mukuge

food thoughts

2009-11-01T11:56:00.003Z

Did anyone who reads The Times notice that AA Gill and somebody else (I forgot who and which paper - but one I read recently) both did reviews for the same restaurant?
Review-wise, it has to be said my favourite columnist so far is still the characteristically unapologetic Giles of the Coren fame. If only he comes in vacuum-packed portions...

That aside, it's one paper down. A few more tribulations to go :))

Enjoy your Sunday!

essay orgy

2009-10-27T12:31:00.004Z

I decided, quite begrudgingly, to follow the 'me exploring contemporary art' thread to write my essay, to be handed in at the end of this week. I have my own interests and I have objections about being fashion/garment-making vassals of artists whose works I 'explore', and I'm quite angered/disappointed by the intellectual boundaries the tutors in charge have set for this essay. This is not my first degree, I can think more independently in relation to my fellow classmates, and I felt that the tortuous college fee should somehow justify a fruitful and satisfying learning experience.

Anecdotally, a Harvard student once complained about the teaching he received, since he is 'a customer of the institution'. To which a member of the staff rebuffed, he is 'also a product of the institution'. As a customer-product, the way I decided to make peace with this contradiction is to subvert the generation of this 'product' of college the way corsets are used nowadays to signify postmodern feminine independence. And write the high-art-lite stuff they like. Sceptically speaking, three full-time members of staff (whose responsibilities include teaching around 15-20 hours per week and need on average 42 hours p.p.p.w. to sleep) handling 200+ essays over a period of four weeks - there is only a limited amount of time a member of staff can 'shower' his/her marking attention on my essay before they have to move on to another one.

Another interesting point I learnt so far is that the art/design/cultural discourse arena in London is actually so interlinked with each other... so 'small', you may say. Here is the reason why:

Tracey Emin (infamous) went to Maidstone College of Art

¦¦

Janis Jeffries taught there when Emin went to study

¦¦

Angela McRobbie gave a talk with JJ (which I attended)

¦¦

'Claire' was friend with McRobbie

¦¦

'G' was related to 'Claire'

¦¦

'H' is [socially] related to 'G' and to me

So - the conclusion?

...from the essay orgyist, take care and have a good day.

mysterious symptoms

2009-10-26T07:10:00.005Z

The weather gets colder, the woolies come out, and the clocks roll back an hour: it's time to dig out Tiger Balsam. I've been hovering between states of coldness, flatulence, recurring hunger (not that I didn't eat normally) and mental distraction before speculating... hmmm maybe this is what people call masuk angin. Or cold.

Thank God and my dad for the Tiger Balsam.

P.S. I will go to bed earlier (like, 10) and wake up at 4:30. This is a regime I want to ingratiate myself to. I work better in the small hours.

defense or counter-attack?

2009-10-22T13:33:00.006+01:00

Hello again.

In the past few days I've been swimming around the issue of getting visual images that are tangible enough to present and contextual enough to write an essay on. And, as three days have passed since the initial 'your images are too intangible' verdict, here are further observations I've made:

Communicating with tutors
The 'initial finalised' visual imagery I chose speak to me and I can design from them; not so for my tutors. It seems like they want something noisier, loaded with symbolisms and layered with multiple meanings. The difference between what I see and what they want to see are like yōkan to trifle.

Dealing with noise and confusion
Back in Melbourne, I would've gone off to a cafe with a [boy] friend or two if I were stressed. But since good coffee in London is hard to find, and since I have an Italian stove-top coffee maker, I prefer to prepare and consume food instead. The food prepared and consumed range from meat loaves to apple crumbles, with a good dose of coffee washed down with water in between. As a result, I'm working my water filter more than a family of four would for a day's usage (filtered water is used for drinking, boiling, making coffee and filling up the electric steamer.)

The 'f' habit
'f' is a letter I would press when I'm laying out structure for a blog post. Why?
...............................
Because it's a key with a tactile 'orientating' bar I tap with my left index finger.

She does Guido Crepax too
Well, we'll see. Seeing her work reminds me of East End-flavoured mondofragile... or like my sister's enameled girl-kiss-boy necklace, but skinnier. I do notice cwc-i tends to favour this style genre for illustrations. And yeah, I checked her out because of her surname (wonder if Gina moves within this girl's circles?) But no, I found out about signore Crepax whilst visiting Milan - his books were the only ones I couldn't find on amazon.

Later bits
Alright then, that's it. I didn't buy fabric on Tuesday. I'm writing some parts of my proposal - there is a certain part of market placement I favour. I'm good~~[-ish]~~ at doing market positioning but that doesn't mean the "thou art made for fashion marketing" label is a descriptive label for my sole existence in the industry. Maybe, as G&G mentioned, it is a favourite pastime the specialised British/English creative industry circles tend to do.

Take care!

the other side of the table

2009-10-20T10:38:00.003+01:00

Hello again people.

The final academic year has started, and trips around Europe have now become a recent past. Since one of the final year units involve a 'reflective summary of professional and personal journey' throughout a year, it is rather second nature for me to blog (again.) The difference being, it would take on an emphasis on the relationship between professional results (i.e. academic work) and my personal circumstances. How do they influence each other? I guess we all will come to see this point in the not-so-distant future.

Below are a few topics I have come up with during the first two weeks of the year:

Lack of visual imagery

The role of imagery in contemporary fashion is undeniably pivotal. Which is why, when it comes the researched images around which my final collection will be based, my tutors (and some classmates - over time) let out an undeniable moan of 'there is not enough visual imagery'. I don't like borrowing images per se, tend to create my own set of imagery (drawings anyone?), and being from the camp of "if it is published in a book then it's a bit stale" didn't help either with the image-collecting. Yes, I do take pictures. Yes, I do draw. Finding pictures which I like, complete with a common thread? That's a more difficult task for me to accomplish. Either I don't like the individual pictures, or the common thread would be deemed too weak. I went around as far as the British Library to find images, only to be greeted by blank stares from its librarians when I asked them how I could find historical illustrations.
One of the tutors commented that the research I did will make a good sociology book along the line of Catherine Mercer's talk. So far so good, except for the fact the course is a visual one. (Do self-generated images based on tables and graphs comply just so?)
I find that I can write cultural studies essays well, and I can research images for 'shallow' design purposes (i.e. non-contextual use) well. Marrying the two is probably the challenge I have now.

Being on the other side of the table

During the summer term in the last academic year, it was easy sailing: it was a group project, I decided not to place any consciouly blatant personal aesthetic interest in it, and therefore I had an easier time being directed to achieve a specific visual and tactile outcome. There was one girl in my group who was decidedly gothic whom we had to calm because she really wanted to do space age dark glamour... the unadulterated concept and shapes wouldn't fit into the client brief we were given (how many people who are into this magazine are into gothic anyway? most likely nil.) Sooo, her aesthetic was scaled back.

This time around, I am on the rejected side of the table. Top it with what seems to be a lack of 'tangible visual imagery', an essay due within two weeks and you get the semi-wreck I am in. Except that, in my case, I appear way too relaxed for people to notice the stress.

Reaction

One of my favourite modes of dealing with stress is cleaning: chuck things away, de-scale the sink, de-grime the bathroom, cook some apple crumble (well this is what I did in the past few days anyway.) When the red-hot emotional tension is off and the academic challenge is on, what am I to do?

Maybe I'll start looking at other cultural studies essay topic that are listed on the online announcement board. I'll keep you posted on that.

OK, off to fabric sale now...

proverb-twisting

2009-09-06T14:17:00.004+01:00

My mother used to say (in Indonesian) that 'durians do not fall far from the tree for it cannot bear mangoes', meaning childrens do not 'fall far from their parents', i.e. they will end up doing what their parents did, to a large extent. It was one of her favourite lines. Durians and mangoes, being fruits she enjoy eating, are the two fruits she often used in the proverb. (I quite like them, too.)

Yesterday, while mooting with work colleagues about whether one is bound to be good-natured from one's upbringing, I came up with the following soundbyte:

"Durian trees do not bear mango fruits, but it can bear rotten durians."

There you go.

I could make the title sound Victorian, but...

2009-09-04T14:21:00.003+01:00

...seems like it already is.

I'm back from Paris, and I've got a few points to clarify:

Wi-fi connections are not as slow as previously said
I had the leisure of using a friend's laptop (and her wi-fi, well done) whilst in Paris and noted that the internet speed is pretty good. Not as bad as what I had in the hotel the previous evening, anyway. After various excursions, I went back to my hotel room (and to that thing of a wi-fi) to find that it was working notably faster. Which leads me to the conclusion that I could blame the previous day's wi-fi slow-ness on eventual conditions, not on general service terms. Now I am glad to profess that citoyens de la République has good and speedy access to that cloudy thing we call the Internet.

Monop' is a lifesaver, money-saver, stomach-saver
As one may have noted on my Facebook status update: meals at Monop' are mundane-inducing, and they score mediocre on the gastronomic scale and cheap. However, the drinks selection is better. Recommended tipple is the noix de coco drinking yogurt, with actual bits of coconut inside (€1.79). Favourite haunt includes the outlet open across the Pompidou Centre piazza. Not quite Pret-a-Manger... but with a microwave, free cutlery and chairs, it wins hands-down from Tesco Metro.

Vive la Centre Pompidou
Gallery, bookstore, eatery and a cavernous three-level public library rolled into one. There is nothing as jaw-dropping as walking into a library and being able to copy (or take pictures) from books you fancy. Or the sight of video terminals and dedicated music/audio document rooms. Books in other languages (notably English and German) can also be found. You can't check books out of the library, but then there is no registration/membership compulsory to use them. And it's open until 10PM. When I'm in Paris, most nights you'll find me here after the shops are closed.

The museums are camera-friendly
As long as you can work within the limitation of sans flâge (without flash), anything is available to you for the snapping. A friend of mine complained that the museums went from one stage of banning all photography to allowing photography as long as flash lighting is not used. Sometimes photography is not allowed on parts of a museum's collection. I found out that ambient lighting is a good indication of whether photography is allowed or not, with low-lights denoting that your camera is probably most unwelcome for that particular display.

But when I want a picture, I will get it taken anyway. (Mwahahaha.)

The Métro
The lines are laid out differently: one tube containing two tracks with platforms on both sides, as opposed to two tubes joined by a central 'island' of two platforms (the case with most London Underground tube lines). There are a lot more stations that are decorated, Cité and Arts et Métier being the two I visited.

Strange opening times
Some places are open Tuesday to Sunday, some are open Monday to Friday, some are open Tuesday to Friday and Sunday (!) It gets confusing at best. At least I'm glad to find out the flea markets are open on the weekends - that is, Saturdays and Sundays.

Helpful post offices
A cold sweat broke out when I realised that it was already 6PM on a Friday, the time when post offices would spectacularly close for two days and leave tourists scrambling around town trying to find stamps to send their little postcards back home. La Poste offices in central Paris beg to differ, opening late until 8PM on weekdays and on Saturday mornings. Lovely!

My current addiction
...are these dancing rabbits, Nabaz'tag. (Or more like hordes of them, Nabaz'mob.)

They've been around for some time, as I've seen them a few years ago on BLTD (back then I didn't know where to get them). There are rumours the manufacturing company is going under, and fans of the rabbit have launched their own save the Nabaztag campaign. Also, if you happen to be in Paris this autumn, visit the orchestra with a hundred of them bleeping, bleating and swishing their ears in a choreographed manner. As for myself, I'm eyeing up a Rabbit.

I guess that's pretty much all that I have to say... have a lovely day!

new name given

2009-08-28T19:47:00.002+01:00

In London the standard pick-up line I come across is 'ni hao'; in here it's 'genki yo'.
...from being Chinese to being Japanese. So, anyhoo.

I'm in Paris.

France hasn't relatively changed much. The internet (yes there is wi-fi) is shamefully slow, 3G access is even slower, and food is expensive (and I keep on getting hungry.) Métro is well-organised but the signages suck. I should take more pictures.

On the other hand, even MacDo's serve good desserts. I bought one for €2 - its name start with Choco****** - and art books are relatively cheaper. Not that I have a generous travel budget and plan to help my luggage procreate, but this museum's bookshop is top-notch. Its exhibitions are top-notch, too. This evening I'm off to yet another museum (with a library - how cool is that.) If vendredi really means Friday, it means today it's closed at 11PM.

I also managed to go see Colette and, later on, walked around and got lost in Saint-Honoré looking for the station entrance and... tragically, found that I went in a circle and ended up back at the museum.

Please remind me to edit this post and insert the appropriate pictures, as I'd like to get on with museum visiting and not get bogged down trying to upload pictures on snail surfing :))

Alright, that's all for now. Time to set off once more.
Have a good day!

preparedness costs (sometimes)

2009-08-09T11:33:00.002+01:00

Last week, I enrolled myself into a summer short course (due to take place in late August) and paid the requisite fee in full. I decided to do this as soon as I could because there had been an occasion where a certain course I was interested in was cancelled due to lack of subscribers - I wasn't quick enough to register. Fees for a cancelled course are usually refunded in full, but there is an element of wasted time and opportunity when one could have been accomplishing something productive.

Anyhoo. This week, I went to said short course provider's website. It was to check on the course dates so that I could manage my internship and part-time work schedules. And guess what, I found out that the course prices were slashed... by 20%! That's enough savings to spend on materials for the course, modest sandwiches for lunch etc. I feel stung, very financially stung.

It does make me think whether being prepared comes with a price tag of paying price premiums - no discounts on course fees on this case. Or whether there are costs associated with being prepared in other sets of situations: getting turned down for pre-empting initiatives, etc etc.

On the brighter side, there is no course cancellation this time around. Hurrah to no delays on my learning outcomes ;))

Alright then, I'm off - Sunday is market time! I haven't been to Brick Lane, Camden Lock et al for a long time. Time to hunt for a cheap frying wok and some cool.

Miss-ing some hairs

2009-07-26T11:06:00.004+01:00

The newly crowned Miss England is an athlete, her runner-up a soldier commended for bravery in Iraq (excerpts here and there). This year's Miss Indonesia's list of achievements (sourced from e-very-where) sounded like a shrinking violet next to what her MW competitors are up to.

Don't get me wrong; I like multilinguists, especially those who can communicate their ideas in their non-native languages. But when the comparison game is on (and it happens in full force in pageants), six homeschooled diplomas seem somewhat insubstantial to root up claims of the Olympics training and war soldier types. There isn't much information as to why Karenina wanted to do MI09, but... I've long felt as if beauty pageant contestants in Indonesia are more of the 'careerist' types: set off and do modelling, then do beauty pageants, then find film work or something in the entertainment industry.

My dad once joked that if I had not been callously fed to formula milk on the day of my birth, I would have been taller than my sister and would've won the contest. To which I replied, "but then I would become an artis" (note the italicised spelling and context-specific meaning.) And I wouldn't be doing something I believe in, the way I am now. So never mind the smaller frame, I quite like it.

Back to the beauty queen talks...
If these Misses give a good representation of the countries and societies they hail from, I'm pretty sure Indonesians score pretty high on the thy-image-is-of-primary-importance column. Which is what would probably come in handy in the long run, since I'll be funding my livelihood from some sort of sartorial vanity fulfillment.

Ah well, so there went commentaries on current affairs.

Also, a friend commented on the chain picture I posted here. She asked me whether I was "really as chubby as the picture showed." Well, to that query I respond with the latest picture taken yesterday (along with online image distribution of the new haircut, albeit three weeks old):

Voilà. I believe I've done my blogging duties.
Have a good day!

One and Other

2009-07-12T11:51:00.001+01:00

pants on fire

2009-07-12T11:31:00.003+01:00

So when I went to work on Friday, I got off the bus at Cambridge Circus and was greeted with what seems to be an unusually smoky atmosphere.
(By the way, if you're expecting this blog to be a twittering source of up-to-the-minute journalistic news, it is with regretful pain I remind you that Mr Google could supply you with an abundance of that, and sadly this blog-writer comes loaded with satire and grossly inobjective opinions. Well, whatever you make of it, really.)

What made it interesting was because the said fire started in an office building. Office building = papers + computers + aircon system. No fire, noting the smoking ban in public spaces. So... I felt rather inclined to adopt a Soho restaurant manager's suggestion (after being asked "does that building house a restaurant?") that is more conspiratorial than Englishly decent, that maybe someone got disgruntled and set fire to the building. Which made my opinion of bankers and financiers inch slightly more towards that 'debit' side of journals, personality-wise. Of course, this opinion is a crude collective average, and individuals may do rather well to debunk this myth.

Aside from this issue, other bits of news from me are:
- I didn't know Fanny Hill is a period drama
- I signed up for the Fourth Plinth... hee hee heee

Alright then, that's all for now - have a good day!

sweatbag notes

2009-07-06T09:41:00.006+01:00

Hello!
I've been having some sort of holiday for the past two weeks. With second year now firmly behind me, the trials and tribulations of third year awaits (it actually have started quite gently this summer.) My academic course leader sternly told us to 'get fit and start going to the gym now' because third year would be like a boot camp... although I prefer swimming over treadmills. I would use the Eurostar more often. And I would probably sport this kind of expression more often:

That aside, I have been holidaying on the right side of the Channel last week. It... was....... niiiiiice. I like it! :D Although this year it was quite hot in summer with temperatures reaching (and occasionally exceeding) 30°C, which means I was walking around like a sweatbag. Not an appetising description, I know, but illustrative and quite accurate. It was like Jakarta minus the smoke and abang-abang.

One thing that I really liked about summer, despite the temperature, is the amount of extra sunlight we get. In London, the sun rises up before 5AM in high summer. When he was around, my father made a remark about how I was late for work because it was already 6:30 in the morning and I was still in bed (the plan was to 'tube' for 20 minutes to catch a train departing Waterloo at 6:50AM.) To which... I sleepily told him that it was still 4AM. Bright, blue-sky 4AM. Well... the sunset helps too - it's still quite bright at 9PM, the darkness only setting in about half an hour later. Summer equals a whole lot more of sunlight.

Which bring me to the point of An Inconvenient Truth. I borrowed this book from the library out of unplanned curiosity, and read about Earth's annual cycle of 'breathing in' and 'breathing out'. Since most of the landmass (and by implication greeneries) are north of the equator line, and since there is more photosynthesis happening at summertime due to increased sunlight, there is more CO2 absorbed from the world during the northern hemisphere's spring and summer seasons. Vice versa, there is less CO2 absorbed during the winter seasons. This may partially explain why I feel so energised in spring and summer... maybe it's psychological and physiological after all.

There were a few solutions I was thinking of as well: meltwater pools absorb more heat and fasten the disappearance of icebergs... use mirrors? Reflect more light back into space?? This kind of solution is BandAid-style and would probably mitigate very little problems.

Anyhoo, that's probably what I have to say for now.
Comments?

me and my group mates

2009-06-12T15:09:00.005+01:00

Lookin' good... or at least feigning to.

(move move move)

2009-05-10T17:41:00.002+01:00

Needless to say, it is daunting to sign my name on a money-draining flat tenancy contract.

I recently moved to a flat a stone's throw away from college. Guess it means there is no excuse for being late, playing truant or general-purpose slothness. Friends and classmates have warned me of the imminent danger and, currently staying alone, I must find ways of keeping myself productive throughout the day. As a note, blaming a brand-new bed is not within the scope of 'being productive'.

The previous occupant has kindly left me with a few cleaning products, but I still need to buy a new mop (and floor disinfectant) in order to mop clean the flat. I've decided to scrimp and save, and asked my now ex-flatmate's mom to lend me her spare crockeries and dining utensils... as well as one of her microwaves. As she will be coming towards the end of the following week, for now I'm making do with takeaways from work. It's a good thing the takeaway boxes are made out of some aluminium, so I could happily pop them on the hotplates to heat them up.

And... I think I'm missing a door for the kitchen. Gotta ask the agent where that has gone off to, and whether he can get one for me.

Also, I think I've got the home decorating bug happening. This is dangerous stuff.

The internet is, happily, not quite connected for now.
It's a strange response, but I find working in group works better without the 'net's distractions.

Alright then, take care!

sayings

2009-04-15T08:37:00.002+01:00

Do you remember the old saying "you reap what you sow"?

Well, here are some takes on the classic:

The minimalist
"If you don't sow, you don't reap."

The ecological rice farmer
"Even if you sow, when it floods you won't reap."

That's all for today - thank you folks!

shifty billing practices

2009-04-12T15:11:00.002+01:00

What it costs to:
Receive your itemised phone bills by post £3
Not set up a direct debit to pay for bills £3
Pay your bills with cheque through the post £4

So, if you have your bill on paper to thoroughly check it, distrust unscrutinised-for-ever direct debits to clear your bills and like to post a cheque for your bill to keep the little paper-y bit to file, this lovely mobile phone network will be charging you an extra £10 a month plus VAT (note seething sarcasm.) And all these changes happen without them being communicated - these amounts are simply added on to my bills.

It was as if 3 is trying to get customers who don't scrutinise their bills, don't check their finances thoroughly, and discriminate against elderly and business customers who find more security (and comply with paperwork) by paying by cheque. Any other deviation from this standard, 18-30yo money-loose customers will result in the customer in question being penalised for not conforming to their easy-to-deal-with, voiceless customer.

I don't buy into direct debits, given that I like to keep a bare minimum amount on my card (in case of loss or theft.) I like to know exactly when and how much money comes out of my account - i.e. actually making the payment for my bills. When I try to do so online, the system barred me from doing so because my bill and bank account postcodes do not match. Ha! I have asked them to update it almost three months ago, and by stupid reason I was told that the bill postcode is one of last year - when the previous month's bill had been paid exactly in the same manner, and was approved. Out-of-date records? Ha! Your company's fault and not mine. If you had the guts to have overseas call centres to slash costs, at least keep your records synchronised at all times.

And no, I'm not buying into the 'paperless bills save the environment' argument. It's way too blatant they're trying to eke out 3 quid per month by way of green guilt exploitation. They still send me loads of promotional mail, all of them printed on glossy paper, and all of them sent to my current address. If they liked their bill paper so much, they can eat it and not have my contract.

I will rub this on their face. Seriously.
They have the cheek to charge me without proper disclosure!

Somebody can remind me to harass the contract sales guy the next time he gives me a call.

something that went past

2009-04-10T20:38:00.002+01:00

The portico entrace to National Gallery is flanked by two Neoclassical-looking stone vases. These vases are filled with fresh flowers.

Today I made my visit there. Again. For the third time this week. (Yes.)

Tonight I just realised the flowers were blooming; they gave off a fragrance that drew me to willingly spend twenty minutes sitting underneath some floral arrangement to enjoy the smell and silhouette. It's a strange realisation that comes only after going there a few times, each time a day after another, that these flowers need to bloom before their fragrances can be sensed.

As for the more mundane details of its visual effects: white fragrant lilies (major contributor to most noticeable smell), garden variety-style white English roses, orange spray flowers, yellow blooms on straight branches, more blooming yellow blooms on smaller branches (that droop down), and plenty of lily foliage forming the mass of green filler as backdrop to other flowers. A seasonally appropriate arrangement in light of the Easter weekend. And sorry, dim museum lighting means no pictures.

On my way home, I encountered an elderly man with a soft woolen cap who was keen to talk to me; I happily obliged. (What I mean by 'old' here is 70-80yo kind of ancient, not the 40-50yo kind.) Nevertheless, whenever I get praised I feel uncomfortable. Being comparatively independent in domestic matters made me get into the autopilot of "I can do it" and "if I don't do it myself/supervise directly/hold a decent amount of control then I'm gonna lose it" problem-dealing principle. Ice this stance with "solve problem myself", and I've got myself a recipe for disaster and breakdowns. Ow. I still find it hard to trust people other than myself. D:

Well, in the meantime: three days left for the Easter weekend, three more days before start of short course, two more days of lent. There is a slow food fair held this weekend at Southbank - it sells spit-roasted pork and lamb (!) which I will come back for on Monday. Although going pescatarian was quite a trick, I think I've outgrown the challenge of staying off certain types of food. A friend confessed to giving up speaking in the first person back in high school, therefore answering for teachers' queries in third person singular... which should be not too weird in English, but apparently quite frustrating to his teachers (they couldn't tell him off for being religious. Ha.)

Anyhoo, it's early days but with the benefit of retrospective sight: happy Easter!

stir-fried secrets

2009-03-25T15:08:00.003Z

Given my decision to go pescatarian for Lent, I've been pushing the kitchen guys at work to prepare nice vegetables-based dishes - staff members aren't allowed to order fish dishes to bring home due to exorbitant piscine prices. Veg satay (sans peanut sauce) is good, and the head chef is particularly talented with stir-fries, so I've been ordering broccoli in ginger and garlic sauce (along with sauce-less veg satay) for takeaways. So, what is the secret to mouth-watering stir fried vegetables?

Apparently, they are "hot wok" and "parboiled vegetables".

Something worth trying when I get my hands on a good stove.

deep-set tube lines

2009-03-23T23:38:00.000Z

This post shall revolve around the bane that is London public commuting.
(References: here, there and another one.)
If you aren't familiar with London Underground, I'd recommend reading the reference material first to benefit from the added knowledge. Anyhoo, here it comes.

Victoria Line

Having lived on and around the Victoria line since my early days in London, I know a tube line's reputation can change: it used to be the reliable line I rely on to get around on weekends when the unsalubrious duo of Circle and District lines are "closed for engineering works" (God knows what is fundamentally wrong with the design of these two lines) before it started to close early at night to help Victoria line cope with more people being crammed onto its platforms at peak times.

Changing for the Victoria line at Victoria in morning rush hour is possibly comparable to the feeling of sardines being crammed into a tin can - except that we're alive, wriggling and there's that chance of having one's face wedged into someone else's sweaty armpit. Sometimes I had to let two or three train services pass before I could get onto the platform edge, and it took two good minutes for people to unload and more people to hopelessly crush themselves into the carriages (myself included, plus portfolio.) This was one of the reasons why I moved to Holborn. When I moved to my current place, I discovered (to my pleasure) that I could still get a seat on my way to internship if I get onto Victoria line before the service passes Victoria station. Those on District line, eat your heart out ;))

Central Line

Always busy in the morning.
There are odd times when a 9:40AM Eastbound service from Oxford Circus station is busier than one at 9:10 (considering offices start at 9), but in general cramming is more necessary when the gaps between services are longer - 5 minutes means no seats whereas 2-3 minutes still leaves plenty of room to breathe.

Not my favourite line, but reasonably reliable and has possibly the best track record for all deep-set tube lines. The main irritation these days comes when I make trips to Shepherd's Bush on a Saturday, which means the carriages are packed with strollers, excessively sized shopping bags and people who try to act posh and cool because they are planning to spend part of their day at Westfield. It means I have to jostle for seats and space - a problem I never had in the past, even when I have four bags of fabric to lug.

Northern Line

A working train comes every 2-3 minutes, which (for my standard) is really good. There's a good selection of places I can get to (college/Southbank/Soho/Angel), but travelling for classes in Shepherd's Bush was a hassle and takes 90 minutes. Services on both northern branches are pretty good, but the carriages are much less crowded on the more west-leaning Edgware branch and I can still pick and choose seats even at morning rush hours.

I used to live on this line, until the daily twelve-minute hike to the station and twice-weekly disruptions took its toll and I decided it was high time to move. No more Northern line for me now, except for trips to KY's and other necessities.

Jubilee Line

I once tried to ingratiate myself to this line by taking a service from Baker Street (home to Sherlock Holmes) to Stratford (future Olympics-related rejuvenation site)... only to learn that I have to touch in and out (and got an extra charge) to change to Central line at Stratford. It's a strange line that has two different types of looks: the 1930's art deco lines observed on the northwest half, and the concrete-steel-glass aesthetic apparent on the southeast extension.

Lately, it's been having its share of engineering works over the weekend, making it rather unappealing and counter-productive in terms of having interchange lines for a Soho-roamer like me. Moreover, I've been making two trips on this line in the past week, and both were quite disastrous in terms of timeliness. One time it was partially closed exactly where and when commuters most need it, and earlier today due to "a person who has been disallowed on deep-set tube lines" being asked by the train driver to get off at Westminster. To that person, congratulations on succeeding to make others wait for you. To the CCTV operators, I didn't expect that style of Big Brother health and safety supervision to actually intervene with my commuting. So in short, Jubilee line is strange in a non-comforting manner.

Piccadilly Line

Let's leave this for another day - it goes to Heathrow for the airport, therefore its services are reliable and it is most supervised to prevent gaffes and harm to the national/regional injury from being done. As for self, avoid Knightsbridge station at Harrods' closing time, and avoid the Piccadilly Circus - Kings Cross section as much as possible. There are way too many commuters, platforms could be closed if they were overcrowded, and the services run at substantially slower speed. Moreover, who'd like to tube it from Leicester Square to Covent Garden when you can spend some leisurely time walking?

In general

London Underground is quite unreliable, but luckily its deep-set are quite okay. Well, it's okay when compared to the 15-plus-minute wait I was subjected to in Melbourne. Its carriages are a bit on the short side for taller people, and nobody really wants to know what colour Victoria line's seat covers were like originally. But, despite Big Brother-style monitoring, there's one thing I can do:

Bring strange objects into the tube and take pictures within the carriages.

So yes, with the picture today's rant ends here!

seemingly carefree, but actually dragged around

2009-03-05T01:51:00.002Z

Having been way more than happy to drop dead after dinner, I put aside my online/virtual presentation aside, and now it's high time for more other bloggers' posts-inspired talks. Of this nature.

The circumstances surrounding a scholarship student's life in Singapore may be as far removed as it could be by one parental-funded thousands of miles away in good old Blighty. But regardless of how financially easy life can be, for students mettling their skills overseas one thing remains true: the weight of expectations heaved upon shoulders are potentially crippling.

It is almost common fare to hear comments along the spectrum of "since you studied overseas you can definitely be on top of everyone else". Comments of this genre are pervasive. The issue here is not about the seemingly mediocre quality of education that Indonesia offers (interestingly there is a younger generation of home-raised bloggers who emulate their thoughts at least on the same level with their internationally educated counterparts.) The issue here is about how a period of a few years, culminating with a piece of paper and photos of youths in togas, is seen as a talisman that bestows enviable skills and a securely fast-tracked career path.

In art schools, a particular emphasis is put on the final degree show. This is where usually heavyweights of the sectors descend to lend their gravity and legitimation to what the media believes will be those 'to watch'. (And quite unsettlingly, the 'to watch' posse will be on show in the media much to the chagrin of those the media deems to be more difficult to pull a selling story from.) More specifically, in fashion design pathways it is common bitter medicine to learn about how and why a final degree show collection could be stolen, shredded into pieces and/or burned to bits. There is an almost feverish quality about 'making it in the degree show' as a finished and perfect end product of design education. Given the fact that talent is developed and nurtured to mature over an extended period of time, this kind of instant noodle mentality is disturbing. (If not ultimately destructive, that is.)

I personally feel these burdens are starting to creep up, niggling my consciousness. There will be times when my errant mind (whilst the body is in commute) runs financial simulations of "what next year will cost", compares it with "what I know is available plus what I can earn", then consider the time burdens of "what I can earn" against "how much time I can reasonably spend in life next year". Or when I consider in which direction I might need to expand my skills, how much extra learning and extra cash I must put it, and how it relates to gainful employment. They invariably leave me feeling depressed/negative/pessimistic at worst, and mildly amused at my own adventurousness at best. Decorate the dreaded cake with an icing of pride stemming from a desire to be financially independent, and you get an unpleasant dessert to consume.

Oh man...
Despite of how relaxed the image of an art student is, an image is a representation of reality and in itself is not the reality - the reflection in the mirror is not the actual object, no? I barely have time to read more literature works that I want to read for the sake of reading them. I promised myself to watch Australia, Che, Valkyrie, Doubt, Bride Wars, Benjamin Button and a host of other highly fantastic popular movies, yet I haven't gotten around to them... and this is March already.

If you see me acting a bit insane and morose, please be understanding and help me accommodate the slice of life served on my plate.

Hope you have a good day :D

behind the studio

2009-02-25T08:19:00.004Z

I hope this post covers a bit of what I've been going through this term - work experience at a fashion company.

I opened myself to a slew of areas I could stick my hands and teeth into: research and design, manufacturing, sales/marketing/management and media positions. I believe I was well-equipped to tackle any of the above areas without much problems, and my CV probably has enough backing in its own right. I took two sessions and whittled down my CV from four pages to an unbelievable page count of two! Apparently the placement broker halve every page number figure we came up wth. Or maybe it happened only to me and another girl.

The hunt for internship started in September, and by early November I was frustrated since I clocked only two interviews with paltry reception and became quite desperate to secure one in order to pass this term's learning objective (10-week internship and a 3000-word report on the internship.) Early December came, over half of the class seemed to have secured an internship and I still belonged on the unsecured side of things. Should I take the Melbourne offer and miss a winter? Or should I go back to Indonesia for a decent internship? I was rapping my fingers on the desk and wham - three offers came in hours apart from each other! They were all studio jobs in design and development. I picked one and rejected the other two.
(I realised I've been making choices out of threes, so maybe it's time to learn to be patient and reasonably wait for 'that one offer' to come.)

I've got to admit that I'm quite lucky relative to what my classmates land themselves onto. The hours are 10-6 weekdays, with the unsavoury-yet-almost-ubiquitous weekend extensions a few weeks prior to a catwalk or a trade show. The extensions themselves can run either at quite reasonable hours or simply be nothing more than a desperate attempt to create show pieces (or even core collection for some time-challenged designers), although I doubt people would actually be sane enough to sew and embellish at 2AM - interns may be endearingly kind to do it for your, though. According to the sample machinist at work, this is usually the case for higher-end brands. No thank you, I love to droll along supermarket aisles and have my dinner at home before the short hand points to 9. I'm glad this isn't my lot.

Other than that, I had minor trips to source trimmings - four trips so far out of 33 days.
Two trips to deliver garments.
Four factory visits.
I scourge over their purchase invoices and try to determine where they get their supplies from and who ordered what, and learnt that they tried to push people to purchase in GBP because it's financially more advantageous due to current exchange rates.
I learnt that there are 10,000 different classifications of garments and uniforms currently used for exporting purposes (with different tax implications) and that the company uses about... 50 of them, maybe?
I learnt that grading a dress into one size costs £90.
I learnt that saving fabric is not always the method that saves the most money (depending on how you value your time laying out the pattern pieces), that cabbage is a curse of the outsorcer and a right of the manufacturer.
I learnt that many who work in fashion design are either vegetarians, pescatarians or partial to marinated olives.
I learnt that 'factory' really meant CMT employing less than ten workers, that you'd need to converse in Polish to understand the gossips around the machines, that Angela McRobbie's book frighteningly represents the reality and is a more elaborate explanation of why my mum was opposed to a career path in this industry.

These factors lead me to three conclusions:
- let's look for a paid internship in a related but different area
- maybe I should look for a career in the academic field
- what about post-study work experience?

To be continued - I need to go to work.

summer 2009 plan

2009-02-25T07:39:00.005Z

Hello.

I plan to spend my summer in the northern hemisphere this year. It's still unclear whether this means "London", "travel the world" or something else.

I've been getting advices on how to spend my summer this year, namely:

1. Go home
The option I dread the most. I would be way too unproductive in preparation for my third year, not to mention four long-haul flights to get there and back. The saving grace is finding factories for sample production. There's also the chance to test out AirAsia's new London Stansted - KL service (price-wise it's better to book with Emirates or Etihad in January though.) Last year I missed the chance to grit myself with short courses... and given my love of learning, I'd probably skip this option.

2. Take courses across the Channel
I was told to take on a short course in Milan or Paris for networking purposes. Which sounds great, until I worked out the finance part (half of a year's school fees for a three-week short course? Those continentals are nuts.) The execution is, sadly and rather inevitably, shelved due a chronic lack of funds.

4. Work experience
Add another name onto the growing list on CV. Opportunity to network and source HR are greatly increased. Getting the right label to write a reference letter for your is a covetable pearl, but with that comes the shark of getting worked to the bones under a thinly veiled reason of 'training' and 'self-development'. So much for apprenticeship. And you'd think sweatshopping is dead. (Quite the opposite, actually.)

5. Travel to China and HK
For obvious reasons: find factories. Buy fabrics. Stay for free.
(Learn Mandarin phrases above "tuoshao", "xie xie" and "wo ai hong bao" - but they'll arise out of necessity. The Chinese community in London would be pleased with the vocabulary progress.)

6. Holiday travel
Lovely opportunity to relax, but who'd pay for me?

[Well, there was no number 3 and I intend to keep it that way.]

As for the more boring details of life this month... I believe they deserve a post of their own. Coming up soon!

rattus niveus

2009-02-02T21:18:00.005Z

My hopes were not entirely abandoned. Walking cautiously in baby steps, I got to work/internship just before 11 and we effectively worked for three hours (without machinist and pattern-cutter) before the head designer decided to abandon studio and send everyone home at 2PM.

To cut the story short, I had a field day. Went off with a friend to build things out of snow: rat, Ghibli cat, pathway-blocking boulder. I found taking pictures of snowy condictions is difficult enough with a normal camera phone, so I decided to take video recordings instead.

On Magdalene's commentary:
According to her, she used to pick up things that lie around at home and sell it to her sister. Hence her unique reportage style.

I heard there will be more snow tonight, and I hope so too, to the point of the whole Central line being shut down. The more, the merrier ;))

storybook weather

2009-02-02T08:57:00.003Z

It snows in London.
Which is something rather unusual, considering that most usually turn into slush and mud instead of sitting thickly on pavements. It caught the city rather unprepared, and bus services were suspended last night. As a result, I had to walk back home last night. The saving grace is I recently moved to a more central location, thus making the journey much shorter and more walkable for the average pedestrian. And much more physically taxing, too, because we had to walk and push off snow at the same time.

Here are two recordings of me acting like drunk. It's quite funny how freak weather can change behaviours.

So, the few things Russia has given us:
- Oligarchs, lots of cash and astronomically high property prices
- Snow. It stands at around 4 inches today

I'm happy at work, but I wish I can have a day off today - getting around under these conditions can be a chore!
Take care and enjoy! ^__^