The semester ended with studio presentations in room 15.9A. I still have my portfolio hand-in, mind you Right after that, was time to focus on Christmas! How exciting! Christmas tree shopping!And not to forget, Christmas decorations around the Peak. Some quite gaudy, but it's the effort that counts.

And lastly, a hearty meal with the Malaysians, many of which I've never seen before.

of MacDonalds and Campbells

By now, you guys should have realized that if there are no posts for a long time, it jolly well means that I'm somewhere on the road. Teeheehee. Took a Virgin train on my virgin solo tour to Scotland! The moment the train crossed the border into Berwick-upon-Tweed, my gaze got fixed onto the vast North Sea. The change in landscape was simply amazing. When the train pulled into Edinburgh's Waverly station, my soul was sold. Edinburgh is lovely, lovely, lovely! Was suppose to meet one of my old schoolpal but I didn't managed to in the end, so I decided to go further north, to see Ben Nevis, to see the locks and lochs, to see the highland cattle, to see men in kilt and bagpipes, to hear the tales of the Scottish heroes, to experience the castle ruins, and to see the land of Gaels. If I could, I'd spend a lifetime here travelling around the UK.

Anyway, I shall put up photos later. I still have backdated ones from Cornwall to post. Zzzzzzz... Oh, and part 2 of my backpacking trip with Jes and Zq which we did in Aug... Hmm... no point looking back right? I'll just put up the latest ones as soon as I can. I've been busy with my Christmas shopping and baking, but the real shopping comes only during boxing day sales! I'm still waiting for the snow to fall although the temperature dropped to -2 yesterday.

Oh, and my first Christmas present arrived today. From the shopaholic queen who is the first student on SEP to return back to Singapore. She knows me too well because she got what I like and I must say, he is handsome and manly ( what do you expect from a KMT leader and the father of modern China?). Thanks CHERYL!! I love my presents a lot! Hee... a nice addition to my collection, specially from HK!

Lastly, thanks Hui Lian for the Christmas card!!! I didn't expect to receive any here.All the best for your trip to Indo. Hope you'll return to Singapore enlightened and moved by the experience, and do show me how to build a building (kinda scary having an architecture student saying that isn't it?)

Oh, and I saw that castle that was made famous in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Doune Castle . EW, does that ring a bell? Killer rabbit?

Ahh... hope everyone's having a great holiday.

France has created a "Kafka index" that measures the complexity of a project or law against its usefulness to cut red tape.

The index - referring to Franz Kafka's The Trial, which describes one man's fight against a nightmarish bureaucracy - is a scale of one to 100 measuring how many hurdles, from forms to letters or phone calls, are needed to win state permits or aid for a project.

"It is an indicator to measure as objectively as possible the most complex procedures so that we can then simplify them"

This is what I found in Brussels. I thought it was interesting but my tutor dismissed it off as an art installation until I did more research. It's a really cool concept and it started in France. They have a Kafka building in Brussels and the index is displayed to the public. Hmm.. wonder if they'll have one in Malaysia

Of coves, smugglers and cornish pasties

The 3 images above were taken at Land's End, the tip of Cornwall

Now, I've found a love for lighthouses. They're simply so romantic!

Oh little town of St. Ives
A sneak preview to where I went last weekend

More photos after I've cleared a pile of work. Counting down the days to Christmas!

Malaysia melengang, peluangnya berenggang

A digression here. It's suppose to be my SEP blog, but oh well. An article that is quite well written indeed. Now, I hope more people will come out to speak up about our country. It's about time we do something, you think? The irony is, it's not a local who wrote it. However, I'm still glad someone did. I hope this gets the ball rolling into something progressive and constructive. Looking at the state we are in now, if all those who have left the country, the good ones, the mediocre ones, the creative ones, were to return and run it, I think, we would have been one heck of a good country. It's never that easy when no one acknowledges the faults and the failures. No one speaks loud enough. We all seem to have that fear still don't we?

http://www.michaelbackman.com/

Rememberence Day (11/11/06)

remembering the fallen

honouring the present

They say Brussels is having schizophrenia. I think Brussels is just young. She represents the young ones today, all confused and mixed up, interesting and energetic, and brimmed with ideas.

My trip to Brussels was greated with these. Some displayed truly high artistic talent.It started with a workshop. Everything else follows after. Never have I met such a diverse group of characters, passionate about their city and work.
The Palace of Justice, a building of controversy but I like its huge interior

Misplaced furniture?
at the flea market

A tool for generating ideas?


True to its character, the comic strips city.

A ghost town in the city. An empty administrative building
My favourite blue man

The Man of my dreams
I grew up with Tintin and Asterix.

my 2 favourite animals! Seems to be a post of my favouritesa bunch of restless people hanging out at the skating park

A silver weekend

The sphere that dots the landscape outside the Winter Gardens

The sphere that left dots on my knees on Saturday (knee pads resting in Singapore)

Went for Nottingham Games on Saturday to play vball. Had good fun playing with them here. It's always fun playing with a new team and trying to adapt to their strategies but it takes time to play as a team. They're all good players, but I think I kind of miss my vball mates back in nus. Somehow, I've became familiar with team mates speaking Chinese on court, but here, it's just like it was at home, English speaking =) . Nothing beats the familiarity of home.

Princess of Wales?? just a thought.

Driving through Wales is a very different experience. You feel like you're in a different place partly due to the signages and landscape. It's all very... Welsh. Words that seem to make no sense because they're full of consonants, makes it so difficult on the tongue. The steep mountains and vast seas are simply captivating. The Irish sea and beyond
Overlooking Prestatyn

Caenarfon Castle, where Prince Charles was invested.
Even seagulls have paparazi problemsNature will never cease to be my favourite subject Heading towards Snowdonia National Park, Wales

Snowdonia, in the fog

I simply love da moon

Of bonfires and diamonds

Happy Bonfire Night!

Too bad I didn't manage to stay for the fireworks at Caernarfon Castle,Wales. It would've been spectacular. The compensation was that I saw at least 10 or more on the way home. All the reason to celebrate something quite pagan I think. Well, when it comes to fireworks, guess we need no reason to play!

the moon so bright

It's full moon now. Lots of diamonds in the sky. Could even spot Ursa Major and the North Star! I've never seen such a dark sky with bright gleaming stars since I left home to study down south in the city. In fact, it's darker here, so you can really tell the difference between a moon-lit place and the orange skies of the city.