Loch Lomond in Winter

This post was written yesterday:

Let's begin with a random analysis of my recent sleeping pattern. I don't remember specific days, but I remember, I sometimes went to bed at 3am, 5am, 7am, 11am, 4pm, 8pm, and woke up at 8am, 2pm, 4pm, 11pm respectively, or slept for a couple of hours or even without sleeping at all throughout the whole night. Well, in the field of architecture, this sleeping pattern is normal, and it's abnormal to go to bed at 10am and follow regular sleeping pattern, except for super efficient and smart people. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them.

I have been feeling rather emo recently, and I like to curl up into a ball at the couch or bed when that happens. So, although I woke up at 4pm today, I took a nap at the couch from 8pm-11pm. Despite the dissertation being due next Tuesday, this is not the stress I should probably be feeling! Perhaps this is what people call, PMS!!!

Nonetheless, Alex surprised me with McDonald's after his uni yesterday (he usually refuses to eat takeaway). And it made my day - McDonald's and ice cream never fail to make me feel better. =)

And today, I felt even more emo when I looked at the mismatched leftover ingredients to use for tonight's dinner, a slice of fish fillet and some random vegetables. It was my turn to cook, but I didn't know how to prepare them. In the end, Alex cooked along so I wouldn't feel lonely preparing alone, and one of the dishes I prepared was fish fillet with spinach, which tasted better than it sounded =)

I spent some time selecting and editing some photos from the trip to Loch Lomond during winter. There are more but these are what I have for now...

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Writing vs Drawing

It's perhaps not to late to realise that it's easier to write my dissertation on notepad, the media which I usually write my blog entries. Exactly two more weeks to go, and we shall be free from ‘words’. Dissertation makes me appreciate design studio more..

one day i dreamed about words, one day i dreamed about lines….

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Work + no play now

Mies Van De Rohe said, 'Less is more.'

Robert Venturi said, 'Less is a bore.'

At this stage, I would say, 'More is a bore.'

I was feeling quite moody last week, because I felt like I didn't even have the time to feel my emotions. I was quite immune to the feeling of being happy or sad, but I knew how it was to feel sleepy and tired.

This post is not to ramble like this is my first day in architecture, or as if I have never expected what it is going to be like to study postgraduate architecture, but I just need a space to moan!

Once, I mentioned that I wanted to combine all the photos of the gatherings, dinners, parties, etc that happened since I came back to Uni and make a brief introduction to my readers about the new friends I met. Forget about the combination post because I think I will never have the time, because I prefer wasting my time surfing away on chrome. And because of that post, I feel like it holds me back from writing about other stuff because I prefer to keep things in sequence if possible.

Considering that most blog posts nowadays will probably be about how stressed I feel or how 'boring' my life is, and all of them sound negative, I will just insert those photos randomly at the end of every "moan post". So, here's how it's going to work = moan + dinner/party photos! It's something you guys have to bear with but I will reward you with some photos at the end.. This is what I call, balance in my life =D

Year 2009 part i …

photo credit: Felicia
Mooncake festival celebration : wasn’t very close with the new Malaysian classmates yet. it was our first time to their penthouse!! =.=

photo credit: Felicia

Singaporean Society dinner at Korean restaurant: in fact, we had more Malaysians at the dinner. first time meeting the other two Singaporean siblings.

photo credit: Felicia

Amily’s Bday + BBQ : the penthouse again! this is the kitchen only!!! dining area not included.

Guys Fawkes Night : the one we took photos of fireworks

Karaoke dinner at a Chinese restaurant : the guys sang until they ‘sweat’.. =.=””


photo credit: Nicholas
Munich trip after Eichstatt : restaurant at the basement..

Architecture night at O’ Couture : to celebrate the end of first studio project. stold this photo from their Bebo page.

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Skip class = guilt

It's hard to get back to bed at 9.14am, although I am actually still feeling extremely tired and sleepy. The lecture has started and I am now lying on the coach typing this on my phone. I just skipped a Monday lecture at 9am.

Frankly, I belong to the kind of person that will drag myself to class/ work even if I am very sick. But no matter how positive I would like to stay, I still hate Mondays!!! Because on these days, I will have to be at Uni by 10.30am to get my drawings ready for class at 11am and then attend tutorial session that ends at 5pm, but by the time I leave Uni and reach home, it's already 6pm!!

I know it actually doesn't sound that bad, but it always seem like a looooooong day when it's hard for me to go to bed early and wake up early the next day to follow this routine.

The house is also always messy (messier) after weekends. And on every Sunday night, I would always tell myself to start new healthy habit because it's going to be the start of another week. I didn’t make it a habit to make this weekly resolution (and not keep it) but it somehow just came across my mind in the beginning of every week!! Nonetheless after many weeks of thinking like that, I begin realise as I feel familiar every time I make the weekly resolution. Its like Deja vu.

Anyway, to make myself feel better, I just assume that I am now sick so I need rest...

(as mentioned, I wrote this in the morning.)

On the other hand, I didn't manage to produce much work that should be relevant to this week's detailed development for today's tutorial. So, my tutor didn't seem happy. But, for what I felt for today's tiring day, to go to Uni is already a little effort, as the studio is already quieter today due to the dissertation dateline soon. To show something (although not much) is a bit extra little effort. (I still had my drawings, site photos, model, but just not the huge 1:10/1:20 model!) Although at the same time I understand the tutor's frustration, all I hoped for was a little bit of guidance to look at other part of my design instead of chilling at home.

Then I spent my early evening, tidying the house - what a productive day to make my other days more productive!

 

 

p.s. Alex made a big deal about me making a big deal about skipping class. ;P

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3 little things

Three amazing things happened to me today. They weren't something BIG!! but they made my day.

The first amazing thing..
Today a man carrying a toddler walked into the store I work at. While I was waiting for him to place his order, I smiled and waved at the baby he was carrying. To my surprise, the baby reacted like she wants to come into my arms. The man let her down on the floor and she immediately crawled towards me who was standing at the side of the bar counter. The first thought that came straight across my mind was, Asian parents would never let their children crawl on that dirty floor. (On a second thought, I rephrase, not all Asian Chinese parents.) Nonetheless, she crawled towards me and tried to stand, wanting me to carry her. I carried the cute baby in her red bubble jacket and was amazed how light she was, like a bag of feathers. Then, I realised that it was perhaps because it had been a long time since I really carried a baby in my arms. The last time was perhaps more than two years ago. I have seen a lot of cute babies especially in the store where I worked at last year, where many mums like to have their morning tea with their babies in prams. The babies were so cute but I never had the chance to really play with them of course. It was my first time carrying a Caucasian baby.

I thought it was something interesting to share or jot down in my blog, so I started drafting this post in my mind while working. A moment later, when I was restocking some items in front of the bar counter, the baby somehow was near my leg again. This time, she held my leg to stand up and again wanted me to carry her. A woman was supervising her. I carried her, and when the woman wanted to get her back, the baby sulked. She was reluctant to go over to her arms and held me tightly. For a moment, we had a stunned look on our faces. It felt as if there was a special connection with her. And she was just so cute!! In the end I passed her back to her dad.

The second amazing thing that happened today...
A man randomly walked into the store and gave me and my colleague a £10 note as reward for working so hard! He said that he won some money today, so I guess he wanted to share his happiness around? It was totally random! So that makes £5 each since there were only two of us during that shift. It was a busy Saturday indeed, so he was right.. we worked really hard today!

Third amazing thing that happened today was also the reason I feel motivated to write this post today during these busy weekends. An anonymous person has written a positive comment on my blog. I am not sure if it was a spam message because it was commented on that post that always received spammed comments. I guess it doesn't really matter as long as it made my day and motivated me to blog more anyhow!

I believe that there are always little things that makes everyone's day everyday, and it really depends on whether we choose to look at the glass half full or half empty...

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Cambridge, here I come..

I have been to Cambridge twice, but the next one will be different because I will probably not get the chance to visit the libraries in Cambridge again. But, this is probably just an excuse to make me feel better for going, all because I have paid for the bus trip organised by a student and didn't want to waste it. This also happened because of an email sent by the studio convenor convincing everyone to fill up the bus and tempting us with this rare chance!

I, on the other hand, actually rather earn a whole 24 hours if I stayed at home finishing another chapter of my dissertation. Looking at the bright side, I suppose this visit will surely inspire my library design project this semester. The tutors said that the trip will be very beneficial, so I believe that it will.

14 hours return bus trip, here I come!!! T_______T

++

Some photos from the studio. It was a 2-days workshop to design a shelter for the refugees…

this was when almost everyone was not concentrating..

Alex said, ‘’Stay focused!!’’ 

do work..

Puisan’s random creation..

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The confirmationss

I am again distracted, but blogging at least helps to pick up my writing rhythm before I start my dissertation. (excuse!)

Anyhow, I received an email from the Uni confirming our graduation ceremony date. It'll be on the 7th of July. So, my parents might be coming, only if I am not going back to Malaysia this summer.

Few hours later, Audrey forwarded me a copy of her travel itinerary. Her Europe invasion trip with Wai Sun is also finally confirmed!

I can't wait for both my parents and two of my best friends to visit, but thinking of the submission deadlines, I wish time doesn’t fly fast.

Random FOTD..

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