chansaire

bunnies

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 15:06:49 GMT

guess who's finally here :)

quite happy brandon's here! i have a couple of pictures of me and him on the camera, but they didn't come out too well. i'll need to grab it off his camera later #%@^$. will post up more when i have the time to grab them off him.

we met up with michy today for belgium waffles!

and then we were in roger david waiting for brandon as he tried on some clothes, so we decided to camwhore at the fitting area!

she looks so 8yearoldsulkychild adorable! haha.

and another one... .

and then michy bought this amazingly cool shade sunnies for the fun of it! :D i swapped it for her prada's instead.

and then dinner and a movie w aaron.

to lazy to type about anything concrete actually, so just pictures this time round.
happy easter y'all.

the colorful quiet

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 10:54:01 GMT

listening to : survivor - the colorful quiet
mood : lazy

im supposed to be doing studio. so stressed..... another weekend spent at uni! but to hell with it, let's procrastinate even more by blogging.

went for cherie's 23rd birthday last friday. happy belated birthday girl!

cherie's holding the gift i got her - this really cool istanbul-y broken glass light decoration.

myself with the oh-so-talented hongyi.

and another with my yoga kawan, prissy ([prissy] la la, says cherie)

the archi group!

and what's a birthday without trying to get the birthday girl drunk! jaeger bombs for everyone!

okay now back to work, please.

goodbye, and hello agin

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:41:49 GMT

listening to: real love - regina spektor
present read: the aviary gate - katie hickman
munching on: ... an apple!

i was recently introduced to cherie's and hongyi's blog and they're amazing! photographers' (even the ones just starting out :)) are really such creative people....

photo's play such an effect on the heart. the frames on my window ledge above my desk proves just that...

of baby the shihtzu and goldie the golden retriever.
mom and me in a graduation robe.
the family picture.
dad and me.
cass.
and the sisters and me.

its my indestructible family wall!

also, i have a really bad bad, procrastinating habit.
i need my room to be uber clean before i can start any work. so good time to take some pictures...

i love my room!

as you can tell i have no bed frame :/ have yet to see any that i like yet... or maybe i'll just leave it like that... save money too!

i also have two empty photo frames. as i can't hang anything on the walls (rented apartment) that was the only place left to put it. i had unabashedly (super thick skin!) asked cherie to take some cool me+scenic shots so i can develop a large sized one and put it in the frame :P

the essentials on the dressing table (everything else hidden in the cabinets below!) - bedtime reading books, lotions, powder, perfumes (signataure scent - coco chanel mademoiselle), aesop moisturizer, and jewellry box. oh and uncle toby's breakfast cereal bars.

also archi books i have yet to flip through. :D just makes me look more hardworking/studious with it on display, thats all.

my desk. milly on table, mochi on my chair...

cat on the table.

sketch of a structure i designed for this semester's design studio's urban system. tutor called it a "mega-ring" and said it would probably only work in kuala lumpur (pronounced by him as "ku-ah-lah loom-pooh") or hong kong. :( not kota kemuning like suburbs.

the cats are fighting on the table now over who gets to chew on my pen, will blog again soon.

ps- you know who your true friends are during the worst times of your life - linda, for running all the way here at 1.30 in the morning and talked and slept beside me (even though i didn't really sleep at all). when i was then even too tired to cry. thank you.

feel my wrath

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 06:59:40 GMT

i'm usually pretty happy-go-lucky. you know, the blur kind that laughs at everything and is fascinated about everything.

i get sad, i get depressed, or i'm usually quite down when i'm blogging.

but its been a long time since i have been so frigging angry.

i'm just SO pissed right now (wengsing, i was so angry i sent a mail to your office email, sumore)... maybe it's the weather too, that i swear if that person was right in front of me now i'd grab my very cool 15degrees sharp blade and plunge it between his eyes.

"oh, i have a girlfriend now, ergo i am so self righteous, oh by the way, i hope you didn't like me for TOO long because well, i will never feel THAT way for you anymore and oooh! lets just be friends! OH and i also didn't want to tell you about the fact that i have a girlfriend, you know, just in case you felt TOO HURT and well, might still secretly still lust after me!"

that was just my sarcastic intepretation of an otherwise pretty accurate version of what was said.

do FRIENDS even say that to each other?! isn't that just so BLOODY RUDE AND CONDESCENDING? AM I NOT ALREADY IN A RELATIONSHIP?!

sigh. wuusha.
i'm so sorry. i just had to let it off my chest. i promised myself that i will be more in control - choonie and i spoke about this yesterday - i will not let petty issues affect me, i need to prioritise -

i'm also really affected because, well, that guy was just such a wonderful friend (a pretty great person, except for this) for yonks and i just really hated it that he had to phrase things that way.

I will think about really HAPPY things like......

BRANDON'S COMING ON THE 14TH!!!!!!!!!! WOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

brandon's my childhood friend from singapore. he's about 7" tall (okay, maybe slightly shorter, but you sure feel that way lil bro next to me), as well as acting as my wonderful childhood friend, he's also my personal shrink.

blunt but very caring, he's the lil bro that i am not genetically related to.

can't wait for you to get here brandon!! muchos loves!

lust

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:30:41 GMT

who would have guessed that the guy that i have been lusting after for 2 years is

actually

gay.

gah!!!!!!!

hello, silly

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 14:32:40 GMT

couldn't sleep so decided to blog instead. this is the result of habitually sleeping at 2 in the morning and waking up 12 hours later.

yes, ladies and gentlemen - i require 12 hours of sleep. any less and i'm a grumpy old hag with bad hair (and skin).

i do realise that i need to start training myself for regular people's 7 hours of sleep, but it's easier said than done. since uni is starting tomorrow i thought it'd be a good idea to start sleeping at midnight, since its 1.38am now and i'm tossing and turning in my springy (now single) bed, no such luck.

everything's settled now, the apartment. we don't have a million people staying here and the sister and i have shifted furniture around so everything seems a little bit more homey. though to be quite honest the fact that my sister is here somehow make things seem a bit homier.

(though we have yet to engage is any particular verbal battle resulting in me wishing she would jump off the balcony)

i'll try the bed again. good night, everyone.

wishful thinking

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:18:14 GMT

kells is one of the most observant person that i know. she brought up an issue that no one else (or so i think) would have noticed - you know what i'm talking about woman, don't worry woman karma works in many mysterious ways!

i'm also still so very upset that i didn't have a chance to meet up with kells when i was back at kl - it was just such bad timing. we've been such close friends (oh who am i kidding she's practically my best friend!) for so many years that this crazy woman knows me inside out sideways backwards and frontwards.

sometimes very scary one. in a good way of course.

woman, don't worry. i promise i'll pluck up my balls to go for a brazillian with you one day.

now that i'm back in melbourne with the sister, i realise how much i miss home. and the company back at home. in fact, i sometimes think i miss dubai too! mostly because of my family.... and our really laid back lifestyle.

i mean other than work... there wasn't really much to do....

so really what life's was like living in abu dhabi for five months can be pretty much summarised as below...

you visit the "wow" places where the rich emirates don't think twice when throwing their money around: like this huge aquarium at Dubai Mall - holds the record for largest perspex glass - (not a huge supporter of man-made aquariums - and very much against coral hunting. these fishes belong in the sea. not in a mall.) you can see the scale of people against the actual height of the aquarium.

and i miss my family and how my mom has this incredible ability to transform an empty house into a home... - the typical 'modern' arabic house - few perforations (sandstorms) and flat roof (water tank on roof). abf's little powerful yaris at the front.

mom bought a garden table and placed it under the pergola so we could have dinner outside during winter. during the day we huddle outside while it's chilly with our laptops to keep us warm. very scarce vegetation as it is quite difficult to keep plants during the summer season. this was taken during winter.

at night the sister's bf would light the charcoal and we would shisha on the other side of the house.

and of course there was mochi that kept picking on poor baby.

every week the sister and i would go skating. the skating rink was conveniently located 5 minutes away so it's our usual haunt. it was also where we met thai duo ja and ti! we soon became great friends.

cassie decided to join us skating that day. omg shes almost as tall as i am.

ja even got me cute cow blade guards from the states!

or we'd go out for swanky dinners at hotels...

because there's no mamak, our nearest mamak is the souk @ shangri-la. where we have starbucks!

the dubai landscape can be summarised in one word - "competitive". the bosses and myself can wet ourselves laughing while pointing at our choice of top 10 ugliest buildings in dubai.

it was great working at PTW - i really, really loved the people. the picture below is of my farewell dinner at beach rotana hotel (the four of us were playing tennis is our work clothes before that to kill time ;p) from left, ali from iraq, olivera from serbia, myself and ahmed from egypt. our office is so cosmopolitan! there's also eric and paul from australia and thea from the philliphines that are missing in the picture.

i wanted to take a picture of the emirati teenagers in the background....

olivera and myself :)

my photoshop, 3ds max, any rendering software guru/master and fantastic friend, ahmed -

last but not least, my boss and mentor - paul.

that's all for now guys. blog more soon.

xoxo, manda

forgiveness is overrated - and wedding bells

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:12:02 GMT

i trust the wrong people all the time. some people i just can never forgive, who am i kidding - i need to be more selfish and save my ass and not give two shit about whether i'm perceived as gracious or not.

* * * *

the one person i can never stop loving however - is getting married very very very soon! and im maid of honour!

so i can now very un-guiltily and very blissfully with goo-goo eyes look glossy wedding magazines, run my fingers through silk, satin and organza wedding dresses - and go all sniffy when the curtains are pulled back and hoai comes out with "The One" dress.

except, i think we have way too many "The One" dresses. its so hard to decide. but we're definitely not going for the one below - she looks so beautiful anyway...

we have yet to actually decide on one - we illigally took the picture above while the not very nice lady went to grab another dress - but we're not going for the above dress as its too bloody heavy for poor hoai and plus - the train is so long and grand that i swear all her 5 huge dogs can lie on it quite comfortably.

the thing is, in quite a number of shops that we've entered the saleslady would usually look at me and giggle and ask me when's my turn.

i tell her that i need to find someone to marry first. then the saleslady would giggle in reply walk away, probably feeling very sorry for me as i may possibly die a spinster with 99 cats.

potentially my maid of honour dress. god, i look so fat.
well at least i'll have time to lose a bit of weight before the wedding, fingers crossed.

finally!

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 20:11:56 GMT

if you're still reading this - thanks for keeping up on me - and because i know you love me loads and loads and loads - here are pictures from my recent travel in istanbul.

it was meant to be an 4 day backpacking trip, but became, at the very last minute to the amusement of my father ("I TOLD YOU SO!!!") and most of my friends ("I KNEW IT!!!") an 8 day very-nice-hotel trip.

heh.

well here goes - in no particular order -

turkish tea. like coffee to coffee addicts, cigarettes to smokers, and coke to druggies - its a must-drink-or-die thing in istanbul. usually drank with two cubes of sugar, the turks like really sweet stuff.

apple tea - equally as popular - looks somewhat similar, but about 10x sweeter.

turkish breakfast usually consist of bread/cheese/tea. this one's special. fried eggs with salami. its bloody good.

turkish chup fun.

brenda and i - waiting for the boat to the asia side of istanbul.

and a really nice picture of cassie.

i like this picture of brenda's bf. pretty much sums up his personality. ha ha ha. (inside joke)

and a picture of the anorexic boyfriend. another picture of him which pretty much sums up his personality as well. ha ha.

mom and i in the pretty light store.

pasha - the poor german shepard that was tied outside our hotel. poor dog would curl himself up into a ball and whine into the night as it was too cold... sigh

hagia sophia.

in hagia sophia - i'll write up more about this another day. i read about this building during my first year as an archi student - its amazing to finally see it in person.

another view inside hagia sophia - compare the scale of the people to the how massive the space is in the mosque.

kanyon shopping centre - an amazing outdoor shopping centre designed by istanbul architects tabanlioglu architects.

in the blue mosque...

another amazing shot inside the blue mosque. the lights hang 7" off the ground and is suspended from the ceiling.

outside the blue mosque, collonades surrouding the ablution fountain the centre of the courtyard.

typical istanbul street view - various facades in a single street elevation!

another amazing shot taken by the abf's wide angle camera.

the basilica cistern - an underground water storage area - again, this needs more explanation but im too tired and sleepy! next post okay, promise.

the grand bazaar - a maze of everything - where the prices are rocket high and my bargaining skill is an all time low.

topkapi palace - the place where one can find the spoonmaker's diamond - all 85carat of it!!!! - story is, a poor spoonmaker found the diamond in a rubbish bin, and he then traded it for 2 wooden spoons. -_-

istanbul was also filled, or rather, flooded with stray cats and dogs. and they're so manja!!!

see, told you so.

after giving the cats a pet or two everyone stayed away from me as they've read from online tourist guides that some of these cats may have rabies.

but i couldnt help it T_T you know me and animals T_T

the abf and i. not too sure why my legs look so skinny or so bow-legged, i swear i didn't photoshop this image. must be like the pants or the camera or something. and yes, i know, the jacket makes me look like uncle fester from adams family.

that's all for now - time for bed. happy christmas to everyone - wishing you all a glorious new year - this year, let's say "screw it!" to the writing new year resolutions - and just live everyday like it's our last. (even if that means eating one... more... cookie, or opening one.... more... packet of nachos, or saying "hm, maybe i'll do it tomorrow" to an assignment that is due the day after. really. because we all know we never keep our new year's resolutions ANYWAY)

cheers! - and thank you once again, for sticking with me for this long.

xoxo

grace is gone

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:23:27 GMT

- by jamie cullum, a must hear.

picture above shows every architect's must have - yellow trace - usually expensive, but very useful for sketching/tracing.

i got bored designing my villa at the office, so scribbled me riding a giraffe instead.

with that said, this villa design (which i designed entirely on my own, thank you very much, in ONE day - 3dmodel and all - the boss designed 3 in a day -_-" with 3dmodel and all) will be used on this new project that the company has. its pretty big - 700sqm - and designed around a linear garden/water feature, surrounding other public/private space...

... design in the middle east is very new to me. while im used to metal/concrete/full glazed houses, people here like heavy, mass like, fortress like, small perforated openings, and a massive amount of privacy.

so basically its a box with a small hole to peek out la.

of course, if us architects (or soon to be, anyway) describe our designs like that (even though, in layman terms, it DOES look like that) we'd all be dead broke....

oh, i also took this incredibly adorable picture of mochi chewing on mamacrocrodile's tail.

he looks tiny and kitten like in the picture, but really, he's quite the monster.

sleep now, work tomorrow, blog soon.

ps - ws - lich king!