Keep it simple

2 more to go

2005-03-04T22:42:00.000-08:00

Boy, 1 and half more weeks, I will be sitting my 2nd last bl**dy CA examination. Then, it might be time again to rethink whether being an auditor is REALLY what suits me at the moment.
Anyway, i have basically slack of in this current CA module: shutting up during focus session, study materials still looks like it is just out of printing company.................................... Oh boy, i think i am back to square 1 again, like the rest of CA module i have done.

On another note, have been able to bump into former friends from Uni, taylor's & secondary school, which is kinda great! Felt good to bump into a close uni friend from he visited Sydney and was able to catch up on alot of stuffs.

2005

2005-01-30T02:57:00.000-08:00

1.0 I have NOT been here for AGES.............
2.0 Since October, many interesting events have occured, including getting the promotion that i wanted, alas!
3.0 Doing my 2nd last CA units, hopefully i won't fail this one (finger cross).
4.0 I've been so slack in my CA extension project. I'm sure my group member is getting abit anxious of our report at the moment, so, am spending my sunday night in the office trying to review our performance in the project.
5.0 I did not have any resolution for the new year. I think i have constructed some plan in my brain (yet again) during this weekend. Hopefully, it will be good.
6.0 Other people's blog seem to be dying off as well..................... Well, hopefully everyone will come back to their net-life.

New layout, new resolution.

2004-10-14T20:40:00.000-07:00

1.0 As you could notice, this blog has changed considerably. I think it is time to move on, like a few of my peer which has undergone transformation.

Anyway, sitting in office, where once again, i am not booked on an engagement. I think there is a BIG problem to scheduling. So much for saying that a BIG corporation means IMPRESSIVE processes.

However, it is the contrary. I think being big is the root of all evil in big corporation. When people is BIG, they think they are the demi-god of anything under the sun.

That itself encourage them to hide behind their inefficiencies, much like old Ford manufacturing process where their inefficiencies is hidden under the piles & piles of inventories.

Heard that IBM scheduling system is impressive, ie they are “digital” (of course! They are IBM!!!!!). I wonder how could I encourage our firm to adopt their digitalized scheduling system.

But it’s hard. You get levels of hierarchy in firm. Though I understand that the culture is straight talking culture, ie I could go to see one of the top boss and speak to him straight, I still have to do the ground work before I approach him: I can’t be an idiot in front of him. That will kill me career prospect off!!!!

2.0 Felt like going to for the Fantasia concert. (www.infinity8lue.com). They play the pieces heard in PS final fantasy games series. Furthermore, it is JAPANESE!!! Being a avid lover of Japanese culture, you bet I just want to go.

The ticket is cheap ($59). But, I am thinking about it. 2 persons will be $108 and I can at least eat 9 Japanese meal in Akaneya Restaurant (which is just besides my company).
Decision, decision……………….. if only I don’t care about my money, I would have made a decision right away……………..

CA Tax exam

2004-10-02T20:44:00.000-07:00

It appears that I am only tempted to write a blog when there is exam. I think I am trying to avoid the pain of studying. Exam is in 10 days time, which not enough to go through all the materials.

Seeing the fact i am still blogging now, you could see how lazy i am.

I have finally bought a new laptop, after years of yearning for one. I was lucky in that the laptop could be package through my salary. In the end, i ended up saving around $800 in cash, which is great. I could not spend much time on that laptop yet given the fact that I need to study.

However, it seem hard to actually get myself to study, again.

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I was discussing with a housemate of mine about life back in ANU then. The stories in each College (especially the rather "famous" "story-sharing" B&G culture), the late nights, the boisterous John 23rd population (even the international students !!!!!)... That prompted me to take a visit to the ever good old ANU website.

The website has changed tremendously since the first glimpse i caught back in 2000. It is certainly more professional, more "gold" feeling, and not missing out of the picture is of course: the message that: ANU is rated top in xxxx study etc etc etc. Somewhere, I felt a sense of belonging when i read that. The question that lingers in my brain is that how come ANU students that i met (at least for M'sian) will not be considered "on-par" with other Uni in Malaysia? I heard theory saying that ANU is new as compared to the State Uni. But hey, UNSW is new as well, isn't it? There are other theory that ANU is situated in a place called "Canberra", which is not known well in Malaysia (where most will argue with you that they "know" the capital of Aus is SYDNEY!).

I find it hard sometime when older generation ask the question: Which Uni did you go? Personally, i don't care if they don't know how great ANU. I don't even care that the fact that they think since this fella has gone to a Uni called ANU and not Uni of Melbourne, Sydney, Qld etc etc etc, he must be "not so bright". The part i care is when i have to take the extra effort of explaining to them where it is, what it is etc etc etc. Judging from my lazy behaviour, you could see how reluctant i am to do that.

Anyway, back to the same line. I went to the ANU website and has decided to pay the ecocomm website a visit. Then while browsing through, i stumbled across the faculty annual report. I thought hmmm.... it will be great to see whose name that i know is there, though i have left there for more than 2 years!

It felt good when you could still recognise the names inside that. Not that I want to feel that i am "not that old". But, it is certainly GREAT to see your friends winning all the prizes/awards etc etc. Well, not all, but at least some of them. Truly, i am proud of those people achievements and their brain capacity. At least i know some of these people are progressing well into their future.

Laptop

2004-09-11T14:28:00.000-07:00

I think choosing a laptop is the most excruciating experience if you have a budget. First, you have to browse through every page of Saturday's SMH Icon section to see the best deal. Then, you have to be up to date with Dell's prices & their freebies. Speaking of the freebies, it is the freebies that stopped me from buying it this week. Look, they give you a leather laptop bag. I don't need that. I do want 128mb of videa card, i want 80G of harddisk drive, or even 1024 RAM. Too bad i miss the great deal last week where they give free 1024 RAM. Tough luck.
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Weather in Sydney now is simply outrageous. I remember one morning whne i woke up, i thought that it will be chilling outside. So, gladly, i brought my jacket along. It was a nightware later on. I couldn't hold the jacket on my hand as it is too bulky and the train is jammed pack with people. With all these CO2 fuming out of their nostrils, i was sweating of a pig. Reminds me alot of my interview with EY when I took the train from Meadowbank to City: the air con was not working and i am pretty certain that i am the best dressed person in that cabin but with the most sweat!!

Anyway, back to weather. The next day, I was rushing to get myself ready and hurriedly zapped out of my unit withot my jacket. It was perfect on my work to station. However, in the evening, when i came out of EY Building .......... terrible, the wind was blowing like the "day after tomorrow" and I was just wearing a thing layer of shirt with a singlet inside. It did take alot of perseverance to endure the cold.

And i thought London is the place where people disklikes the weather.
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Peak Season

2004-08-24T01:51:00.000-07:00

Audit peak season in Australia is ahem......... busy like siao (if you want to exceed your manager expectation). I think most graduates cruise to it like holiday................... It sometimes feel abit sad of not being able to take responsibility for the account and that responsibility is being assumed by senior from anyone above senior. Ie, Partner, principal, senior manager & manager will goreng the senior if something goes wrong................................... oh boy, what will my life be when i become a senior................... don't want to think about it at the moment.

Reflection

2004-07-19T09:16:00.000-07:00

It has been 5 months since i have come down to Sydney. 5 months is a short time span for most of us. However, the last 5 months has been nothing but exhilarating. 5 months have taught me to balance life, work. 5 months has open my horizon in terms of understanding human behaviour. Also, 5 months has taught me how to know a person deep inside their surface. I have been reading this book that explain how different people will eat their meal differently. I find it rather fascinating to see Holmes theory in play for modern society. 5 months has also taught me to understand more the bright & dark side of human beings.............................. It could be extremely disappointing most of the time.

& in the last 5 months, I have held a rather crazy hectic life. I think i have neglected i whole lots of areas of my life that I have used to have. In return, I have gained some degree of satisfaction that I have never tasted before. I suppose that is good.

Anyway, down in Wollongong now again. Hopefully this week shall be the last week I am based here. 3 weeks should be just nice for a big audit of Bluescope Steel.

Wollongong

2004-07-09T19:41:00.000-07:00

It was quite an interesting week down in Wollongong. It was freezing cold down there. However, outstation engagement tend to be the most interesting engagement for me, work wise. We get certain amount of allocated budget to spend for breakfast & dinner, and hotel room as well. I certainly did had a great time down there, all within the budget.

Today, i am finally back in EY office. I think this is fast becoming my 2nd place to live after home. It does feel extremely nice to be here. And in October, we are moving to a new building in George Street, just beside the World Tower. I am eager to see the interior design of it. I heard it is really cool. However, i will reserved my opinion until i see it.

Apparently, the big Ernst & Young centre sign is so significant to our client that one of the client actually turn up at that place at a scheduled time before realizing that construction is still on!

Stocktake

2004-07-03T04:23:00.000-07:00

I was booked to do all these stock take. I think in my schedule, it was 5 in a week!!! That was way crazy when i realised that. I was pretty lucky in the end to have only to do 3 for this week. & that was immediately after my exam. I need a break, but without a car in Sydney, i have to rely on that super slow train (compared to driving) to client warehouse. The worst was friday when i have take a 2 hrs train to Wollongong to do a stock take.........

Personally, i don't really mind. However, it is just plain tiring sometimes. But again, it is very interesting to see how people keep track of their inventory system, their control, their processes, their policies & their workers morale as well!

Sometime, i do feel fortunate to work in Audit. We are treated "well" by the client. Truly. 'cause the workers wouldn't risk their job to offend us. After 4 months working as auditor, i felt that the people i work with are treating we auditor well. Maybe inherently, they are trying to save their butt, but there is no harm to them by treating us well. We could always slap Corporation Law into their face that they are suppose to give us cooperation in conducting our audit. If not, we have a duty to inform the top management or they risk having a qualified audit report (which i don't think the management will be happy about it) or even risk having us complaining to ASIC.

Oh well, audit is fascinating in Australia after all.

Post mortem

2004-07-03T04:15:00.000-07:00

It has been 5 days since i took the horrendous exam. That was monday the 28th of June. Took the train down to this rather ulu place called Canterbury (i think i have spelled wrongly). Well, it is not that "ulu" anyway, but comparatively to Sydney City. & have to walk around 10 min to the exam hall.

I was dragging this luggage full of notes, files, books. The rest of the candidate was having some fun carrying their exam materials too. Anyway, the place was like a pre rugby match with all the "supporters" standing outside the main gate of the Canterbury Race track........... I was far too lazy to even find my colleague from Ernst & Young. I was still trying to figure out how to do the "Outside Equity Interest" section of consolidation.................

It was around 1 year ago when i took my Chartered Accontant Foundation paper. That was held in the Rydges Hotel in Civic. That was fun. It wasn't that challenging at home. In fact, I was feeling quite relax throughout the exam.

However, this year, oh boy, it is a total different story............. I could recall my manager from my previous workplace in Canberra trying to explain to me why he failed his CA technical module of "Financial Reporting & Assurance (FRA)".............. That is around 10 times harder than the foundation paper. I couldn't have agreed more after attending the first focus session of my FRA module.

Anyway, I think i have irritated those candidates that sat around me throughout the 3 hours: I was throwing my files around, flipping my books like a mad cow charging into a field.................. When i finally finished my paper, i have only around 5 minutes to check my answer. After that, it is history. My result will be out at the end of August. Just keeping my finger cross. Half of my brain remain extremely pessimistics, the rather half is telling you will just pass................. I will keep my finger cross.

Consolidation

2004-06-20T00:44:00.000-07:00

It suddenly felt like I am back to second year university. That lost feeling has arisen again whenever I come across the consolidation topics of accounting. The last time i saw this was in Company Accounting course in my 2nd year of uni. & that topic "barely" sink in to my brain during that time as I think i was either day dreaming in class, sleeping or miss the whole good old lecture.

I think they ought to create a course called consolidation accounting in Uni, which incidentally, i heard they do have in other uni, not ANU of course. That way, they will force lazy people like me to study them properly in order to relieve us of the tormenting syllabus accounting students going to face when they come out to work.

To make things worse, I took Accounting theory but NOT financial reporting for corp in uni, thus making consolidation a total alien to me. Being a total "theory" based person, of course, i choose Accounting theory as my first choice.

I have been spending the whole afternoon trying to come up with a systematic way of answering a consolidation question. But, it seem like, "answer = A-B-C-D" in my brain, but when i look at the answer, "A-z-y-x-B-n-m-C-D"...................

Oh well, another 7 days more before i face my "destiny"....................

Red Alert

2004-06-18T22:25:00.000-07:00

I think i am addicted to the "last-minute" adrenalin rush....... I think i am pretty much a firm believer of Japanese Just-in-time philosophy, as i tend to schedule things in a "just-in-time" way (put it in a good way, I think it is called "last-minute" if it is the other way...........

Anyway, my Chartered Accounting exam is finally looming around the corner. I think i might not be able to past through this time round......... It is far too crazy to cover a professional course in, ahem..., one week? Luckily, i think i am not the only one around. There is, of course, a whole bunch of people that i knew (in my firm or other firm) that got too indulge in working & enjoying, and suddenly realise we will get a "FAIL" results if we don't study hard enough. I am fairly pessimistic about getting through this time, considering that i am only in the audit profession for 4 months?? (and trying to tackle this head on............ abit crazy as i could have delay only next year, but that will be abit sian as i will be busy doing nothing for half a year).

Alright, going back to study, first the super-duper confusing consolidation, then related party disclosures (i must admit that sometime past human behaviour certainly makes the future generation people alot harder. Those disclosure-incompatible people that don't want to disclose their things necessitate the Aussie Accounting Standards Board (AASB) to come out with all these rules on disclosures................... Oh well, it is the same with tax, the more people tried to avoid paying their tax (or put it this way, "plan" to minimise their plan), the more tax legislation, rulings, court cases are there). & the poor victims like us (oh well,it is just accountants,hmmmm........ maybe other related professions as well) need to study until our brain goes kaput!

Enough of complaint. I better go back to study.

Long Weekend

2004-06-13T22:01:00.000-07:00

A couple of closed Uni friends came over during the weekend. My unit was simply full yesterday. It was great to be able to "remember" Canberra once again. The rather carefree, nothing-to-do attitude lifestyle, the fresh air, the human-friend animals (ducks), the not-very-nice-to-hear-in-the-morning cockatoo....................... Oh well, my life has changed tremendously right now. Though busy, the fact that I have to catch the forever "the train to city has been delayed by approximately 5 min" city rail in the morning and also the information overload everyday, I think I am feeling alot fulfilled here in Sydney. Then, my CA exam is coming soon. Then, have to go to Wollongong again to do a big audit................................. Well, that's life.

Myer

2004-06-08T22:56:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder why Myer new logo resemble so much of David Jones? The answer? I dunno........... =P

But seriously, sometime i do mix them up altogether. It appear that Myer is trying to say "Grace Bros" is history, Myer is the next "thing" happening around for merchandise shoppers. Perception wise, I think people feel alot better shopping in the new label than their average feeling "Grace Bros" store. The black colour is simply working its magic.

Ching, you get a kiss from Meriam (whatever the spelling is) for being the first commentor of my blog. =P

Hi Xiao Wuan! Welcome to my blog.

Retreat

2004-06-08T22:36:00.000-07:00

On Monday, I went up to Bluemountain (Leura) to be exact for our division retreat. Not everyone was there, but the most important figures were present in the end. It was fun + open. The whole retreat did pump in a bit of team spirit to the whole division, as we could see from the way people behave today. At least we managed to see all the “hidden” faces of our division. That is the tragic part of audit division, where one member could be burrowing in client place the whole year round. & then when we meet, we go: “hey, are you new here?” without knowing that he’s your senior for the next job. ^^

Anyway, came back to good old Sydney on Tuesday evening, feeling totally worn off after whacking some serious tennis games up there.

CA Programme Focus Session 3

2004-06-01T04:01:00.000-07:00

Started really early in the morning to do a stocktake in Wollongong. There after, I have to rush back to City to attend my good old CA focus session. My destructive consequence of my procrastination for 2 weeks has finally come back to haunt me..................

It is sometime amazing to observe how other people think. More than that, I am equally intrigued by the way people put idea in such a simple way, unlike me who used to link every single idea into a single sentence. (just read the previous sentence, you will understand).

Alright, i am wasting everyone's time here. So, time to head back home for further study, i hope.

Accountant

2004-05-30T17:51:00.000-07:00

It has been 1 years plus since I embark on the journey to be the most creative thinking required career, accountant.

Some people may argue with me on the the use of work "creative", especially for Accountant, however, I think, at least in the business activities related area, accounting requires the most subjective decision making at high level.

We were having this mini discussion that day whether to call ourself auditor AABS Consultant or accountant.AICPA (The American version of our ICAA/CPA) has this discussion. Just see http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/aug1999/pethley.htm for a discussion of the impact of the huge changes in what accountant are doing, besides the normal dr cr & filing tax returns work that we do.

Enough for my first proper blog i think.

Welcome to my blog. It should mostly be accounting industry related, i think.....