Hostel

Went to watch Hostel last night after much deliberation as to whether we really needed to go home and face more packing. Not that there is that much left to do.. just that huge pile of papers on the dining room table and stuff like that. *eyuck*

SO Hostel. WE knew it was going to be good seeing Tarantino's name was on the poster (although he is only 'presenting' the film-wtf does that mean?) and it was R21. Now we figured, ah should be okay. This is Singapore.. there will probably be a few shots of boobs and rude words but nothing that would be an R21 anywhere else.

Boy were we wrong.

THere are three distinctive parts to the film, the first being lots of boobs and beautiful women (at this time the guys sat next to me were delving into their subways a little too noisily for my liking), the second was the boring bit with the main characters just partying and you know something bad is going to happen and the last is, well... lets not spoil it shall we? Go see the film.

If you liked Audition, Battle Royale (and not for the Japanese school girls okay), Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Saw. Go see the film.

Probably not the wisest choice of film before we head out into unknown terrritory in Sri Lanka. Just a teeny bit paranoid of skantily dressed women now. hAHHA.. xxW

Aaah..Sunday

So we went around the shops today trying to find some stuff we might need-trying to find a camping shop. But no luck so we decided just to wander around taking photos. Got to the new library which is really quite beautiful.
This is the view looking up the atrium into the skylight. We looked like right contry bumpkins going wooooo waaaaahhh at the atrium. AHhahaHHAha...went all the way to the highest floor we could and took the lift down (which made my legs feel funny). Here comes return of the Kampung Girl.
The facade of a newly built toy museum down a small street away from the library.. Its made up of lots of individual glass panels which I thought looked naff until I took this picture.
Oh and Kyle by a weird barrel sculpture thing in Suntec City... aah don't you just love sundays? xxw

Sri Lanka

On the 1st of May Kyle and I are flying to Sri Lanka. We've enrolled on a month program to undertake volunteer building work in Galle, just South of Columbo. I've been pretty obsessive and can't stop talking about it-well I'm sure Diva is sick of listening to it!

Kyle showed me these pictures of Galle today:

There weren't any dates on the photos though.

On the other side is this..

xxw

Someone get my dancing shoes..!!

OhMY LORDY this song makes me want to dance! (S O S) Not the usual stuff I'm into but I have a not-so-secret love for dance hall and Rihanna. Eek. How uncool am I?! hahaha.. is okay (pauses for dance break in my head - don't want my work mates to remember me as this dancing fool. oh wait. perhaps I'm too late for that..mmyes)

xxW

Oh Happy Days

Okay thought I'd post some photos in light of my last day at work and looking forward to living life again ;)

Took Kyle's dad for Sushi for the first time (well, you can't really count the sushi boxes from M&S as legit sushi now can you?) It was doing that thing it does when it rains PROPERLY in Singapore. And yes, at this point I'm taking the photo drenched.
Saw this Ship from Sentosa's Siloso Beach the next day and thought - Wow.. I knew Singapore was small but you'd think they would make room for their Ministry of Law-no? HAhahA..
Fatty Puss goes Happy Clappy with the sight of Paella for her belly. Oh yes.see the difference from the last time? AHHAHA... just love Pure.

How beautiful are these kids-ey?

I'm in such a good mood today I love you all. xxW

Old piccie

Brought my external hard drive to work today to get some prints sorted while I'm not working... and found this:



HAhahahahah how different do we look now?!! OMG i'm looking decidedly PASTY in this..*cringe* laugh all you like folks!

Last weekends pic next post. xxw

11pm Pizza and Porfolio Printing

I'm exhausted. And I've been almost sat in this same spot for almost 6 hours! My landlord rang today saying he wanted to show people around our house since we're vacating the place next week. I told him that today was a really bad day since we had been packing last night and the place is a huge mess. I mean we've got clothes on the floor in piles according to colour, last night's 11pm pizza on the floor, our passports are just on the coffe table... AAAAaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh What a bloody mess! Ahem. So anyway I told him today was a bad day blah blah blah, and he said okay. He then proceeded to call me back saying 'how about after lunch?'

roll up blinds, open shutters, wave turrah, jump out window onto boss' lexus.

THing is, he's such a nice guy I just didn't have the heart to tell him no again. So Kyle did it for me.

So went to the printers at lunch to get my portfolio printed out.. wallet says *ouch* but at least thats done.. hopeful thinking perhaps that someone will want to see them but hey. going to have to leave them with dad to send to unis who reply (oh please people who are reading this pray that I'll get into Uni..) as I think might mash up my pretty prints at the bottom of my backpack. AHhaha.. can just imagine tutor lady opens up my portfolio package and sri lankan..oh i dunno.. butterflies come out, and a half crumpled porfolio emerges with my boot prints on. Perhaps that will make it stand out?

*hugs* for Diva who is not having much fun in not-so-sunny London.xxw

A little in-between

Its three more days until I finish work and I'm going crazy. We're on the home stretch here team so the finishline is in clear view. Which is why I'm going a little ga-ga with all the things I should be doing instead! oh dear oh dear oh dear..

I started packing last night. The usual stuff I take on our long trips so that was pretty easy and my backpack was only half full so plenty of space for SHOPPINK! Dusted of my old faithful camera.. aah it feels good again.

I hope I can travel more often when I'm older with more money to splash around. Although having said that I hope I don't become someone who won't go to some remote and desolate place just in case I won't get 5 star service. I've been to some dives so I think I know what I can handle. I think the perfect combination would be to travel around as much and cover as much of the world I can to come back to a city or civilisation where i can get that 5 star service, scrub up and look decent again. Well at least for a little while-eh? Even I don't fancy looking like a filthy tramp the whole time!

So here's my list for today:

Things I'm going to miss about Singapore:

1. Our flat. Even with its peeling ceilings and 'wet rooms'AhhAHHAhAHA...
2. Wakeboarding. Need I say more?
3. The FOOD. Nothing particularly fancy or special really. I'm going to miss having fish and chips before a movie at Cafe Cartel, greasy breakfast at Irish pub-Dubliners, Burgers on the beach at Costes, Sushi til we burst at Sushi Tei, TAndoori and cheese Murtabak at 3am at Spize, Saturday lunches at IndoChine watching the people go by and my calm-down lunches at Whatever Cafe...
4. The drink! Happy Hour at New Asia, Fres Oren Ju-Appe'Ju Man at the hawkers, Milo dinosaur at Spize..
5. Friends! but thats another post altogether.
6. Arab Street/Bussorah Street. Funky shops and food galore.. Shisha, mint tea and awesome musicians at Samar Cafe.

Locked out

Yesterday was the last day Kyle's dad and sister Ashleigh were in Singapore. So they decided to catch a couple of hours in the sun at Sentosa before flying in the evening. It started to get pretty overcast at around 230 so I figured they were going to make their way home.

Kyle rang me around 3 saying that they were locked out of the flat! (slap forehead) but it wasn't because they'd forgotten they keys- the key wouldn't work. And being..well.. me. This is the sequence of thoughts in my head:

1. Gaaah. This wouldn't have happened if I was there.
2. OH GOd. Maybe its because someone has picked the lock?
3. is there someone in the house?
4. maybe they should check the windows from outside?
and on and on..

Well to cut a longer story short I came home at 6.15 to find them still sat outside the door with an uncle hammering his way through our door! We're talking throwing the entire weight of his body on our door here- he was only wee too!

And Kyle's dad and sister were due to fly that evening so you can imagine how worried they were becoming when they saw me come home from work..

OH well, we have a shiney new door handle and lock so all is not lost eh? xxw

Overdue nothing and everything post

I've started my day in the worst way possible. Woke up too late and realised that I hadn't heard my alarm then rushed as fast as I could to get to work only to find some petty petty behaviour that made me want to hurl.

I sat there pretending to listen to the drivvel that I so despise so now I simply have no motivation to do anything.

But lets not whine shall we?

After all, this is my last week! I have sooooooooo much to plan after Friday its not even funny. So, in true Widarchitect style I'm making lists of things to do. As long as I can remember I've always made lists. Perhaps its a girly thing to do? Before Diva left for England for the first time we made brilliant lists. Liiike.. Fave food, music we listened to at the time, boys we liked+boys we hated.. ahhaha.. how lovely and simple things were then. I still find that box now and again that she had entrusted me with and read our lists.

Quite often I read things like old essays and stories I wrote as a child or in school and it always amazes me how the words sound like they have come from someone else. I suppose to an extent thats true, because we are different people from when we were running around with all the stregth we could muster from our 3 foot tall bodies.

mm.. i haven't written a nothing post in a while so indulge me while I ramble.

I'm listening to the Shins-Pink Bullets at the moment which is beautiful. Been listening to a lot of dylan covers lately as well - there's something about listening to voices who aren't trying to sound 'perfect' or trying to do vocal acrobatics. The same goes for lyrics - I just can't stand listening to all the hoo-haa 'i love you to the moon and back' kind of malark. Its just tiring. Its like you can tell the songwriter was trying to be deep-oh-so-deep and it just comes off as being naive and teenage for wont of a better word.

I think it must be in retaliation from the crap thats been burning my ears the past few days when I'd forgotten my headphones. The soundtrack goes a little like this:

9-12 J-pop Hour with tinkle dinkle riffs 5 note songs and lyrics I cannot understand.
1-3 Crazy Hour anything goes! Woo go mad because we've got a mix of KennyG, Avril and anything and everything tenth-rate in between.
3-6 Not-so-happy Hour- It goes down a notch and amazingly so does the music (can it go ANY lower?!) I'm talking Celine Dion, Mariah (sorry Hal!!)- in this case its ALWAYS Hero (Widarchitect tears hair out and stuffs in ears), Barbra Streisand (is that how you spell it?) and the like.

Crawl out at six to stop ears from bleeding rush home for some Audio therapy.

Okay okay a little over the top. I understand that everyone has different music tastes and I repect that Barb and Kenny have their respective followings. BUT pLEASE oh PLEASe oh PLEASE don't impose it on anyone else. Go buy yourselves some cheap-o headphones and shove em where the sun don't shine. Alrighty?

Enough now. xxW

my family (minus azim who couldn't make it) 

sunny shiney people 

*Eek sorry folks put this one on in a hurry and its minus my KakaHani! (although you can see her coming down the stairs..)-photo to be replaced so stay tuned.*
Spaghetinis..

Home

Flew home on Friday which seems like a whole week ago. Its always nice coming home where there are always people around the house and you don't have to worry about things like transport!!

So had dinner with everyone on Friday night at our house which was the first time Kyle's parents met the whole MacBahrin clan haha.. Spent the evening chatting and drinking cups of tea outside by the pool which was lovely because as usual both my Dad and Barry had plenty of stories to tell.

Checked Kyle's parents into the Empire hotel on Saturday and the rest of the day went to baking in the sun getting suitably burnt. Saw an old friend there who seems to get more beautiful every time I see her! gaahhH.. there is me in my sand stained yellow bikini with my jungle girl hair.. *cringe* and there is she with fab fab hair and perfect skin. Must remember to buy new swimsuit. Yes. That swimsuit now is bane of my life.

So that evening had dinner at Spaghettini's where the four of us sat as red as the table cloth - hAhahHAHAha - had a good laugh and plenty of banter as they played pass the b-a-b-y.

BUT OH MAn. Getting home to Singapore was one HELL of a trek. Went like this:

Empire hotel to Riviera Hotel In KUala Belait (car-drive):1hr30mins
Stopped for Lunch:1hr 30mins
Riviera-cross border to Miri Airport (bus): 1hr30mins
Miri Airport to Johor Bahru Airport (plane): 1hr55mins of scarey rattly plane ride.
Johor Bahru Airport to KTM train station (taxi): 45mins
KTM+waiting time to Singapore: 2hr30mins
Walk home: 10mins.

Its Monday and I'm knackered. Pictures soon. xxw.

Archi-speak

Deciphering the prattle the comes from many bosses in general is an art. Architects are no different if not worse in this case (although I am probably being overly sympathetic to my own cause here) where drivel is ceremoniously siphoned onto the masses/colleagues/living things in general, expected to be raised up on podiums and worshippd by the masses.

For instance:

Your Boss: I want you to design something ICONIC.
You: (thinking) cool. Iconic= something edgy, something with a statement. Rah rah rah.
Man on the street: Eiffel tower?

What boss really means: I want you to copy and paste some existing stuff we did 5 years ago and add 'feature wall' yes yes, a 'feature wall' which will 'feature' a..a.. coat of red paint.
You: uh huh...
He/she says: Oh and a giant sony/JVC/Panasonic billboard to top it off. Yup.
You: (thinking) Riighhtt so not ICONIC, but totem pole brandishing all that you are against to shaft the city in its bottom. Why didn't you say so? I'll go and scratch my eyes out now.

Boss: I want something to give the building place.
You think: Oh man loads of research to do now.. must understand place+people.
Man on Orchard Road: Oh like a mosque/temple/church? Something colonial??
What boss means: Yank some details off some local 'traditional'architecture and use this gaffa tape to strap it together saturate the area with Disney-esque colours and lights and bobs your uncle.
You think: Lord help me.

Am off to find glass eye replacement now. xxw

Revelation

Chandeliers and Onion Rings abbreviated = candor. How appropriate.
xxW

within the first 5 mins of being there.. 

within the first 10 mins of being there.. 

mm..Toasty 

Low Tide 

Beaches in Bintan with Bintang with an Olive and a Banana

Spent the weekend in Bintan lazing around the beach and catching up on some much awaited quality time with Kyle and his parents.

We stayed at a little beach resort where all the water sporting events happen so there was plenty to do in between naps and triple decker sandwiches. We ended up taking out a Sea Kayak and decided that Kyle and I were Olympic Champions in the making-until I had to get out and push the kayak when we got beached! Kyle took his mum snokelling for almost an hour too, which was quite a feat for her since she gets nervous in deeper waters!

One strange thing though, was there was a huge group of families where all the women were pregnant. eh??? And they all had toddlers around the same age. All boys too. Hmm. Ready made friends for when they grow older perhaps? The beach was full of pregnant ladies sun bathing which was an odd sight I have to say.

The service wasn't so great, but made for some funny conversation:
Olive: can I have a Bacardi and Coke please?
Waiter: Bintang for you?
Olive: no no, Bacardi-and-Coke.
Waiter: (eyebrows raised+silence)
Everyone looks at me.
Kyle: doodle?
Me: (long pause trying to think of how to order Bacardi and coke in Malay) aa..BA-kaaa-di and (almost said 'sama'-hAHhahAHAH) CO-ke?
Waiter: yes Bacardi-and-coke.

Oh the shame .

Pictures soon. Banana out. xxW