Meanwhile back at the ranch.........

The family home is in an affluent hilly suburb of the south east asian metropolis Kuala Lumpur.

A six bedroom two storey bungalow on a hill. The other family home is far away from the city, near a slightly quieter but newly planned and developed city by the beach. This is the weekend house, where we grew up and now where we gather for important events.


This is about my family. The most precious thing to me.

My father is an extremely busy man- he's in the newspapers almost every day.
He got to be the kind of successful man that features in magazines, the kind of man people address by his Malaysian honorary title (honorific titles bestowed by the King of Malaysia), the kind of man people immediately recognize... all because of his drive, determination and hard work. I don't know how he keeps up his schedule- he flies across the country (please note that Malaysia has an EAST part in Borneo and WEST part that the rest of the world knows as Malaysia) several times a week and always manages to squeeze in a game of golf here and there.
My mother is a fun loving lady. She was an English teacher in a well-known Catholic school in Kuala Lumpur, has been always active in charity and events.
My sister is a busy corporate type in an international company. She is smart, attractive, single and successful. She's also got an amazing sense of humour. We are only a few years apart and we're very close.
My brother- he's a guy who gets along with everybody and everybody wants to be his friend, getting his Masters degree in the UK. He is highly intelligent, analytical and cautious.

DVDs and in-flight movie suggestions.

It's grey and dreary outside in Sydney, a cold front has hit the city and has even dumped snow in the Hills district.
It's DVD marathon time.
I saw Jack Black's School of Rock when I was on a plane- one good thing about travelling is that you get to see a lot of movies during those hours you have to kill.

The firm I am in has quite a few high profile projects in Asia, some completed and some underway. So we travel to our project offices in those asian cities. I will be leaving for Singapore and Shanghai soon. At the moment, many big Australian firms are concentrating their efforts in winning projects in China. This is where the majority of our current joint venture design projects are.

I noticed a blog post by a young Malaysian based aspiring architect literally gushing about our design projects in China. I thought he sounded a little bit like a yuppie (yes I used that term, does it show my age?) wanna-be- If he could only begin to know what kind of underhanded techniques we use to grab those projects and the “quality” of design we give them..... But I digress, I am veering off on a tangent.


Back to movies. Lost In Translation, I saw earlier in the year.
It seems to me to be more about alienation and loneliness. I suppose this is true for foreigners in Tokyo.
It's a brilliant piece. The soundtrack is amazing.


Going back a few years, another movie I loved is Four Rooms
A joint effort between four amazing independent film directors like Allison Anders and Quentin Tarantino. Well, he was indie back then. Enough said.
Just because I like borderline indie films doesn't mean I'm not yuppie scum.
I am yuppie scum TOO. Right from my black turtleneck to my square black architect spectacles.




My apologies. I am veering off on yet another tangent, as one is expected to do, on days like this.

Attack of the Little Men from Planet Petty

Welcome to my neurosis
(e.g: The *thing* that's bugging me today)

Anyone who wants gripe about work to me just bores me.

Nobody is going to read my blog in its stages of infancy, so here we go:
There are a handful of people at work who have been there for, oh let's say: an average of 10 years between them. They're not directors or associates, none of them hold any particular amazing position at work.

They're the people who treat office politics like the be all and end all of their life. They scheme for pettiest things like the best seat in the open plan office. They're the ones who make sarcastic comments out loud. They're the ones who take other people out to lunch and asks them what they've heard A say about B behind their back. They plot and scheme to get the tall poppies fired. Australians hate tall poppies. They all talk behind each others' backs. They all hate each other but they hang around together and then squabble but make up the next day. Ad Nauseum. Ad Infinitum.



BUT they won't leave their mediocre positions because they've been there too long, they're too scared of what's outside.
They're insecure because they've been sidelined and bypassed for promotion by people who have been there for much less time than they.
They pick people on their team whom they think are weaker to build their little army of supporters. Sounds like a PC game, I know I know.

They'll be bitter to the very end.
Watch your back, because these people, they live in EVERY work place all round the world.

The Maiden Post

I think therefore I am.

I think I am fearless on the outside.
I am a neurotic mess inside.
I am a professional.
I am restless.
I am just into my 30s.
I am reaching a burnout in my career already.
I can be a mess socially as well and I often am a social mess.