Financial Advice Exam 3

In my spare time, I have been studying for my IFS financial advice exams. Instead of studying for them, I have been watching lots of free French DVDs from the online rental website, Lovefilm. They've give me 3 months free membership as I cancelled my last free trial before I had to start paying. So, those lovely film lovers have let me watch dozens of DVDs for free, including all 7 discs of 24, series 7.

I have to pass all 6 of them of being authorised by the FSA. So, having passed 2 already, I have 18 months to do the other 4.

At the moment I am studying for the 3rd Certificate for Financial Advisers (CeFA) exam, CeFA-3, which has units in Retirement & Protection, both of which have to be passed separately, with a 70% pass mark.

The exam is on 8/1/08.

The Apprentice: Paul's Poor Performance

In this week's The Apprentice, Paul Callaghan was justly fired for trying to flog cheap cheese to the French, buying sausages that he couldn't cook and wandering off to sell the raw sausages with his flirt-friend, Katie Hopkins. With those 2 being the only French speakers, he left the rest of his team on their stall without a French speaker. He also didn't give Adam a budget for the sign so it cost 2x as much as he wanted.

Outrageous Osaka

I've just been to Osaka Castle - the only one with a lift in the middle. Alas, only the outer shell remains, as the inner decor has been modernised to accommodate a museum. It features the story of the castle and also that of its creator Toyotomi Hideyoshi who ordered work be started on it in 1583.

There are some fine models and a detailed 2-part folding screen showing the battle for the Castle between one of Hideyoshi's sons and the forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu. The latter was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan which ruled from 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868.

The "steroscopic" pictures just gave me a headache.

In the evening, I went to the West of Osaka, to the Bayside to go up the WTC Tower, which has 52 floors and is a quarter of a kilometre high. There were spectacular views of the city, the sea and traffic crossing bridges as well as the nearby, illuminated, Ferris wheel.

I was due to meet H at my Kyoto hotel at 8pm but due to train problems which meant no trains circulated on the Osaka loop for over half an hour, forcing me to take a detour using 2 metro lines, I did not arrive until 9:30pm. OK, so I was running half an hour late due to my tower ascent but 1 hour of my tardiness was not down to me. I did try to ring H but left a message, which she did not get. However, I did manage to speak to her a 9pm.

We went to a karaoke bar, where a Singaporean friend of hers works. She sang Chinese, Japanese and Carpenters' songs beautifully whilst I stunned the audience with my butchering of Robbie Williams' "Feel" and the Chilli's "Californication".

As I had told H I spoke French, she asked me to sing French songs. The only ones I could find were Vanessa Paradis' "Joe le Taxi" and a couple from the Yves Montand oeuvre. I swear my singing French was more melodious than my English.