42/48.
The proportion of the hours spent in the office,
To the number of hours in the weekend.
And spongy friend called me I'm a show-off for that. :p

Had sushi for dinner in the conference room,
While waiting for our prints to arrive.
It is finally over!

Joke of the weekend.
We didn't sign out of the office on Saturday,
Because we never went out.

Living on the brink of consciousness,
With gingko biloba, redbull, chocolates,
And a neverending intake of caffeine.

Never thought I'd spent another day,
Sleeping at 7am because of architecture.
But it just happened yesterday.
The pressure gauge shows a high reading for all,
And irresponsible brats don't help things.

Failed to deliver the detail drawings,
To someone who just had submission.
Just glad I didn't promise to,
Or I'd have broken my promise.

One great skill to acquire,
Is that of mind-fcuking.
Gives tremendous control.
On the other hand,
It is only possible,
When there is a dependency.
Conclusion:
Dependency weakens one;
To be in control,
The first thing needed is independence.

Bits of aki gossip.

+
Our China renderers have done various bigshot stuff.
Various SOM jobs,
Multiple KPF NY jobs,
H&dM's Olympic village proposals,
And the 12 villas at the Great Wall.
They also did some works for CPG.
Eeks I saw a crap looking NKF building.
Not their fault.

++
Chipperfield is designing a 300m tower on this site.

+++
Foster has 70 people doing CAD for him,
For the same competition my firm is doing.
That is 7 times of what we have.
Or 10 times of what we had 2 weeks ago.
And the model he is using for presentation,
Will be 11m x 11m.
Partyly because right on the other corner of this model,
Will be Foster's current urban planning project,
Which is the largest in Europe so far.
Hao-lian.

This is the woman whose ass I am suppose to kick,
With the support of most of the aki mates.

Troubles with Beijing is giving me a headache.
Was so tired that I sent a text meant for YT,
To my object of affection instead.
Dramatic as it can be,
The text was about the o.o.a. herself! :S
Just glad I eventually got to see her,
And spend some time together.

For those I missed,
I'll catch you the next time around.

Goodbye, Singapore.

Today was great.
Bin, Yan, Celine, Liang, An, Esther, YT.
Chronological order.
Met all these lovely people.
But alas,
Yan forgot to pass me the POTC DVD.
Also bumped into Agnes, Huiting & Su-lin.

Te important CDs for someone is still with me.
Trying to stay up now,
And hopefully catch her when she is awake.
Cos I'm leaving on a jetplane again...

Chinese renderers screwed up.
*panick button lights up*

One night in Beijing.

Flight from Heathrow was very delayed,
Hence I missed the connecting flight at Frankfurt.
Was put on the next flight to Beijing,
Which was a very sad Air China flight.
Pony meals, old furnishing, no personal TV,
And not chio plus impolite stewardesses.
What more does one need to add to this,
To make this a very memorable journey?

Late arrival in Beijing,
Hence needed to rush.
Ended up paying 300RMB to some tout,
To sit in a nice car to the 5-star hotel in town.
Learnt from the chatty driver,
That the hotel I was initially suppose to stay,
Was actually only for ambassadors a few years back.
Comfort of the day:
Free upgrade from deluxe to business suite.

Went to the renderer's office,
And I think they were surprised,
To see a young punk being sent,
For the supervision of their work.
Spent 11 hours at the office,
Before heading back to the hotel.
Spoke to Alex who assured me I was doing great,
And knocked out on the king size bed.
Haven't slept in a proper bed for months.

Spent another 8 hours at the office the next day,
Before rushing to the airport,
To catch my midnight flight to Singapore.
This journey costed less than 100RMB.
Bugger.

Poorly fed again on this Air China flight.
Arrived in Singapore at 530am,
Rushed to cousin's place for her wedding day.
Spent the whole day running around,
Taking pictures & mingling with the relatives.
Finally passed Chelvin her Palmtop back,
And seeing Shaoling & Suzie who were shopping with her.
Met Jem in between my haircut & the wedding dinner.

Headed to Holland V to collect a CD from YT's door step,
And then to Wala Wala to meet cousin PW & his mates.
The gig has taken a new form of expression!
Never remembered people sitting around the stage,
Like how those chinese min ge can ting-s.
Birthday boy cum friend of PW,
Was invited up the stage to play with the band.
Quite enjoyable.

Person whom I was suppose to hand the CD to wasn't up,
Hence called up FY to catch up over more beer.

Dozed off in front of the monitor,
When I attempted to check office mail at home.
Decided to call Alex instead to check the progress.
Alex told me to go to bed,
And that she would send me a car on Wednesday.
Guess she could tell I was very exhausted.
I'm thankful for a PM like her.

zzzzzzzzzzz

High mobility is a gift.

After a few days of speculation,
It was finally decided when Big Boss spoke.
Given a 36-hour advanced notice,
Confirmation of flight less than 24 hours in advance.
So I am flying to Beijing to direct the renderers,
Before heading home for cousin's wedding.
And I have 10 hours more in London,
To pack, arrange for logistics, etc.

It seems like it is fun to fly,
Especially on company paid expense.
It seemed like that to me initially too.

But the truth is,
The high costs and expectations involved,
Only means greater pressure to perform.

It's do or die now.

Emptiness resonates in emptiness.

What am I to I do,
When all the mad rush is over,
When all the adrenaline pumping stops?

Couldn't handle the waiting,
And sent Nickie a short email 2 days ago.
Got her reply this morning,
But somehow I am not ecstatic.
Perhaps she sounded too PR,
Perhaps all the waiting raised my expectations,
Of an email of greater length & thought.

Perhaps it is just me,
Who need to learn to let go.

I am in London.

It suddenly struck me,
When I was listening to SG's FM933 net radio work,
And the DJ said 'Good morning! The time now is 7am...'.

A year ago, I was still sitting at a desk in Jurong,
Cadding my life away as an intern.
Well, I'm still cadding my life away as an intern,
But everything else is so different...
*Deep thoughts fleeting*

Update from Alex today:
Big-boss has been in the Italian papers regularly,
Because our developer is one of the biggest names in Europe.
Apparently they switched sides in the competition,
When they saw our earlier conceptual designs.
And the media coverage is just part of their campaign.
Yeah, campaign for the competition.
Fwah.
Also learnt the names of our competitors again.
Superdupermegastar architects, some teaming up.

Renzo Piano
!
Libeskin+ Zaha Hadid. :O
Can imagine very skewed lines.
!!
Chipperfield+SOM+FOA. :@
Can't quite imagine.
!!!
Sir Foster + Gehry. 8@
Even harder to imagine.
Rumoured that they wanted to meet,
In the middle of the Atlantic,
Cos that would be a neutral ground.
Also rumoured that they spend their time arguing.

With competitors like that,
My CV will look damn zai if we win.
So we must!!! :P

Jia bought a chair from Vitra!
At only 25 quids somemore!
*extremely jealous*

YT asked me to pray for someone,
That her submission will be smooth.

Sorry ---
I've stopped believing in miracles.
All the prayers in all the churches,
During last summer's Europe trip,
Were perhaps only half-fulfilled.
See how I can't even be sure,
about that fulfilled half.

Here's the deal, YT.
I'll abstain from alcohol & fags,
From 25th March to Good Friday.
Something like lent.
You can pray on my behalf, ok?

She'll do fine,
As she always did.
This is faith.

Long weekend.

Before leaving the office on Friday,
Alex said, "Have a good weekend!"
"You too," I replied.
Then she said,
"It might be your last weekend free."
Sweet.

Went on to meet the ex-JC mates for dinner.
My gift to Su-lin on her birthday:
A bottle of Apfelkorn Schnapps,
That she fell in love with in Germany.
She bought a bottle too,
But was in a dilemma,
Cos she wanted to drink it now,
But also wanted to bring the full bottle back.
Problem solved.

The Player was members-only,
And Amber was not too chill,
So we went to a small Jap-ish club called Fluid.
The interior was real cool.
Lights projected images onto the red walls.
What a great idea,
For those who get sick of the same wallpaper.
Sadly, the alcohol high ran out quickly.

When we went back to Su's apartment,
Our bottles of wine had mysteriously vanished.
What was infuriating,
Was that one of them was Jia's birthday present!
Crashed at Su's that night.

Visited the famous Kew Gardens,
With Audrey & Lisa on Saturday.
It is nice to get out of the city.
It is the heaven for horticulturists & botanist.
We wanted to take a puff,
But realised there was no other people doing it.
The garden was dotted with beautiful flowers,
As well as packed with old folks.
The glasshouses were amazing.
Temperate, Tropical...
With an impressive collection of plants,
From different parts of the world.
Summer house reminded me of Singapore,
Thanks to the warm environment,
And high humidity which sent my lenses fogging up.
Having said that,
It was a great place to be in when it started raining.

Met Phoebe in the late evening.
Dad some drinks at my place,
Before we headed to FrenchKiss/Essence.
Took a white Californian wine,
Because I miss someone there.
FrenchKiss expectedly boring.

Then it was time for the after party at Anexo.
No one heard me when I said I knew the way.
The LSE people decided,
That they would follow the crowd.
And 5 minutes later,
Everyone in front turned around & said,
"Do you know where you are going?"
"Oh dear it seems like no one knows the way."

"I do."
And this time they heard me.
So I headed the pack.
It wasn't the usual route I would have taken,
So I was not very sure of exactly where I would end up,
Although I was certain about the general direction to take.

"Are you sure about this?"
"No I am not, so don't follow me,
Or follow at your own risk."

And 5 minutes later,
We saw it across some unused land.

"Ladies & gentlemen, that is it."
"Hey, are you always this confident?"
"Only when I have a hundred people backing me."

Accidental Hero,
Whose fame & glory died in 1 minute.
C'est la vie, eh.

Ended up not going into Anexo,
Because Phoebe decided to go home.

Before capoeira class today,
Maja asked if I was still looking for a place.
She's got an empty room in her new place.
Went to check out the room after class.
Great location, great house,
Wrong timing, bad price.
So this offer had to go.
A pity.

Was considering if I should buy a book.
The bookseller told me,
This book strikes a chord with the soul, you know.
The backpage read:
The Alchemist is a tranforming novel
About the essential wisdom of
Listening to our hearts
Learning to read the omens
Strewn across life's path
And above all
Following our dreams.
That will do.

Someone's blog entry.
"Are you Cheryl?"

Wahahahhahahaha.
Thanks for the laugh,
You who always write well.

Time is the greatest thief in the universe.

Think this line came from Kitchen.
At least, it came from the movie.
Whoever who tries to steal time away,
Probably loses out more in the end.

Pondering about which is worse -
To have precious time stolen,
Or to have one's heart stolen?

[How about one's lifetime?]

Can someone show me,
What or who on earth,
Is on page 36 of SG's FHM Mar'04 issue??
UK and SG have different stuff,
And UK's already selling their April issue!
To think the UK March issue,
Just came out only two weeks ago!
Ridiculous.

It's midnight,
And I'm still at work.
I need a haircut badly.

Nick hasn't emailed for a while.

Went for drinks & supper,
After a long day at work on Friday.
Singaporean outing.
Beatrice & Elaine stayed over ---
We managed to find space in my tiny room.
Perhaps cos they are tiny.
They left early next morning though.

Alex called up on Saturday noon,
And I found myself back in the office two hours later,
After failing to work Microstation at home.

Went to Su-lin's place for pre-clubbing drinks at night.
Ken, Kenneth, Laurel & Gus were already there.
Ken gave each of us a 'bai-ka' ---
His wonderful concoction of Bailey's & Vodka.
Ken still has my respect,
For downing one little bottle of 'Ja!',
The worst drink in the world that I know.
We're on our way to Fabric ---
The night has just began.

Ken & I lost the others,
When we went off to find a cashpoint.
Met Jackson & Michelle at the door of Fabric,
And expanded our strength from 2 to 4.
Managed to spot Neth & Laurel at the washrooms
(Which had very cool basins).
Laurel felt unwell from the overdose of 'Bai-Ka',
So Neth & her left early.

Ran out of alchohol high real quickly,
And stamina ran out in 3 hours.
Went for a drink & snacks nearby.
Ken didn't really know how to get back to Neth's place,
And neither Neth nor Su answered their phones.
Mister Niceguy Jackson offered his place,
To Ken whom he met for the first time.

Sunday's capoeira class was interesting,
But I felt real crap.
Don't feel myself improving.
Su came over for dinner,
And I made mushroom sauce-blahblah pasta.
Went through FHM before she left.

I'm real tired.
Shall watch Not One Less then rest.