Gay pub

I sneaked a camera into a gay pub last weekend. They were also celebrating their 9th anniversary and they were snapping away with their handphone cameras. And the lights were flashing, the music fatally deafening, and we were squeezed to standing room only, more crowded than Shinjuku trains during peak hour. They were giving out free flow of drinks, and it's all courtesy of Lini's friend Val. So what's another photo with flash from my camera? Here's Lini and Val, in a photo that also captured the face of the pub owner, who wore a red jacket over silver bras that he flashed about now and then. So who says Singaporeans don't know how to party?

Chup

Pick it, Pull it, Pop it

Rating: ***

Sometime before Sep 2006, PizzaHut launched their Cheezy Bite Pizza.

Lily was dying to try it.

So we decided to give it a try over lunch. That's her finger trying to pick, pull and pop a "petal" of the Cheezy Bite. The crust is stuffed with 3 types of cheeze: mozarella, cheddar and parmesan.

Verdict: cheese lovers would welcome it.

But one has to be prepared that the toppings are visibily reduced. So you get extra cheese but you lose extra toppings too.

My verdict: I still prefer the Super Supreme. But of course, my favourite is still "Mediterranean" which unfortunately is no longer available now. Even this Cheesy Bites I suspect is no more in production too...

...the one who is now feeling hungry

A walk to remember

Since Chup wrote about our trip to Sungei Buloh, I thought for completeness sake, I should also mention about our Treetop Walk at Mac Ritchie Reservoir.

Something I meant to do for a while but have been putting it off...

On 5 Nov 06, Chup, Brother Sharx and myself decided to give the much talked about "Treetop Walk" a try.

If you refer to the attached map, we parked our car at Location 1. We then started walking along the trail towards the location of the Hanging Bridge - that's where the treetop walk is. It was a 4.8km trail to reach the Bridge. If you add the walk-through of the bridge and the journey back to the carpark, all in all, it would add up to around a whopping 10km. Nothing for marathon and long distance runners but this is certainly a scary distance to me. Then I thought it can't be that bad. If I can roller blade 10km, I should be able to walk 10km. I was later proven to be very wrong :@

I must say our walk is not completely monotonous.

We came across some interesting sights along the way.

We took a photo with some sky high bamboos, a boy with the most-innovative-hat-of-the-year, and zillions of migrating ants (just like my scary encounter)





It seems like I have walked forever but I was still nowhere near the Bridge. I huffed and puffed, and still I was not there... I was trailing far behind Chup and Bro who were blessed with much longer legs :(

But there was no turning back. I have reached a point of no return.




So we walked from Location 1 ==> 2 ==> 3 (where the Hanging Bridge is)



2 hours later we were finally at the starting point of the Bridge. Imagine walking 5km to walk a bridge that can be completed in 2 minutes! There was nothing much to see along the bridge. Just foliage, that's about it. No matter how long you try to admire the leaves patterns and examine the branches network, you won't need more than 5 minutes.




We later spent another 10 minutes at the end of the bridge where Chup did a water colour, Sharx took a nap and me left my mark on the floor board.




Don't worry, I wasn't leaving a permanent mark. It was just water colour. So now you see it, soon you won't :)






Later, I reluctantly started walking again. From Location 3 ==> 4 and back to Location 2.

Here at the crossroads, I announced my plan to my walking partners that I won't be able to make it back to Location 1 and will walk to Location 5 instead. From there, I would then flag a cab to bring me back to Location 1, where our car was parked.

My plan was not well received. Especially by Chup. He even refused to give my cab money :(

Chup said I didn't keep my word and was a QUITTER. But my legs could go on no more. I really couldn't imagine walking another 5km! So I stuck with my plan, thinking I should be able to beg some men to lend me $10 for my cab ride.

Bro Sharx later relented and decided to accompany me. Chup too later. And so we didn't walk the full 10km. We probably only did 7 or 8km. And if you ask me, the Hanging Bridge was quite an anti climax to me. I expected so much more but it offered so much less. If you really must take a look, I highly suggest you park at Location 5. Your whole journey would then be down to a comfortable 5km walk.

As we were walking out to the main road, we made a shocking discovery.

We witnessed the remains of a baby monitor lizard (about 40cm in length) which was brutally 'murdered'. The person who did it was really sick! He should be reborn as a monitor lizard in his next life and be given the same treatment! From my CSI observation, I could see that he dropped 3 rocks on the lizard. First one missed the subject. 2nd one hit the tail. And the final blow hit the lizard right on its head, paralysing it immediately. The lizard must have died a slow painful death... How could anyone be so cruel??











...the one who is really enjoying all the nature walks

Why?

Any course that teaches “creativity” will say that the foundation of creativity is the skeptical attitude. It is an unhappiness with how things are done, with the status quo, the norm, the conventional. It starts with the question “why?” That’s a pretty obvious thing, you would think. But more important still is the framing of the question.

Sometimes, some of my students tell me I answer a question with a question. For some reason, they think I’m being difficult. Here are some examples:

Student: “How deep should my beam be?”
Me: “What span do you intend the beam to cover?”

Student: “Should I air-con this space?”
Me: “What do you want to use the space for?”

It baffles me why students ask imprecise questions, and how they are unaware of this. In real life, if these questions were posted to an engineer or a client, they will have gotten the exact ‘answer’ I give them.

But what’s rich is the answer they sometimes give me when I ask them why they have designed something in a certain way. The ‘answer’ that annoys me the most is “why not?” It is the equivalent of “piss off.” It’s also the death of enquiry. A student who replies "why not?" is likely to get my 'permission' to proceed with whatever scheme they have. Come assessment day, they will be judged accordingly by a panel of more than 2 tutors. It could just be that the student's aesthetic value may have been more acceptable to others than mine.

But usually, I ask round-about questions because there is an inherent discomfort about the design. It is a means to prompt them to try alternatives without spelling out a solution. Instead of telling them the design sucks, I ask questions. It's a diplomatic way telling them I have problems with it. Sometimes, I get impatient and sketch out precisely what I think will be the better solution. But this is not ideal, because they have been deprived of a chance to think of the problem and improve on their own. They look for short cuts and worse, an ‘answer’. If it had been Maths or Science, I'd give them the answer. But this is about design, a discipline with multiple solutions, none of which are totally 'wrong'. In such a case, they forget that the main pleasure of their work is the chance to keep asking, “Why?”

Chup

The Ultimate Luxury

Last Sunday (19 Nov), Lini and I went for a walk in Sungai Buloh Wetland Reserve. It was Lini’s first time there, and for me, it has been a long while since my last visit. 2 weeks before this, we trekked up the Tree Top walk at MacRitchie. I brought my watercolours for the MacRitchie walk and painted 1 scene. At Sg Buloh, I brought my camera along and ended up painting nothing.

Last Sunday also, the newspaper carried a report of a Finnish guy who came to Singapore to escape the high taxes imposed in Finland. He was paying above 60% of his salary in taxes. He said, “What the lower taxes (in Singapore) have afforded me is time, which is the ultimate luxury.”

When I started teaching, the Director of the School said, “We may not pay you as much as the private sector, but here, you can see the sun set.” My colleagues and I who’d practice in various offices before we took up teaching knew what those words meant. Watching the sun set was a luxury we never had during the week days, and sometimes, during the weekends too.

The architectural market is now hot again. A couple of weeks ago, I had a couple of offers to go back into practice. The pay will be higher, and there are massive jobs are in Dubai and India and China, the construction world’s most exciting places at the moment. It’ll be a chance for me to catch up with the latest technology, before I become obsolete from teaching too long. It was tempting. But Lini was against it. It would mean travel and more time apart. It would also mean more stress for me, and I was never really good with multi-tasking. No, it’s better this way, as I am now, I thought. So I called them back to cancel the interview and settled back to some more time with the academia. And there will be the students to look forward to.

The photos here were taken at Sg Buloh on the morning the Finnish guy said TIME is the ultimate luxury. It has a ring of truth to it…
Chup

Evergreen Concert

Went to a concert put up by Evergreen Primary School last night and there was this long segment where the adults took over the show. This was an extract of a Chinese opera, sung by, I think either Shanghai or Beijing singers. It was engaging for me, but I could sense that it was too much for many of the multi-racial parents and students, who fidgetted about. I took the chance to put the Nikon to the test, setting it to ISO 1600 because I didn't have a tripod. Here are a few shots, at reduced resolution. I'm quite happy with them. Think I'll keep the Nikon after all... As for the rest of the concert, it was great!

Chup

Casino Royale
Rating: ***1/2
Cast: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Eva Green
Genre: Action / Adventure

Watched on 17 Nov 06 with Chup.

Everywhere I checked, there were only first and second rows left. So we had to resort to Tiong Bahru Plaza. We walked in half hour before the show and still managed to get last row :)

I must say Daniel Craig looks not bad at all. He must have buffed up like 10 kg for the show. I enjoyed the movie.

I thought the sports car scene this time round is way too short for normal James Bond standard. There is also much less state-of-the-art gadgets in the show.

Chup, being a James Bond fanatic should comment more on the movie.

...the one who particularly likes the following conversation during the movie
Bar man: Martini for you, Sir? Shaken or stirred?
Bond : Do I look like I give a damn?

From Chup:
The 6th and best Bond since Sean Connery. Oddly, this is the first Bond that is younger than me: this has NEVER happened before. Craig is 38, and that gives me a funny feeling, like he, oh I don't know, needs to be somehow protected rather than looked up to. But of course, it's only my feeling, stemming from old age. He's got a sense of danger about him and doesn't need anyone's protection. Connery was only 32 when he starred in Dr No. He too, had that killer persona with him. Downside: this is the Bond movie with the most forgettable and sterile title track. Who sang it anyway?

Iced Chocolate ala Olio Dome

I bought a glass of Iced Chocolate from Olio Dome last month.

It was S$4.83/glass. A very normal price for cafes such as Dome. One mistake was... the kitchen staff prepared the drink in the full view of the diners.

And I definitely want to share their recipee with you :)

Exact ingredients:
1. cold Farmhouse Fresh Milk (Pink box)
2. Hershey's Chocolate Syrup
3. Ice Cubes











Exact preparation method:
1. Pour about 3 tbsp of Hershey chocolate syrup into cup
2. Pour in the cold milk
3. Put in ice cubes
4. Stir awayyyyy...








And here you go... the exact Iced Chocolate ala Olio Dome








...the one who had finished 2 cartons of Farmhouse milk to date

New Hairstyle

O ya, forgot to note this down.

I cut my hair again on 23 Oct 06. Coloured it a tinge of red. At first I didn't quite like it. Too "BOBBED" I thought. But I have since gotten used to it. I think my hairdresser is secretly preparing my hair so that I can keep it long again! Cut + colour + treatment = S$69.

Eversince I had short hair, it had become quite a chore. Short hair gets out of shape very fast. My last cut was just done on 5 Aug 006. With long hair, I can keep for 1/2 year without visiting the hairdresser!

...the bobbed one