School's Out!

The past week has flown by, and suddenly everything is in Christmas mode. After surviving most of last week on the usual sleep 3-4 hours, work 20, I should have done the smart thing and spend the weekend sleeping, eating, being outdoors. Instead, it was the AfH big build weekend for the Central East Christmas shelter so up I was ready to paint/build/carry etc after almost 4 hours of sleep. Needless to say I wasn't all that much help, but I did the best I could. It didn't help that it was freezing and they hadn't put the heating on in the building.


That's the building that Crisis managed to get at the last minute (literally, they signed the contract the night before the little build the weekend before) while we'd been designing without a site for weeks beforehand.

Some of the paint made available to paint the shower doors which were magically set up within the building. It's amazing what can be done with a little push and shove.

Apologies about the lack of photos, since I only went round once with the camera and didn't really want to get in everyones faces. Might sift through a couple of the shared ones and post them later though. So went back on Sunday again but stayed only til lunch as most of the work was done already, and was hanging around eating Pringles and chatting to the other volunteers. Called Kyle to come round so went over to Spitalfields Market and found the Kinetica Museum
which was awesome! Sadly though the exhibits weren't getting the treatment they would have done if the Musum/gallery wasn't set inside the market itself. This one was one of my faves..

The black arrowheads weren't touching the yellow cloth and were held by magnets. Some tourists came along and took one down letting it dangle, then threw it back at the canvas! Shocking!

Since, I've been trying to regain the sleep I had lost, but as my dad says, once you've lost a night's sleep, it's not something you can get back. Well, no harm in trying. zzzw

Running on adrenaline fumes.

I haven't had one of these in a loooohooong time. You know the feeling. Thumping head, groggy eyes. Can't stand still for too long without wobbling and alarmingly little recollection as to what on earth happened the night before. Yup. Went to make cup of tea, thinking it would make things all better. But, no. You forgot to boil the bloody kettle didn't you. Idjit.

And there I was being all smug and stuff, priding myself in not having had to go through it, while eeeeeeveryone else suffered. Serves me right for being such a hoity toity little snob, eh? na na freaking boo boo.

Oh well, can't really complain. Thought I'd try and go all term without one, be sensible and all that, but hey, its Christmas, and what is Christmas without an all nighter.

You didn't think I was talking about... Oh no.. You thought. But I was..oh, Lol. No, like an all nighter - ah, read the last post.

So, its 7pm and I'm finally printing the work put together in the past 24hrs plus (woohoo for me!). Then again its a terms worth of work coming out the A0 printer at uni that decides whether or not it fancies doing it for you. Oh well, *grabs paper cup coffe* here's to round two! hurrah. xxw

Logo RIP

Whilst taking a break I was doing my daily rounds on my usual reads, a day late, no doubt, but only by 2 hrs 35 mins.

During this time I found a site where Logos go to die. There are a couple easily recognizable ones while others you think - ohmygod, how could this have passed as a logo?! how long ago did that one die? (look out for the 'Golly')

Speaking of Logos, the Architecture for Humanity logo competition closes on Friday so if you haven't submitted yet, now is the time people. And please, no digging up the graves of the done and dusted! They're gone for a reason. xxw

Welcome to our world..

I found a list on facebook and thought I'd share. I've omitted quite a few since the list is really quite long so the most important onces are left. Enjoy!

If you are architecture students you've probably experienced:
-the taste of wood glue
-you don't understand how somebody can spend less than £20 at the supplies store
-you hate people telling you "go to sleep" or "do you still have a lot of work?''
-you’ve heard all your ipod songs in a week
-you aren’t seen in public without bags under your eyes (I have three words for you: concealer, concealer, concealer.)
-you’ll dance ymca with a choreography without a drop of alcohol in your system (or ride the rolley chairs down the hill in front of studios, your choice)
-you have more pictures of landscapes and places than of people
-someone once called you “lazy” and you wanted them murdered (you have been warned. This also applies to the ''so what? I was in University too'' spiel. Its. Not. The. Pfft. Same.)
-you can live without human contact, sunlight, food, but if your plotter’s ink runs out… chaos!!!
-when somebody lends you a Bic pen you look down at it (what is this inferior thing you present me with?)
-everybody tells you how they admire your work, “but there is no money for it”
-you’ve gained the ability to sleep in whatever surface: pencils, keyboards, backpacks, your studio mates, food, etc (perched against the glass on the train between Nottingham and London in a crowded train- stood up)
-when you finally have free time to go out you keep thinking “who was the idiot that designed the restaurant’s bathroom?” “who designed this menu?” or “who designed this [chair, table, lighting, fork, etc]”
-you've been at many sunrises, yet you've never seen one

Oh the list is endless. For now, photoshop calls. xxw

At the Fiddle Jamboree!

With it just around the corner, London is gearing up for the big week of Christmas and New Years. For me, Christmas for the past few years have been spent round Kyle's, sitting in front of the fire, most likely watching Ice Age or some other animated movie with a mug of tea and Molly curled up in my lap. Seizing the opportunity to catch some events happening in the capital, K spent ages yesterday trying to get tickets to see The Nutcracker (!!!) only there were no tickets left - bought up by small box offices perhaps..? Que plan B. Go for the instant solution= Go somewhere that night. Not wanting to go out on a big night out having slogged through the weekend we figured we might go to The Green Note in Camden and have a relaxing Sunday evening listening to some live music. UNTIL! we found out that the English Folk Dance and Song Society just around the corner from The Green Note was having a fiddle night! How cool.

Ready for some foot stomping choones off they went and what a wonderful night there was to be had.

Probably the best band of the night


Firing up those strings

These guys played some lovely English folk music- starting off from a tune from the Lake District. I'm no fiddle expert/afficionado nor do I pretend to be one but these guys were brilliant and you could see they had been playing together for a long time. We moved on to some good ole Irish and Scottish folk songs which brought the musicians into a fiddle playing frenzy!


Everyone was welcome to join in
Think bags of crisps, bottles of bring your own, cheese, dip, crusty bread... mmmm...

You've got to love those Mandolins
On Monday nights Pete Cooper, the guy on the end with the white hair, holds Mandolin classes and these were a few of his students. Pete also organized the night together where most of the crowd were students of his. Not only did most of the people know each other, they all knew the same tunes so during most of the songs the crowd joined in, improvised and often carried on playing a totally different tune so by the end of each set, you would already have had a medly of 4 or 5 songs incorporated into each other. After this picture was took, they started on some more Eastern European tunes including Russian folk music which ended in a cocophone of all the instruments playing in the room (of which there were many different kinds - one of which I have never seen before) frantically playing to a foot stomping climax!

Sleepy eyed and still reeling from the journey taken from England, to Ireland, to Scotland, to Russia while dancing to the polska and waltzing to the tune of the mandolin-men they bid goodnight their companions for the evening and came back home, back to the norm and fell into a fiddle-induced slumber.

xxw

Amy Winehouse - Rehab

They tried to make to go to rehab, I said no no no'

Amy's second album's first release is this track and I was hooked the first time I heard it. Granted, I've been waiting for her to release another album for what seems like ages now... so how happy was I to see the billboard advertising her new Back To Black album?! as Larry!

She's not everyone's cup of tea, but this song has got to get you singing it the rest of the day - even you diehard amy-haters out there. She's also brilliant in interviews and is always quoted for slagging off other artists so watch out for the attitude on Amy. xxw p.s if you haven't already- find Amy's F-Me Pumps vid from her last album on Youtube - everyone knows one of these..

Biscuits for Breakfast-Fink

Everyone's had biscuits for breakfast at some point in their life - high or low. Oh and whoever denies this is either a saint who doesn't touch anything sweeter than an apple until after 12 or a big fat liar liar pants on fire.

A friend introduced me to Fink at the end of the summer because he'd been to see him at some obscure gig (at least I hope so.. that's the image in my head anyway). After a long drive from Spalding to Wells (it shouldn't have been long but we got lost..) listening to Fink, I was hooked!

The album begins with this song and doesn't disappoint further on. Which is why, mid December, I'm still listening to it even though I've packed all my Summer-y tunes away for 07. Fall in love. I have. xxw

Lord Fossie does a Posh Spice.

Sir Norman Foster has done it again. He's designed some massive glacial phallus to perch like a wart on the face of the beige-coloured masses. Some love it, others hate it. But it was this quote that I found rather fitting of Fossie's fantastical form for a project in New York:

Teri Slater, co-chair of Defenders of the Historic Upper East Side, called the building an “oversized, ovoid, glazed conceit of a project.”

Following that, another resident of the area likens Sir Norman to a heavy-metal punk rocker invited to play with the philharmonic. Something tells me that there is not much of a punk rocker in Fossie.

This week I was having dinner with Sha, and the subject of Sir Norman Foster comes up. Chris, Sha's mate, sings his praise for Lord Foster, who, in the public eye is quite the man. Sensing my distaste (or rather- him being on the recieving end of my 'oh-god-not-him-please-not-fossie-the-architecture-sl*t' spiel) Chris asks me why don't I like this world renowned British Architect. He has done some awesome projects, no? On the spot I could not think of any way to describe my feelings, and came up with some lame-o thing about Donald Trump not necessarily being a figure to look up to, when really I should have swollowed my words as quickly as they came out. I should have said something like this:

'The Spice Girls were massive when they were at their peak. Yet, not everyone liked them. They were successful, produced chart topping pop tunes and appealed to the masses. Yet not everyone liked them. In fact, many musicians worth anything thought they were just a bit of a joke really-surely?! This, is why Sir Norman Foster doesn't do it for me.'

I'm sure in some ways he's brilliant and worthy of his title, but as for me, he's still just singing the same old zig-a-zig-ah. xxw
p.s Check out the entire article on the New York project on businessweek.com

I'd like A Bike Please.

Sat at the Pret near Uni, as I dig into my lunch some guy pootles along on one of these.



How cool, I thought. Looks like something he made. But doesn't look like he's getting anywhere fast. I re-told my story to Kyle..

Me: babe, there was this guy on a bike with wheels like only this big!
K: uhhuh.
Me: no you don't understand, they were only this big.
K: uhhuh.
Me: ah.

I completely forgot about what I saw until yesterday when it reappeared, only this time on my tv screen.

K: come and look at this! (laughs at tv presenter who too is pootling around the studio crashing into things)
Me: uhhuh. I told you about this like aaaaages ago (playing the 'duh-how ketingallan zaman(i.e left in the stone age) are you?' card)

I've decided its one of the coolest inventions I have seen this year. If you aren't familiar with the maker, Sir Clive Sinclair - where have you been?! You'll probably remember the Sinclair c5
that always seems to make the 'top 100 embarassing moments/things/inventions', that crushed the man's credibility. Still, he's back on top with the new A-Bike that, I think, looks fantastic. A lot more practical than the 1k two wheel, stand-up thing that was brought out a few years ago - wouldn't you think? At £199, the A-Bike is so much more affordable than your regular bike, and I have to say I wouldn't mind one at all.

However, I think during yesterday's Tornado in London, I think I might just stay indoors! Mind you, I was outside during that time (not so clever- I know) and didn't think anything of it until I knew it was an actual Tornado! Lesson learned: People get out of your Range Rovers and get yourselves an A-Bike! xxw

Molly looks how I feel. 

Oh My Rendang Romeo!

It's two weeks til the end of term and the work pace is picking up. This week has sped on by so Wednesday night's night out at the Barbican was a welcome change to the daily slog. I had bought tickets about 5 weeks ago to go and see the Mokhwa Rerpertory Company's Romeo and Juliet and have been looking forward to it ever since. I'm not a huge fan of the story, nor Shakespeare, but remembering a play I had gone to see with my Culture-Vulture-for-a-brother when I was younger, I did that thing you do when you are looking for stuff to do/shop on-line and my mouse-finger took over and clicked the 'book tickets' button. The bus journey from my house to the Barbican involves two buses and a short walk through Angel, so as I had stepped out in my these-heels-are-too-pretty-but-hurt-like-a-b*tch I thought, oh sod this for a game of soldiers and tippy-toed my way to the minicab office at the top of the road. If you spend a week at home wearing your grotty slippers, glasses, previously-grey sweater you are going to put some heels on and a dress the first chance you get! So, arriving at the Barbican after coaxing the driver to take us thisclose to the door and about 15 minutes to spare before the curtain call, I snapped the sign quickly as K finished off his fag.


In front of the Barbican

Effective signage, no? So the venue for the play was in the pit, which if you recall this post- is perfect. Perfect! So gone was the pretentiousness often associated with Shakespeare and Romeo and Juliet and injected with drums, in your face confrontation with the audience and absolutely perfect comic timing. The fact that the actors were Korean, or even East Asian looking, drew the play closer to home as I associated the Nurse character with Kaka, our maid when I was little (not that I ever saw myself as a little Juliet!) I told Sha about the play and naturally she asks whether it was acted in Korean. Of course, we said. Might have been a little more comic than intended if they did it otherwise. It was subtitled of course, via a long horizontal screen hung above the set, but as everyone knows the play anyway - its purpose was little more than to keep you astride with the speed of the acting and which act we might be in. Without it, I think I would have been lost!

I managed to go to the Royal College of Art open day this week as well which I won't elaborate about only that Nigel Coats is a rather dapper middle aged fellow. Having the rest of an essay draft to write that day I had to leave early after watching a couple crits. Still, on my way down (the architecture department is set on the top floor of an 8 storey building) I took a couple snaps of the skyline of London I don't normally see.

Skyline_1


Skyline_2

You forget sometimes that you live in London. Or perhaps that is just me, hermit-like in my ways for the past couple weeks. Not that I'm complaining or anything. Just the reading pile on the edge of my desk seems to grow without me noticing. It's quite a change from living in Singapore where you are confronted daily by the mega skyscrapers that dot the city. Even though we lived on the first floor of a block of flats, it was still a block of flats, and certainly felt like one. Going to work as well, you weave your way around the HDB estates around where your only landmarks to guide you are the top floors of the nearby 70 something storey bulidings. Here, living on the first floor of a little terraced house, the sky seems larger, the roofs seem lower and its quite easy to fall into the bubble that is home-uni-gym-home. Somehow it feels closer to being in Brunei than Singapore as soon as you forget the actual physical/climate difference. Or maybe it has something more to do with K in the kitchen who is, as I am typing this, making Rendang? YUM! xxw