More than just an accountant

I hope I don't get him into trouble as he could have been 'summarily' terminated if he was caught. I just couldn't resist but snap a picture and blog about it. He must be very tired that he dozed off in broad daylight sitting comfortably in front of a bank facing the main road.  Of course, it was a public holiday as there wasn't anyone then when I snapped this picture.  He was oblivious when I walked past him, needless to say. From the moment I stepped into the bank's ATM section to the time I walked out, he was still in slumberland, at least a good 3 minutes as I was only depositing a cheque.

Oops! Sorry, I 'crushed on' you. Is this sight a familiar one? I don't mean the traffic jam. Look at those flat orange rubber on the road. And who can be proud to be called Malaysians who live in a land where drivers who are supposed to be holding legal driving licence have not learnt to be law-abiding citizens? Why are drivers so impatient to wait in line that they have to cut queues and ram into these lane dividers? And, by the way, should the authority consider fixing steel lane dividers instead of rubber type to deter such 'cowboys' from their 'crushing' hobbies? It's still money spent, it's just a matter of spending before or after such mishaps.

No, they are not products of biotechnology which make some kind of rare fruits grow on street light poles. These are scenes typical to housing estates.  The lower the income-earning capacity of the population of the area, the more of such 'fruits' you can find present. What could be the reason these bags of trash not in dustbins but on street light poles? The residents skim on dustbins? Or to prevent stray cats or dogs scavenging through the trash or these bags are more convenient for the garbage collectors to do their jobs.  Believe me, these collectors seem to be so busy that they will not even close the covers of the dustbins after emptying them.  I believe this phenomenon is more of for convenience. What kind of impression are we leaving to tourists or foreigners who visit our country?

"No matter where you are in life right now, no matter who you are, no matter how old you are - it is never too late to be who you are meant to be." - Esther & Jerry Hicks. I am already, what my other half describes as 'half-way through our lives'.  Starting out a venture on my own since about three years ago, I never thought that age is a barrier.  I only know that I need to move on and I know that I will not be any better had I stayed where I was. Where we are in life - there is never a right time in life to do something different.  When one has just graduated from college, it's a norm for parents to expect their kids to join the working world to gain some experience as well as to recoup the investment costs in their kids' education. After a few years, one would have accumulated too many commitments to be even bold enough to take a risk doing something on his own in view of the fixed and steady salary.  Then, come the additional precious member...

As soon as we stepped into the restaurant, it was as though we traveled back to stone age.  We were impressed. However, as we spent the second half minute in the restaurant, we felt invisible.  Even when we were finally visible to the waitresses, we felt the least welcomed.  We were not shown to our table although the waitress was standing less than 5 feet from us.  We had to find our way to a suitable table. And, thankfully, we were finally served when we found our own table, that was when we asked the waitress to join another table for us as the two small tables are too uncomfortable for 5 of us. Ironically, for a restaurant of this size which has at least 20 tables, I could only see not more than 3 waitresses, excluding the cashier.  No complaints from us since our food came quite promptly.  The button for 'Service', 'Bill' are only for 'display'.  They didn't work, at least ours didn't work, not sure about the other but...

In my previous corporate job as an accountant, I've received remarks that 'You do not look like an accountant', 'You don't look like a bean counter' or even 'You don't speak like an accountant' etc. . Whether they meant good or not, I take them as compliments as I think I am more than an accountant. There is a group of accountants out there who are very conservative, they have no business sense, they don't understand the meaning of PR or marketing. Neither do they take any risk at all, most of the time, they only want to 'win', no compromise. When you talk business with them, they would blurt out rationale only from the financial point of view. Sigh... waste time talking to them. They live in cocoons made of figures, financials and accounting standards.  Interpreting numbers is their forte. When it comes to talking business, they.. err.. blunder. Oh gosh! I've offended accountants or rather bean counters. Having said that, I...

Should you stop paying your subscription to a professional accountancy body when you have not been practising as an accountant? It has been almost three years since I quit from my corporate job and focusing on my own venture .  As an accountant, I am required to be a member of Malaysia Institute of Accountants as well as CIMA. I have been diligently paying for their annual subscription fees although I am not practising as an accountant. Does paying for the fees still keep you as a member or substance counts?  The advice (not from anyone from the institutes) to me is to continue paying as an 'investment' in case I may require to be affiliated to the professional bodies in the future.