Monday, December 29, 2008

Living in HDB

Living in HDB has quite a lot of freedom. But living in older apartments where your unit is along the corridor with windows opening along it, it is not a good feeling. I need to open my window to get better ventilation into my room. The top hung window is simply not enough for that.

Good, I got almost 50% of my sliding window opened. Breeze coming in, I got fresh air, and my room is better lit by daylight. But there is one problem. Maybe a few.

As you know, units along corridor will get “visitors” from other units further down walking up and down to the lifts. That is one of the nuisance. But it is ok to me. But I hate it when they want to look into my room. Their head and eyes just uncontrollably turned and rolled towards my room when they saw an open window. I am not sure if it is a Singaporean habit or they are just busybody in human nature. Hmm... it still sounds like a Singaporean busybody nature to me.

Another nuisance is when your neighbour smokes. When he gets out of his unit and smoke along the corridor, the “fragrant” from their cancer sticks irritated my nose and it “ran”.

I simply cannot find peace staying in Singapore. Every second of the day, even at night, the environment is polluted with noise. Construction is going on, people talking loudly, vehicles driving pass, horns going off, it is a never ending story.

The weather is warm, and it is acting like catalysis, burning up my heat and temper every second.

hmm... I wonder if it is better to stay in Australia or Singapore.

tata…

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Saturday, December 20, 2008

Early Bird

At last, managed to drag myself up in the morning to shoot kingfishers. It’s like only 2-3m away.





tata…

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Saturday, December 13, 2008

4 Years of Blogging

Time flies. And 2 days ago is the 4th year of blogging. Happy Belated Birthday to my blog and happy reading folks.

tata…

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Sunday, November 30, 2008

Back in Singapore with bad luck

Several back luck occurred to me after I am back in SG. Sony Alpha A900 poisoned me. I knocked my knee onto the edge of my bed frame while climbing onto my bed. I knocked my back onto my wall shelf while trying to stand up. And many other occurrences. Tired. I am still having jet lag. Zzzzzzzzzzz

tata…

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Friday, October 31, 2008

2nd Semester Final Submission Ends

... and holiday starts again!! Technically, again, I still have an assignment submission next Friday, Building Technology in Design. Last semester was Professional Studies. Oh well… Time to pack my room. It looks like a warzone. Clean my car, clean the house, go shopping, cook nice food etc. etc. etc. Tonight, I am cooking roast pork belly again! Yummy!



tata…

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Friday, October 24, 2008

Busy time ahead

Though busy, I still want to post something. I just finished rendering my ground floor plan. It took me nearly 5 hours to colour and adjust on Photoshop. But it took me about 2 to 3 days to finalise my plans and to sketch it manually on my yellow trace and scanned it this morning. I just don’t want to use computer to CAD the plans out. I am just plain lazy to do precise CAD. Every semester end submission, I would spend most of my time to CAD, print out, test, see, reCAD from sketches I drew. Maybe that is the reason why I never started in the design stage. Now, I decided to do everything manually, except rendering of course. It also took me just about an hour to resolve my plaza issue. It isn’t what I really wanted, but there isn’t time to refine more. Just do it.





tata…

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Sunday, October 12, 2008

Creative selling cheaper in Aus?

Sometimes, I wonder if Creative is actually a Singapore brand. Because, Australia is selling cheaper creative products! Currently, Creative is having a sale. The online discounted price for a 16GB Zen player on Creative Singapore online store is the original price of the Zen player selling in Creative Australia online store. Not only that, Creative Australia is also having the same sale, and the discounted price in Australia is cheaper than the discounted price in Singapore! It is $30 difference! Base on current exchange rate, it is 1:1, so it is a good time to shop in Australia. A Creative webcam I saw on the Australia website is selling at $40 cheaper than Singapore, what’s more, $40 cheaper is the difference after I added the delivery cost into the total!!

I always thought it is cheaper to buy Creative products in Singapore, but I am wrong.

tata…

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Saturday, October 11, 2008

Launceston Day 2008 Day 2 Fireworks Night

Managed to take 2 fireworks pics from my 170-500mm lens. I didn’t realise last night that the fireworks can be so small at about 3km away from my house.





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TD Models

After weeks of TD, Theory in Design, and few weeks of group TD project, we had finish the prototype models just 2 weeks ago. Last night, I went to take some photos of the prototypes and with the help of a few model friends, here is the result. It’s too bad not all the prototype are there. 2 of them are in another location. It would look real nice when the 8 models are in. Currently, 6 are displayed in the 1st and 2nd year studio.

More photos in my facebook album page.




tata...

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Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Pissed

I am super pissed today. What the hell my lecturer wants. He chosen the section for me and for the first assignment I got a DN. This afternoon, I showed him my detail section, and he just slammed me if I took it from my design submission. He kept whining about he don’t want the design section and said that I just copied and paste for his submission. I cursed him in my heart and I tried to explain that it was not a copy. I did make an effort, 3 days worth of late nights, just to edit them and make them buildable and detail for his submission. What’s more, that is the type of detail standard I always do for any submission, regardless for design or construction.

Secondly, he doubts my drawing standard level. He could not believe that was what I had done is what my ability was. The way he talks, is so sarcastic. I had the urge to shout out loud into his ears, “Hey, I can draw submission drawings even better than what I had done for you! This is only a small percentage of what I had done before!” I hate him when he doubted me. This is not the first. Last year, during my final presentation, he doubted me if I can come out with a detail which is almost perfect. Asked me for a precedent, which I told him I do not have. That is the detail that I came out with. He doubted me! Is he expecting me to insert the detail I done back in my poly days and tell him, that is where my detail derive from?! That is crap! I learnt from detailing and construction properties and came out with my own detail. And I did not follow any other architect’s detail! I seldom do that. I only look at how they design, and came out with my own detail design.

Such a pain. He is just another person who does not appreciate a student’s hard work which he thinks that standard isn’t what a student is capable of. Who the hell he thinks he is? The master of detailing? From what I see and what he can do, he is so “outdated”. My roof cladding is flat metal profile, and he talk to me about corrugated zinc. Does he have any design sense?

Arghh… I am so pissed that I have no mood to do my design. Crap…

tata…

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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Got it!

Yesterday just got my “new” cheap AUD2k car, the 1985 Suzuki Sierra LWB 4WD. It’s cute, it’s small, and it’s only 1.3L. I almost lost the chance to get the car when one of the buyers wants the seller to hold back for 1 week but the seller isn’t keen to do so. Since I am keen get it straight away, the seller approached me again.

Drives like a lorry, but as small as a mini van. This is an upgrade from my current very reliable, going to sell it off, 1984 Ford Laser. I will miss my Ford but well, now that I have this 4WD, I am able to have some fun driving in it in Tasmania, lots to do and explore.

Sometimes, how I wish Singapore sells cheaper cars. If you can afford SGD100-130k back in Singapore to drive the best Toyota or Nissan, you can get even better deals here. Just AUD108k, you can drive the newly launch Jaguar XF, saw it on the TV ad yesterday.



tata…

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Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The Long Wait have Arrived

At last, Sony Alpha α900 is out 2 days ago. It looks gorgeous and very “tasty”. I wish I can have this new baby.



tata…

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Monday, September 8, 2008

Presentation

Had quite a bad start this morning in our group Design Studio presentation. I really hated one of my tutors. We call him the old botak head, “秃头老” He is really an evil person. There are so many comments which he made that it is beyond our presentation criteria. “When designing in a micro scale, the building materials, building depths, and probably air shafts can be considered for climatic respond so that when you are designing in the macro scale, you will know about the street qualities that are affected by those components.” Right, that can be considered but that wasn’t supposed to be in this stage, it is suppose to be in the next individual precinct design stage when we get into a much more micro design. “If you don’t know the answer, just say you don’t know.” What the hell, I was thinking of how to put my thoughts in words. Bastard. I hope my 5th year tutor will not be him.



tata…

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Friday, September 5, 2008

Roast Pork Belly

I miss Singapore’s Roast Pork Belly, aka ‘siao rou’ or ‘sio bar’ in dialet that I decided to make it. Hoping that it turn out well, and it turn out to be a real gourmet. Sinful but mouthwatering. Though the choice of belly is limited here, it still prove success. I will continue hunting for bigger and cheaper pork belly to try again. Now I truly understand and enjoy the feeling of chopping the ‘sio bar’. Quick without thinking, chop chop and chop, goes down the knife and the sound of chopping through the crispy skin and hitting the board, wow, it was a sound of hawker food.



tata…

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Sunday, August 17, 2008

My latest vegetable garden collection



There are bak choy, snow pea, garlic, onion, parsley, coriander, lettuce and spinach.

tata…

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Monday, August 11, 2008

Busy Days Ahead

For the past few weeks, I had been busy. And it hasn’t stop. Week after week, one submission after submission almost turned me crazy. Sometimes, I just wish to lay in bed and let the time pass, day after day.

Last night, I had a terrible time in bed. I couldn’t sleep well. I felt that I am on the verge of getting sick. Covered over with fleece and my quit tightly, the chilly air seems to have found its way in. I rolled, I turned, I curled up, and it took me which seems like ages to sleep. In the morning, the sun didn’t do its job to warm up my room.

I was cooking instant noodles for lunch just now. The packet of sesame oil, as usual, was solidified due to the cold weather here. I threw it into my boiling water, it melts, and I took it out. I opened it, and pour it into my empty boil. The moment it touches the bowl, it solidified again. You won’t get that scenario in Singapore, never.

Eating my noodles while watching the Olympics on TV, it is a joy. But none of the sports so far interest me. Maybe it is because there are no live telecasts on the Singapore team.

Back to work. Work, work, and more work to come.

tata…

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Sunday, July 27, 2008

Ben Lomond

Yesterday, went up to Ben Lomond, a ski mountain in northern Tasmania, with my group of friends on a tour with MSA, the Malaysia Students Association. We had great fun. Some of us either ski, snow board, or play with toboggan. Poor man myself played with the $15 toboggan. Next time, I shall try skiing. The trip should have postphoned for another week or so for more snow coverage, but nevertheless, we had great fun.


Jacobs Ladder














Making Angel


Toboggan and Me

tata…

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Monday, July 21, 2008

Sch Starts :(

How I wish holiday can last a bit longer. Maybe for another month? I haven’t done much during this winter break. The 2nd last week, I went Sydney. That was my 2nd time I went Sydney and seriously, there is nothing much in the city in my opinion.










An Abstract Shot

And loads of photos!



























After Sydney, had a presentation to the new students coming to UTAS about SSA. Then a few days later, head out to Port Arthur with SSA. It seems to be a very busy last week before school starts again.

Now that I am in my 2nd week into the 2nd semester, I am still feeling a bit brain blockage. I cannot think and work. My mind keeps wondering off to wonderland. Next week, there will be a submission and hopefully, I can come out something for my group on my part. Till then.

tata…

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Friday, June 20, 2008

Fishing!!

Yesterday, went fishing with Jonathan and his fishing buddies. We had loads of fun!! We headed to Weymouth, a rocky beach and started our quest to fish Leatherjacket.





The first few catch was small Bass and Puffer Fish by the rest of the gang. I caught nothing but a few bits and it is gone. A few tries later my bait was gone. Hell I am feeding the fishes! Then a few times, my line got caught between the rocks! That is the fun of rock fishing.




It’s a catch! Nono... it’s just stuck... duh...

Then a moment came. My first catch!


A yellow Leatherjacket!

We caught in total 2 big and 3 small Leatherjacket. I caught a small one though. The name speaks by itself. The skin is leathery and it has to be skinned. It also has a horn on its head which is already been cut off after the catch and has extremely strong jaws and teeth which can break stones. The smelly part will be to degut the fish. Its internal organs will decompose faster therefore it has to be taken out asap to keep the fish fresh. It looks delicious after the cleanup. What’s for dinner tonight? One herbs grilled and maybe another with Sambal Blachan? Yummy!!





tata…

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Monday, June 16, 2008

Peel P50 Microcar

I was watching TopGear just now and it was a very entertaining episode! Jeremy Clarkson presented the old Peel P50 which was introduced in the 1960s! He even drove it around on the road. Not only that, he drove it in an office! Must be tired of walking around. Ha! You should watch that episode. Try searching Peel P50 in YouTube and watch the video. The funniest part would be seeing him driving the car across the background in the middle of the live BBC News broadcast. Try searching also in YouTube “Top Gear - Peel On Live BBC News Broadcast”




They even introduced the sport version!


tata…

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Thursday, June 12, 2008

Mahjong Mahjong Mahjong!

Anyone wanna play mahjong? Last night, I decided to make a mahjong table. The dining table at home is just too long and narrow. The two people who sit along the long side will not have a decent space for tiles. The product of a few hours of labour :



tata…

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