spring is here...

back from the land of century egg congee, dim sum, juicy fat char siu, roast goose, Portuguese tarts, and many many more wonderful food!

such a pity the tour gang were not so much of food people. each time i run off to get a snack they would always give me a look that i'm some sort of a glut. its not a place to have just 3 proper meals a day. its snack snack snack. hahha!

work starts tomorrow... dread. whoa i spent the whole evening of return doing the laundry and unpacking. of course i did not forget my baby. the first thing i did was to turn her on. wah... magical.

anyway, some highlight snap shots. i'm not a very good photographer (as of most people are) and i do not carry a huge fancy camera (as of most people do). but what i lack in skills i make up with Heart. uiseh... ceh.

HK's main star attraction... the building comes alive at night.

i must give it to them... preserving their heritage and history despite all that modernity 
art and culture at the waterfront... penny for your thought?
sad yet enchanting... my hostel was just next to it. not much different.
still a surreal landscape to me... 
magnificent... in a tacky way.
its all in the outer appearance... whats inside does not really matter.
foster was here...
the million dollar skyline...
Macau and its churches... endless.
no durian spikes...
breathtaking... 

so while the whole gang will probably gloat of how much they enjoyed themselves over at BeerFest during the weekend... i will tell them how many "chio bu" i've seen.

blame it on my youth...

staring in front of my imac while typing this entry is just surreal. i never imagined this very day would come. i was having butterflies in my tummy as i was on way to receive this beau. its almost like seeing your first born child being brought into this world. haha. SH would kill me if he finds out i made such comparison.

of course the whole macintosh thing isnt a new thing for me. given that i am already an avid cult member for the past 7 years. but this is my first very own desktop purchased using my hard earn cash. and the monitor is just so friggin huge. things will never ever be the same again. the last desktop i had was during my first year of college before i became a Mac convert. but it was a second hand desktop. the specs was customized, hence it wasnt a bad PC. it was capable of playing computer games and it was where i tried my first hand on photoshop and autocad.

this definitely marks a new phase in my life or so SH says. and he followed up by saying... "and now all you need is a gf..." i was like... "what the... ?!"

but instead of posting photos of my iMac. i shall instead upload a picture of SunHo the grumpy little baby.

*note: this is the first time i'm holding an infant in my entire life.


i asked SH's dad of how it feels to be a grandfather now. instead he told me that he will not officially be a grandfather until SunHo actually acknowledges him as his grandfather. haha. SH's dad is very nice. seriously my whole perception of koreans has changed.

and so... whats the first thing i should use my mac for? install microsoft word and type out my minutes of course!

just say yes... dammit.

the weekend has ended. it was a rather eventful weekend to say the least.

i just bought a new external hard disk. i am seriously running out of space. i've accumulated so much junk until my current external hard drive is incapable of storing them. its time i clear all my junk from my office PC.

Anna Karenina @ esplanade performed by the Finnish National Ballet at the end of May. i should purchase my tics. i must say, i really dun like it when they do they tip-toe dancing routines. it always makes me feel uncomfortable. but i love how the way they sway their bodies. so flexible and... sexual. oh! sexual healing...

3 business days...

on my way back from bible class i decided to tune my ipod to Buble. i have not listen to his songs for quite sometime. and i stumbled on "save the last dance for me". a very catchy tune. always makes you feel like dancing along unlike the majority of his tracks that are usually more mellowed. but anyway,everytime i listen to this song. it always brings back good memories of the road trip. i think it was to the great ocean road with my then cell group and when i was with jm. haha. most of the time the trip was rather stressful. man, try being a cell leader for a disproportianate group of girls/ guys and the latter being the minority. the fun part however was during our journey in the car. it was the first time i saw the tall boy dancing to the music. he was usually quite shy and solemn. but anyway i think he really liked that song. because we kept looping it. ah those were the care free days. remembering the tall boy... who is still a boy. the last i heard of him was he became the chairman of OCF. rather ironic given that back then all he wanted to do was hide and made plans to leave. things change, but i think its because he made more friends and felt more accepted. thats always the case i guess. when someone feels negative about something, its usually because he feels the lack of acceptance. plus he got together with jm's mentee - theconstantlydistressedgirl. strange combo.

oh! and i just realise that you can pay your bills online! amazing stuff. singapore is really advance man. i was compiling all my bills this morning to make payment at the SAM machine on my way to work, then suddenly i saw some tiny footnote about online payment. and it hit me... maybe i can pay this online. so! i did! then i tried paying my credit card bills... unfortunately that didnt go down so well. sigh. so inconvenient.

now that 2 people have handed in their resignation letter. the whole office is in silent chaos. most are rather shock to be losing the funny guys. at first they were not sure who exactly threw in their letters. so they started analysing every colleague. of coz we who knew just kept quiet. because its not in our business to say. i was surprise that when it came to me. no one gave much of a thought that i would resign. in fact one said taht if i were to be fired, i would be holding on dearly to the front door begging not to be. man their comment was taht i die die must stay to become one of the directors. damn. im not as steady as they think man. sigh.

also... i've finally put my money down on the imac. arriving soon. man... its 2 dollar chicken rice from here on for me. say goodbye to yakitoris and juicy steaks. sad.
at first, me and SH decided to go down the apple store after work yesterday to get the mac there and then. we were so excited. well i was excited and block out all negativity of spending so much money, and SH was just kaypoh and wanted to feed his happiness and envy through me. haha. because now that he has a kid, he must sacrifice his dreams of getting a mac. man i feel sad for him. i'm livin his dream. imagine, he downloaded all the relevant mac software and did thorough research on it and was all set. in the end, his research became my benefit and all the software will be installed into MY IMAC! muahahahaha.
he even brought his digital cum video camera to record this memoriable moment, which i thought was abit strange. it was weird having him filming the whole event of getting the mac. unfortunately, after negotiating and inquiring on the mac, we decided not to get it from the store but rather purchase the thing online. the people were short changing us and the fella smell of cigarettes. he looked rather sleazy as well trying to cheat a poor little malaysian. we concluded that it was far more worth it to get it online.

and so.... i did! it was a happy yet very very painful experience. you all should had seen me struggling and how hard it was for me just to click on the purchase button.
but i figured... given that i have no real commitments and debts... so why not? dun wanna make such a decision when im married and about to have kids. haha.
well i suggested SH that he can still opt for a trade-in. im sure sunho can fetch for a pretty decent mac. in fact he probably can trade-in for the power mac. awesomeness. he thought i was crazy.

sigh. beauty above all matters. imagine... i have 1000 gigabytes of harddisk space! thats ultimate kiasuness.

oh my goodness! just realise that the playoffs are on. heard over the radio when i was waiting for them to do re-runs of date-mate. wanted to listen in to the recent date-mate winner who is also a friend of mine. haha. lai signed up for the competition out of boredom or so he says. and so he managed to asked a girl who is 9 years older than him for a date through the radio DJ for a date at the regency hotel. man. he should had asked me lor. i would've said yes for sure. too bad the dinner at the Regent hotel doesnt come with a room. man... i would definitely make use of the facilities if it did.
okay okay... back to the playoffs. its times like these that i wish i had a tv. sigh. hope Boston kicks the Bull's ass.

but beautiful...

just return from visiting my little godson. i got SH a book- the giving tree, as a belated present. simple yet beautifully crafted story. but its uncomparable to what he has received. every other gift i find is just insignificant. plus the gift i got for the baby boy is way more cooler- a stroller. i spent the whole day afternoon at vivo trying to crack my brain in getting him a nice gift. ofcoz i can definitely say that my gift was far better then what i received for my birthday last year from him... a box of hankerchiefs. haha. ofcoz then i realise that it is a very popular book in korea apparently. he was given one when he was young and hari had 2 copies of the book. one in korean and the other english. darn. okay so then its for SunHo then.

it was my first time holding a baby. and i am not very good at it. too fragile for me. the whole time i was just worried i would accidently snap his neck. i think Hari felt the same way as well.

well observing how the newly made parents handle themselves is so amazing. goodness me. the environment in the house has changed. hari seems so flabergasted and distracted. she cant leave the baby anywhere out of her sight. i could just see the mother instinct in her eyes and behavior when we are around the baby.
then i was forced to watch how the baby was being bathed. SH insists that i observe for my future benefit. man... its a very tiring task. the preparation work is so exhaustive and everything had to be done within 10 minutes or the baby would freeze to death. i didnt want to see the whole process and wanted to sneak over to do the dishes. but i was not allowed and must watch the whole ten minutes of the process. then i decided to be a bit more useful and video recorded the whole event. haha. seeing parents working as a team just to please that little boy. so precious. Hari was telling me how much her life has changed just by a matter of seconds. she began to understand why mothers see how beautiful her child is and she honestly thinks that he is the most handsomest boy in the whole world. i just thought to myself of how tiny he was and he would grow up to be a very hairy boy. haha. then i asked SH if this feeling is equivalent to having a new imac. haha. the answer was that it is no where near that feeling but whole new level.

we also took the opportunity to celebrate black day for me, which was supposed to be on April 14. the day SunHo was born. haha. he's a black day baby. i was served korean black Ja Jiang Meon as a symbol of my singlehood. tasty nonetheless.

sigh. okay... remind myself. PAY THE BILLS!!

shaggy doodle...

i was given the day off for our hard work till 5am this morning. i am so shag right now. was intending to go shopping for birthday present and to seriously look into getting that imac and to get a new portable hard-disk for motives i shall not say. hehe.

In the end i ended up spending the day at home. however, for few hours i had to hang out at the nearby coffee shop because they were fogging all the refuse chutes. so i spent 2 hours stoning at the coffee shop dreaming and watching the traffic controller managing the traffic as there were some road works going on. i realise that it isnt a very easy job to do. and it looks like a rather boring yet tiring task. but someone has to to do it.

anyway, when i got home the place was all smoky and filled with kacats. so i had to sweep the little stupid cockcroaches that managed to escape out the chute.
oh i hate them cockcroaches. they are evil and dirty and evil. why on earth did he created them? disgusting. so just to be sure, i gave them a super duper wiff of shieldtox just to be safe and to make sure that they are totally killed. disgusting. little devils. yuck. disgusting. stupid creatures. they seriously suck man. horrible creatures. lousy insects. a shame of the insect world. dirty dirty little critters.

ooooookay. i think i better go shower and head out now. its FRIDAY NIGHT!

tired eyes and a dead brain...

finally the long suffering is near over. i still dont think we have a chance on winning this based on our scheme. the diagrams are spot on noentheless. haha. we manged to salvage as much my little conceptual doodles for the presentation board. hope it stays all the way till submission.

i have been a total ass the past few weeks. so grumpy and moody that whoever came close could feel my black aura. but you now start to see little smiles of relieve here and there. but the scares and wounds still remain. man this was the most painful competition i had to work on. not so much on the work but on the stress from the management and the politics. sigh. times have really change.

i think sis and anne felt the brunt of it. haha. i can be such a neh-neh. i say so many crappy things and feel so sorry for myself that i wish someone could just slap me... and hug me at the same time. haha. i need lots of love. love deprivity.

i feel so much older now but the company is not moving in tandem with me. seriously it is rather sad when you realise every morning i wake up i have thoghts about how and when i should leave during the whole journey to the office. telling myself all the things and reason why i should move on. planning my next phase of life. its actually quite exciting yet scary at the same time. i have been rather comfortable from where i am. i realise that i have begun to understand and know what i want to do. of course the next if i am given the opportunity to do so. and the office cant offer me this even if they say they are able to. i wouldnt say they are lying if they fail to keep their promises but rather its just in their nature. and they will forever see me in this way as young and in need for their strict guidance. but i need to move on, to see how much farther i can stretch. it seems that i am never ever satisfied. i am always wanting more. i am never really convince of what i have now is of my potential. i never am very satisfied of peoples oppinion and assesment of me. sigh.
i still find it rather sad to have such thoughts of leaving. mainly perhaps it was the first and only company i have worked in Singapore. and i experienced so much there be it good or bad. it was life changing no doubt. but i am starting to see how small the office world is. and i need to see my self in bigger things. see what more can i learn and be. spread these wings and see how far can i really go. have what i learn in the company really been beneficial. i would only know when i leave then will i finally be able to realise that.

i need to know if architecture is more and beyond mkpl.

oh my goodness... my bones are aching. i better rest. sigh... i missed netball today.

but i hate it...

the long weekend is over. unfortunately it was not exactly an enjoyable one this time around neither was it very long. well atleast i managed to squeeze in some leisure time over the past few nights. just finished cleaning the apartment. it was in such a sorry sad neglected state.

the whole weekend was spent in the office. if the boss says i did not put enough hours on this project. i would be utterly speechless.
given that we weren't really much keen on working at the office today. we decided to have a long lunch break.
jon has indeed changed so much. its amazing how God works. i remember trying to avoid him as much because he was such an obnoxious boy who smokes like a chimney and talks like an ass during my Archi uni days. okay i admit, i am a very bad testament/ salt and light to the world. to think i was so worried when the bosses wanted to rehire him. my predictions of his nuisance was all wrong. i like the new jon.

and i am not liking the new him just because he's a christian. believe me i find it very hard to like christians. alot of them can be real shitheads. just remember the most recent christian encounter back in the days of OCF. perhaps its me... i'm not sure.

it was rather strange to be discussing about God with him over lunch. nevertheless we discussed about our plans for the immediate future and how we struggle trying to fit God in it. okay, more like how we cant seem to fit around or have a clear idea of His plan. things in the office has really been deteriorating. the working environment now is seriously very fucked up ( i think thats the only way to describe the present situation in crude clear terms). so we both have already drafted our letter of resignation. we only discovered that we had both did roughly around the same time.
however, the biggest problem we face is finding the correct timing to do so. the both of us struggle in trying to grasp what God's plans are at this very moment. what actions should we take and if the decisions are of our own flesh or by his divine guidance. even discussing this dilemma was so frustrating. we kept banging the table expressing how impatient we are in waiting for Gods signal. of course there is the fear that we might had missed it altogether as well. we agreed and know that its not about sitting around being passive waiting on God to intervene but we have to make the active move ourself. much like having to study before the exams even if we had seek God's help. so the question is what actions should we take? its not as simple and straight forward as studying for an exam. the things we want to do may not be what God had in mind. sigh. its hard to explain.

then again perhaps we thought that this is a time of suffering much like in the days of the isrealites enslaved by the egyptians. haha! its the current book im studying so no surprises there. hehe.

i know that it is indeed God's plan of my choice being in Singapore. for one is because it was not a plan that i had anticipated and despite that, everything somehow fell into place without any huge fuss. hence i knew it was in His plan. much as the rest of my life is thus far. from college all the way till present. now however is the problem. i know that i have a plan of getting from A to B. but the problem is the path in between of reaching to B.
At the end of last year, i had felt and told myself that it was time to move on. either relocate or a simple change in work environment in singapore. but when Lehman brothers suddenly collapsed, all my supposed plans went into shambles. timing is indeed the biggest question. i believe and trust that God will provide and lead but at the same time i hesitate and am scared because i am only human.

looking back on my conversation with jon earlier. i felt like a tear had escaped from my eye, the very thought that i would never had imagined having such conversations with him mellows me. God has really changed him. him rushing to attend church and discussing bible verses with me is so encouraging yet weird.

decided to flip to Proverbs 12. this was jon's answer to last nights prayer. haha. and so i did... very funny because it applies to the current bastard thats causing all the distressing havoc in the office.

here are a few verses that is directly applicable to the american boy...

proverbs 12: 2 - a good man obtains favor from the Lord, but the Lord condemns a crafty man...

proverbs 12: 8 - a man is praised according to his wisdom, but men with warped minds are despised...

proverbs 12: 15 - the way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice...

proverbs 12: 16 - a fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult...

okay i think i've said enough. im just very thrilled that a former rebel is sharing bible verses with me.

in the end we both agreed that we will continure to be nice to him even though our hearts are just raging with fiery anger. we're really just trying to find peace.

okay i better go finish up my bible study homework. i've already missed 2 consecutive classes. cant afford to miss the coming one.

it was a good friday... to work.

this whole weekend will have to be spend in the office. there goes my long weekend... goodbye!
things have been getting really ugly and unpleasant in the office. there is a lot of tension and back stabbing around. and to think of it... its all happening because of one man. and he's american.
since his arrival, he has created much havoc in the office. behind our backs telling the boss of how lazy and useless we are, and how hardworking he is because he's in the office every day working late. but seriously in actual fact... we all know (except for the bosses) that he's only there because he has nothing better to do. but if he continues this sort of behavior, he'll never ever have friends in the office to hang out with.
and so because of him, we're all forced to come back over the weekend to work. because... i quote 'its easy to break one chopstick... but difficult to break a bunch of them...' so says me female boss. what crap. seriously one big fat chopstick will also be hard to break or even a shorter chopstick. so its all matter of perception. this is not team work. its politics. and so my first experience on office politics.
this time around, the stress/ pressure is not coming from the work instead from the management. we're all working for the sake of showing our faces to the boss. its more important to show up than doing work.

sigh... oh well someday and somewhere... happiness is waiting... taking the words from maria and that american fella

but atleast the Friday was not spent all in the office. attended the Reinharrd Bonnke rally in the evening with CK + wife. it was like any other evangelistic rally. but i thought the P&W should had lasted longer. i have not had a long P&W session in the while and was more interested in that than the message. it was a massive crowd... a huge crowd with a majority of sick people. its pretty frightening looking back. a SARS/ Viral/ somesort of disease epidemic would had broken out in that stadium.
we stayed on to witness the earlier session of the final segment of the rally- the healing session, and decided to leave after when the speaker started to call all those who are sick to come to the front. such a pity, none of the people in the wheel chair from where i was standing got up to walk.

may you rest in peace... mr pipe organist for Lygon COC.

gu gu the cat...

my apologies on my previous entry. i did not explicit meant that girls suck per se. instead i was actually refering to thoughts of girls... which can be quite annoying and irritating. so i'm not blaming on girls... but truly on myself.

hope that clears the air... i realise the female readers might had been greatly offended by that.

don't get me wrong. i love girls. haha.

anyway... on to other things that are far more important than thinking about girls. i saw the trailer for GU GU THE CAT. the purpose for me wanting to catch this movie is not so much of the girl and storyline but more so of its involvement about a cat. the cat in the movie reminds me so much of Zumthor. heck it looks so much like her. sigh... i miss zumthor.
hmmm... i should had named her Zum Zum instead. things would had been so different if had done so. but its too late now! oh the sadness...



i hope i can rope in someone to watch this movie with me. it would be a little strange if i had to watch this movie alone. then again... i never really bothered much on watching movies alone.

meow!

i feel like blogging

just came back from no.5. hung out with lai. its really nice to hang out out with people who work in a totally diferent field or line of work. it can be be quite tiresome hanging out with people of the same field of work. discussing politics. especially if you are intending to escape from it all.

the boss has currently designated me to be full time on the competition. i am quite happy because then i will not have to attend the dreadful boring meeting and instead concentrate on works that i am able to control and manage.

i am kindda tipsy writing this entry. but given that i have internet access and the computer was on when i got back. i might as well write some thing thats passing through my mind.

i realise that almost 90% of the people in singapore are attached. this really amazes me. people whom i think cant possibly be attached are so.this makes me wonder and realise its so easy to get attached in singapore. i asked lai if it were true and he totally agreed. at the end of the day its all up to you if you want to be atttached. getting attached is not a concern. i mean thats what he says. then again he's pretty good lokking so i dont think its a concern.

wow i can still taste the screwdriver in my throat. nice. thats one of the perks of beign single. no one to control your life!! thats good!

so i realise that in singapore. no one wants to be lonely. any freakin body can find a partner one way or another.

okay. i mean to write more. but i think i better shower and hit the sack.

it has been a rather fruitful yet disturbing day. girls... such a pain. i can choose to have one. but i shall surpress! because girls fucking suck!!!!!!!

i am sleepy. spending the whole day trying to weave up the whole concept together. ureka!

anyway... wine on thursday. girls involved obviously.

fucking idiots...

read in the Yahoo! news today about the resignation of our dear PM - Pak Lah. henceforth we welcome (with not much of a choice) a new leadership... i doubt if it would be any better. pretty much the same actually.

apparently mr PM-to-be's main focus agenda is to 'unite the multi-racial nation...' what? what kind of fucking agenda is that?! that is the most bloody stupid statement i've ever heard. since when was this not the main focus agenda for all m'sian leaders?

why on earth do we need a PM to do that? they are the one that caused this big mess anyway. i really beh tahan. i'm really so pissed off. such an IDIOT!

as you can tell... i hate m'sian politics.


but seriously... thank goodness its F-R-I-D-A-Y !!

thank god its friday...

finally managed to finish and sent out my minutes and i'm ready for bed. it was a painful process having to work on my aging laptop. everything is a minute slow and the program keeps shutting itself down. sigh. yet again even more reasons why i should upgrade my mac. should i wait a little longer or just go for the kill? these days i rarely use my computer to work. but given the current new circumstances i might have to. word documents are but minor problems that i can endure using my laptop. but its the 3d modeling and photoshopping etc that would be a nightmare.

was pulled in to help out on the labrador competition at the very last minute. as usual the bosses have no sense of time management and neglected the work until the very last minute. in the end the rest of us have to suffer. i seriously do not like working pass 12am these days. having worked till 3am the night before definitely does not make going through the next day very pleasant. surprisingly theres jsut so much work to be done. i almost forgot that the world is in a global recession. its good that we are still busy. but at the same time unfair for us being constantly threaten to work hard because the bosses never ceased to stop reminding us of our dispensable state. talk about being appreciated.

now that thats over, the next 3 weeks i'm pulled in for another competition. apparently i'm the diagram expert. i am pretty anal about diagrams. i dont mind doing the work when theres a clear direction and the boss makes quick and concise decisions. having 2 years of working on competitions, we've learn how to manage the boss, unfortunately he has not learn how to handle the pressure and situations.

today on the way home. my colleague and i had a discussion about the office and our plans for the next phase in our career. both agreed that we eventually want to set out and do our own thing. we hate having to take orders from people and its definitely something we would not want to spend the rest of lifes in. when i say "thing" it can mean many different things. but of course the main "thing" specifically during the conversation was about starting our own practice. we both agreed that we shouldnt stay in this current office too long. even though the experience and exposure working in this office is exponential (2 years of working in the office is apparently 4 years working elsewhere), after a while will feel stagnant in our careers and become complacent in our architectural drive. given that the office has a very draconian boss we are forced to rely on them wholly. i am worried that might not have sufficient tools and capabilities to sell myself elsewhere. but he said that we would never know our full potential until we leave our current office given the very nature that the bosses have a way of making us feel very small and incompetent without them.

i am beginning to feel rather jaded in the company. not because of the work but of the bosses BS ethics and way of running the office. we have to admit the management is not super fantastic. i realise that most of us are just waiting to be sacked or retrench. because that would speed up the whole resignation process. a normal resignation would require a months notice in advance and normally the final month at the office is not very pleasant. the bosses tend to get personal and hateful towards those who are resigning. plus we have to go through the painful handover process. the more i think about it the more irritated i feel.

the reason i'm still here apart from the stupid recession is the current work im handling. i hope to finish up both of my tender documentation. that would really bulk up my already relatively impressive portfolio.

sigh... so we're just waiting on the world to change. unfortunately not to the way we hope it would be.

merry christmas mr lawrence...

finally i'm hooked in and ready to go. plenty of internet glitches on the first day unfortunately. such a nuisance. i totally forgot how to use my laptop. having internet at home is rather strange to me.

i manage to get hold of the complete dischography of Ryuichi Sakamoto's music. such a great master. must lispect ol grit masta. arigato. sayonara. suzuki. toyota. hait! i have much to learn-doh.

cold noodles at SaeHoon's new place last night. delicious-doh. so honored to have him whip up his best dish for the guest of honor. arigato. and hari's belly is humongous! can't believe they are soon to be parents in just a matter of weeks. scary. i hope i can be at the hospital to see the action. i can volunter to be the designated camera man. even though my skills are lousy. just hope he's not OT-ing when the baby decides to pop out.
Hari was showing me her little baby journal. she actually made a chronology of the whole 9 months. she even drew little sketches of her soon to be baby in section and a picture of her stomach being kicked by the baby. I think sae hoon is just plain worried from now onwards. such a scary thought. soon enough they will not be able to hang out with me much anymore. sigh.
Then she showed me photos of their italy holiday. well it was her visit to italy while he was studying. after the whole trip. Saehoon made a little photo book album. they are so in love. i especially like the ending photos at the airport as her trip was coming to an end. their eyes were sore red. tragic.

had lunch with my former landscape arch for duchess today. i have not seen her since she left her previous firm. atleast she looks less grumpy as compared to back then. haha. we're planning a trip to HK. guess i wont be seeing me sister in May if it materialises. tsk tsk. sorry sis. just so you know atleast you was on my mind as one of the getaway plan.

after last night. i have decided that i will marry the girl who plays 'merry christmas mr lawrence' on the piano. beautiful song.

its close to 1am. pass my bedtime.

thinking...

its a rainy saturday afternoon. the morning was pleasant despite i was struggling to open my tired eyes from last nights kay's farewell outing. its so sad to see her go. i will miss her phone calls with her cantankerous contractor.

after dropping by at work in the afternoon. i decided to pay the national museum a visit. my first trip for the year. the Christian Lacroix exhibit was on displaying his stage costume designs. the place was flooded with young girls armed with their cameras taking every sketch and dress piece. they must be young fashion designer students. just take photo and copy the style first.

sigh. after the going through the exhibit i heaved a deep sigh of despair, yearn, and anxiety. i want try out stage set designing. i am still very disturbed by the set design for the nutcracker ballet. yuk.

oh well, perhaps as soon as i complete my next set of tender documents will things start to open up. haha.

lunch at SH's new place tomorrow. hopefully his wife's swollen eye would be healed by then. korean cold noodles.

i wonder if they would make a movie out of Kafka on the shore. not jap anime style please.

i have this sudden love for radiohead and beyonce's - i am sasha...

i'm on MC...

its a rainy monday. im officially zonked out and fatigued to the bones. hence a monday off would hopefully rejuvenate things.

it was rather strange seeing ChingLing taking the plunged into the world of marriage life. but besides seeing her giving herself to some stranger, the 7 year hiatus reunion was good. its amazing how after 7 years none of us really changed. so when will we see each other again? probably the next wedding. i'm guessing it'll be an annual thing? i dunno. everyones getting older.

sitting on the other side of the fence...

home office... and beer bellies.

so much paper work to do!! i seriously have to consider internet service at home... sigh.

gives you hell...

finally after 3 grueling weeks of late nights and constant stress. the documents are finally packed and sent to its rightful destination. a big sigh of relieve indeed. siiiiiiiiiiiigggggggggghhhhhhhhh!

and as a small reward... i got friday off! yea you do the math... 3 weeks of hard work is equivalent to 1 day off. cheap labor!
nevertheless, so the best way to start the day off was to sleep in. sleeping in has become a very rare occasion from my previous life as a student now that my morning weekends are taken up by various activities as well.
i guess when you start working, you begin to appreciate every free time you get and you want to spend more time during the day under the beaming sunlight rather than the dark quiet lonely nights. breakfast times are a blessing. seize the day people!

ofcourse this does not mean that the busy times are over just yet. infact that was just a crash course burn out stress thingy or what my bosses consider it as an ECA (extra curricular activity). i must not deny, it was quite an exciting and brain stimulating period.
but now its back to the slow killing stress of the everyday worklife. and i better show my interest in my work. a dear colleague of mine jsut got fired just because she applied leave for the CNY holiday. ofcourse theres more to the story, but after working for the office for 3 years you would think she'd be appreciated and not be rid with just by a snap of the finger. it's a cruel cruel world. its a big blow to the office losing her, she was good at her job and one of the best project architect handling one of the toughest job... mad dog contractor and a neh neh client- capita"fucking"land. fuck you capitaland ceo! nowonder your so rich its because your just damn stingy and your subordinates are just a pain in the ass! think gollum.
well, it serves them right i guess for making such an irrational decision to terminate her contract. cant believe they still wanted her to come back to do a proper handover of the project. no way i would come back after that... fuck you! i would say.
dad always say we have to be nice to everyone and neer make enemies, because you never know what might become of in the future. but i still think we shouldnt let ourselves be so low and be nice to every fucking idiot just because. good advice but not applicable to every situation. life is much bigger than that.
and so... fuckthememployerswithnospinewhodoesnotwanttotakeresponsibilityfortheiractions!
its really a damn fucked up world. and we're all tied to a string because of these bad times. fuck you wallstreet!

you can tell that even after my long rest, i'm still very grumpy. and i just remembered! i have not booked my tickets for the putri gunung ledang musical! sigh.

just saw photos from erik's wedding. pity i wasnt able to make it. his wife actually looks like claudia teh abit.

anyway, i better go run my errands. dinner at aston's tonite! its time to reward myself with a big fat cheap juicy steak!

my weekend read...

the first no CNY... in 26 years

i was so much grumpier and angrier around noon time. but after time things started to cool down and i began to rethink rationally on my thoughts. at the end of the day, it was my choice to stay and see through this competition. i guess naturally i immediately took control of the team the day i was inserted into the team. this impulse is partly due to the fact that i want to avoid being screwed by the boss if all fails and the fact that eveyone else is just plain useless and stupid like fucking idiots. no one has that compelling passion and urge to get this done well. sigh. after so long still nothing much has been done. you would expect that by the last 2 weeks we would be focusing on the presentations et all. instead i came in with nothing actually done complete nor well. everything was a mess no detail design was done which was the important task after all the brainstorming bullshit. everyone was so concern of the other doing less or "easier work" than them. and it was a slight sensitive task when i start to assign task. after revising 3 competition schedules, we're still behind time. i do not want to stay back and skip CNY in vain. the only other member that is doing his job is the main designer - SH. very stressful he is. and his wife is in the verge of falling into depression. she hardly sees him or has his full attention. and she's pregnant and due in 2 months. wow, more of these stress i fear he might just kill himself or explode. i do not want to be there when that happens.

well, thats one competition soon to end and another one waiting at the finishing line. it never ends.

i believe most family reunion dinners should have finish by now. right now everyones probably hanging around grandmas house making small talk while watching the grandkids and lil cousins run around the house while all the wifes are behind cleaning up and catching up on each others life.

the week has not been as bad as i imagined. met up with A-Gan for dinner on saturday. i discovered that he's attached?! wow. and later a friend of mine hooked me up with his girlfriend's BFF for a double date to catch a late chic flick show. it was a relatively amusing show. but i would not pay to see it in the cinema. but i think the purpose was more of meeting the person than the movie. being alone in the office on a sunday evening is quite pleasant. but it is getting late. and i need to eat.

oh! i downloaded the complete discography of FOB, SnowPatrol, Aqualung, BenFolds, ChrisBotti, AAR, and Enya's latest album, and and the OST of Laputa! booyah! its the little office abusing that gets you through the day. hehe. koreans are so illegal and resourceful.

last night... when we were young

back at the asylum for the holidays. its always great to be back. however, every passing year that goes by the more i feel a sense of distance from the place. i begin to realise my being and presence in this house fading through the years. the scent that airs my room does so vaguely exists. the only assurance of that being my room is the left behind possessions and the photos displayed around the house. i am not saying that i do not feel at home at every passing year. instead its this sense of change in my life that progresses on, and this house which is a container of the past and the gap between my present feels gradually increasing.

nevertheless holidays are good. initially i thought i'd be able to catch up on some work during the break. but on my way to the airport i realised that i had left the CD with all my supposed holiday work at the apartment. ofcourse i can always ask my colleagues to attached over the files to me. the moment when i first turn on the home computer i was bombarded with dad's movie collection of more than 50 files in the the hard drive. instinctively, i thought to myself, "how am i ever gonna finish all of these shows within this short span of a holiday?". And so instead i have been spending my holidays alternating between watching movies (i've completed 8 so far), reading (i am in near completion of Italo Calvino's if on a winter's night a traveler), astro-ing (mostly MTV and the asianfoodchannel), playing with the bratty TOTO, and the occasional eating/ snacking(mom's minced meat pie... heavenly gastronomia). i have not eaten so much in a day for a long time. mom thinks the reason that i'm constantly in need to snack is because im on holiday mood, and people tend to lose appetitie when we're working. well that may be true, but i have another theory which is the mind of the matter. mentally i know that i have no food in my Sg apartment therefore i never had any cravings. but being home here in KK i know theres food everywhere. so my brain tells me to go search for food and go nuts about it. thank goodness i'm only here for a short period of time.

i received a phone call from cvk today. he was utterly furious that i did not inform him of my returned and he had to discover this from another friend. i was hermitting. in fact he asked me what on earth can i do here in KK. so i told him exactly that thats the reason why i did not bother calling anyone. because there's just nothing to do here but stay at home and hibernate. apparently it wasnt a very good excuse for not notifying him of my presence.

having returned to kk. i have managed to fulfil my few agendas i had set out doing or more of eating perhaps. most of it was achieved within 3 days from the day of my return with the exception of last night's dumplings at ChuanHing (still the best ever, like... totally yea) and we tried a China brewed beer - Tsingtao. dad was very game about trying new stuff and he was very thristy. paul was just denying how much he "doesn't" consume so much alcohol in his life. whilst drinking this new found beer, we also discovered that the beer has been around long before tiger beer has, and in addition, the brand was created the year after the last emperor of China- Puyi was born. amazing stuff. so this is encouragement to all Astro lovers. tv is good for you. however, i do wish to pay Peppino a visit again if possible as well as to sit at the deck along the waterfront for beers while overlooking the sunset. you know, i would had been there at this very instant if only i had a means of transport. amazingly the one and only car left that i am capable of driving is in the workshop. unfortunately not able to do banking today as well. perhaps tomorrow after dental.

yes people, 2008 is coming to an end and i am very sad because my bonus has been so called "differed". sigh. instead of ending the year with a big bang! i'm left instead with a big bummer. sigh again. and i think the show how i met you're mother is very funny.

christmas prezzies...

from my thoughtful colleagues... how nice of them. i think the actual one i have is much nicer than this. and its sitting right on my desk when i return to Singapore. sigh. touched.

never let me go...

perhaps i should write before i leave the office. i have exactly 1 week before the office closure. apart from being excited, its also very worrying and stressful because i have to clear as much paperwork as i can before the year ends. sigh. well, sometimes these recessions are a blessing in disguise.

ofcourse apart from being the happiest time of the year. it is also the most depressing of times. year ends is the time when i tend to use my thoughts the most of irrelevant things. its when i do my reflection of what has happened thus far. of course last year was not as painful because it was a busy time at the office. its when all sorts of things just runs through my head. all the sighs, the goodbyes, the what if, the what's next, the how, etc. and you try to collate all of them together and try to make sense out of it but eventually you realised that all was meaningless thoughts that could had been put to more use to figuring out how to detail my car porch design. yet at the same time these thoughts are unavoidable.

oh shit! i should stop writing. its making things worst! its only a phase sam... its the monsoon weather.

when you wish upon a star...

surprise surprise... guess what i got for my birthday...

seriously, ask and you shall receive. muahaha! this is one of the greatest birthday gift ever. thanks to all who contributed. unfortunately none of them will be able to read this.

the birthday week has ended. i for one am not a big fan in celebrating birthdays. but the people here do think its an important day and all would make plans. well i could elaborate on the events, but im just too darn lazy to do so.

all i wanted was to post up and flaunt my new birthday gift! and so i did!

p.s. to mom+dad. thanks for the e-card. sadly none of my siblings wished me.
i know im just pushing my luck... but here goes... tsk tsk

i've got my... to keep me warm

it is the last long weekend for the year and i managed to spent it with much glee. i'm feeling slightly guilty that i didn't spent more time on work. the only work time i had was doing my minutes this morning. mom's 7.30am phone call brought me to life. we're having BEEF WELLINGTON for christmas! yay! right mom?
i actually woke up at 5.45am but went back to bed because i figured that its a holiday and i deserve the extra hour in bed. but i with further thought, i decided that i shouldnt lay around in bed all morning instead i should do useful things such as my minutes and laundry and cleaning the toilet and clearing my messy table. the weather in the morning was very pleasant. it was raining!

i think my trip to the marine barrage this evening is canceled due to the "splendid" weather. should i stay at home?

polkadots and moonbeams...

this weekend is SAM day!! i guess being on MC has its perks. you get to catch up on things. and with the whole day away from the office. i've been spending quality time on the internet sourcing out the latest exhibition. i have not visited the arts museum since Giacometti. but i think i've seen more of his works when i was in Swiss than what was exhibited.
the current exhibits...

Japan Media Arts Festival 2008: Growing together

is it tomorrow yet? - Highlights from the Daimler Arts Collection (1908-2008)

Korean Contemporary Art Show

Heartlands: Home and Nation in the Art of Ong Kim Seng

i might have to spread the visits to 2 days. 2 exhibits per day.

and my year end leave application has been APPROVED!! wow... being sick really is good.

-

since im in the christmas mood as well... i might as well reveal to you all my christmas wish list!

hint hint...

wrap your troubles in dreams...

dilemma... dilemma...

satisfaction...

new shoes! new shoes!
the singapore government says we should not stop spending to avoid a recession. so... i obey lor.

taking the risk... or live not knowing

not working in the weekend basically means i have to work extra extra hard over the week. so much backlog to clear and it does not help when i have these extra unnecessary letters i have to type all thanks to my big screw up. sigh. how on earth could i had made such a mistake. but back tracking when it was done. i realised that it was during the worst of my work life when i was practically stranded at the office with super late nights. this in turn affected my performance greatly. hence thats probably how i managed to screw up on such a simple yet important task. money is always a sensitive subject. i appreciate my PM being a very considerate fella. he always have my back covered. of course i feel much worst that way whenever i screw up. sigh. i guess God is fair... give us a super lousy contractor he balances it with a considerate PM from the client. i hate typing minutes! so many meetings so little time. i have no idea how my boss expects me to make 3d design studies when i'm stuck with all these paper works. maybe if i had not blogged i could had finished one level of the model. sigh. no use crying over used time.
its almost 12 anyway, and my brain is dead. not to mentioned i have an early morning meeting.

nonetheless the weekend was indeed fruitful. fruitful in way i did nothing that had to do with work. tennis on saturday morning is indeed a big sacrifice from me sleeping in. i never sleep in these days, since even my weekend morning are packed with activities. then in the afternoon it was AVENUE Q!! hilarious indeed. and i really got everyone good seats. they should bow down and thank me of my brilliance! btw, anyone up for ballet in December? its a 3 hour performance which is pretty long. but its the nutcracker! Tchaikovsky rules.
Sunday was as usual... church. i have been pretty consistent with my church going im sure i've gained many treasures in heaven? or at least God has signed me up with an account up there. i think previously my account was frozen. then lunch with SaeHoon+Wife was nice. i've never had lunch with the 2 of them on weekends when he's less distracted. they are a funny and lovely couple.and the baby is due in 4-5 months time which i do not want to imagine the whole procedure would be after my friend was explaining to me about childbirth. i never ever would want my wife to give birth... its just gross and painful. african kids are quite cute. anyway, i wonder if they will call the little boy "little Kimchi". that would be very Korean indeed. after lunch we went to visit the national museum for the photography exhibition by some taiwan/american photographer. very intense and sad photos. after the exhibition we were all so tired mentally and our eyes were dead sore staring at all those photos.

man i better go. me need to sleep.

distress...

just love the long weekend. did not return to the office at all. Yesterday after church went to collect my ticket for thursday's show. i decided to catch a movie as well - Tropic Thunder. I might as well use the free movie voucher ticket before it expires. the movie was funny but i felt it did not go all out to punning Hollywood and their low self esteem actors. but it was good entertainment, and Robert Downey Jr is seriously funny as a black man wanna-be.

When i came home. High School musical 2 was on TV. i am not a big fan of the movie franchise. but the songs can be quite catchy. and the guys eyes are so endearing. ooops. not gay just an observation. One thing's for sure, they all can really sing, unlike the girl who sang at the Porsche Kitchen launch.

of course despite the pleasant long weekend. there were some minor disturbances. someone should write a book on "How to stop a 30 year old women from bugging you". over the past weekend i have been receiving endless text messages. perhaps i should have turn down the lunch offer on saturday. but the agenda i was told was to buy a gift for one of our friends. it turned out the gift shopping wasnt really the main event. i don't know what was. after running around trying to figure out what to buy, she just said that we still have time to get the gift... his birthday is not in another month's time. in my head i was thinking... then why are we buying it now? okay, that was my fault. i should have remembered his birthday.
one good advice i can give is never ever go out for lunch with your drinking buddies. just look at Anton and his previous females... disastrous. after saturday's lunch. the messages kept stringing along. each sms was such a pain to reply. i had to be extra careful in crafting my replies. making sure i'm not flirting in any way. but i kep getting random messages from 12 in the afternoon till 12 midnight. and several outing suggestions, which i am avoiding. not that im not against 30 year olds. but you must know most drinking buddies have nothing much in common and 30 year olds are dangerous because they are in the "marriage" zone. i am still much too immature to dabble in such things.
i received a message at 11pm last night asking why i did not "jio" her to the show. thank goodness girls are never straight forward people and they have an ego they have to maintain to never express their interest until the male does the initial say. so as long as i keep me distance... theres only so much a girl can do. damn... i just received another movie invitation. thank goodness for Tropic Thunder! you saved my life!!

Afterglow...

i played my first tennis game in Singapore today. it has been close to 2 years since i last played and i sucked terribly that i should now make it my regular weekly agenda. my fitness regime has finally spun off! now i can do anything!

was invited to attend the launch of Porsche's new kitchen design series on Friday. The event was much well received then the office's exhibition launch. the hired Andrea de Cruz as the Emcee and Roxy the girl (i don't know her real name) from Kids Central show REM. okay how i know she's from kidscentral? i flick to the channel once a while. but seriously, she is really hot. unfortunately i cant say the same for her singing. she can't sing for nuts. i guess looking good really helps when you're toned deaf. my friend tried to get her number after the event, and she just blew him off saying she's busy working. whats a phone number got to do with being busy? then again, she;s just a kid. oh yes! the kitchen! during the unveiling of the kitchen, they had the Roxy girl sitting on the kitchen island singing some awful song, but i just kept looking anyway. then my director was asking if i was marveling at the kitchen or the girl. my reply was ofcourse - the girl. okay, about the kitchen... Yes there was a kitchen. it was indeed a very slick kitchen, but a little too slick for my liking. the only fun part playing with the kitchen was it was a touch and feel system. just one soft touch and the drawers and cupboards pop up with such smooth elegance. cruise control baby and a totally handle-free kitchen. so i went and started pressing and opening all the drawers and cupboards. i was seriously intrigued with the system. my director jsut shook his head with embarrassment. then after i had enough of opening all the cupboards, i told my director that the kitchen does not come with a hob. his eyes sprung open with shocked! indicating my hand was leaning against the hob. he walked off and told not to go around identifying myself from the office. sad indeed. even the the pop-up waste was electronically controlled. but my conclusion was its just a nice kitchen for display. i still think Bulthaup kitchens are much more functional. oh and the kitchen system cost around 300k. thats more than the Porsche automobile that was parked outside at the entrance. but really the whole purpose of attending such event is not about the girls nor the kitchen. its the free flow of drinks and food!! they had a running kitchen with 2 celebrity chefs cooking and serving us non stop and a cocktail bar. i was told that Kitchen Culture holds cooking lessons at the showroom. but its $200 per lesson. and on top of that, you can't qualify to attend such events unless you've bought one of their Poggen Pohl kitchens. i'm sure Jamie Oliver will not approve of such things. cooking is for everyone. rich or poor.

went keyboard scouting in the afternoon. i realised that keyboards are rather expensive! how am i to start my lessons if i cant practice. i'll have to make some sacrifices i guess. and just to think, i just bought tickets for "blonde bombshells of 1943". sigh.

warrior essentials...

one of my favorite columns featured in Fortune magazine is the 'road warriors' segment. the column features a list of travel essentials of a business/ journalist celebrity. so i decided to do a quick one of my own just for the fun of it before i head for dinner. but its not a travel essentials list as my current job and position does not require me to do much of it. instead just some of my must HAVEs and DOs.

1. style cue? my non-working clothes usually consists of: running shoes, flip-flops, t-shirts, track pants, sun glasses. i go for the extreme comfort.

2. tech savvy? apple has a very special place in my heart.


3. dream vacation? my next destination -> Rome. but ultimately, i reckon the best vacation has to be KK doing absolutely nothing with a pint of beer.



4. post-stressed meal? fine dining is indeed my vice. Prego's would be my choice. the tiramisu is to die for and the place opens way beyond midnight. a good choice for a hungry architect late at night. its a good thing these stressful nights does not come by so very often, most of the time i'm just flat out.



5. and to wash it down? Botrytis Semillon especially from Noble One. ever since JM bought me my first bottle, I have continued to love it thus far. i am quite the sweet tooth.


6. watch? i never really bothered much about watches. an excuse was that i refused to be bounded by curfews and i just couldn't decide on any of the choices. This unfortuantely resulted in poor punctuality. During my swiss trip, i decided to get myself a souvenir and ofcourse the best choice would be to get a swiss made watch. now i have it wrapped around my wrist close to 24/7.



7. Hangout? No.5 @ emerald hill is the place. Vodkas and Martinis on a Friday night makes the week less painful.

latest music... obsession

when i told my colleague that i had been listening and looping this album for the past 3 weeks, he had this worried look on his face. the songs has a somewhat hypnotic tune to it that can just keep listening to, and everytime i try to shuffle into another album, i just ended up reverting back to this one because all other songs sounded so wrong.
After telling him of how much i love this album despite the fact that i do not understand a single word of it. He replied saying to me that all the songs are tragic and depressing. i gasped and paused for a moment in shocked yet not surprised as the tunes does sound a little on the melancholy side. then asked him if he had any more of their albums.
the lead singer's voice is really hypnotic i tell you. ofcoz you should try not to look out for his picture... he looks abit "zhupa-ish". but one damn good "zhupa"with a good singing voice.

separation anxiety...

its coming to 12 and i am still at the office. flying off tomorrow but i have yet to start on my packing. im trying to zip my specifications to be sent to the QS, but i think compressing 30 over MB of word documents will probably take another half hour or so. so i have also taken the liberty to check my drawings, im suppose to print all of the drawings out tomorrow. its pretty cool to know 80 over drawings were drawn and conceptualized by me and all of it is my own masterpiece. haha. that alone can be my portfolio. i can throw away all my student works etc and just purely depend on this set of tender documents for my next job interview. ofcourse that depends if im legally able to do so. well, i hope after this tender stage, the next one would be much more smooth sailing. its such a pain especially whenever you need help all would give me the "i'm busy" gesture and excuse. but atleast the light is beginning to be seen in the distance.

consultants meeting today, basically sitting everyone down to see where all of us are. i think the rest of the consultants are gonna flip when i inform them of my absence again. then they would think it would be a trend that each time i call for a meeting it would mean that i'm leaving for the week. this is already the second time i'm doing it. in a way, it is quite the wrong of timings, but yet again will there be ever a good one? probably there will be. but when events collide in such manner all you can do is... *blank.

since this compressing is taking forever, and i spent the last few hours re-reading all the specs and replying tender queries. i shall then write something here. atleast something non-work related.

damn! received an sms from my superior... wishing me a good trip because when i get back i must be refreshed to host the stupid bloody exhibition. its already enough being asked to curate the last minute exhibit, thankfully i managed to escape from most part of the work load and only needed to give my "sincere" and enlightening comments and oppinions of the panels. but i dread being the MC for the night. i'll probably pee in my pants standing in front of everybody. i sure hope i'll lose my voice or the exhibit be scrap due to some unexplainable reason. aliens? oh too late for that.

okay that was not really a non-work-related thing. let me see...
church on sunday. then later i had to attend some Architour thing which i incidently totally eluded from my brain until my boss reminded me the day before that i was suppose to attend. but i had actually made plans to work at the office after church. in the end that took up most of the afternoon and we ended the tour at orchard road. so we had philipino food for dinner which was awefully sinful. the pork knuckles was a killer. but damn crispy and yummy. its the sort of indulgence that should be kept to a yearly basis. but this is already the second time i've eaten it. that was probably the highlight of the day, given the fact taht i was practically starving during the whole tour. i only had "chai tao kuey" after church which wasnt really sustainable food.

well one other proud thing i did was i skipped the last and final designer's forum series. well i was pretty tired and i'd rather spend my fridays with more fun things. ofcourse the next day when i met one of the moderators, he was upset that i wasnt there and everything was a mess during my absense, which ofcoz was not my fault. ofcourse i couldnt really be bothered and half listen to him agonizing how bad it was. so i just said... err... i think i said nothing. okay that was really irresponsible of me. but technically i am not actually needed there. they just love to see my face, it gives them some comfort esspecially when the response from the audience is bad. but its anticipated that the crowd would be unresponsive, its a friday night.
this reminds me, i have to write an email to all the moderators for their involvement and thanking them for their perseverance and support. i wonder if i can get SIA to sponsor dinner. i remember the last time i asked and the secretariat said i can. hmmm let me see... where should we eat? must be atleast a 60SDG per head restaurant minimum. it should be peanuts for the organization. heck they sold the designer forum tickets for like 100 dollars per session.

ah finally it has compressed. but still very big. what am i to do? i am getting sleepy now geez no wonder... its close to 1am. okay i thing i better end here and focus on compressing the files.

next agenda...

life's a dance... we all have to do- boogie!

I am so dearly proud of my mother. a twinkle of a tear popped out my eyes as i read through dad's and mom's entry. so amazing how she has come this far and in way achieved a new feat in malaysian history. and for sure we have a new destination to spend for the coming Christmas! with or without the other siblings! muaha-ha-ha. oh dear... i better check if i still have enough leave.

Apart from the exciting news. life's much about work. but there is this new place i've discovered over the weekend- casualpoet culture, up on one of the shophouses in Chinatown. I decided to try the place out and brought all my pending paperwork from the office up the narrow stairs entering a red door with nothing but a tiny "open" sign hung onto the door knob. but as i entered... it felt like a whole different dimension. the place was quiet and with a few of anti-socials and students. they had proper tables and each placed next to a window... very quaint. so i ended up there for the rest of the day up till closing time. time flies. nevertheless there were 2 faults about the place.
01. the food/ coffee is terrible and extremely pricey for such poor quality
02. the choice of music is... not of my generation.
apart from that... the place isn't too bad. the poor service made up for the fact that then i am completely uninterrupted.

today... i had the strangest lunch appointment. after church, i was invited to lunch with the family of a friend. at first i did not think much about the invite. my impression was that it would be a casual lunch with her mother and she, somewhere at one of the food centers. later to discover that it was with a larger portion of the family at crystal jade. Even at that time, i did not put much thought to it until halfway during lunch it suddenly dawn on me that this is indeed a weird setting. for one, i hardly knew any of them. i had only met her mom and her the previous weekend out of coincidence after church. but i guess i'm not complaining. it was rather enjoyable and the food was much better than the one i had the night before- horrible chicken pasta! yuck!

I have thus far concluded that it seems that i apparently do not in any way "look" like a Malaysia. no one... so far have been able to guess my nationality/ my age (sadly) and sometimes even my marital status accurately.


i dearly miss the family gatherings and certain routines back in the days.

where's... sammy?

its that time of the year...

short weekend getaway to Malacca. despite it being the most bad of timings... i still went up nonetheless. Well i did not had much of a choice since it was pre-planned months ago. but getaways are always fun especially during the most busiest of times. ofcourse i am not re-energized nor refreshed... in-fact it was rather exhausting and i think my stomach has expanded over the weekend. time to tie a knot on it.
One thing perhaps i noticed under the deceiving warm hotel bathroom lights is the hideous looking eye bags. people have always commented on them but i never really had a good look at them until now. and so i discovered that it really looks horrible! i seriously look forward to the end of September... all this will end too, atleast momentarily for the weeks creeping up to christmas! 4 months to go!

i have been receiving many phone calls as the wedding draws closer. the day of reckoning for the husband to be. i can hear all in excitement in everyones voices. so many things to plan and to do for the husband to be im am sure he has not the time to reflect and rethink. sounds so wrong. but i guess we're more excited of having the group together which has not been possible for many years. they will be numerous gatherings as the year end approaches. yes! when September ends indeed it will be the light at the end of the tunnel. but until then... its all still rather dark and gloomy.

as of late i have been involve in other architectural ECAs. and alot of them involves writing which i find it rather odd. I write terribly. yet i have been tasked into writing synopsis and reviews. well, just as long as do not have to write speeches for my bosses, then its still okay. but these miscellaneous activities have been eating alot into my time. apart from disrupting my daily works it has already become a pain in the head when i try to sleep. already tossing and turning over design issues is such a nuisance... this just adds to the misery.

well i would love to show you the current kitchen im working on. but i think it'll have to wait until it gets built. its a rather expensive kitchen, a $120k customized Bulthaup kitchen system to be exact. man... its just crazy! its double the cost for the kitchen i did for the penthouse. ofcourse this is a much bigger kitchen than the previous one. but still... it's really expensive. i really wonder if my client will be willing to pay for such a price. and this does not include the other items for the house. i am still struggling to select fittings for my client. every thing in the DornBracht catalogue looks so expensive. even i am very concern over my clients pocket. and to think quarter of a million of the budget will only be spent on the kitchen and sanitary fittings.
bad... after finishing this house... i will never be able to settle for the things of the mediocre any more.

spoilt for choice indeed...

the reasons i won't be coming...

rushing for tender... how on earth can i complete my documentation by the end of September?! if i do managed to do so... it really is an amazing feat. And i will vow not to repeat such a feat ever again. never ever!

i hate working on weekends. i think the reason being is because i know that technically i shouldn't be working on the weekends. but i guess there isnt much of a choice in this case. atleast not for the next few weeks and months ahead.

really can't wait till the house finally gets to be on site. i've been pretty sick of staring at it on paper. its high time the thing gets built.

Thank goodness the client liked the new design. it was a tremendously extensive change from the initial approved design. Its indeed a risk i had to pay ofcourse. time waits for no man. but i'm glad i made the changes. i honestly did not think much of the previous one, the flat nor sloping roof design was... well, it never did work for me. lets see how it goes. Boss says its gonna be a fun house to built. thats if the drawings are in order ofcourse. all fingers are pointing at me. damn.

on another note. i think i passed my exam. I'm officially a Green Mark Manager! i survived a week without a single phone call from the Building Construction Authority. so this must mean that i pass... hopefully.

and to leave you with the on-going progress of my other work... sigh... also very slow. faster! faster! PIAK! PIAK!

the art of doing absolutely nothing...

wishful thinking... enough said.