Exitlude

Regrettably, time has come to send me on my way. It's been a good 5 years here on blogger and I'm glad to have you with me. I hope you enjoyed it, don't worry about what it's all about. Who knows, one day I may start this one up again. But for now, let me please direct you to:

JUST-IN-ME.TUMBLR.COM

I bid you a fair day.

Direction

Let me re-direct you to this site while I'm taking some time off from blogging.

Just-in-me at tumblr

Thinking

I'm thinking whether I should stop this blog.

Watch This

Love is a Losing Game (live)
by Amy Winehouse

...you will be sorely missed. Not only are 3 of your songs in my top 5 most played songs ever, the last song I was playing in my iPod before I heard the unfortunate news happened to be one of yours. It's still paused midway. Requiescat in pace.

A little update

This hiatus might last a month or two. It depends on how diligent I am at sorting through, selecting and photoshop-ing upwards of 4GBs worth of photos from my trip to Italy as well as some of the shots I took in my last weeks in the UK before coming back to Penang. It's been about three weeks since I've arrived home. Loving the food, some of the people, the humidity. NOT loving the haze and heat. And I'm getting a leg back into cycling around.

So, stay around, and hope that I get back to my regular updates.

Of packing and moving

Sorry for the unannounced hiatus. I didn't intend to leave it at that last post before going off the radar for a while. It's been a hectic three weeks for me. I moved out from the halls in the first week of June. Not only was it physically taxing, but emotionally as well. After having lived with my hall mates for this significant amount of time, they grow on you. Sure, I'll probably still see some of them in campus or in the streets of Oxford, but its just not the same not being able to walk two steps out from your room and find someone to talk to when you're feeling lonely. Anna, Jimmy and Amanda. I will surely miss them to bits.

Moving out has made me realized that I'm a collector of things. Random pieces of junk, sheets of papers and articles and books (apart from all the clothes, of course). Sure, I'd love to have these worldly possessions with me in the following term, but moving them into storage was a feat which gave me backaches and sore muscles for the better part of my vacation. Needless to day, I got rid of quite a few things.

Packing the remaining stuff was no picnic either. I was pretty much required to sort things into 4 categories: for Storage, for Italy, Self-Care Package while I crash over at a friends' before I return to Malaysia and for Malaysia. It was a sorting nightmare. And couple that with storage woes due to my forgetfulness, transport and financial problems, tight schedule and lethargy, makes for one hellaciously brain damaging experience I want to forget. But I thank all my gods that almost everything fell into place at the very last crucial nerve wrecking second. Otherwise I would have been rendered homeless, with boxes of my stuff on the street curb, plane tickets in hand with no way of going to the airport.

But almost as soon as I left for my vacation, everything turned around for the better and my worries started to melt away in the Venetian waters. More on that later. And now, I'm crashing over at a friend's, looking forward to the concert tomorrow and then back to Malaysia in due time. :)

And by the way, these are previously unpublished photos of my room in Crescent Hall. The room I called home for 38 weeks. It too will be missed.

Mapping Dumpsters and Scents in Brick Lane

One thought that came to me when I was compiling my portfolio at the end of the semester was how much I enjoyed the mapping exercise that I had to do sometime during the first semester here at Brookes. Previously at Taylor's college, my mapping and analysis of the site was merely limited to the gathering of raw data of the environment and circulation and other observed aspects which was then slapped on an A3 layout and presented and often forgotten afterwards. I never really understood what my tutor, Mr. Alvin, wanted when he kept saying to us to digest the information. Everytime we finished presenting our site analysis, he always went "So what does that mean?" And I was constantly rendered speechless.

Here, my tutors encouraged each of us to make use of the site mapping task creatively. Sure, there were still the usual observations like the ones I mentioned, but we were also required to produce our own 'personal mapping' to communicate and interpret our observations of the site. And it was this exercise that gave me a new outlook and perhaps understanding of this whole effort in mapping and site analysis.

Walking along Brick Lane, I was struck by the contrast in the atmosphere. Brick Lane was a place famed for the vintage clothing stores which littered the street. It was a place to go to hang out and take a break at the many alfresco cafes and dining venues especially around the Truman Brewery area. It's where the whole indie-chic scene is at. Just taking a stroll down the lane on a Saturday afternoon in summer, one can't help but notice the vibrant crowd hanging out around the area. Yet, all of that was located in a place which was dotted with trashcans and those large dumpster bins which were sometimes brimming with trash and situated just alongside notable eateries. And all of that made a distinctive gritty neighbourhood like no other with a more than subtle hint of stench which conflicted with the aromas from the curry houses.

It was then and there that I came to the realization that I wanted to map out the scents and smells along Brick Lane. After a little bit of discussion with my tutors, and a couple more trips back to the site during the bitter cold of November to record some data and literally sniffing out the area, I managed to churn out two maps. These maps were quite well-received by my tutors and eventually led me on to my design project. Apparently when they saw these maps, they were quite convinced of my observational methods. Do click on them to enlarge.

| The Dumpster Catalogue of Brick Lane



| The Scent Analysis of Brick Lane

I'm already looking forward to do some mapping and even catalogue-ing for my own record. Maybe in Oxford, maybe in Penang when I get back, who knows. But one thing's for sure, I'll have fun doing it.

Spot On: Colour

For summer, colour is in big time. The flashier, the better. The world is already a depressing place, so let's liven it up with a healthy splash of kaleidoscopic hues. If you're like me, the notion of donning technicolour outfits can make me cringe a little. But considering how flattering the following pictures are, I'm ready to champion the look.

If you're just starting to embrace the hues, start slow by wearing one item of a striking colour at a time along with your daily outfits. And if you've got the bravado to take it up a notch, then layer it up and consider everything from complimentary colours to striking contrasts. The key is to throw it all together and make it seem not too calculated. Then add a healthy dose of confidence and walk out that door.

*images of Cam Gigandet from GQ.com