Birthday

So should I be happy that I am one year older and hopelly more wise... or should I be down caus its one more year of my life that is over.
Looking back I would say this has been probably the most exciting and rewarding year! I have done so much which I would never have imagined, student societies, exchnage program, 2 internships, photography and lost of corporate bullshit. Must admit its been a pretty tiring year.

I think I am goona go try and sleep it off a bit.

Craving

Ah I have such a bad craving for chocolate right now. In any tyoe or form i would kill to have some. Havet had Lindt in ages. I have comed all the cupboards in the house but no trace of any chocolate. I am reduced to having a hot chocolate but then there is no milk!!!!!! arggghhhhhhh frustration.

The word chocolate actually mean 'bitter water'. Aztech, original pioneers of chocolate, related it to the goddess of fertility. For most of its history, chocolate has mainly been consumed in a drink form. There is a new Baileys's falvour and guess what its also chocolate. I have heard that its a limited edition so should really try it before it becomes vintage drink.

Hmm i should reallu stop talking about this as its only deepening my craving. Few updates, little manahil is doing good and she looks soo cuteeee. Work is also going good, CEO is retiring. Had a part on friday, it was fun got to meet some more people. I told some collegues that its my birthday on thursday and the whole nihgt they were dropping hints that they are expecting cakes around the office. Havent had much time to work on thesis is week and I seem to be behind my schedule. Should have done soemthing on the weekend but I am really not in the mood.

Goona go scaveng for something sweet to eat now.

Spam attack

Ok so i had a total spam attack from 2 people today ( you know who you are!) hence spent most of the working day corresponsing by emails . cant compain as i had no work to do anyway so the thinsg that occupied my time were reading news, reading fooled by randomess, facebook, emails, a bit of thesis work, talkig to people, table football and some corporate bullying. HAHA i enjoyed that.

Well from tommroow on its back to some serious work! Right now I have a bit of a headache.... feel a bit bahhhh I had offer of joining a girls movie night but i passed on it as I have alraedy seen both of the movies and I dont have a bike yet, to get back home late. I should realy prepare for the meeting tommorow with the thesis prof, but i really am not in the mood. Will see how it all goes.

23

Watched this movie today called the number 23. A bit of a freaky movie. Its about the obscession with the number 23 which drives the people almost crazy. They see it everywhere, in names, number plates, dates, events everything, until they cannot escape it and resort to suicide. The guy (Jim Carey) get into it throuhg a book that his wife buys for him on his birthday. Its a chain of events which lead from one another. I wont discuss it al incase any of you are goona watch it. Its a good movie should definately see it. Some interesting facts

- The blood takes 23 seconds for one circulation through the body
- Humans have 46 chormosomes and the baby gets 23 from each parent
- The earth revolves around its axis on 23 degreees. When they found out that it is actually 23.5, fanatics claimed that is mearly a number derived from 2+3 hence 23 again
- The Hiroshima bomb was dropped at 8:15 which makes 8+15 = 23
- Charles Darwin's Origin of Species was published in 1859 : 1+8+5+9 = 23. Two divided by three makes 0.666 recurring ... number of the devil
- Nash the noble proze winner and the father of the nash equilibrium theory was obscessed wit hthe number. he publishes 23 papers
- The terrorist attack of september 11 2001 : 9+11+2+0+0+1 = 23
- In the bible the first 23 verses of the first chapter of Genesis talk about act of creation while the 23rd chapter talks about death.
- The most detailed accounts of Julius ceaser's death tell that he was stabbed 23 times
- W is the 23rd letter of the Latin alphabet. It has two points down and three points up.
- Titanic sank on 4/15/1912 which means 4+1+5+1+9+1+2=23
- December 23, 2012 is the day the classic Mayans said the world would end.
- In Islam, the Quran was revealed in a total of 23 years to Muhammad.
- In the religion of Discordianism, 23 is considered a holy number
-

And most of my friends and I were born in the year 1985 which is 1+9+8+5 = 23!!!! creepy
So is this just selective thinking or really a natural mystery?There are other rations adn numebrs in the world which hold a mustical and facinating powers. for example the golden ratio ( which deserves a blog post of its own) Laterzz

Australian art

New sculptures from down under, by the lange voorhout.

Too innocent

So while I am waiting for my ipod to regain some life i thoguht I would post a entry. Been 2-3 days since i wrote and in the mean while i have had my first ever hedge fund meeting. I just listened and made notes. Good to know there are some nice people in the industry not all assholes and arogant bastards. One of the guys was a former Morgan Stanley person and when I introduced myself he went ohh I have worked with another Irum before. had a bit of a chit chat on if the name is common or not etc. I made extensive notes as I had no idea what i woudl be writing in the proposal later on. In the mean while I made the follwing observations while trying to graspe all the was happening during the meeting

- 2/3 people were wearign funny ties, one with dogs and anotehr one with a wierd distrating flowery pattern
- 3/3 guys were married as they were all wearing rings
- 1/3 guys had very funny cuflinks. ducks. yellow with red beaks

Also been working on my table soccoer skills, i still suck though, perfroamnce has gone down from 4 goals in the first game to 3 goals in the second. we still won though. I am just crap at defense.
After badgering my mentor for a week he finally gave me a tour of the place so i met everyone. N0 more awkward smiles inthe elevator now caus i know pretty much who is who. There was a haring party today after work at the office. I didnt ofcourse try it but went along just for a drink.It was pretty nice. Also had an intern lunch/lecture during the week it was pretty interestign. this professor dude from TU delft came to give an informal lecture on antartica. It was more related to geology but it was interesting caus he went through all the pictures of his 'holiday' trip to Antarctica and gave some pretty cool information abotu the region and the journey itself. If you are ever stranded in antarctica look for a red cabin. apparently they have set them up everywhere as first aid survival cabins so if you get lost you can take shelter there and wire an sos. Good geography lesson. The guy was funny so he didnt bore at all. he kept talking and talking and a one hour lunch turned into 2 hours.

Right now i just got back from a night of Villager/Mafia and a bit of karoke. It was a lott of fun apparently I 'look too innocent to be maffia' All four times i was the villager, I woudl ahve loved to be the mafia and see how good i will be then. well we made the game more interesting by intoducing a doctor and two lovers. its all too much to explain so i wont bother. Biking back home on a borrowed bike was refreshing and now i feel perfectly awake. Well i am goona give sleeping a try.


Hmm i cant play anything off the ipod while its recharging... thats stupid.

Some monkey business

So who is up for some monkey business.... apparently little manahil is. check out her cute monkey poses lazying around 1) monkey resting on a tree branch 2) monkey resting in the travel nest. Pay close attetion to the intricate details on the placement 0f her cheeks and curling of the arm and hand in the second picture. But do not be fooled, this monkey is very active and cheeky when awake, as I witnessed today.

Tu ru Tu tu Turm Tu ru rum Tu ru rum

Did I not tell you that I will find that song! even if i have to go though hell, travel all seven skies, go through the blistering molten lava in the middel of the earth... I will find that song!!! Fianlly I have succeeded! tu ru tu ru tu ru ru Here it issssss. listen away and remeber Koningendag 2007!

Hello

YAY finally back in conatct with my best friend from school after having no correspondence for almost 3 years now. So nice to hear from her again! now waiting for a pic of her. so kesh if you are reading i get your ass in motion and send me a piccc pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. i beg you pleaseeeeeeeeeeee. and I never got those sixth form end of the year ball pics from your either. i dont have any pics of that time aprat from those at the pier.

Have a bit of a headache. One of the most difficut things to do in life is to get out of bed in the moring! just cant hack it. Any pointers anyone? I am soo happy i am not the only slow eater at work. I remeber my last internship, during lunch times i was alwasy the last one still eating and i felt so self conscious caus eveyone was waiting for me to finish. Now I am the averge pace eater. hehehe or maybe everyone is more chilled here. Oh we played table football just before finishing work. it was the youjg against the old. The young lost ofcourse caus i was on the team and I SUCK! Thought i did score 4 goals which is so super uber cool ( using gises newfound terminology) for a first time player!

I am contemplating some travel plans ( again gise's influence) I am thinking maybe after I finish work I got to the states and see me angel niece. And then find a job save up for a bit and go to south africa? not too sure but would be cool to see my friend. this is a very distant future plan caus i am curretly broke beyond limit and have quite some 'debt' on my credit card. gise you interest in SA? can i reseve you? I take no responsibility caus these are all castels in the air, there is no guarantee of them materialising...... have a think. Miss CHRISTINA you interested?I know the answer to this without even asking!

I am realising i am so shit at writing. the whole post most probably makes zero sense! anyhow i am off to watch america's next top model, full of bitching and packed with drama!

Kijkduin

Just got back from Kijkduin, went to check out the new sculptures. Some really nice ones and some which just didnt catch my fancy. The one that I liked the most was " Maternita" it portrayed the concept is a very nice and simple way. reminded me of picasso a bit. Though i dont like Picasso, I quite liked this sculpture. The two heart in the middle set againt the blue sky and the baby in the womb, eptimoising the family concept. The "walking eggs" were pretty funny but i couldnt really grasp the idea behind them. The second sculpture that caugh the eye was that of a starved child. it was made from bonze but the artist used these realistic looking eyes. The child portrayed a very captivatig and chilling expression, and i think it was quite a strong piece. Here are some pictures:

The weather was pretty nice so i sat there listen to the live indeginous indian music and enjoyed my soft ijs. There was a large crowd listening t othe music but towards to end of the day the police came and everyone seemed to scatter away. I think the ppl were playing music without a permission from the authortities. Eveyone seemed to be enjoying the music so i dont see what the problem was.

Happy dreams

Babys only develop laughter after around 3 weeks. Before that all smiles are just movement of muscles which they are not even aware of . Here is little manahil having some sweeet dreams. However, she is very capable of expressing when she is irritated and mad. you can see little bumps forming at the begining of the invisible eyebrows and narrowing of eyes... she looks soo cute when trying to show that she is irritated. Yesterday was her first day outside the walls of the house and i think she spent most of it sleeping in her staller. Will get the updates on that soon. Also waiting for lifesize casts of her hand and feet. How typical the casting kit only had instruction in spanish!

I started the Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffeneger, last night. Lets see how long it will take me to finish this one. Cell took around 4-5 months. I am not the fastest reader.

Shes awake

googley eyes are finally open! hmmm where are her eyebrows???














I have been working on my proposal for the past 5 days so i wa starting to get a bit tired of it. So pestered my mentor to give me some other work to do. Got to read some legal papers and lawsuit documents. Very interesting stuff as as its a pretty high profile case in the hedge fund industry. I was surprised on my legal undersatandng of all that stuff, it read more like an amusing story then anything else. or maybe i was so bored from my thesis that anyting sounded nice. Gonna attend a pitch on wednesday, wohooo , really looking forward to it, hopefully my input will be counted in the decisions. but before that i am goona realxxxxx for the weekend! Anyone up for doing something? Miss Christina i got 6 c1000 zegels for you.

You know when you are reading a book for a longgg time that you get so used to it that it feels like a part of you. Now that my Cell by stephen king is finished i feel a bit lonely ( haha) i was reading something today and the word 'pulse' came up which scared the shit out of me caus my mind directly went back to the story and i could imagine the world going crazy caus of cell phone pulses. To be honets the ending wasnt as satisfying as I expected. the story just eneded without a propper ending. I can extrapolate what would happen but still its nice to read it at the end rather than just thinking it!

Need another book now. Any suggestions? ( not boeing vs airbus please. i laways forget which one is american)

Intern drink

Longggg day and i am poofed! I joined the Shell Intern/Student comminity and today went to the intern drink. It was fun got to meet some other interns and a mish mash of some random intens around the hague. Met this BUZA girl she seemed nice for the first 10 minuets but as the evening progressed I kinda didnt like her anymore... she was just... dont know how to explain. well shell interns community is very male dominated but still had a good time. Met this other Italian intern she was pretty cool.

I am too tired to write about the other events will update soon. Off to bed now Havent seen manahil today and received no new pics of her today either :(

Finally

YAY i just saw little manahil via web cam! finally i can sleep peacefully. shess sooo cutle little and compact! oh the mittens are so she doesnt scratch her face. in the 2 minutes when the mittens were removed so i could see her sweet little hands she already started moving her hands to her face. shoooo cuteeee I think there shouuld be a special word in the dictionary to describe her!

Never enough

Well you should have realised by now that since i am an aunt most of my posts will be realted to my cutel litle niece! I have yet to hear her voice or whatever sounds baby make or see her live. so still making do with pictures. At the moment she is alseep. she seems to have developed the habbit of sleeping in the day and craying at night and the parents ofcourse are not happy about it, But well thats what happens you gotta sacrifice your sleep for the baby.



Why is that she seems so much smaller now then the pics of the day she was born? one explanation could be that those pic were taken zoomed in. I seems to have no moeny yet I have spent a lot on sending presents for the little one. Credit cards are evil! Well what can i do shes sooo sweet. Hopefully my new present will arrove soon and the parents can make mold prints of feet and hands. will post the pics of that as soon as i get them. Here is a 3 day old Manahil.

Hmm i realise i have yet to post a pic of manahil with open eyes but again newborns sleep around 18 hours a day! in two to three hour increments. sicne she is only 3 days old thats normal. Well in this picc she is waking up so maybe next one she will be awake.. hehehehhe check out the pink mittens... gotta get me some of those but how will you put the second mitten on yourself? hmm something to ponder.

Fan mail: http://www.inklingmagazine.com/articles/it-figures1/

Little Manahil

Here are some more pics of 2 days old Manahil. Awww i just wanna fly there and hold her tinny little hands cuteeeeeeeeeeee. These pictures were specially take for me as at this point in time she is looking liek me when i was born.... hmmm she doent look liek me at all. Lets see who she will look like tommorow

Another day

Second day of work. Went quite well I think, didnt manage to get that much done as the there is so much confusing stuff. My mentor had to call their legal advisor all the way in boston to ask about close end hedge funds. why are these entities so mysterious? So i spent most of my day sorting out and trying to understadn data. Attended a department meeting this morning which was interesting, got to know a bit about what goes on in asset management. I quite like the field so I am contemplating a career in it, first i thought it woudl be a bunch of old geezers investing big bucks but since my intenrhsip i have realised there are are quite a lot of young ppl there, which is cool......

More 'fan mail' they are using my cotton picture as part of a poster for a project to upgrade the cotton industry in West Africa, specifically in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Benin. Sweettt! She sent me a in progress pdf version and said when they print it they will post me a copy. Cool

Say Hello to my cuteee little new born niece

ARGH I wanted to make a special entry but the picture upload isnt workin!!!!!!!!!!! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

First day of work

Well so there was no reason for the freak oout session yesterday. Totally forgot that the first day is all about administrative stuff. So I staretd off my day by saying hello some of my collegues I will be working up. My mentor was off today so I will get an official 'tour' of the office and an official hello hi intro to eveyone on the two floors, on Monday.

It was a friday so not many people were in the office just got to meet 3 of the people in my area. My first question was ' is it casual friday?' they looked at me and laughed and explained that you ca wear anything casual/smart. Its a sesonal thing when theres a lot of activity hapening meeting with clients etc then they are all in suits but at this time its all chilled. I met with the CIO and he was dressed pretty casual as well. It seems like a nice place with some nice people. I am sitting opposite an Italian guy who is pretty funny and active thought he is leaving at the end of the month. The Dutch guy on the opposite side is also nice but a bit on the arrogant side he thinks liek he knows everything.

So after seeing my table and talkign to a few ppl I had to sit and wait for the Most Imporant person: The IT Guy who would come and sort out my computer give me login details etc. And as alwasy important people arrive late so i didnt have much to do and was given some books on hedgefunds which i kinds skimmed though unti lthe IT guy arrived got my compuetr working gave me an email address and set up the whole signature thing. there was a bit of discussio nregarding my job title and in the end it was decided that I am an Alternative Investment Intern. got my phone line set up. apparently you have to log in and out of the phone too!! Then I had to sit and do this one and a half hour IT security bullshit training. In the mean while filled out some forms for my access pass to the building and the office. Time went by quickly and it was lunch time so my collegues took my out for lunch as it was a nice sunny day. after lunch i had to sort out my card for which I had to go to the other office and get a picture taken and get it made. My shoes were killing me so i decided to take the tram instead of walking for 15 minutes. As i arrived in the other office there was confusion as the fornt desk hadn't been informed that I was coming! so they looked busy shuffelling through electronic informaton to see why i was there. Finally the woman escorted me in and I got my pass made. She gave me a little tour of the building, definately a nice place and I woudl have preffered to work in the bigger office but alas!

When I got back to my office i was so dead tired from the heat and from my shoes and my ass was hurting from squash yesterday. I just sulked in my chair and was falling asleep. Just talked to the guys for a while and read though a memo for a deal and cheked out the database. Time to leave and ofcourse the pass wasnt actrivated so I couldnt get out of the office! Anyway I made it out and went for a drive with P.

Finally I am home and checking my 'fan mail' Its soo cool this design agency is gonna use one of my pics for an annual report. the guy sent me a rough version of the design, he was surprised that i live in holllad caus on my profil says Islamabad Pakistan. heheh well heres the pics in action.