The Retrocession

It's a two month hiatus! Wow. Life is mundanely exciting. Went to Canada and stayed at this Auntie Linda's home. Super nice~~~ And seen snow for the first time in my life. When it comes to postdating my posts I just get real lazy. So let's just talk about what happened these couple of days okay. Our Archi course was tasked to look for kiosks and be ready to design a better one along Selegie Road. The target I have in mind right now is the gao luck man. I have no idea why Buah Berangan, better known as 栗子, is called Gao Luck. But anyway I had to run around Singapore to find these people with woks and gas cylinders; it certainly isn't easy. There is this Chinese phrase called 跑地牛 . Who is 地牛 ? 地牛 , in modern context, means NEA officials. Do you know that selling fruits outside the MRT station requires a permit? Do you know that the Gao Luck man has to change his location every now and then to avoid them? Legal or not, it isn't my problem. But I would...

One month into school already. Want to die already haha. I am really surprised (and so is the rest of the studio) how I can remain so chill despite such tight deadlines. 10 more days and I WILL BE THROUGH! Design Module: ARGH 10 DAYS 10 DAYS CRAMMMMM! Structure Module: I have no idea what the lecturer is saying. Ideas Module: Angmoh lecturer. Also no idea what the lecturer is saying. But his slides are nice. Japanese Studies: The most interesting one so far. Angmoh lecturer teaching about 織田 信長 , 徳川 家康 and Battle of Sekigahara and all the Japanese history. Okay lah I'm a history buff, but memorising these names in English is SO NOT EASY. Islam Module: Hmmmm. Interesting too, but I don't what will be tested. Oh did I mention I join Chinese Drama? Pretty interesting, great place to practise Mandarin since Archi studio seems so..... foreign to me. Alcohol is good to keep your lines straight! 天天夜夜，日复一日，年复一年，直到永远。 Yeah lah yeah lah all wear RED ahahhaha ...

Toronto trip was fun. I don't know how to describe it, I've been here for two weeks last year, yet I still get surprises along the way. Met a lot of awesome people. Hot Korean and Chinese babes too. It seems like Angmoh-born Asians are hotter. WHY HUH? Talking about immigrants, Toronto has A LOT A LOT of immigrants. When I reached their airport almost everyone I saw had black hair. Canada is a bilingual country with English and French. But here, Chinese and Korean characters are everywhere. What does being an immigrant imply? Increased competition for finite resources? Overcrowded trains and buses? It seems to me that migrating is a trend globally. Many angmohs (along with PRCs and Pinoys) chose to move to Singapore, while many Singaporeans are getting PR statuses elsewhere. During the good old monkey-ape days, people moved to seek shelter and food. The notion of nations and races, however, added identity to them. People started to gather as families and commun...

昨天，一位许久不见的同班同学突然打电话来。 一阵寒暄问暖后，他问晚上有没有空一起吃饭。 他说现在有做些生意，很久没有跟老朋友联络，很是挂念。 自己已经听出了一点端倪，但是还是给了他那个 Benefit of Doubt 。 茶余饭后，他就开始推销自己的 事业 了。 我有一点expected，所以也就听进去了，反正自己到最后一定不会买账。 我，毕竟，是有原则的。 或者也可以归类为stubborn啦。 他就说道：“小时候很多人都梦想有大房子，很有势咧！”“很多人都梦想有辆跑车，很有势咧！”“大家梦寐以求的工作，就是翘脚慢活却又能赚大钱！”“你要用一辆mercedes追美眉，还是用一辆哦普普通通的Nissan Sunny？” 幹，我从小就知道勤俭是种美德（虽然存了20年也没有多少，哈哈哈）。 我也真的没有这种爱慕虚荣的心态。 Being Attention-seeking is one thing, Vanity is another. [29/12/11: Oh, now got this new concept... The boss will personally come down to "guide" and "nurture" 10~30 new talents but this is only limited period of time... It's a great opportunity not to be missed! 老板亲自指导喔 ……！ I don't really care if your boss 指导 or not. In fact he should, since all you guys are rolling money in for him. He is the greatest 金主, who doesn't need to do much and wait for money to be generated based on commissions...] 没有钱，我的确无法过活。 但是，用 金钱 跟 爱好 相比，我宁可选择 爱好 。 当然啦，它的前提context是我得有一点点钱。But then again, Ar...

Went jogging today, decided to run around Bedok area. Bedok, is where my third Primary School was--the Red Swastika Sch. Last time the old people always pronounced it as SWA-TE-KAH. I think one of these days I am gonna compile all my "Neighborhood Pictures" into various 地方册s and start researching on them. Should be pretty unseful huh, compiling culture and architecture together. Talking about culture.... Bt Brown. I'm going there tomorrow. Conserve. :D

My dear little Canon Camera has a lot of interesting modes. Mode No. 1: S E P I A M O D E . Oh. Just to share, the Police Station in Chinatown speaks Chinese (hmm... actually Cantonese...). Finch Area is where I stayed in Toronto. Not very near town. It's like Joo Koon to Town. FAR. This is Union Station, the main Train Station in Toronto. Oh, it happened to rain once I changed to Sepia Mode, 5s difference. Dammit. Rain and clouds are like free in Toronto. That's why I don't like the weather tehre. And I hate cold weather. It's summer already but it's 14 degrees. What the shit. I guess winter will suck totally. Up next it's Casa Loma, a castle built about 5km away from the lakeside by a very rich angmoh philanthropist. SEPIA + MACRO = POWER : Walking down The Annex area (yeah the town is called The Annex) towards Downtown: Damn shack. Still can't recover from the Jet Lag. And now I've added so many ne...

Okay. Toronto trip coming to an end in... 12 hours? This trip I won't say it's immemorable (damn I typed this word like 7 times before I got it right), but it's really an eye-opener. After all, this is the first time I stepped out of Asia (East Asia, to be exact). I took a lot of pictures. Obviously. Which comes to a question, how am supposed to blog out my two week trip? I can't be spamming all into ONE LONG POST RIGHT I DON'T HAVE THE TIME AND ENERGY TO DO IT yeah. Shall split them into little sections, got time I post one lah. Starting from the Royal Ontario Museum bah. Bienvenue à Musée Royal de l'Ontario! Museum Subway Station Here the transport system a bit difficult to navigate at first lah. Shall describe next time yo. My boy busy taking pictures. Obviously his skills not as good as mine. Hahaha. To all males: CHIOBU ALER T. BE SURE TO CHECK HER OUT NEXT TIME. Very big very posh! They've got a lot of galleries, rang...