K's Learning Diary

Have you ever felt that there is never enough hours in a day to do all the things that you would like to do? I feel like that all the time! The thing is, I did a little calculation one recent evening, whilst lying in bed wide awake in a sleepless night; it occurred to me that in fact, I only have about 6 hours a day at my disposal instead of 24 hours. I work from 8 to 6, and I sleep around 11 or 12. The number of hours that I can devote to the things that I wanted to do outside of work is actually quite limited.     Everyday, I would go to sleep, looking forward to another 6 hours of my life the next day. And yet, sometimes it feels like I am the only person experiencing this stifling time constraint. My colleagues (all of which have similar work hours) and some of my friends often ask me what there is to do after work! Where am I going with this, you might think. Well, most of us, from time to time, wonders if our money/ time / resources could be better spent elsewhere. What ar

Let's talk about houses Let's talk about houses. The physical manifestation of our home, often associated with family, shelter, comfort, and sometimes even as an investment. For most of us, it is the biggest asset that we own, and a lot of us are willing to be in debt for decades just to get one; all of this perhaps because of what it symbolises - stability.  Asset with far reaching consequences The fact that there is a type of expensive asset a lot of us own, that is directly associated with homes and stability should probably ring some bells already. Unlike other types of assets that we own, such as company shares, a change in the house prices has very far reaching consequences.   When house prices are booming, confidence rises across the entire economy. People feel richer and are more willing to spend and are able to get more cash if they choose to sell or get a mortgage equity withdrawal . However, if house prices fall or even fall below the value of their mortg

Just a very quick (and rough) search online for some basic travel inforamtion on Beirut. Will come back and refine later.. Some useful facts and tips before travelling : Driving in Beirut is not to be recommended for much of the day, particularly in the city center. Traffic is heavy. It can be difficult to find parking Renting a car only if you're planing to visit neighboring cities. The city is quite compact, walking is one of the best way of getting around. Taxi There are two types of taxis in Beirut; the old (often) battered hail-taxis, and the prebooking taxis. Hail-taxi   The most convenient form of transport in Beirut, they are absolutely everywhere. Fixed meters aren't provided so ask how much your trip will cost before hopping in.  The fare will be charged per destination and not per distance traveled (which is an advantage since traffic is a big problem in the city).  A typical journey from one side of Beirut to the other (roughly 3 km)

Have you ever woke up in the middle of the night, blaming it on the cats next door/ the mad dogs barking outside/ the crickets/ early birds singing..etc or just on your own accord and hating the fact that you can't fall asleep again? Actually, this may be natural (well, the cats/ dogs/ crickets/ birds are obviously natural.. still annoying nonetheless when they wake you up). Our ancestors are believed to have a different sleeping pattern than the 8 a day that we have been taught to do. In the old days, people would sleep, get up and do all sorts, then go back to sleep again. It does make you wonder if the commonly accepted 8 hours continuous sleep is suitable for everyone or if it's even "natural" for human beings. Or may be we should all be taking small naps during the day like the Japanese to boost our efficiency at work - I really like that idea. You can read the whole story by clicking on the above BBC news article snap shot. Zzzzz....

Previously I have always assumed that Amazon only mainly delivers to the US and Europe, after seeing their Delivery Restrictions several years ago. This tells you which products can be delivered to which countries and there can be a lot of restrictions, especially for the middle-east countries.  At the time I did think to myself  "what a real shame" - the convenience that we enjoy, getting all the latest products that's in our wish list at a very competitive price, with our Super Saver Free Delivery option, all just at a click of the mouse. And yet, this mega time saving service wasn't really available to all countries. However, things seem to have moved forward a little since then.  To make international Internet shopping simpler (and I don't know if this is a recently introduced service), Amazon has a service called - Amazon Global . Here is a quote from Amazon :  "Amazon Global takes the guesswork and heavy lifting out of internat