zip-a-dee-doo-dah... bibbidi-bobbidi-boo

i've finally ran out of fairy dust and am back to living the Asian way of life. Time really had stopped while i was away. nothing was completed and all was left untouched. sigh and you thought life would go on without you... apparently this does not apply in my work life. oh well...

tsk tsk... but soon i will be leaving on a jet plane again in 2 days time! haha! the party is not over yet. and to think i've scheduled a presentation the following Monday. hopefully, things would just miraculously be completed while im away this time.

Will post up pictures shortly. once i've cleaned up all the pictures. i've managed to take over 1000 pictures. thats pretty substantial in my standards for a person like me who rarely takes photographs.
but being assigned as the designated photographer... what choice did i have? its snap this... snap that... " sam.. please take this... please make sure you get a shot of that... sam the lighting ia perfect to take a shot at that angle, make you you get the image with the shadow cast exactly falling 45 degress onto the building..."
its a small price to pay to get a free meal in a posh restaurant and a nice warm bed to sleep every night.

and its off to Zurich...

the week had gone by so painfully quick. so much to do and more so left unfinished.
But then again, work will never end.
the worst part of the week was falling sick right in the middle of the week. I was not able to take leave becaused i've already scheduled 5 meetings. Woke up on the wednesday morning feeling so hot and my body was aching like hell. Was so upset, of all days... it had to be during the busiest week.
but the good news is. Am feeling much better, and i hope my immune system will be in full swing for the trip.
am now in Changi airports newest terminal 3. i must say, the building is indeed a dissapointment. beside from the fact it was done by CPG. the building had no meaning and soul to it. everything around felt like it was done without a reason, but purely ornamental.
Well i think the previous terminal seems more well thought of and planned. of course the good thing is that everything here is still very new.
anyway, just wanna to wish everyone... Ta Ta!

3 more days before the trip!

instead of heading back to the office over the weekend to slave out all my works before the trip. i decided to skip the trip altogether.
Why? its all because of this little creature...



This is ZUMTHOR. the kitty poo. I must say, cats are indeed very clever creatures. it was very easy to toilet train Zumthor. Just one demonstration and she got it.
Just so you know, i did not poo right in front of the cat. that would be just an aweful sight. although it would be good way to train a puppy i think. or maybe little Zumthor is just so brilliant... ain't you zumthor.

The little creature just waltzed in my apartment. So far no one has claimed for ownership. all my neighbors chased it everytime it lingered around their premises. I've asked all the other cats.. and they can't seem to tell me where Zumthor's mommy is.

Zumthor is adapting to this new environment very well. Will show some pictures later of how well its adapted.

did you know cats require 16hours of sleep per day? damn... and they called me a pig.

of course im now looking for a baby sitter while im overseas. any takers?


just to give you an idea of how tiny Zumthor is...

endless paperwork...

i must confess and i'm sure some of you already know this. I utterly hate doing paperwork! but on second thought, it has begun to grow on me. I feel very "office-y" (if you get my drift) every time i'm handling these administrative task.
The down side however, it has become the majority part of my working life. during office hours, its all of that and none of designing. although people approach me to help them resolve their own design works, which is however not beneficial to my own designs.

was sharing with one of my friend yesterday about my current aspirations. I would to design and built a school. But not the sort of schools (in Dubai) my current office are engaged with. Instead it would be great if i could design a village school or missionary schools back in KK/ Malaysia.
I have been dreaming up different ways i would design and built a school referencing from past memories of my old school days experience. Re-envisioning the kind of spaces and environment while i was a teen.
Of course, I am still hoping in some miraculous way being handed a commission to design a resort as well.
All of these seems rather far fetched. But we all must dream. the bigger the better.

Just before my big boss was leaving for home. He offered me to take home his new MacBook Pro laptop to play with. My goodness, i was shocked (i would never let anyone touch my baby, ever!). Ever since i queried him about his laptop. he's been showing it off to me without fail every night. Telling me how wonderful it is and apple is just the greatest. I couldn't agree more, as i myself being an avid devotee to the fruit.
Now that apple is being supported by Intel Core processor, it has now become possible to run Windows on a mac. pretty amazing stuff. So my boss asked me to take his baby home to test out and see how well does Windows run on a mac. if its as smooth as running on a normal PC. heck the PC can really close shop man.

okay. i shall end here and go fiddle with and rape his Apple and watch my Korean drama!

the "happy slave"...

given up for the day... seems like i'm beginning to slow down and gradually am becoming lazier.

some update photos of my life in the office... its a disaster!

biofuels... its a battle between humans and automobiles

its close to the end of the week and yet theres still so much pending work to be done. i really doubt i'm able to sort out all my things before the trip(s).
been feeling so easily fatigue this week. don't know why. it definitely isnt the busiest week i've had. things don't help when you have an annoying QS who keeps calling every 5 minutes every day! call up to asked for stupid stuff or expecting me to answer emails/ queries sent out seconds ago. in addition, she's not even a pretty QS. i know im shallow, but it helps if the QS was pretty or atleast has a sexy voice. this particular one is unfortunately "chingchongy". always need her to repeat her sentences and even that does not help make it any clearer. argh! My boss knows that i cant stand her... so naturally he makes favors for the QS and me having to deal with her and do all the unnecessary dirty work.
Today was a built up of all these sickening calls. true enough, the first call i had for the day was from the QS. Sadly for her, me being in grumpy morning mood had no patients at all. I started raising my voice at her, which i so rarely do (but she annoys me like crazy!). i could tell she knew i wasn't sounding very happy. i kept refusing to answer her quesries and insist she go figure it out herself. She is a persistent little fly and kept pestering me to help her. but she not knowing how to read drawing dimensions cant be my fault, dammit your the QS... calculating quantities is supposedly your forte! damn! thankfully that phone call was miraculously the one and only for the day. atleast some peace of mind from her for a day.

later in the afternoon, i received a phone call from a head hunting agency. Apparently i was head hunted and offered a Project Manager job in Vietnam. how on earth did they track me down? I declined the offer with a slight reluctance on my tone because i was actually quite curious on what this job was about and more so on the offered salary. Did not dare to query further because sitting at close proximity by was my boss. ah nevermind, hopefully another offer would come by my window again. hehe.

i am... contemplating on getting a new apple desktop. just sent my powerbook for repair. apparently the CD drive is busted. and it cost a bomb to replace it. sigh... no money. how come my boss never pay me more?!

other bad news! visit to the Thermal Baths in Vals is not possible! the building is not open to the public during this time of the year! so sad!!!!!!!!!!!! that was the highlight of the trip for me!

it has been awhile...

things i would like to update before i call it a day at the office...

1. swiss trip in less than a month's time. time for shopping!
2. sister coming to singapore... no extra bed/ mattress for the couple. *gasp*
3. spilled coffee onto my keyboard. the letter Q and A abit sticky to press. must sort it out
4 . a gazillion things to do. and it keeps on piling.
5. added 2 new projects into my job scope: a high rise condo and interior designing job for a penthouse unit. this makes it 4 for now.
6. went scouting for some over priced furnitures for the ID job over the weekend.
7. still no where near in finishing my tender documentation for my sentosa house.
8. presentation next monday to the client for the high rise condo project. stress level going up
9. attended the EARTHWINDFIRE/ OMARSOSA/ YANOKAMI in lieu of the Mosaic Music Festival
10. just realised that i have not finish my minutes. but am too tired to do anything now.

and it feels like...

it's already 5pm on a gloomy Sunday. i've got presentation/meeting with the client tomorrow for my third job. this is indeed one of the toughest site to handle. its so hard to juxtapose between the site constraints and the clients wishes.
i have already spent more than a week on this design and still have yet to generate a floor plan. and what's worst is my AutoCAD has seriously hung. i think it has given up on this site.
i have a feeling that i will be in serious trouble tomorrow. despite telling the client that it would be impossible to produce a decent floor plan tomorrow... still all they care about is instant results no matter how difficult it is... their deadline is non-negotiable.
but most of all i am more worried about being slaughtered by my boss. hate it when he panics.



A snapshot of the late-showflat. sadly most good things don't last forever.

its time for... ME COMPLAIN!!

It is so depressing that now 2 out of my 3 clients have gotten hold of my personal handphone number. Which in my opinion is a deadly and terrible thing to happen.
At the moment im in serious trouble with my work. So many things to catch up. i'm running out of things to stall my lapses.

Moved in to my new place. its so far off from where i used to stay.

one of colleague came by my desk to kaypo. then she exclaimed... 'wah so nice you get to design..' at that very moment i was so tempted to shove the drawings into her mouth. Instead i replied... 'syok right? you want to do it?'. she kept quite after that but later went on to say she is much more busier than i am. she handle 2 jobs and my jobs are just so small and simple that its close to being insignificant. despite the fact that i run 2 of my jobs independently, i'll have to do the design, submissions, tender drawings, corresponding with the clients in a simultaneous manner. she came in took on the 2 jobs which have already are in motion. hardly any design issues to handle aside from some petty landscaping layout which can be much less than a 3 days max. all she needs to do is attend meetings and write minutes. all her submission drawings are taken care of. why should she be complaining? plus she hardly ever have to work late at the office. when asked to get involve in the competition... all she does is grumbles. when we win... runs away with the money without giving a portion to poor little me. On top of that! she is my senior... so being more experience her current work should be peanuts.

tbc

Middle of the week... tired.

starting to realize what dad meant when he said as time goes by its more of administrative/ contractual work rather than designing.

Evidently during the past three days or even since the week before. i have been bogged down with endless paper work. typing emails/ reports/ letters/ talking to clients/ attending meetings and site visits. Recently been given a new project to run on a temporary basis. somehow rather it feels like its gradually becoming permanent. already the client has become quite accustomed to my voice. its rather fun actually even though alot of my designing time has been eaten up. the worst part is now im running 3 jibs independently. its high time i request for a personal assistant!

Moving house this weekend. the movers quoted $200 for a full service. sigh, lots of money being wasted just to move. i should pay the port a visit and purchase me a container.

Been asked to chaperon the PAM Sabah chapter's visit to one of our office's built works this Saturday on the company's behalf together w angmoh boss. Looking forward to see the bunch. haha

Lately my stomach has been of much nuisance. i get hungry and it starts to growl very so often. sometimes less than 2 hours after my lunch or dinner. I complaint to my boss about it, and he said its because i've been using my brain alot... which he then comment and realized that this would suggests that all the while i've not been using it up till of recent times. damn!

Vamos!

smoking will kill... 1 billion people

i decided to take my parents advice and meet more people rather than buildings for a change. after all, the end users of architecture are the humans and i should get to know better of the species. haha. and so for the first time, buildings were less thought of and a more human oriented focus was adopted. i even picked Conrad over my usual architectural readers for the plane ride back home to KK.
So for the past few days, i have been in and out of the house seeing old friends. friends i've not seen for the last 5-8 years, which were quite a number of them. It's amazing that even after so many years, no one has really drastically changed apart from the physical bit for a few.
Suffice it to say, the most talked about topic was nonetheless about money. and everyone are making their plans of how they can make their monetary breakthrough, all hoping sooner than later.
at times i feel like an idiot sitting through these conversations. thinking I must be living in a world of solipsism. something is wrong with me for being purely interested in architecture and not eyeing to run after for the big bucks. of course i do yearn for a luxurious lifestyle and job opportunities, but all architecturally related.
Everyone wants to venture into the business sector. no one is deeply passionate about their current work, but only the incentives it gives. instead, most hate their jobs and dream to retire and relax as soon as they have the chance. only me being the odd one who sees my architectural pursuance being eternal. perhaps i'm still very optimistic of my life in the profession. due to my insufficient working experience. only being out for a year, i probably have not truly felt and experience the wrath/jaded effect of the working world.
However, one thing is for sure that we all can agree on is the fact that we're all being underpaid!

Finally some wedding bells within the circle. it is indeed a joyous occasion when one of your friends are tying the knot. just the other day, i was talking to my parents about marriages within my circle of friends and realizing maybe my group of friends are undoubtedly a pathetic bunch of hopeless fellas being nowhere near the stage of making prenuptial agreements.
Perhaps everyone is waiting around for each other to make that first step. For the bunch of guys i know, marriage seems to be somewhat of an embarrassment. no one wants to be the first to enter into the realm of fatal amalgamation. But at the end of the day... WE are still very young to be thinking of stepping into such territories. for sure its a thought that will never cross our minds, atleast for the remaining singles.
back to my friend, he was indeed reluctant and slightly scared to share such an auspicious occasion to me. it took him 3 days to finally blurt the thing out. ofcourse it is still to be kept in the dark. However, there is a reason for the early invitation. dad warns of having to eat shit on the groom's behalf- literally. nevertheless, still very honored indeed. muahaha! So that was the important news... 1 down... 8 to go!

Happy Chinese New Year...

I was summoned by my boss to his his office. fear rushed through my head not knowing what to do but to just follow instructions. i thought to myself, " this is it... this is D-day that i will be slaughtered for God knows what." I always have this lingering thought in my head that one day... i'll be whacked by my boss for whatever reason. don't know why, but just is.
I grabbed a stool and positioned it 3feet away from my boss.with anticipation, i watched him as he turns his body, legs crossed towards me with his eyes piercing straight into mine. all i could think was that i wished i had closed the door shut behind me, avoiding the embarrassment i aspect to face with.
however, instead of being slapped in the face, his serious yet shriek-y voice suddenly changed to a smile and said. "just to let you know, we (the partners) have decided to pick you for the study tour to Switzerland in April." he went on mumbling other things... which i just nod my head in agreement.
"however!" he continued, " please bare in mind, you must now plan your workload wisely, and ensure no outstanding work to be pending during the week we leave for Switzerland."
my stress level started to elude my joy as the thought of unending piles of work and the cant help thinking of what the consequences will be after the study tour. having no strings attached is definitely wishful thinking.
nevertheless, still very excited... to be able to visit the land of the swiss cheese fondue. and the opportunity to meet the great architects such as MarioBotta, PeterZumthor, HerzogDeMeuron, GigonGuyer and RogerFederer in the flesh. I will get to physically caress the great swiss buildings with my own hands and be one step closer to understanding the thoughts that ran through the mind of the great LeCorbusier.
wow. but must first finish all my work... and it doesnt help being a one man band for the projects im in-charged of.

also... finally managed to find a new place. no longer will i be in Chinatown. instead i will be moving to Whampoa. some strange place with no MRT in proximity but heaps of buses. atleast theres a direct bus to work. the location isnt seedy as the previous one in commonwealth and its bigger than my current place. plus i guess it was a blessing in disguised that i inherited all the furniture/ household items from this current apartment.

yet again... another competition

and so it begins yet another exciting year ahead. the pistol was fired and we're all off running like wild dogs with a leash.
friday is the deadline. and i have got nothing at hand apart from photos and base cad drawings. the canvas is still blank as it was when the competition was announced.

the office's theme for this year is... "no excuse, be the best!"
how? must shine and stand out from the rest. no choice.

possible trip to... switzerland

this will be Heath Ledger's last movie. so sad... very sad indeed.
maybe this had something to do with the tragedy... shouldn't speculate.

old school funk...

i bought tickets to the EarthWind&FireExperience at the esplanade theater !! Thank goodness i bought it early... tickets are selling like hot cakes. did not want to wait for my colleague to make his decision so i just decided to buy mine first. its a once in a lifetime experience, for whatever is left of the band ofcourse. people aged you know.

short update...

back in singapore after the long Christmas/ new year break. think i managed to put on some weight... which is not encouraged. but what to do... food yummy must eat like theres no tomorrow.

highlights... spend the first day of the new year constructing my new kitchen counter table. built it with supplementary shelfs and wheels. will post a picture of it. thank goodness Ben was around... i would not have been able to carry all the scrap from people's park back home. good weight lifting non the less.

other than that... working. things are beginning to pick up. holiday mood is almost gone.

upcomings... going to watch a play next friday- " the invisible life of mr robert finch'.

current... going home soon. had meetings the whole day. chaired my first site meeting. its obvious my senior is slowly taking the back seat.

improvisation...

my probable new year resolution...


is to play the piano like a cat. damn! indeed a winning combo.

i'll be home for christmas...

the office is empty. some have gone to catch their flight/bus back to their hometown. others have gone home to meet their wifes/ family earlier than usual. and a few have gone for drinks to celebrate and bid their farewell to colleagues leaving for studies. which i so politely declined. i have just about enough of attending office social events and such for the year. it has been one helluva year this year. so many many things happened that i had not foreseen at all. good pr nonetheless- but apparently its part of my training to socialize.

it was good meeting up ben over the past few days. dont know when will be the next time we meet.

ofcourse the only foreseen matter was the working like crazy... and still more to come. it was good to get some minor feedback from the bosses of the year long performance and most importantly the early year end bonus... tsk tsk.

so here i am being the last person in the office, trying to clear up as much as i can before the break. flooding out as many emails to clients and such so i that i could have a good nights sleep. and clearing most but unfortunately not all my overdue workload. after hours are the best times to work actually. because that is the only real time i get to concentrate. damn.

i guess this is the time of the year to reflect back on what has been done.

but seriously, i cant wait for Christmas. ,my personal favorite season of the year. dont exactly know why but just is. as what my colleague would say... "Heck Care".

this entry is very scattered as always. anyway time to go PLAY!!

article from business times

Winning debut in Singapore...

many exciting things have happened recently... just check out this comprehensive compilation on the recent marina south competition for further details... SKPS Projects

I personally don't quite agree to the articles written about us... basically theres no simple and short way of describing our scheme, perhaps maybe the others but definitely not ours!
So disappointing!

I'll post up snippets of the plaque/ trophy later. But seriously... please show us the MONEY!!