Back in black

01-Oct-2023

Last two weeks were busy but had some fun events two. We were able to organize team events, or I should call it dinners with the team and remaining direct people reports. As per the ground feedback, people enjoyed large gatherings and had a good time. For vegetarian people, the food was kind of manageable. Q3 ended on a party note, and I am sure Q4 will not be less. 

Finally, I am "back in black" in terms of trading in Sep 23, ending with a 16k in profits. I am still down in five digits for this financial year, so nothing much to cheer about. I definitely have slowed down taking trades, and guess September should be the lowest in count on F&O trades. 

I don't expect to change the strategy, will focus on equity in the short term and less F&O. As one can see from below chart, equity indeed doing better than F&O. The one-time gain in Jun-2023 is exceptional and Aug-2023 looks lower as did some tax harvesting of about 119k. I hope to better the final %gain/loss by the end of financial year but don't think can break last year number (42%). 

Most of my money is going into banks and IT. I am heavily invested in banks in terms of direct equity and my MF portfolio now shifting gears to IT. 

Back to the personal front, Anvay had to cancel his Delhi visit as exam postponed to next week due to #Bengaluru bandh, surely instigated by political masters. I feel bad for him, and there is nothing we can do. First semester is always difficult when you away from home and it's usually a big change if you have been away from family in the past and can't travel frequently. Hostel life can be very limiting in the first year, and then you get used to it. We offered him to travel back to Delhi on another date, may be on his big eighteen birthday. Wow! He will turn #18 in October, and officially will be an "adult". 

Pallavi and Myra going through their usual lives here in #Bangkok. Pallavi's job is bit unsettling these days and seeing some changes. Hopefully, she can find something back soon. It may be difficult as she is out of India. One option is to try something here but not that straight forward. 

Below is the picture from last week's bowling.

This has been a lazy weekend. I am planning to spend rest of the Sunday catching up with some office stuff as next week looks very busy as always. 

Have a good rest of the weekend!

vA

Time really flies..

15-Sep-2023

Good evening...

It's a late evening Friday here in Bangkok, and we are sitting at the client office for another deployment.

Last two weeks were quite busy with the office work and it is not looking any better for next few weeks. Workplace is going through lot of changes mainly:

• Due to new subsidiary, lot of unplanned work is flowing in. 
• New to catchup on the new role, and that's not clean slate with so many stakeholders.

Myra and Pallavi will be completing one month in Bangkok soon. Time really flies sometimes. Initial days can be boring as less Friends and life-style changes. Myra indeed feeling the same as she hasn't made any play friends yet. Guess, it will take some time. They also have got their dependent visas on 08th Sept, and now they can travel outside Thailand easily, if there is a need to do so. 

Anvay got little sick last weekend, so we got very worried. He has a habit of making things worse and this is the first time he was dealing with sickness and sounded worried. Fortunately, it wasn't that bad, and he recovered with little to no medication. I am sure he is adding lot of experiences on a daily basis living probably one of the best parts of his life. Being in college, away from parents and a hostel life. He is definitely home sick so will be making a short trip end of September. 

Now back to deployment, and it is still going on. As per the plan it should end early morning (16th Sep) assuming no challenges. Looking for some sightseeing within Bangkok and some sleep. 

Have a good weekend.

vA

Myra's New School, Catching up with old mates in Singapore

03-Sep-2023

It was a settling week for Myra in the new #School "Garden International Bangkok", and she did it well. It may be because school environment was less stressing due to the unusual methods of teaching where you don't get any homework. Let's see how it goes, as I am now starting to get worried about the teaching methods, where you literally don't get to know what the weak subjects are that the kid needs to focus on. 

I was back from #Singapore on 30th Aug, and it was nice to go back to the CPM course and now in future you have to teach that or facilitate that. I call these as co-curricular activities like we use to do in school. 

27-Aug

• 2:45pm - Landed at Singapore, reached hotel by 3:45pm SGT
• 5pm - Drinks with Gangadhar, back to hotel at 10:30pm SGT

28-Aug

• 9am - 6pm Day 1 CPM class
• 7pm - 10:30pm Dinner, Aditya came down to see k Phuree, k Pare

29-Aug

• 08:30am - 08:55am - Coffee with Arun Prasad (my Ex-RBS colleague)
• 09:00am - 6:30pm - Day 2 CPM class
• 07:15pm - 10pm - Planned to meet Vaibhav, who ditched... Me and Gangadhar ended up with Pizza
• 10:45 - 00:00pm - Munish Chaturvedi drove to hotel and we had a nice chat outside on the bench

30-Aug

• 08:30am - Checked out of the hotel
• 09:00am - 2:00pm Facilitation class
• 5:30pm - Take off to Bangkok, reached home around 9:40pm

Once back to Bangkok, spent next two days catching up with pending emails and also at new job orders. I eagerly waited for weekend to get some sleep. 

Have a good weekend!!

vA