On our last holiday, Tom (my husband) said something and woke me up (near noon).
I changed my clothes and looked in the yard. I saw some police officers and him there.
Tom explained to the officers that 30 minutes ago, when he was surfing websites at the dining-room table, a squarely built white-haired man, came through the yard from side to side and tried to open the kitchen door, "chonk! chonk!" . As soon as the guy saw the door was locked, he headed to the next door(it is the garage door in the back porch.)
Of course Tom was scared of the intruder. He couldn't have guessed someone could walk in the yard, excluding us, cats or birds, because the rear gate of the yard had a chain with a dial key.
Tom opened the kitchen door at speed and bellowed out what on earth the guy was doing.
The man asked "is this house yours?" and turned back into the yard.
Tom still had his pajamas on, so he scrambled to return to the room to change into his trousers, then he ran after the man at full gallop and told the man that he would call the police.
The guy yelled back that "you can call the police!".
Tom realized he didn't have his cellphone, so he turned back to the dining-room and popped out through the front door in great haste.
Though the guy disappeared Tom phoned the police.
Tom said there was a name written with a felt pen on the guy's white Boston bag .
When I heared the name, I flashed on what my mother had said. Before, she had told me that she had been annoyed an old man who had got a little senile for several years, so I said we would be able to say who the guy was if we asked my mother.
My mother said the man was like a house stalker. Without even a glance at people and other houses, the man made him get into this house.
On the first time, Mother asked him why he opened the door of her house, and asked him to show his ID. When he showed his senior's bus pass, Mom realized that he had got senile and remembered the name on the pass. After that, the guy soon left straightforwardly and Mom asked the city office who he was and also where he lived; a relief facility(I think it is a kind of rescue home) for people who are very poor, handicapped or sometimes released from jail.
Mother told the institution several times and the police twice, and put a latch on the yard gate, but the guy still sometimes appeared. At one time she found he had taken her stepladder from the garage and put it on the second floor balcony.
However, this time, the police found the chain chopped off with a tool near the gate. They caught the suspect on his way home and found a wire cutter in his Boston bag. They caught him and asked Tom to write a declaration which took all day! The man likely made an open confession but it was incoherent.
We don't know if he hid something or got completely senile, but we hope he won't appear again, above all from the back door!
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Rogue trader
The more you conceal failure, the more things worsen.
I think I learned it in the field, and in that sense Nick was wet behind his ears then.
"Rogue trader(James Dearden 1999)" is a film based on a true story, Nick Lesson's private papers in prison, starring Ewan McGregor.
Nick was employed by Barings Bank in England. His academic qualifications were not so good but he had an ambition to become a trader. He solved a problem in Jakarta and met Lisa as a colleague there. Barings Bank gave him credit for the operation in Jakarta and they decided to send him to Singapore as a trader of advanced business. After getting married Nick and Lisa went to Singapore and started their happy life in their excellent, modern-designed apartment. The bank gave him permission to employ cheap and local labor. He trained his new, unskilled staff and he managed both the dealing and accounting division.
At first, one of his staff made a bad mistake, he tried to save her, and he hid the loss in a dummy account. The first year, he was barely helped by his luck. He made a large amount of profit, even covered up his big losses, by an illegal trading technique. But the second year, in the beginning of the year, he determinded he would never have to use the dummy account in which he hid the losses, but to prop up the market he bought too much, and as a result, in the bonus month his losses reached a huge figure. The bank was so satisfied with the pevious year's profit that they didn't discover his ruse. He worked for living up to his wife, his family, and his bank's expectations, so he never used or hid their money for himself. Hence finally he made up his mind that he would have got nowhere. He submitted his resignation via fax and bailed out with his wife from Singapore.
Because the bank didn't put a stop on the accounts soon enough, the balance of the debt trebled and it became bankrupt. On the flight his wife said she still loved him, but after he was captured, she divoced him and got married to another trader. He was not a bad man but I think gambling will never bring you true fortune.
I think I learned it in the field, and in that sense Nick was wet behind his ears then.
"Rogue trader(James Dearden 1999)" is a film based on a true story, Nick Lesson's private papers in prison, starring Ewan McGregor.
Nick was employed by Barings Bank in England. His academic qualifications were not so good but he had an ambition to become a trader. He solved a problem in Jakarta and met Lisa as a colleague there. Barings Bank gave him credit for the operation in Jakarta and they decided to send him to Singapore as a trader of advanced business. After getting married Nick and Lisa went to Singapore and started their happy life in their excellent, modern-designed apartment. The bank gave him permission to employ cheap and local labor. He trained his new, unskilled staff and he managed both the dealing and accounting division.
At first, one of his staff made a bad mistake, he tried to save her, and he hid the loss in a dummy account. The first year, he was barely helped by his luck. He made a large amount of profit, even covered up his big losses, by an illegal trading technique. But the second year, in the beginning of the year, he determinded he would never have to use the dummy account in which he hid the losses, but to prop up the market he bought too much, and as a result, in the bonus month his losses reached a huge figure. The bank was so satisfied with the pevious year's profit that they didn't discover his ruse. He worked for living up to his wife, his family, and his bank's expectations, so he never used or hid their money for himself. Hence finally he made up his mind that he would have got nowhere. He submitted his resignation via fax and bailed out with his wife from Singapore.
Because the bank didn't put a stop on the accounts soon enough, the balance of the debt trebled and it became bankrupt. On the flight his wife said she still loved him, but after he was captured, she divoced him and got married to another trader. He was not a bad man but I think gambling will never bring you true fortune.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Betty Blue
Last week, before the Christmas holidays, I moved to a new place. However "new" is my parents' old house. My parents moved to a retirment condo and they left a great amount of things, from a car to a potato masher. The car is very convenient for us, thanks Mom!, but I don't need two potato mashers even though I love mashed potatos a lot, and also other utensils.
At first, I planned that we would clean up our house during the Christmas holidays but in reality I was laid low with the flu and my husband went out to an orphanage as a volunteer and except for unpacking some shoeboxes during that time I had to unpack and fold up like crazy for the last three days at the end of last year.
My husband had an event for his hobby group on New Year's Eve and he had gone out to prepare for the event while I was unpacking. He is an easygoing person and he said "we can clear away bit by bit," though I felt we wouldn't clean up our house in a year if we did it at his slow pace.
Today, after having lunch, I said we should be very busy because this situation was very incovenient and we should throw away a lot of things and install the equipment.
When I did something in the other room and returned to the living room, my husband lay in front of the TV and laughed at a stand-up comic show. Of course I got mad and my husband said that this was a recess after a meal. Just as I broomed off a box of his hobbies from a bedroom to a hallway, I thought of "37°2 le matin".
"37°2 le matin (aka Betty Blue)" is my most favorite French movie, and it was very popular in Japan when it came out. After all is said Betty is so cute and attractive. The main character, Beatrice Dalle, has a great acting talent.
I prefer the "uncut" version definitely because the "cut" version lost some important scenes and Zorg's feelings. (Zorg is the narrater of the story and Betty's lover.)
In Japan, this film is liked by women more than men. Women understand Betty's feelings and men, maybe, cannot make head or tail of her intensity.
Today I wanted to throw everything out of the window. If Betty were me, she would have done the same and set the house on fire ! Gah!
At first, I planned that we would clean up our house during the Christmas holidays but in reality I was laid low with the flu and my husband went out to an orphanage as a volunteer and except for unpacking some shoeboxes during that time I had to unpack and fold up like crazy for the last three days at the end of last year.
My husband had an event for his hobby group on New Year's Eve and he had gone out to prepare for the event while I was unpacking. He is an easygoing person and he said "we can clear away bit by bit," though I felt we wouldn't clean up our house in a year if we did it at his slow pace.
Today, after having lunch, I said we should be very busy because this situation was very incovenient and we should throw away a lot of things and install the equipment.
When I did something in the other room and returned to the living room, my husband lay in front of the TV and laughed at a stand-up comic show. Of course I got mad and my husband said that this was a recess after a meal. Just as I broomed off a box of his hobbies from a bedroom to a hallway, I thought of "37°2 le matin".
"37°2 le matin (aka Betty Blue)" is my most favorite French movie, and it was very popular in Japan when it came out. After all is said Betty is so cute and attractive. The main character, Beatrice Dalle, has a great acting talent.
I prefer the "uncut" version definitely because the "cut" version lost some important scenes and Zorg's feelings. (Zorg is the narrater of the story and Betty's lover.)
In Japan, this film is liked by women more than men. Women understand Betty's feelings and men, maybe, cannot make head or tail of her intensity.
Today I wanted to throw everything out of the window. If Betty were me, she would have done the same and set the house on fire ! Gah!
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