now, seeing as it’s my last real academic exam of my life (i hope, until i decide to do a masters for some god-only-knows reason), i have been doing very much of nothing today.

of course i’ve read through my notes, once. and i’ve skimmed through the past year’s paper, once. and there’s a mcquestionnaire open on word which i really ought to get started on. but, y’know, tax isn’t my strong point and this exam is a whole lotta tax. and a whole lotta employment law as well. i mean, TUPE? what the hell is that? and more precisely, why is it making my life hell?

the only really interesting thing on the whole 3 month slapdashcrash-course in private acquisitions is actually coming to understand what private equity funds are about, and how the acquisitions are structured. and of course, it also gives me muchos kudos when i can explain to all my non-lawyer friends why exactly that man from KKR or whatever pays less tax than his cleaner. it’s to do with income profit vs capital gains tax, plus a bit of business asset taper relief on the side and an annual exemption. and it’s actually all about percentages, so while this Private (In)equity Gazillionaire pays less tax in percentage terms than his cleaner, in absolute terms, he probably pays a lot more. see, easypeasylemonsqueezy!

(in my opinion, what the government needs to do is to make the whole tax system more finely variegated, so that there are more tax brackets with smaller ranges and maybe a 2% - 5% difference in tax rate between them - but that’s just me, and i’m not the chancellor or a tax lawyer even, so whatever)

anyway, to the real crux of the matter: because tomorrow i shall finish my last exam in a long while, holiday plans are afoot today. and to motivate me further, i received my travel scholarship from the kind folks at my future employer this morning. yes, they’re giving me money to go on holuday, how cool is that? (i also think the cheques that come with spaces for 7 or 8 figures are amazing, but moving on swiftly…)

while i’ve already got july and august mapped out (london-hampshire for wedding-berlin for august-london-singapore), i don’t have any concrete plans for the duration of my south east asian holiday, which is troubling because i can’t stay/live in singapore/parent’s home for more than 2 or 3 weeks at a stretch without feeling like scratching my eyes out.

so, these are the places that i’m going to pencil into my calendar and hopefully some, if not all, will materialise:

• perth, to see my cousin
• krabi
• bangkok
• hong kong + shenzen/guangzhou
• shanghai
• laos
• vietnam
• pulau ubin/other offshore island

it’s not that many places to cover in the space of 3 months, so it’s definitely possible. now it’s just a matter of convincing friends and family to skip school / take leave / sacrifice weekends to come along with me. it’s probably going to take a charm offensive, but i’s gotta do what i’s gotta do, y’know?

right, now that i’ve gotten that out of my system, it’s time to get back to grafting. i’ve not got much hope for the exam tomorrow, but as i repeatedly tell myself, i just have to pass it and everything’s gravy.