Saturday, July 24, 2010

Listen to your heart....

We've just finished talking.... it's going to come to an end... you know it.. and I do..
But let's just pretend.. for a little while longer....

I glanced at the window.. the sun is setting and the reflection on the building opposite makes everything look so lonely... the night has come.. and you've leaving...

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I know there's something in the wake of your smile
I get a notion from the look in your eyes
You've built to love but that love falls apart
A little piece of heaven turns to dust

Listen to your heart, when he's calling for you
Listen to your heart, there's nothing else you can do
I don't know where you're going, and I don't know why
Listen to your heart, before you tell him good bye...

DHT - Listen to Your Heart (Rob Mayth remix)

A8 vs 99

Although gambling is banned in Ukraine, apparently there is a poker club at Hotel Kreschatik. I've been told that it's run by the Russian/Ukrainian mafia! Nevertheless.. it's a "relatively" safe place to play poker.

With approximately 30 tables, they play in euros. Most games are 0,5/1 euro and there are probably higher stakes. Minimum buy in is 50 euros. It's fairly simple to get to, just get into a cab and tell them you want to get to that hotel - you can't miss it, it's on the main road of Kiev city.

However, it's never good to play against a table of foreign speakers when you don't understand their language. They were fairly curious to where I am from and how I played (amazingly tight). There are local pros that are very loose and aggressive - they buy in at about 300 euros, with a min raise of 10 - 15 euros pre-flop. Interestingly, they're all willing to take a gamble with some really strange hands.

The mafia also plays there. The people I played against were pretty talkative in Ukrainian - making jokes about their hands (from what I guessed). The pros today could speak english and chatted briefly with me.

With my 50 euro stack, I lasted 2.5 hours, which I thought was pretty good.

A8 vs 99.

I raised pre-flop 5 with my A8, had 4 callers, flop was A89. I raised 12, was reraised to 25.. and I went all in - needless to say, the guy instant called.... A 8 9 7 10

:(

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Another night

Just another night alone in the hotel room. The girls in Kiev are simply gorgeous. However, like any other place, they come with a price - here, love can be bought for USD250 - although I've been told by the business partner than you can negotitate it down to USD100. I haven't bothered to try.

Plenty of business opportunities here though - I think if you know the right kind of people, you could easily make a lot of money, and I mean a lot. It's cheaper than the USA, but more expensive than Asia - puts it into a nice little position.

Alcohol can be a bit pricy here - a bottle of Jack runs up to the low USD100. Food is pretty good, it's got a really rich flavor because of the ingredients - heavy cream and pork lard! Can't go wrong with that!

Tomorrow is a rest day because I'm waiting for some costings to come in from home base while the partners here prepare some information for me. I'll probably take a walk around town, it's very scenic and relaxing though. The sun sets at 9pm because it's summer and apparently it's pretty safe until midnight or so (better than expected). I'm out of money on PokerStars as I've happily donked it away on tournaments - hoping to get a reload tomorrow though....

Am charging the laptop before I head down to the bar - while it's full of lonely men looking for love, and women who are selling love, it beats sitting in the hotel room alone. At least I'll be able to sip a nice latte while watching yet another DVD. Didn't feel like hitting the clubs as I did that yesterday and will probably do it tomorrow - club music here is pretty enjoyable, less on the remixed pop and more on the dance/house/trance. Either that or they're playing remixed Ukrainian pop songs... which I can't differentiate from dance music. :)

P/s - it took 41 hours from home to the hotel room!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Nobody said it was easy

No one ever said.. it would be this hard..

Oh take me back to the start...

Evil Activities - Nobody Said It Would Be Easy

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Sitting here, sipping my coffee while waiting for the time to pass before I get on the plane again. Plenty of thoughts have passed through my mind - my fears of what happens after the MBA seem to feature prominently.

Truth be told, China is the wild wild east. A 100 years ago, the gold rush was in California, Alaska etc. Now, the gold rush is in Beijing and Shanghai. Once again, those with a dream of a better life pack their bags and head out to where the gold is.

But is it that easy? Probably not.

So, I'm just wondering what happens after the MBA. But for the time being, I'm going to try to sit back, relax and just enjoy the trip.

This time, I'm heading to the Ukraine... it should be a fairly interesting trip, however, the biggest hurdle I've got is language and a 12 hour transit at Heathrow. Yotel.com is fully booked up and I'm landing at 10pm. If I were landing at 10am, I would be pretty happy - a trip up to the city would be good, but I don't think there's much to do at 1am on a Tuesday night.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

A New Chapter

It's come down to this, 5 more weeks before I head off to Tsinghua SEM for my MBA program.

3 years of applications to Top 10 business schools that results in countless waitlists - I was good, but missing the magic factor. No tears, I learnt a lot and met some wonderful people. Although, I would have done things differently if I were to relive the past 3 years again, it has been a good time.

What would I have done differently? I would have taken on a job that I love and excelled at it. Instead of putting my nose to the grind for a job I had little passion for - investment banking.

With regret and sadness, I resigned last Wednesday (14 july). I've had the pleasure of working with such energetic people in a role that allowed me to contribute where ever I could. Never did I imagine (as recently as a year ago) that working for a local manufacturing company would give me such satisfaction.

I don't know whether I'll be back, there are talks, but nobody can see 2 years in the future. Some say I'm silly to give up a job that sends me all over the world - maybe I am, but I know if I come back, I will have that option all over again. It's not so much the traveling that I will miss, but it's the people, the team work that I savor and will miss. I hope, that if I come back, things will be even better.

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The house has been sold, another regret. I've lived there my whole life - I remember everything so clearly. The rooms, the laughter, Saturday cooking for lunch, the baking days... it's all so fresh in my mind. My old bed, the computer, the pets... but now, everybody has gone away and so will I. For the past several years, I stayed with the ghosts of the past in the house, maybe in some way, it's easier to sell the house and move onward to the future.

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