.

It doesn't matter because tomorrow it will be worse. :)

Like a movie

So, I watched Notting Hill again today, not because I have got nothing else to do or I just love the movie so much. I guess, this is merely the moment in life when you come across certain events and you realise, so much, so in fact that it is just like a movie. :)

Yesterday once more

I am glad you have passed but I am not as much grateful that you have come.
I am happy to be at this stage but not so much for how I have reached.
That was the best, but could be the worst.

To be or not to be?

A hard question to answer but frankly we all have our answer already, we just don't see it yet.

Accounting Scholar

The day I had been waiting, has finally come. I made it to the dream I have always wanted, to the fullest of the happiness and pride. I have got the Accounting Scholar. :)

You are the Apple of my Eye

A beautiful story :)

What if...

"What if" is always a bizarre phrase that is able to cause all kinds of emotion swings. But it is true that at some points in life, we do need to use those 2 words.

What if I were to disappear totally from you?

:)

A perfect day, with perfect weather, and with perfect people.

Life is beautiful. :)

Let's pour the bottle

So, here's the thing. What if you want to use your bottle to contain a certain amount of water?

Open the cap, and leave your bottle there!

What if it gets too full?

Pour it all out, and clean the bottle in order for it to be able to take water again.

Leap year

So, the additional 24 hours of 4 years have nearly come to an end and I am glad that I finished today in a good way.

Finally had an upgrade from my Canon 1000D to 40D. Not a big leap as a leap of time, but good enough for that camera to hang around with me for a few years. I did intend to go for the 60D (or 5D mark I) with an amazingly good price but unfortunately it was a scam.

O2 has eventually released the Belle update for Nokia N8 even though the Nokia website has not yet to update it.

Hello March. :)

:)

I wrote down something today, which I haven't written in years.

:)