musings of a 30-something working singaporean married male...

Rekindling my blog

2009-10-05T08:49:00.000-07:00

To myself, and everyone else,
I would now like to rekindle my blog...yes...ha...

2006-09-16 . Having been back a couple (of) weeks 2

2007-04-01T02:23:00.000-07:00

2006-08-21
Basel (cont'd)

forgive us country pumpkins for gawking at the espresso machine...

dinner was simple italian fare at a quaint sidewalk family restaurant

2006-08-22

breakfast was scrumptuous...there was even a manual nut grinder...and aloe vera yoghurt drink...which i unfortunately found later to have expired...unbelievable but true...

after the hearty breakfast, we headed for Milan...

Milan

The Duomo...

the famous arcade which the architect consecrated with his own blood upon his unfortunate suicide...

inside the Duomo

2006-08-23
Venice

about to take the ferry from the bus interchange to San Marco...

Palladio's Redentore...finally get to see it in the day...

ah...reaching soon...

having alighted at San Marco square , or rather near San Marco...we first walked past the Bridge of Sighs...

San Marco Square...

the tower

one of the many waterways

one of the kids in the tour group ill treating a pigeon...i can't believe i took this photo...sorry dear pigeon...

everyone watches as glass smiths blow up some glass vases...

more exciting was the godola ride...

Rialto...

lunch after the gondola ...

squid ink linguine...i spy a morsel of squid...at least it was reasonably fresh...

Verona

We had a 2 hr pit stop at Verona...some kind of tip for the couch driver...and the tour guide

Romeo and Juliet ignore tourists as they profess their love for the umpteenth time...

Milan(for the night)

the hotel was in the middle of no where...the in house restaurant had run out of food...can u believe it...so we had to eat good'ol reliable Macdonald's ...breaks my heart to see that they had to eat this crap...sorry mum n dad...really...

2006-08-24
Milan to Mt Titlis

the lobby of the hotel which ran out of food...who would've thought...

Mt Titlis(en route)

air-con broke down...

didnt ruin the scenery...

Mt Titlis! the base of it at least...

going up Mt Titlis...

inside an ice cave...

lunch at the peak of Mt Titlis...much too cloudy...

clouds clearing up!

managed to roam outside as the skies cleared briefly...

Lucerne

Calatrava's Lucerne train station hall

Jean Nouvel's Culture Centre next to the train station

an upturned swan...

a blissful swiss honeymoon...

tribute to the many swiss soldiers who lost their lives...

Basel(for the night)

back at the quaint restaurant...

2006-08-25
back to Amsterdam

2006-08-26
Amsterdam

to Groningen

long walk to the hostel...drizzling too...

mum not too happy with the accommodation...

dinner ...

nice place...but water feature in disuse...quite sad...

2006-08-27
Schiermonikoog

waiting for the bus to the harbour

on board the ferry...

On Schiermonikoog

lunch...

smoked salmon sandwich...

beautiful Schiermonikoog!

Dinner at a Macedonian steak house..

2006-08-28

Rotterdam

lunch at Qi Lin Ge...

walked through Richard Meier's municipal building

Back in Delft...

to get souvenirs...

met Huiping

Hyeon Jin n Chongsu...

cows behind my dorm...

apple trees near my dorm...

pre-departure party...

there is no end to Rai's jokes...

we had to look away so that Vanessa wouldn't feel embarrased...

2006-08-29
to Singapore...

yay! I'm home!

Return from Weifang Trip 2...Lost a toenail

2007-03-30T00:52:00.000-07:00

It seems a little mishap happened in my hotel room on the first night in Shanghai...I had just switched off the lights and was heading for my bed (to sleep mind you)when I kicked my suitcase...

I looked at my toenail in the bathroom and was flabergasted...my big toenail had flipped open! It then reminded me of a ferocious crocodile with its gaping jaws...before long, blood was all over the place...and I tried using the facial towels to stop the bleeding but to no avail...after a while, when I recovered from the shock I realized I needed help...I called Eddie and asked the hotel staff if they had first aid...they didnt...

...before long Eddie came to me rescue...we headed for the nearest hospital and waited for a while for the doc on duty...only to realize after much searching over the entire hospital that he was sleeping in the room!...o well...he suggested that I leave the toenail on as I was going to Weifang the following morning...taking it off may mean that I wouldnt be able to walk at all for some time...so he poured disinfectant over my wound...ooohh...he then wrapped it up like a present and sent me to get my injections...

it was already 3am when we reached home...we had to leave for Weifang at 6am later...i was really filled with wonder at my predicament...

The next few days at Weifang saw the ice between me and the clients melt easily because of my toe...a blessing in disguise indeed...

Last night, four days after that fateful night, I returned home to Singapore and immediately headed for Changi Hospital for treatment...the doc gave me four stitches and MC till next tuesday...i wondered if it was too much...until I reached home...I needed my parents to act as crutches as each hop sent a throb to my toe and a surge of pain...i couldnt sleep until i popped some pain killers....here are pictures taken of the minor operation...not for the faint hearted...

Maxy...

2007-03-30T00:42:00.000-07:00

Been a long time since I uploaded stuff...here's Maxy at Sentosa...beautiful isn't she?....

2006-09-27 . Today I gana langa...

2006-09-27T03:34:00.000-07:00

For those of you on the CTE this morning and you were swearing at the cause of the jam, this was the reason. My car gana langa...Please understand...you were held up for fifteen minutes, but we were held up for the whole day, not withstanding the inconvenience of police reporting, car repairing and insurance claiming...

I had jammed my brakes because of a shiny metallic fallen object in the middle of the CTE, and before I knew it, my Corolla jerked violently and I heard a simultaneous bang; I knew I gana langa liao...I couldn't believe my luck...I stopped the car and got out, stunned but otherwise unhurt...I surveyed the damage on my rear and found it to be rather slight, considering the resounding bang I just heard...is my Corolla really that powderful??

...It didn't take long before I fully understood why there was such a loud bang...the van which had hit me had its own rear creamed by the lorry behind it...looking at the glass on the road one would agree too...

the butt of the van which hit my Corolla...

the lorry and its driver ... notice the metallic fallen object...

the paramedics whom I had called, finally got onto the site, amidst much fanfare, to convey the driver of the van, who had sustained severe neck trauma and was semi-conscious, to SGH probably.

2006-09-16 . Having been back for a couple weeks

2006-09-15T23:32:00.000-07:00

I returned to sunny, albeit perpetually, Singapore, 2 and a half weeks ago, and have only just been able to sit down to pen the happenings since the last entry just after the visit to Jeong Min's at Gooi.

The week following the Gooi visit was spent basically clearing up my room; and I must say that I almost used up a fresh roll of trash bags from C1000. (I must add that earlier on, about a month after I started to use the rat poison, I managed to find a motionless Minnie lying next to my dustbin; the deceased rodent was behind the dustbin so I was not able to detect its presence till I was emptying it. On closer inspection, I noticed that there were black stripes on its belly. To my knowledge, they were not supposed to have them, at least not on those I reared several years ago; so I suspected that that was a sign that it was decaying. I was then apprehensive as to whether its innards would spill out should I pick it up, its belly for the moment providing just enough integrity. Anyway, to cut the long story short, I finally managed to pick it up with several layers of paper and plastic bags; and no its abdomen did not give way. Thank God. What struck me soon after was the absence of the other two. To this day I still have no idea where they are. )

Fast forward to 2006-08-15

parents arrive

got on a train to Delft

Stopped over at Den Haag to change train

Walking to SpaceBox

not before stopping at the library

and the EE building

workshop...

day ended with dinner I made...

2006-08-16

parents finally got to see the MODEL

us n our models

couldnt bear to throw or burn them, so decided to let the school deal with it...

the fateful picturesque pond where my roof was blown into...

parents surveying the crime scene...

the mobile fencing which I had used with the help of my friends to decend into the murky waters of the deep...

parents looking really happy...

dad n me...

mum n me...

Rotterdam to look for my jacket...

Erasmus bridge...

Bolles & Wilson...

again...

spider against Erasmus and Noorderijland...

tapas like dinner near Blaak station...

Blaak Station...

2006-08-17

Keizo, Me

Keith, Me, Adu

Eric, Me

Me, Yanling

Me, Lionel, Keith

Clarence, Me, Lionel, Keith, Yanling

Me, Keith

Me, Rickey

Me, Chisuan

Clarence, Sonny, Me

Stephen Read, Me

Yingjun's hubby, Me

Clarence, Me

Me, Raimund

Yijia, Me

Xiaoling, Me

Me, Lionel

Me, Yuzhong

Eric, Yingjun, her hubby

Me, Liu Chuan Hong

Me, Xiongxi

Jiang Guang Hui+...

Anne, Me

teaching us how to cover our backsides...

Lily, Raimund

Me, Yang Yang

Me, ZhouJing

Adu, Lily

Me, Lily

Lily, Rickey

Yang Yang, Sonny

Grace, YY

Mihou...

Alex Vollebregt...

parents...

Sunmeng, Me

...Weiliang...Chen Hao...

...Gaku

Wangyan...

...Wangxun

...Zhaopeng, Liang Zheng Kun...

...JeongMin

...Misha...

Pan Xiao Chuan...

Cum Lauders...

Sebas...

2006-08-18

Meera

Sarah...

Kinderdijk...

2006-08-19

Maastricht...

Vla pastry...

Aldo Rossi's rocket...

Hide-&-Seek couple...

but wait...he has found another ...

the audience is stunned into silence...

one of the couple's frequent tiffs...

but they soon get back together...

and he starts to clown around...

Sunmeng packing before going off to the States

2006-08-20

today we just hung around Delft

the same spot I was blown off by bike last year...

on the way to C1000 to get stuff for tonight's party...

wonder how the bike ended on top of the sculpture...

Keizo and I cooked for the Spaceboxers...

crab got eaten by mussel?

the party starts and not many turn up ... not even Alex, who said he will DEFINITELY go...well...erhem...
Keizo n Zhoujing pray for more people...haha...

the party heats up with Clarence's arrival...

'atmosphere generator' at work...

spreading lurve...

all over...

some get a little weary...haha...

and it spreads...

like wild fire...

spreading...

Lily...can always be found teasing Raimund...

they always said there was something between Clarence and Chen Hao...apparently they were right...Food...

after the party...

2006-08-21

2006-08-11/13 . Gooi (Jeong Min's place)

2006-08-13T06:02:00.000-07:00

This weekend we (Keizo, Chisuan and I) went to Jeong Min's place to tour the Gooi district, a popular green area near Amsterdam.

The train station at Naarden(?)

After goin to AHA to get groceries, we headed to Jeong Min's place where his friend was also staying for the weekend. Our welcome dinner was a really delicious korean dish made of rice cake, eggs and chilli sauce.

Jeong Min's room in the morning of the 12th

his kitchen...

they were making sushi for breakfast and lunch...

entrance to his apartment...

how it looks from the street...

we started our bike tour at around 1 plus in the afternoon...

coming across many meadows and farm animals...

We stopped over at the city center and saw how a calvinistic cathedral looked like...

after continuing our tour into the forest, it started to rain and we seeked shelter at a primary school playground where we had our packed sushi lunch...

we then headed towards the lake

where we had some drinks...

on the way home Keizo's bike screwed up...

he had to hang onto Jeong Min...

After another night at Jeong Min's, we headed back for Delft...

archi gallery as we pulled into Amsterdam Central...

us and our bikes...

Keizo's bike actually miraculously repaired itself until we were somewhere near home...where the whole rear gear selection mechanism broke...

2006-08-07 . Guang Hui's Wedding party + Shoko/Bokyeong's farewell party

2006-08-08T06:05:00.000-07:00

The evening began with Jiang Guang Hui's wedding party...as usual there were the wedding games...

Then on to Shoko and Bok Yeong's farewell party...

Shoko with our farewell cap...

Sonny feeling a little drunk...couldn't focus on the camera...

some parting shorts with Shoko-chan...

2006-08-04/06 . Sailing @ Ijsselmeer

2006-08-08T01:30:00.000-07:00

04

Today we left for Enkhuisen in the afternoon, where we boarded the clipper Onrust and spent the night at the harbour. We had a really homely dinner in the cabin, where our chef Keizo whipped up a wonder of a meal that consisted of thai curry, tacos and tapas. Much of the night was spent playing cards with me in the background playing the guitar I bought specially for this trip; bringing my other guitar (Ibanez) would have been too risky.

The harbour as seen from the Enkhuisen train station.

we spent 150euro at Aldi...food for dinner tonight... (photo courtesy of Eric)

Walking to the Onrust clipper against a cloudy evening sky...

the Onrust

how the sleeping quaters look... (photo courtesy of Eric)

Jeong Min fishing for the night's meat... (photo courtesy of Eric)

Keizo our resident chef... (photo courtesy of Eric)

I entertained as they cooked... (photo courtesy of Eric)

and they did whatever they did... (photo courtesy of Eric)

(photo courtesy of Eric)

Keizo's Thai curry ...

(photo courtesy of Eric)

the last three left eating... (photo courtesy of Eric)

after dinner entertainment

(photo courtesy of Eric)

05

05 morning breakfast time...

Skipper Peter explaining our route of passage...(photo courtesy of Chisuan)

a worryingly cloudy morning...(photo courtesy of Chisuan)

Melanie teaching us how to tie a knot...(photo courtesy of Chisuan)

...helping to unfold the sails...(photo courtesy of Chisuan)

lifting the sails...tougher than we thought...

(photo courtesy of Keizo)

Clarence and Keizo enjoying a moment under the sail...(photo courtesy of Chisuan)

sails up...started sailing...

(photo courtesy of Keizo)

Clarence and Wangxun...

Clarence and Wangxun...again...

Eric and Raimund...hmm...

(photo courtesy of Keizo)

(photo courtesy of Keizo)

(photo courtesy of Keizo)

Skipper Peter at the wheel...

Keizo and Shoko in the net...

note the angle the clipper was tilting...we had to stay on deck just so we didn't get seasick...the wind was against us, therefore we were forced to sail a zigzag route if we wanted to go northwards...

(photo courtesy of Keizo)

(photo courtesy of Raimund)

(photo courtesy of Raimund)

(photo courtesy of Raimund)

Melanie(?) the skipper's help...

how did Lily manage to read in all that wind and clipper tilt...

Keith had to rest his feet against the railings to keep from sliding off...

Raimund and his big head...

we reached a rural beach somewhere north of where we launched and started a BBQ...

Keith and Grace enjoying a divine moment on the beach...

Adu and the food...

Schnook waiting for us to give her food...(photo courtesy of Keizo)

Today was Xiaoling's birthday so a cheese cake and a strawberry cake were supervised by Keizo (photo courtesy of Eric)

06

(photo courtesy of Keizo)

breakfast before we started back home...

(photo courtesy of Eric)

(photo courtesy of Keizo)

(photo courtesy of Keizo)

lunch on deck ...

Adu the boss...

Raimund surveying his 'target'...

...and missed...

yoga...gaga...(photo courtesy of Eric)

sunbathing...

Eric taking his afternoon tea...(photo courtesy of Eric)

(photo courtesy of Keizo)

(photo courtesy of Keizo)

my cubicle in the Onrust I shared with Raimund...the sink was even larger than the one in the Spacebox!

Onrust's resident dog Schnook...

On the way home, we took up most of the upper deck of the train back...I decided to do some basking... (photo courtesy of Eric)

2006-07-26/27 . Innsbruck

2006-07-30T11:11:00.000-07:00

to Innsbruck!

26th

at the train station...

at the Swarovski Crystal Worlds

a cute little toddler I found in the city center while making a call...

beautiful organ in one of the cathedrals...

nice night shots ...

27th .... flew back to Amsterdam

2006-07-24/25 . Graz

2006-07-30T10:56:00.000-07:00

the route to Graz was decidedly on higher ground...we were in the clouds!!!

we found a nice cozy restaurant where we had really a lot to eat...xiaoling had ribs; rai and I each had schnitzels...

my schnitzel cannot be called a cutlet...it's a pig...

poor rai...''i'm a slave....for you...''

24th
today was a monday, so unfortunately Peter Cook's bag pipe was closed...but we could still take some exterior shots...

the cafe bridge just near by...

and onwards to the hill top via the funicular...

...Rai doing the 'bee' dance...

it was hot so we had another beer...seriously beer does cool you down...burp***

rai the thinker....ya rite...

xiaoling gleefully killing the bee that taught Rai how to dance...

let's not talk about me...

xiaoling the white , rai the black...

while in the park on the way down from the hill top, we decided to take a nap...it was a really lazy afternoon if you havnt noticed by now...

and there was a really cute little toddler too!

the tour guides deciphering where we were...

we were probably the only customers this guy was gona get for the night...so he gave us all the meat he had left on the rotisserrie...he even toasted us some bread...

the bag pipe at night seen from the hill top

the bag pipe seen close up...

25th
sorry no interior photos...the gallery assistants outnumbered us three to one...they captured very possible angle; never let us out of their sights...then again all the interior shots can be gotten from the brochure...

but one thing they don't show in the brochure...the magnificent view from the loading bay...a pity there is no path through the building via this corridor...the only ones who are able to experience this are the service personnel...pity pity...

later on at noon, we visited the mess of a local catholic school...nice organic shape...but the sister who graciously showed in complained about its impracticality...too noisy...difficult to use...yada yada...

2006-07-22/23 . Vienna

2006-07-30T10:45:00.000-07:00

this was Rai and Xiaoling's second time to Vienna...but they too were not bored...

22nd

Gehry's predecessor...

Nouvel?

Himmel Blau

duno who
but nice ....

posing posing...

a very elaborate alter piece at St. Karl's Cathedral

in the evening we attended a concert at the Vienna Konzerthaus featuring Mozart and Strauss ... this year is Mozart's 250th anniversary btw...while collecting our tickets, we found out from a chinese compatriot that the main act of Vienna, the orchestra which plays at the Vienna State Opera was actually at Salzburg for their annual 2 month stint there in summer! Well at least we could hear the second best...

23rd morning

walking the streets on a sunday morning means that no shops are open, but there were still countless tourists hanging around...at least the museums were open...

inside the cathedral at the city center...Rai...giving Xiaoling a piece of his mind...haha...no la...

such expressive sculpture...

treated to free tenor performance at the palace compound...next to the entrance to the Sisi museum...

interior of the Vienna State Opera as seen from the emperor's box...renting the emperor's tea room just behind this box costs 500 euros for half an hour during intervals...and a dress circle box you see in the above picture costs 16,000 euros each on the night of the annual Vienna Opera Ball...you better be reaaaallly rich to attend...but then again it depends on how many you can squeeze into the box....technically if you could squeeze 16,000 people into each box, then it would only cost 1 euro each....cheap!....woohoo!...

2006-07-21 , Hallstatt

2006-07-30T10:32:00.000-07:00

to Hallstatt!

en route to Hallstatt from Salzburg, we got comfortable...

great view from the train...

at Hallstatt

lunch was roast chicken wrapped in lettuce and pickled chillis...hmmm...

after lunch siesta...

rai feeling hot...

posing...

really a picture perfect little town...

...cemetery with a view...

awww....leaving Hallstatt....boohoo...

2006-07-20 . Salzburg

2006-07-30T10:17:00.000-07:00

It was evening when we arrived in Salzburg...as usual, we immediately headed for the nearest supermarket and got our dinner ingredients...

lots of spaghetti and stir fried minced meat and xiaoling's salted veges coupled with lettuce tossed with tomatoes and fresh mozzeralla...a wonder it tasted so good despite the lack of salt...

view from our room at St. Sebastian...which is actually a part of a chapel or something...

the setting sun at the city center

even later than just now...

2006-07-19/20 . Konigsee

2006-07-30T10:03:00.000-07:00

the view was just getting better as the trip progressed...

scenery as seen from the train...

we reached Bergtesgarten where we found a hotel at Konigsee to spend the night...great hotel finding and booking service at the Tourist Info even though the office was closed...there was a hotel finding computer like thing which helped us locate the hotel we wanted to stay and even had a dedicated telephone to help us make the call!

a little river at Bergtesgarten...

after arriving at our hotel, which was just next to the lake, Rai decided to hit the ice cold water...

beautiful evening view from the banks...

dinner was instant noodles and smoked salmon sandwiches...what a combi...

20th morning

Rai wanted a crash course on nail polishing...

then we headed out to the lake for some serious tanning and great exercise...

don't ask me why I chose to sing the national anthem...feeling patriotic?....guess i miss home...o...and rai was not dancing in the boat...he was chasing some irritating bee or something...

2006-07-16/17/18 . Munich

2006-07-30T00:37:00.000-07:00

As with Basel, this was my second time to Munich in a year and I didn't feel the least bit bored...one needs to visit a new city at least two to three times to truely feel the essence of the city...one sees new things not seen the last time...

16th

en route to Munich, the train gave us the first glimpse of great scenery to come...

having reached Munich and dumped our stuff at the hostel, we headed out...here is the main gate of the shopping street ...

some music before dinner...ahhh the life...

it was evening when we arrived at Munich, so we decided to have dinner before exploring further...we dined at a restaurant recommended by yong jie's friend...a place which served great Augustiner beer, roast duck and fresh boiled sausages...yum...

this lady approached us to help her carry her boy onto the lion as she had problems with her back...

me with another one of the many lions scattered around the city...

17th
To Fussen we went this day
(for shots of the Hohenschwangau and much of Neuschwanstein pls refer to last year's postings)

the guided tours were pretty late, so we decided to walk around a bit...and, for me at least, discovered that the larger lake just beyond the town was actually accessible...

the Neuschwanstein

during the trip back to Munich...

we were incessantly attacked by the setting sun...

after the sun finally set...
it was play time...

last night we came across a turkish deli and the boss uttered some mandarin...so we decided to try it out tonight...we thought he had probably learnt it from the chinese provision shop next door, but... lo and behold...he was from Sinjiang...he spoke even better than Rai...haha...and this turkish deli served 大盘鸡 and 烤羊肉串!!...authentic chinese dishes at a turkish deli!

the noodles were the killer...I never had such springy noodles...when will I ever eat such good noodles again??!!....Rai and I were all praise for the noodles, but Xiaoling thought that it was nothing compared with what she had in Beijing...well...we're not in Beijing now are we?

after dinner we had sangria gotten from Aldi in the morning...it wasn't cold so we placed it in the spray of the fountain at the Main Gate...

18th
Today was hot as usual...sigh...

the train station near the Alliance Arena...

The Alliance Arena

Followed by the BMW building near the Olympic park

Coop Himmelblau's soon to be completed BMW World...

The Olympic Park

it was so hot we just had to have some slush to make it to the train station without getting heat exhaustion...

it got boring as we surveyed the art galleries at night...so we thought we would entertain ourselves...

while having our nightly drinks, we got to know some nice English folk from London...

and they recommended some cocktail the name of which I can't recall...think it was Kahlua, something and Jack Daniel's

...Rai contemplates the feat...we had just had a litre of beer each ...we thought the bottles were 33c each but it turned out they were 50c...how we got confused still baffles me...anyway...

nice couple photo...

after the incredible cocktail...we got another 50c of Augustiner (?)...

seems Rai couldn't take it...

...and he's down....Xiaoling taking advantage of poor ol' Rai...

...''I didn't do nothin...honest!''...ya rite...

...''arrrrghhhh....''.....

...''大头快起来!''...

....''arrrrghhhh''.....

....''huh?''...

...."zzzzzz".....

....down again...

...Xiaoling just can't get enough...

...of course how could I miss up on this golden opportunity...

19th morning
off to H&deM's Funf Hofe project...(last year's pic are better)

lunch was 大盘鸡 and 烤羊肉串...we just couldn't get enough of it...just had to have it again before we left for Konigsee...but there was no noodle.....wwwwaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!

2006-07-14/15 . Zurich

2006-07-29T16:04:00.000-07:00

14th

We reached a hot Zurich, a far cry from the 12-20 deg we read about in the weather forecast before we left for this trip...the youth hostel was a pretty sight...looking pretty scandinavian.

a canal near the train station...

we visited the science hub of the ETH and concurred with friends who had visited it previously and had found it wanting...nothing to shout about...

one of the studios...ethical vandalism of depraved archi students...

an interesting parti model found lying around...then again...it's prob just cos of the orange...

me trying a kodak moment...

extension of some expensive hotel...

one half of tunnel linking the old and new parts

the other half

base of the extension

met yong jie, raimund's friend and had dinner with him and his friends who were also visiting him...i had fried pork liver with rosti...tasted kinda oriental...

15th

the morning started with a ferry ride...had to make full use of the transport ticket, even though it meant we had to trudge almost 20 min in the blistering sun just finding our way to the pier...

but it was worth it...

after getting off at the opposite pier, the merry duo decided to feed them swans...

rai...as usual...taunting the poor old bird...

one of corbusier's lesser known works...

after packed lunch at a nearby park, we popped over to see Calatrava's train station

we chanced upon a two-way mirror toilet...hmm...playing with a toddler outside the loo...what has the world come to??!!

it would have been perfect...

saw a really cute golden retriever at the train station...maxy doesnt she look like u?

interior of the youth hostel

2006-07-12/13 . Basel

2006-07-29T11:22:00.000-07:00

12th

This is my second time in Basel, but I still found it really interesting as this time I came much better prepared to see architecture...the Basel architectural guide provided most of the help at 2 euros...the tourist info lady was also really helpful in helping us plan the route around the archi sites...

H&deM cargo admin

Richard Meier's duno what...

H&deM signal box

H&deM Schaulager

looking up towards the ceiling there is an optical illusion that the lights extend into infinity...was stopped short of taking the crucial photo by nosy gallery assistants...

interesting toilet signs at H&deM's soccer stadium

the merry couple at it again...at Botta's Tinguely gallery

reflection off H&deM's Roche building

one of the Novartis buildings...still under construction

really felt for the poor lady...it was so hot!!!...how do they do it???

another well covered lady who graciously helped us find our way to the casino, not that we wanted to go there, but it was the reference point for the location of H&deM's Rehab Center...if only she knew......anyway...

H&deM's much publicized soho building...while standing at the tram terminus later, we noticed an uncanny resemblence the drainage grating had with one of H&deM's masterpieces...hmm...scratch scratch...yes...contextualism...with the drain...not bad...ya...glorifying the everyday....ya right....

the sky on the 12th night was really beautiful...so...red...

13th

Today was to be dedicated to the Vitra Museum...but not before seeking out Zaha Hadid's LF1 at Grun99...and we chanced upon Adu's much promoted helical staircase...the other two were wondering what the fuss was about...'havn't you seen one before?!' nope not me...let's just say I'm deprived?

anyway...on to the LF1...even though we walked through a sort of park, it was nonetheless...hot...even the sun loving raimund branished his trusty brolly...

it was hot, but they were definitely not gona letup on a kodak moment...

and we finally got to the Vitra compound...and guess what we met Chang Ho on the way!

Buckminster Fuller's dome took a snowstorm beating this spring and the canopy had to be refitted, which accounts for the veins...wonder why...but that's what we were told...

Hadid's fire station...(for interior shots please refer to last year's postings...)

chang ho and his girl...

vitra showroom

inside ando's again...(refer to last year's for other shots...)

Botta again...

the enigmatic scouper again...

H&deM's cargo admin in the evening...

and we managed to get fish n sotong balls to go with the instant noodles!!

2006-07-10/11 . Stuttgart/Basel

2006-07-29T10:53:00.000-07:00

2006-07-10

Today we reached Stuttgart and was really disappointed when we were told that the Mercedes museum was closed...but the Porsche showroom was open, so we went there, only to be disappointed again...it was open, but the exhibition space left much to be desired...guess that's why they were building a new complex next door...the city center was really nothing much to shout about, with only James Stirling's Neue Staatsgalerie managing to only raise its architectural status somewhat...

we had really nice fried noodles and oriental vege rice at a chinese take-away at one of the shopping centers in the city center...lots of chilli sauce....

2006-07-11

Stuttgart

Before heading for Basel, we went to Ben van Berkel's Mercedes museum (finally got to see it after having heard so much about it from his lectures...) and were utterly satisfied...the architecture was brilliant and the exhibition was well executed...

Basel

It was almost night when our train got to Basel and we soon managed to reach the Basel Backpack, a youth hostel about 20min walk from the train station at a refurbished factory.

2006-07-08/09 . Munster-Cologne-Frankfurt

2006-07-29T10:07:00.000-07:00

2006-07-08

Today we transitted through Cologne, where we took in the world cup atmosphere in the crowded city center, brimming with excited fans. Of interest was the ceiling of the train station at Cologne, where world famous soccer stars were painted.

We caught the evening train to Frankfurt hoping to watch the 3rd-4th placing match at some pub, but instead caught it at a soccer carnival along the Main River banks. We bought food from the hawkers (I got a huge helping of deep fried fish, rai got fried noodles and dina got a hotdog) and roamed around hoping to find good screens to watch the Germany vs Portugal match and managed to find some standing space outside a pub...good thing Rai didnt root explicitly for Portugal...but anyway Germany won 4-1...
after the match, we got some drinks and hung around along the banks...soaking in the festivites...

2006-07-09

Today we walked around looking at architecture and collected world-cup collectibles from the river side booths...but the highlight was of course the world cup finals...and the magnificent fireworks display of the closing ceremony...wow...

oops...almost forgot abt the cheap pork knuckles and the 3 cans of beer....burp****

2006-07-06/07 . Munster

2006-07-29T09:41:00.000-07:00

Today we (Raimund, Xiaoling and I) began our post-final eurotrip, and the first stopover was Munster. Bolles and Wilson were the reason why we chose to stop over in this little city bordering Germany and the Netherlands. The library they designed was quite interesting, very well detailed, almost like a machine, pretty much like what I would design...very articulated components and an interesting spatial configuration. But I guess the vigor of the detailing took the emphasis off of the space and I guess that's where it lacked...

Though this may be our first stop, we spared no time in making purchases...Raimund and I each bought a Swiss sling bag for 10 euro each...obviously 'cause of swiss fans; later on in the afternoon, we each bought a pair of footwear; I got a pair of Onitsuka Tigers for 50 and Rai got a pair of Birkenstocks for 47 i think...

Dinner was pretty nice, sausages and salad with pickled chillis from the supermarket near the train station. We were waylaided a little by a rather talkative but hospitable turkish grocery shop owner where we got the pickled chillis and my calling card...

2006-07-04 . Msc4 Final Presentation

2006-07-29T08:13:00.000-07:00

Today was the final presentation of my master class here in TU Delft...it went well! Better than I had expected, praise God! Oscar and Sebas were happy with my presentation though they did say that I needed to inject more humanity into my design...

celebration was the James Blunt concert somewhere near Amsterdam...it took us almost three hours just to get there...thanks to the supposedly efficient dutch train system...Rickey and his girl left half an hour after us but reached there an hour earlier...they took a different line...let's not talk about it...anyway...the concert was pretty good as u can see from the videos...pardon the poor audio...
after the concert,it took us another three hours to get back to delft...why? i can only say...the dutch train system has a habit of letting us down...and i mean only us...lionel, yanling and her bro stayed behind in amsterdam to savour the red light scene as her bro had just arrived...they also managed to find the only open chinese restaurant which we had earlier tried to find in vain...the rest of us had decided to not to stay behind but to head home...we settled for some falafel near the train station...then began our arduously long journey home which entailed several transfers...when we finally got off the train at Delft...guess what, we met Lionel and gang...??!!...what can I say...anyway...at least the finals are over....:)

Just finished final model

2006-06-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

Today I finally finished my final model...having also printed next week's pin-ups and the ppt...just need to shorten the ppt...rehearsed last night...45min...too long...

learnt to cycle without hands

2006-06-24T17:32:00.000-07:00

today i learnt to cycle without hands...not mastered yet, but i can go quite some distance and even turn gently with just my feet! yay!

2006-06-17 . Delft Lake part 2 - Campfire's burning...

2006-06-18T17:52:00.000-07:00

Good weather today...after two days of dreary rain...we went to delft lake again, only this time at night, at 9 to be exact...keith had this idea to have a poetry night...all in all about 3 poems were recited...eric, keith and zhaopeng did the honours...there was this over zealous dutch teenager who kept shaking our hands and getting amused that we chinese were there at delft lake...later on at around 2am , other not so polite local teenagers crashed our party again, only this time, they didnt even introduce themselves...at least the previous guy, the topless guy in the pics introduced himself as Nick...these other ones ran across our campfire and one had even pulled his pants down while streaking across the fire...bad manners....really...anyway Keith got mad and confronted one of them, and almost got into a fight...we managed to break them up before anything else happened...later when we went to get our bikes, masa realized his bike had been stolen...we wondered if it was the bunch which had just crashed the party, but could find no incriminating evidence against them...they just repeated their apology for not being able to help us find the bike...if not for the fact that english is not their native tongue, i would have immediately seen it as sarcasm...once again keith confronted them, only to be greeted with much discriminating jokes and teases from the almost drunk bunch of young punks...shouting " chineeese.....saki saki!!!" duno what 'saki' meant, but in that tone, it didn't sound flattering...anyway, with the little incidents which peppered our little campfire outing not withstanding, it was a rather beautiful night ...

grace's birthday song...

2006-06-14 . Food experiments

2006-06-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

The first is stir fried lamb with rice and vege...
the second and third are actually together...duno what it's called...
a nice touch was the use of raw spinach...

2006-06-11 . Holland vs Serbia Montenegro

2006-06-18T17:17:00.000-07:00

Today saw the first match of Holland, meeting Serbia Montenegro...seeing how fanatical the fans are, I'm glad they won...coincidentally, today was also the day for some sort of carnival, so there were street acts, from giant mannequins, human dolls on giant balls to celtic humanoid creatures walking around on stilts and bogus street goofing golfers...coupled with the great weather, it was simply fantastic...

2006-06-10 . Delft Lake part 1

2006-06-18T17:10:00.000-07:00

the weather was really good today so we got together and went to Delft lake for some volleyball and frisbee...i cant remember why i didnt take any pic of the scene at the lake itself...just the library on the way there and the famous vermeer twin drawbridge tower on the way back...

2006-06-08 . The day after the party

2006-06-18T17:03:00.000-07:00

there was lots of left overs...so we had hotpot party part 2...they felt that the way i cut the pineapple was interesting...hence the foto...they also tried to transform my rx-8...gave up after awhile...i myself took some time to do it...the stupid antannae tend to dislocate the flap hatch behind the head...eric later told me that it's cos this Decepticon model was initially an Autobot and the head part didnt have such protruding antannae...

The Real Birthday Party

2006-06-08T07:12:00.000-07:00

Last night was the real birthday party of clarence and I...there was the hotpot session in the evening followed by drinks after. (the picture of the stewed cream of beef n vege was taken the night before). The highlight of the night was the pillaring session...they couldn't pillar clarence without first pillaring me...so i had to sacrifice...they let me choose my tree...

soon it was time to cut the cake and blow the candles...the presents were many...wow thanks guys!

anne and wangxun

clarence brooding over his broken cuffs

sunmeng pleased with the food

petra n I

attacking the food

raimund caught in the act

wonder what kick they derive from us doing that

sonny's watermelon present

the presents

the cream of beef and vege

the guys diggin in...

clarence examining his cuffs...

Masa & Keizo's party

2006-06-04T05:15:00.000-07:00

The merry folks of the international community for Urbanism and Archi gave Clarence and I a birthday celebration...belated...and gave us address books and Lamy pens...thanks!

and the highlight of the night...the SM segment...(non-sexual content)

After the Go

2006-06-01T16:24:00.000-07:00

Had the Go/No Go presentation on Tuesday the 30th May, and it went rather well but for the fact that I totally messed up the presentation...I can't for the life of me, figure out why I had opted not to present the spatial characteristics of my design. Oscar said it was my worst presentation ever...and I can't help but concur... I emphasized too much on the technological details and failed to present my building as a whole in terms of the space and how it was used by the immigrants and locals. Terrible...

I'm very glad that my tutors saw that it was just an oversight in terms of my presentation, albeit a very great oversight, and gave me a 'Go' ... I'm now an 'architect', but one who has made a very fundamental error at that...I must remember that an architect sells the space and the use of his building before anything else, at least at the stage of selling his design...

Frustrations aside, I was very touched when my friends came to support and helped me to put up the presentation panels, which was almost like wall paper, covering much of the wall...there were 30 A1s...thanks guys :)

The rest of the guys who attempted the Go presentations essentially made it, except for Rickey and Adu, who were given conditional go's as their tutors weren't quite convinced that they had attained the requirements...initially Adu was really affected, almost reduced to tears, while Rickey was lamenting that he had half expected it to happen...Adu cheered up after awhile and had a pretty good time at dinner and the gathering after at his place for drinks...he even played mahjong with the mahjong queen Yanling, who was so sleepy that her eyes were puffy...but the moment she heard 'mahjong', she sat up and crawled to the mahjong table...haha...

The day after the Go, Wednesday, was spent pretty blissfully, firstly at the Pathe at Rotterdam, watching X-men 3, after which Clarence and I went to watch Michael Buble at the Ahoy Stadium, also in Rotterdam. ( clips can be found at YouTube.)

'crazy little thing called love'

Today, we went to Kinderdijk, a beautiful little UNESCO supported area near Rotterdam Lombardijen...much time was spent waiting for the bus...much time...zzzzz....and the place was beautiful...only when we were leaving after having spent almost two hours in the miserable drizzle...then when we felt we had enough of the foul weather, and went back for some hot cocoa, it started to clear...sigh...o well...we were tired and sleepy, and couldn't care less ...so off we went back home...dinner was at Keith's...(the graffiti was found along the tunnel between Delft station and Aldi)

2 weeks to Go

2006-05-17T02:06:00.000-07:00

the past week was spent doing my 1:200 model and rendering again...and of course...more cooking...the highlight of the week was pork fried with celery...nice..

studio yesterday was fine, with sebas mentioning about rain water and gutter size...other than that i think he was rather pleased...Age was quite nice, talking abt how energy efficiency is not practical...one key reason being that it costs too much in infrastructure...in relation to how i could defend my ventilation system, which does not recycle expelled warm air...anyway, he was quite satisfied with my drawings as well except for one detail, which involved a small cut of glass...then he realized that my elevation drawings were missing...yup...i had not drawn elevations...how could i have forgotten...so i need to come up with 4 1:100 elevations soon...not much trouble i hope...hope to finish them by next week...the rendered section for oscar will have to wait...studio day ended with a break to Qi Lin Ge with Rickey, Lionel and Yanling...they don't serve dinner as well as they do lunch...

also included in the photo journal are pictures taken en route to school on a nice spring day...

Three weeks to Go/No Go

2006-05-10T17:30:00.000-07:00

Today had been rather productive...I managed to find out how to get the shadows to appear in the interior of the Reading Room...previously, there were shadows only on the outside...Oscar suggested removing the glass and photoshopping it in later...not that I didnt try this before, but I also realized that the angle of the spot was wrong...so now there are two shadow generating target spots perpendicular to the building...the building is orientated along the north-east, south-west axis, and wanting to simulate natural sunlight, I positioned the light directly on the east-west axis. If you don't get it, nevermind...anyway now I have shadows in the building because there is no glass and I have two shadow casting sources on top of other ambient light sources...it's ironic that making a render realistic requires one to think unrealistically.
On other productive fronts, I did grocery shopping for the week and managed to get the Lavender essential oil for Meiyi after having searched for some time in the city center; I eventually found it at De Hoven, Minerva. I also managed to post Meiyi's presents just before the post office closed...
The weather today had been nothing short of perfect; it was sunny and warm, and there was a healthy buzz in the campus, especially at the Industrial Design building, where they were having yet another one of their parties...goodness where do they get the time and funds for so many??
Dinner was stewed pork which I had stewed for around 3 and a half hours while I was going about my errands. While waiting for dinner to be done, I decided to take some in door pics...haha...
After dinner was more rendering and catching MI3...which was not bad actually, considering how crappy MI2 was...after which was more rendering and updating my Blog...I will sleep soon...the mouth watering macro shot is of stewed beef sponsored by a neighbour...

Studio

2006-05-09T09:42:00.000-07:00

After several eventful days in my room crouching over my damningly low work table and reeling from neck and back aches, my 1:200 model of the Reading Room surfaced from the heap of template cut parts i had printed on Sat at Keith's, made from material gotten from Lily on the same day...

Things could have been kick started on Friday when I was supposed to buy material and print the templates, but lo and behold...the school was closed due to Liberation Day...none of us realized it...Keith and Lily even went to school thinking there was studio...

Saturday was spent pretty much on cutting the columns and Sunday was spent on cutting the rest of the stuff and UHUing them together. I started at 11am and only had soya bean drink for bfast. At 4pm I decided to have my lunch after much deliberation...steaming 3 mantous in the bamboo steamer, I was wondering what to do with the cheese hanging around in the fridge...it was then that I decided to pop the bamboo lid and put the cheese on the mantou...mmm...not bad...with a spinkle of white pepper, it looked almost dim sumish...back to model making...I told myself...let's have an early dinner...
at seven...I told myself...let's wait an hour...I'm not that hungry anyway...
this happened again at eight...nine...ten...eleven...twelve...one...am...
finally I had finished the model...the hunger pangs had not been noticed till now...or was it just a phantom guilt...anyway, I quickly whipped a spicy beef ball soup noodle and lounged in front of my screen to catch episode 20 of 24Hours Season 4( the one with the nuclear crisis)...at almost 3am, satisfied with my progress and having finally eaten my dinner, I went to bed...tomorrow I will put the finishing touches to it...
Monday was quite nice...apart from the fact that i suffered from the after effects of not having had my meal on time yesterday...and today as well, as I started right away on my model the moment I woke up...yes...obsessed am I not?...'does he have a life?' 'sorry...im an archeeteck'...erhem...the most of Monday, which was yesterday, was filled with agony, as I was struck with a chronic headache and much burping...I tried to relief the stomache problem by having a vege filled, ginger and garlic enhanced noodle soup, but the headache and burpings persisted till i hit the bed...
studio was pretty fine today, with the tutors spending a lot of time on every student as not many were around for crits.
Age (AhRR...forget it...its Dutch) reminded me again to look for Daane the structural guy and also the climate guy...Oscar told me again that the renderings lacked depth and told me to render better so that we could see shadows...the rest of the comments were about presentation; making the drawings clearer...he also said to complete the 1:200 model to include the site, which I had planned anyway, and do a nice photoshoped section...sounds fine...
Dinner was at Billy Beer; spare rib buffet...nice...sitting in the alfresco area with Lionel, Yanling and Rickey...too bad Adu and Rai decided not to come...

Queen's Day . 2006-04-29

2006-05-09T03:37:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Amsterdam for Queen's Day celebrations. We left pretty early, around 1030 in the morning as there were rumours that it may become so crowded that you cant even get in. So we went earlier, but I had my reservations; which were proven wrong the moment we reached Delft train station. We had to wait for another half hour as the train we were scheduled to take was full. After hanging around on the platform, the train finally arrived and we managed to get on, barely. It was like morning rush hour, only everybody was rushing to Amsterdam. When we stopped at Haarlem, the passengers suddenly emptied the train! We didn't even hear any announcement. Probably some track fault along the way from Haarlem to Amsterdam? Anyway, after some enquiries, we were told to take the 300 bus to either Hoofdorp or Schipol and take another train to Amsterdam. The bus ride was interesting though; we managed to see some architecture featured during our lectures in Msc 1, mostly by Nio; we finally got to see the mouldy styrofoam bus-stop or post office and the serpentine bus-stops . The remaining trip to Amsterdam from Hoofdorp was uneventful, accept for the time when Keith was nudged by a Japanese boy on the train and his mother apologised, to which Keith, with his many months of Japanese self teaching, replied "Daijobu" (forget abt the spelling already...)...the Jap lady looked at us with quizzical eyes...I smiled back wryly...'yes we are wannabes'....haha...
Amsterdam... was really crowded...there were people in every corner. The security fences put up made it look kinda intimidating; hope they dont have to be used. Some of the girls brought stuff to exchange with the locals. ( Hawking is permitted only on Queen's Day, which happens to be the birthday of the present Queen's mother, I think) Towards the end of the afternoon, while the girls were busily grabbing cheap stuff, Dina lost her wallet right after she made a purchase with a 50 euro bill; sounds suspicious no? The rest of the evening left us making a police report and going home a little affected by the dent in the outing.

Trip to Keukenhof

2006-04-26T03:10:00.000-07:00

the mouse trap and some unrelated food...

2006-04-05T09:04:00.000-07:00

I couldn't upload pictures onto the previous post ...duno why...blogger is so buggy...anyway...the first dish is Vietnamese Ginger Chicken and the second is Curry Chicken Potato Pasta...experiments last week cos I had a whole kilo of chicken breasts...half price...wahahahaha....recently I made some frenchy pork rib pasta ...will upload it next time...
also worthy of comment was the claypot mutton I had at a chinese restaurant after Ma Qingyun's boring lecture at Berlage...point to note was Koolhas' grand entrance right after Ma started to speak...and his storage of his handphone in his sock which caused his crossed leg to vibrate when it went off...other than this bit of trivia, the Q&A went pretty well tho...better than his presentation...back to the mutton....it was a well stewed claypot of herbal mutton and it went super well with the fermented tofu sauce...man did it melt in the mouth...urgh.....too bad too engrossed with eating that I forgot to take a pic...sigh...

Mickey mouse in my room

2006-04-03T16:12:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday night, while I was happily doing my work as usual, I suddenly felt movement from the corner of my eye, just as I had leaned back to stretch. Puzzled, I turned to my kitchen and saw to my horror, a furry grey mouse stop short in its tracks, darted its tiny head at my direction, as it too had sensed movement, and scurried back under my kitchen cabinet, leaving me dumbfounded. The first thought that came to me when I recovered from the shock was 'how in the world did it manage to get into my room??!!'...And I had reason to be so puzzled as my room is a pretty tight container, and when I say container, I literally mean it; it's really a container, with only the wind tight door and a similarly wind tight window. There was no way it could have gotten in through the air vent or climb in through the window when it was open as there was just too much height for it to clear. Then I remembered that while I was happily cleaning my kitchen stove the night before, I had opened the door for quite some time as it had gotten kinda warm; it must have crept in while the door was open. But I was standing next to the door. Knowing what poor risk takers mice are I couldn't believe it could have gotten in that way. Anyway, the fact is, it was in my room, and I had to get rid of it.
Without much thought, I made a sticky tape sheet out of sticky tape strips and put some cheese and nuts in the middle, hoping that the mouse would get stuck to the tape and I could apprehend it. I prepared the trap and went to bed. I switched off the lights and waited in suspense. I was stuck in a 20msq wind tight room with a house mouse, and my bed was just next to the floor. I can't say I was afraid of it, as I had hamsters before, but I was more concerned with the possible diseases it may have been carrying. Before long, I heard the crisp clicking of the tape as the mouse tried to get to the food. The existence of the mouse was confirmed, I was not imagining things. Hearing the 'alarm', I reached for my glasses, and switched on the light asap. But I was too late, the tape was not sticky enough to stay the little twerp. I thought, maybe it was just testing the edge of the sheet. So I went back to bed and waited. As I waited impatiently for it to strike, I was thinking of how to improve the trap, and dozed in and out sleep. Who could sleep at a time like this? Anyway, after some time, I heard the clicking of the mouse freeing itself of the tape again, the 'alarm', but this time, I heard a lot more clicks. I was hoping that it would continue, which would mean that it was surely caught, but to my dismay, it went dead silent. My racing pulse slowed down in disappointment; looks like I would have to think of a better trap in the morning. I gave up for the night and slept as best I could. Surprisingly, I did sleep. I comforted myself with thoughts that people in more established neighbourhoods in most of the rest of the world lived with resident mice anyway. But the mouse did give me a nightmare, the details of which I won't delve into.
So the next morning, I made another trap; this time it was a more common design for larger prey, a box resting on a stick attached to food. I made several modifications to this design; I stuck a length of cheese with UHU to a small sheet of sticky tape and attached it to the stick which was holding up the box, which I had fashioned out of an Amazon box, cutting away the flaps. I later stuck a curtain of sticky tape such that it would dangle on the perimeter of the gaping box; the mouse would be able to enter as the sticky side was facing inside, but should the box collapse when the bait had been taken, the sticky side would now be facing upwards and the mouse would be stepping on it while it tries to lift the box, further trapping it! Brilliant! I gleefully smiled as I thought of this scenario; stupid mouse chose the wrong room to taunt.
Night came, and this time, I left the reading light on and kept my glasses on; I wasn't gonna waste precious time fiddling with them. fifteen minutes into my mock sleep, I heard the box collapse. I wasted no time in jumping out of my bed and placed a box of fruit juice on the box. Afterwards, I heard some resounding scratching sounds. Alas, mickey was caught! I was filled with relief, but was feeling a sense of foreboding, as I didn't know how to get rid of it. It was under the box, if I flipped it over even in an enclosed space, who knows how fast and how high it could jump? Not taking any chances, I decided to slide a piece of cardboard between the floor and the box, and then dumped it into a trash bag and threw it into the trash. Voila! Done...here is the trap...many thanks to Amazon...

Reflections

2006-03-08T17:15:00.000-08:00

I came back from a wet day out. I am revisiting the old magic of writing with a fountain pen. There is just this sensitivity that this pen exudes as the black non-viscous ink flows and spread on this lightly textured and slightly yellow sketch journal.
There isn't a more sensuous feeling of writing than is felt when writing this way.
The speed of the ink as it is absorbed into the paper makes sure that one does not ponder too long before making a mark. One is more likely to then express more freely...a sketchbook free of lines helps too...

Let me make a note here to dabble into water colour or chinese ink painting or calligraphy in the future

I'm just facinated by the apparent randomness that is seen as blots of ink spread on paper. Of course to say it is random is not correct, it is only as unpredictable as the variables are allowed to be undetermined...a phenomenon more likely to be achieved by more naturally made paper...different inks spread in different patterns at different speeds on different types of paper. It is so sensitive as to record every trace of our contact with marking instrument, its ink and the paper. It makes us aware of the vast variables there are out there whenever we make a mark on the environment.

This bout of reflection was inspired by the space, both chronological and physical, that I'm experiencing now. Chronological because, somehow, the time after twelve seems to expand, like how time stands still when one just can't get to sleep. The space seems quieter than it was in the day, even though there isn't much apparent change in noise levels. There seems more space physically as the only light on is the table lamp, and the space around seems to fade away indeterminately...the music on now is some timeless nostalgic japanese piano jazzy stuff that is pretty atmospheric, not in the trance sort of way, but more in the way retrospection and reflection gives physical space another dimension of time, that reaches into the past and fuses it into the present.

This retro fetish was fed by the impressive props of Munich by Steven Spielberg, with the gem of Citreon DS 21 standing out so beautifully...

I will sleep now...

the 1972 Citroen DS 21 (Lorraine)

Another Sunday

2006-03-05T16:52:00.003-08:00

Had a pretty disappointing game of tennis with Clarence in the afternoon...I couldn't serve at all...plus my wrist hurt cause I hadn't played for some time...just needs some warming up I guess...or maybe I'm just getting old...ok...dont tell me...

well...dinner was nice...I was dreaming of this last night...literally...I was just fantasizing how nice it would be to have pork chop in lemon butter sauce...and tonight i did just that...man...I will be doing more of this...

carbo was nothing much to shout about though...just a salady cold pasta with lightly boiled veges in olive oil & balsamic vinegar with spices plus some lemon butter from the pork chop...had to add tobasco for taste though...needed the kick...

Brrrr....spring?....

2006-03-01T08:35:00.000-08:00

This week's been really cold...what's new...but isn't it almost spring? is it 'cause of El Nina? Well winter had been unusually warm so I guess it's just the conservation of coldness then? But then again it almost always seems extremely cold or hot just before it turns to spring from winter or from autumn from summer...the final valiant dying breath of the previous season...just in case you hadn't noticed...the seasons are achanging my friend...

The last few days were a nightmare...working on my model yesterday and the day before...bent over my made-shift table...I gotta tell you one thing though...it didn't do my back any good...the chair was as high as the platform and the heater was blowing right under me...as if it was not cold enough...I had to lower the heating...

A reenactment of the scene

Anyway the model making went quite well...i cut the parts out of cardboard with printed templates...but the tricky bit was cutting the clear plastic sheets...ooo so slippery...and the components to be cut were o so slender and small...i even had to switch spectacles ( my stainless steel glass one kept slipping, had to switch to the titanium one with plastic lens...see la...hiao...)

I must say I wasn't too happy with the design after the model had been made...didnt think so before the model...see...that's why they keep telling us blokes to make models...2d simply cant replace real 3d...

Presentation yesterday was strictly a pin up and everyone in class discussed every pinned up project one at a time...one project at a time I meant...i must say the group took a long time to warm up to giving responses to the proposals...but in the end there was a little bit of inter-student dialogue, which, because it was asked of us and not spontatneous, was a little odd. Still it was a good start...we don't have a tradition of criting each other's work...there isn't much studio culture here...one of the reasons being that we dont' have a physical studio space...but of course that does not absolve us of the poor intra-group dynamics.

Sebas was using a bag he had designed...it looked really good, but it would set us back 100 euros...but it would improve the economy of madagascar(did i get it right? i think he said they were made there)

Dinner was at Adu n Raimund's again...they do have a really nice place...i cooked seafood marinara with fuselli and cannelloni...we had Lipton lemon tea afterwards...boy do i miss Lipton...just don't understand what the dutch see in Pickwick...

After dinner entertainment was The Matador...

went home after too tired...

but couldnt sleep when i got back...hmmm...so i took the herbal sedatives i had brought from home and watched Seinfeld...it took awhile more for it to kick in........zzzzzzzzz

how did i look today?....

Wednesday 22 Feb 2006 . Katsudon!

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Finally was able to make my very own katsudon (albeit with schnitzel) with my very own rice! Had been eating noodles 'cause I didn't have a rice cooker...Dina's rice cooker was heaven sent...fresh piping hot rice never made me miss home as much as now...thousands of miles from home...and cold...

Saturday 18 Feb 2006 . Mushrooms!

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Many sought inspiration from the ceiling...

Tuesday 7th Feb 2006 . Rem Koolhas at Berlage

2006-02-18T02:15:00.001-08:00

Berlage Master Class Spring Lecture . About: The Public Intellect, Anti-Authoritarianism, Anti-Monument/Pro-Neutralism(?)

Feb 7 to Feb 14 . featured foods

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From top to bottom: Quiche and baked tomato(Alexis), egg tarts(Alexis), BBQ pork(美真香),Vla and nut crepe(Alexis), beef stir fried with mixed vege(me)

Sunday 12th Feb 2006 . Yuan Xiao night

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Tuesday 14th Feb 2006 . Adu n Rai's House Warming

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Trip back to Singapore . Monday 23rd January (onwards) 2006

2006-02-12T08:57:00.000-08:00

Monday 23rd Jan 2006 . Went out with mum who had her facial. Had fish soup lunch at Kovan market. Had haircut at Chinatown Point recommended by Aunty Janet.Went to URA building after meeting Xueting to get tickets from her for Xiao Hai Bu Ben 2. Helped Meiyi's mum pack mushrooms at the Thye Shan branch, but her mum was not around...Watched Xiao Hai Bu Ben at Marina GV...Afterwhich we decided not to have dinner there cos we wanted to go home...

Tuesday 24th Jan 2006 . Sent Akong to Changi Airport and then sent Dad to work. Met John for lunch at Desker...the traffic in Little India is scary...had laksa at the nearby hawker center. Spent the afternoon at their Desker office and left in the evening to pick up Dad from work and mum from Orchard before Dad sent me to the Concourse to meet the guys for sushi buffet...it was not really value for money as we didn't enjoy it that much...we had a few rounds of pool before heading for a nearby cafe for drinks and some card games...

Wednesday 25th jan 2006 . Dinner at Manhill?

Thursday 26th Jan 2006 . Collected my new spectacles from Millenia Walk. Met Yvonne & Collin at Wisma's Coffee Bean Express. Met Chisan for dinner and checked out his new house. Went to his grandmother's wake and had some drinks at Mac's after.

Friday 27th Jan 2006 . Went to have Ba Chor Mee at Bras Basah and looked around the new Library before meeting Peishyun for tea. We had carrot cake and pork soup and Tang Yuen and Orh Ni. Met Carina at Buona Vista and had drinks at Wala Wala where I met Wanming. Went to Meiyi's place and bought rice with tau gua after drinks with Carina.

Saturday 28th Jan 2006 . Went to Sentosa with Meiyi in the morning and had expensive prawn noodles at Serangoon Gdn. We went to the florist at Thomson Rd and got our parents orchids and got home in time to cook reunion dinner for parents. I fried the fish maw, tofu and top shell, mum did the fish and soup.

*Sunday 29th Jan 2006 . We went for service at Paya Labar Methodist. Went to Meiyi's Renjun Uncle's home for New Year's gathering.

Monday 30th Jan 2006 . Had dim sum and yusheng lunch with Meiyi's family at Dragon Pheonix Chinese Restaurant at River Valley. Proceeded to Orchard in the hope that shops may be open as we wanted to get Meiyi's ears pierced. Alas none were open. On the way home, we came across a funny site-a family on the back of a pick-up which on working days repaired leaking pipes. Dinner was at Meiyi's as her mum had made prawn noodles.

Tuesday 31st Jan 2006 . Lunch was at Aunty Josephine's, comprising of curry and stewed chinese mushrooms...there was a viewing of Veronica's wedding photos and a sampling of Uncle Frankie's sound system. We went home around 4pm as Aunty Pauline was supposed to visit us around then...the highlight was my pair of cousins Jeremy and Joselyn. Dinner was at Sun with Moon at Wheelock Place with Meiyi after we shopped for her cardigan in vain at Karen Millen.

Wednesday 1st Feb 2006 . Dinner with Chisan at his place as his mum cooked curry, and he fetched me to Meiyi's place.

Thursday 2nd Feb 2006 . Went to Chinatown with mum and had yong tofu and roast duck and had mango cream dessert at People's Park Complex or Pearl Center...not sure...we took the shuttle bus to Great World and window shopped before I took another to Orchard, where I window shopped some more and waited for dinner with the 96S22 guys at Sushi Tei. Dinner was fun and after that Karen sent me to Suntec to meet Meiyi who had just had her manicure at Dashing Divas. Met Meiyi and Linda at Ichiban Boshi and sent Linda to MRT before heading home.

*Friday 3rd Feb 2006 . Had lunch with Dr Ong, who treated me to lunch and we had a nice conversation about architecture education and my thesis project. Dinner was with Meiyi at the Serangoon market where we had beef kway teow and pan fried dumplings, chin chow and soya bean drink. This was followed by cell meeting...

Saturday 4th Feb 2006 . Lunch at Serangoon Gdn market of zhu zha tang, da chang and chang tou and pig's trotters.Dinner with Michelle and Victor at Alexander Village; stingray, fried rice and oyster omellete.

Sunday 5th Feb 2006 . Lunch at Aunty Janet's. Dinner at home. Flew back to Delft.

Trip back to Singapore . Friday 20th January 2006

2006-02-12T08:44:00.000-08:00

*Friday 20th Jan 2006 . Arrived in Singapore and sent Meiyi back home. Bfast at Serangoon Garden market and teow chew kuay. Lunch was spent sleeping. Dinner was at Jumbo with Akong.

*Saturday 21st Jan 2006 . Went to Chong Hoe with mum to see doctor and I got some sleeping herbs. Sent Kate and Dave off at airport, then went to China town to have lunch with Meiyi's dad. Dinner at Chin Huat with relatives.

Sunday 22nd Jan 2006 . Service at Paya Labar and had lunch at Suntec at Crystal Jade Shanghai Noodle Kitchen(?), and dinner at Hog's Breath...300gm steaks medium rare...cooked for 18hrs...mmm...

salmon chive cucumber spinach olive oil

2006-01-05T16:45:00.000-08:00

salmon chive cucumber spinach olive oil
Originally uploaded by chlum79.

stir fried broccoli noodle

2006-01-05T16:44:00.001-08:00

stir fried broccoli noodle
Originally uploaded by chlum79.

beef n vege n udon

2006-01-05T16:44:00.000-08:00

beef n vege n udon
Originally uploaded by chlum79.

button mushroom leek cucumber

2006-01-05T16:43:00.004-08:00

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button mushroom leek cucumber
Originally uploaded by chlum79.

button mushroom cucumber beef tomato leek onion

2006-01-05T16:43:00.003-08:00

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button mushroom cucumber beef tomato leek onion
Originally uploaded by chlum79.