Being the Tour Guide(s)...?

I've been on hiatus from the blogging world for quite some time.
Why? Cos from time to time, i tend to forget the importance of words that describe the photos i take while travelling.

three of us who were each heading home for the holidays over the summer break decided to travel together before facing what is hopefully our final hurdle of architectural studies (fingers crossed~!)

So it was Sydney for 4 nights and then it was our turn to bring our Thai friend around in Malaysia.
Honestly, 3 days to get to know KL is too short (what more Malaysia rite? :P). But here's what we managed to squeeze in our tight itinerary...

Of course, where else? I kinda feel bad for subjecting our 'guest' to the "impeccable" public transportation system in malaysia...and not to mention making her walk all over KL in hot sweltering conditions...:( wanted her to get right down+dirty with the city people hahaha (excuses). I sometimes don't know which i hate more : having to deal with the public transportation crowd, or the massive traffic jams that leave u cussing hours on end...

Walking around has its perks. You'll try everything you see. Food, drinks (or anything that remotely looks like it's edible just cos it's soooooo colourful!). Hopefully the 'malaysian-food-experience' wasn't a total failure.

haha. "you haven't been to malaysia till you see the twin towers with your very own eyes"
how cliche. and so that's why we have so many shots of this architectural wonder...and of course...another shot can't hurt? :P

We did make a short trip to Putrajaya earlier in the morning , but due to unavoidable circumstances, the trip was cut short with poor friend having to rush her architectural tour of Putrajaya in less than ...er...45 minutes? you have no idea how guilty i feel even now...

But dinner kinda gave an interesting end to the KL/selangor trip. those mascots were such delight~ and that was the end of the KL leg! :)

The next day, it was off to Malacca - heritage city



By the time we reached, we were so famished, we hunted down the famous chicken-rice-ball shop. But....the dish was being sold EVERYWHERE. hahhaha. we chose the one which looked the nicest. and both plates, were consumed by our dear friend (some slight communication mix up~)

Ok, ok...so sue me for going to the same places each malacca trip. On my defense, she hasnt seen it....rite? :P

But, this...Mini Malaysia indeed is a place i've never been to. cos it was about to rain, we stayed there for less than an hour....but for the price of rm5 regardless of whether u're local or a foreigner, made the trip very worthwhile....!

We then drove home (oops. did i forget to mention that my dad was our kind driver for the entire trip? ehehhe. sorry dad) he was in fact the one who delved into the details of the places we visited. i think i mostly caught my zzz. and therefore, people, i am a baaad baaad host! hahahaha. and not too proud of it actually.

and so, the malacca leg ended with having enlightened ourselves with the various types of traditional houses to be found in Malaysia. (and lets not forget the countless monkeys and baboons~! :P)

The plan was, after our Raya Haji gathering at my auntie's, i would meet my friend, and together we would take a bus to Penang where 'the other' friend would then take charge and guide us through yet another heritage city.

We stayed at TUNE hotel, ate lots of Rojak and basically tried to enjoy the Penang night life (if you can even call it as having one? )

yes, here's the famous 'clan-jetties' of penang...

and meet our lovely penang guides....:)

sorry guys. din know whether u'd mind my promoting ur faces :P

After a very funny breakfast indeed (cos it seems the shop ran out of everything that was nice~!)

We joined the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion Tour.


the image is black n white just cos people know the famous mansion is BLUE. lalallala.....

the 'penang tour' contained lots and lots of temples....and heritage buildings....by that evening, as we drove to the airport , we couldn't wait to see what Thailand holds for us~! till then....

Travel Log : Sydney 2010

Goodbye Sydney Opera House.
Till we meet again~ :)

Ups and downs...

"You win some, you lose some"

Can't help but feel that applies to basically everything in my life right now.
Due to circumstances, those who were close to me now all appear distant.

Or am i the one forming that invisible wall around me?

Always fearing that people would view me in a different light so i stay away.

People come. People go.
Who's brave enough to stick around?
Are YOU game?

take the risk?

It's not that we should never take risks. but they have to be calculated risks.
Spent half the day walking around the CBD area, trying to familiarize myself with the public spaces...all for the sake of Design Research.
Photography as my main artefact. Wonder if i'll actually fail the assignment by choosing this method :(

People don't like being photographed. especially when its their privacy being the focus.

HELP!

Define 'SOON'. Please?

Sometimes in life we feel like we're idiots. and that's normal.
But when we feel we're being MADE the idiots, that's when we should pull the brakes. HARD.

This is supposed to be the holy month. all forgiving and whatnots.
But the more i try to shake the ill feelings, the worse i feel.
Something's definitely not right. The stars are just not aligning?

The fact that sleep becomes my refuge...is worrying.
But...let's hope i never have to deal with it again. and that at the end of it, i'll come out on top.
Not buried. ha ha.

Mini update. i'm still alive and kicking~!

@Multicultural Nite, Newnham Campus

Taking a breather...in between wrestling with piles of assignments and readings~!
Thinking about thinking is making me think thinking is bad.
Hegel. Kant. Foucault. Derrida. Freud?!?!?! hmm....
and this is just the start of the sem hahha. can't say i hate the materials tho~

Some say it's a pregnant seahorse.

Okay, so here it is.
The gist of my Final Presentation of my FIRST semester as an MArch Student. I'm still learning. Please don't puke. :)


I hope you're glad that i din go on and on and on about the project in this post....or....the fact that i din post up my 300 word exegesis. I'm just glad the sem's over and so that i dont bite my fingernails while waiting for results to be released.....am planning for the greatest Winter break ever! rite on! :P

One down. and *phew*!

3 entirely New Softwares to master in a very short time in order to complete this Design Studio submission. So many things to squeeze into a 2 minute video presentation, to be shown Tuesday nite.Let's just hope i din do too bad of a job eh. All the drama and whatnots will hopefully have come to an end by then and the work done will be acknowledged. I'm glad submission day is done with!
Now time for a short break, and off i begin what may be the longest month of the semester~!

Sorry no cure.

Everyone has to start somewhere.
What makes you any different?

Everyone has issues.
What makes yours special?

Everyone deserves good grades with hard work.
NOT good grades with other people's work.

I'm pissed.
Destroy your future for all i care.
Why drag others into it?

If you can say sorry,
Why not MEAN it? and do something to FIX it?

Oh I so hate who i am right now.
This 'hate' kills the creative juice.

I'm gonna sleep.
In hope that i'll wake up on the right side of the bed.
and that you would have found (finally) your work ethics.

Things happen.

Why do we do what we do?
It's amazing how things can often take a sudden turn.
Maybe i'm just not 'grown-up' enough yet to fully comprehend?

I'll try to blog more in the future (even with the back to back submissions) but i just feel so 'conscious' about what i type knowing that this post would probably be one of the first things to pop up when someone googles my name. hahhaa.

Life's been good so far.

Welcome~

Welcome to my home.
The place where i'll eat, sleep, play...and oh yeah...STUDY HARD for the next two years.
It's a small community. You'll see the bus driver in the supermarket. You don't have to take a bus to get to most places (as long as walking for 40 minutes non-stop is fine by you).Having a bicycle makes every place you need to go to reachable in half the time...and twice the fun (factor in the icy cold breeze blowing in the opposite direction!) :P

and yes. You learn to enjoy cooking.nope. scratch that. You HAVE to enjoy cooking. hehe. Part of the fun of coming home is planning what to have for dinner. Up till yesterday, all we've had in our kitchen is a small pan (brought all the way from Malaysia mind you!) so hopefully the menu will be much much more diverse right now.

So, what do you think? Do i sound like a person focused on studying? an Architecture student at that? hahahha.

Schedule is pretty relaxed here. Well...compared to Malaysia, i guess anywhere else is. But the momentum has just built up. Had our first assignment submission today, and the next consecutive weeks leading up to our melbourne site visit, there'll be our first studio project presentation.

Learning a new software is a challenge on its own. Working/partnering with someone unfamiliar is another. But learn to take it in stride. After all, i'm here to study AND have fun. so that by the time i end my student life, there'll be nothing to regret! Wish me luck? :D

i should be designing.

So, yeah. Every time i go online, i'm tempted to blog.
In fact, i have the urge to post up at least a photo of what i've been up to thus far.
So that people know that i'm well and alive.
So that people know i'm not getting fat (from bread and milk) nor am i starving here.
But it's obvious i havent been faithful to this blog.
Internet's been pretty troublesome. hope that gets fixed.like SOON.
submissions will follow week after week. then it'll be the melbourne trip.
i swear im bipolar. it's so easy to go from an all time high to being moody for no good reason.
like now.
It's nice here. but i'm just not in the groove of things yet?haha.
it's the weather. makes me lazy.or i was already lazy to begin with. :P

p/s: sorry. no pics again. once i get inspired with my design, i will put up more photos. yeah. those scenic (wish you were in tasmania) ones! hah!

24-hour countdown.

So she asked ,"why are u so cool about it?"

Hmm....

But yeah, by tomoro, this time....i'll be at the airport, ready to board.

2 years. Not forever.

Midnite madness :P

This is what you get when one sister returns from Korea for break...
and the other is about to leave for 2 years.
(+the excitement from a new laptop sure fuelled this madness)

We haven't done this (ruining a song as a duet) for quite some time....more than a year! so here goes our 1st attempt!:

oh please....be nice! XD

...and that's a wrap!

17th August 2009 - 26th January 2010

For what was supposed to be my year out in training, i only did close to half of it.
Ups and downs throughout the experience working in a mid-sized firm of 24 employees, eventhough i still believe i have much more to learn, i must admit, from them...i have learnt a lot: things they don't teach you in school.

My last day is surely a day to remember. Only our office block faced a black-out.



To show my appreciation towards my colleagues who gave me guidance, i brought a home-made chocolate cake. So it was pretty much a celebration in the dark. The black out gave us a chance to just chat around...(while doing some spring-cleaning of course) XD

and as usual...i snapped away.

'Uncle' happily shredding the papers to be recycled...

'little boy' lost without his computer? :P

the only time when the project architect and draughtsperson could relax together and read the newspaper....it was hot...but i like this kinda atmosphere.

they treated me to lunch. the lunch issue was all a huge commotion, as my last day was on a day where a bunch of architects would be on-site and won't be in the office, some even asked me if i could come back another day just for the farewell. haha. touched. Thank you all the same. I appreciate the thought folks!

In the managing director's room was where the rest of the 2nd floor inhabitants could be found seeking some form of comfort. Our cubicles were way too stuffy and not to mention, dark! Each of us tried to open the many casement windows, just to discover that they've all been sealed shut with silicone! XD


The last shot of the day. The last official document i received as employee of NWKA Architects. Assisting the rest of the architects in terms of design , draughting and project implementation...has taught me lots. Being assigned as the 'buddy' to two project architects mainly...also allowed me to get to know them better....so much that they've become more than mere colleagues. I hope they realize how grateful i am on being given the chance to get involved, and most importantly , to make mistakes and to learn from it. I felt guilty at first, for leaving in such short notice. Some of the architects were even surprised upon my breaking the news to them. I had afterall promised to stay on till july at least.

Leaving is always difficult.
But i shall do it now, so that i can return with the 'power to convince'.

It's two weeks. and then, i fly off to start the new chapter in my pursuit of happiness. i know. lame. :P

What should i do

I feel bad.
about being so happy to actually leave.
Trust me. it's been good. Tho it's time to move on to better things.
But i guess we get emotionally attached easily.

2 years. will it make a difference?

Trying to make the most out of my time. is not so easy afterall.