第三位守护爱的人

细雨的夜空显得特别的宁静，让人内心沉淀在情绪上。经过风风雨雨的这一年，让我感叹说为什么在这大都市遇到的人，都不如自己想象中懂得珍惜爱？是不是都市人们都追求金钱，物质或是情欲上的爱情？他们用自己的感官去说服你现实所应该要呈献的一种形态，好比说，当你想要为爱的人编排浪漫，换来的却是：“请你实际一点，你长大了。”当你花心思，有些人却只会告诉你：“如果你给我什么什么，我会更开心。”  这些接近真实的例子好不胜数，让我觉得爱这东西变了质。

是不是大家都不相信爱情了呢？觉得一份爱情是那么的不可靠不真实，才去追寻其他对自己有利益的事物。某种情况下，有些人是因为怕为难自己，怕有风险的爱情而不敢放开的爱。这些人宁可安安定定的生活，找个符合自己从一到一百个条件的对象在一起，就这样开心就好，一复一日。感觉上有没有爱已经不重要了。

很喜欢洗澡时双耳被水呜住的那种感觉，像是自己和四周隔离了一会儿，思维清晰。

当我正要向都市爱情现象妥协时，眼前出现了一道彩光，降临了一个爱的守护者。他发出雷达，仿佛要告诉我这都市其实还会有爱的存在。我半信半疑，毕竟他不是第一个让我曾经相信爱的守护者。这一次，我用了一个月的时间了解状况，最后看到了让人惊喜的结果。

他是一个经验丰富的守护者。他曾对我说：“这个都市的爱，我自己也是从中成长的过来人。你那么年轻，血气方刚，难免会对爱好奇，期待，也不停的会去探索它。” （被说中了）这倒让我思考了自己对爱的看法。我有喜欢的类型，外表。我喜欢这样的，那样的。仔细想想，其实这不像是爱，而只是一种欲望。用欲望发起的爱，跟之前说的‘都市爱’完完全全相同。我领悟了这道理。

一个月的时间内，这位守护者开启了我的心眼。他让我看到欲望以外的东西，一些比欲望好百倍的东西：有呵护，有尊重，有包容，有珍惜和有参与感的爱情。虽然这位守护者会时不时感性一下，有时候会皱着眉头叹气，不说话。可能没吃饱吧他，哈哈，不过他的笑容会融化一个人的心，这倒是真的。

接着，我看到了一条长长的水泥轨道，长到似乎需要两年时间把它给走完一样。道上有一个心形的路木板牌，刻了三个字。仔细看看，上面写到“不容易”。现实终归于现实，倘若要踏上那么一条漫长的轨道，是需要好多好多的力量支撑才能走下去。守护者问：“如果结局早已命定，你还愿意经历这一切吗？”。我毫不犹豫地回答说：“人终须经历生老病死，尤其是死。但人不会因为迟早会死而放弃自己，放弃生命。爱情亦复如是。”我曾经听过一个演讲提到，世界上没有什么对的时间对的人这回事，这些都是人自己创造出来的理论而已。你可能说，当一个男人事业顺利了，就是嫁给他的最佳时刻；或是那女的超讨喜，性格活泼可爱，他是我要的妻子。一个不小心，那男的事业从此以后要常飞到海外办事，你嫁给他就要适应一个人扛家了；一个不小心，你们在一起半个月后，你再次看上了另一个妞，吵着要和女友分手。这些所谓对的时间和对的人，也对得太弱了吧。有一个说法是这样的，当你在某个时间遇到一个人，它注定在那时发生，也是唯一会这样发生。（举手同意！）

和守护者相处了一个月，我们有了共识。我们开启了两人的龙门，正在奋斗的过程当中。他爱说自己老了，我反驳说他成熟。有如偶像剧《败犬女王》，我们都是爱的冒险家。我很感激他的出现，让我发现自己可以更了解爱这门学问。他的爱，很大，很真。期望他会是最后一个在我人生出现的守护者。

3814, 好吗？

QUACK #6: KNOCK KNOCK FRIENDS ALERT!

A VISIT TO GARAGE 51, BANDAR SUNWAY

It was a beautiful Sunday morning, a cup of nice coffee and sinful breakfast was so necessary. Garage 51 is easily spotted by its unique graffiti wall and color. It was located at one of the shops in front of Sunway University.

As you can see finding parking was a quite a pain in the xxx, people tend to double park around the cafe ( not a pleasant thing). We got a little luck that day in getting ourselves a parking spot while we got there.

A waiter opened the door for us and we were welcomed. It was packed with other customers, everyone was enjoying their food. We got ourselves a table on top of the container, which was being designed into a kitchen below.

 Food wise, they serve variety of English breakfast, the usual. I ordered the one listed in brunch's special, chicken piccata with couscous. It was my first time trying couscous, a type of North African semolina in granules made from curshed durum wheat. It was served with Avocado and a fried poached egg. It was delicious.

Up to trend huh? Well it's world cup, everybody loves it. This is the outdoor dining area, as you can see some of their furniture are garage-inspired.

A view from where we were sitting. Since the cafe is seated at one of the shophouses, I believe it was designed into a double volume space by taking out the upper floor area. It totally helped in giving a better sense of soothe to the customers.

They have a brunch at Solaris Dutamas too, namely Coffee Societe.

Garage 51
51, Jalan PJS 11/9,
Bandar Sunway,
46150 Selangor

11am-11pm daily
(closed on monday)

Ratings:

Price: 3/5 Average (imposes 16%tax) Customer Service: 4/5
Food: 3/5
Environment: 4/5

HE WAS JUST A KID WHEN I KNOW HIM

As I was passing by the housing area of jalan kampar, I went to pay a visit to a house that I was once involved designing while working in Kuee architects. It doesn't take me long to look for the house. 

this is how it looks like in Feb 2012

pool view

I still remember while doing the 3D rendering, we struggled on getting design approval from our client. This usually happened when the client doesn't know what they really want. When we come to this design, it was already 3-4 proposal before it. Well, sometimes after your client went travelling outside the country, they saw buildings they love and tend to give inputs into theirs when they come back. Sometimes the ideas may work, but most of the time they don't.

he is all grown-up in 2014

I think there must be a lot of decision making moments during construction period, as you can see it doesn't came out as proposed. Money-Time-Quality, the usual. This final design looks decent, just that I think it somehow loses an identity. The car porch roof is definitely a spoiler :(

Less is more??


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BEING AN ARCHITECTURAL INVIGILATOR

It was my pleasure being invited as one of the invigilators for my degree school's student final presentation. Many of my previous lecturers were there to invigilate the students, not to mention Huat Lim, a few seniors and other architects from elsewhere. It was like a small reunion to me.

Semester 6 student's works that I have seen were up to expectation, where visual presentation is good, technical drawings are satisfactory, and one most impressive work  from them is the site analysis video. It was fantastic, I would say, very informative and creative, a successful piece of work that expresses key things about the site. Huat Lim mentioned that the video can sell a couple of dollars to developers in Sentul lol!

After everyone has presented their work, the tutor, us and the students had a sharing session to wrap-up the day. 

This studio focuses on the goal in 'rehabilitate', the design should implement a program that could possibly solving the social issue on site at a minor scale. It was challenging to the students as well, in arguments where the building they design should provide substantial employment, opportunity and independence. We highlighted that, students tend not to spend time in planing, It is the most crucial issue for any projects in practice that the planing of your project requires effectiveness. For instance, the accessible road from the main driveway to your building should be effectively routed. Your client wouldn't spend unnecessary money to build something that is abundant.

Tectonics of the student's design was not highlighted in the assessment. However, some architects pointed out that students should have in mind on how to manage their building at all time. Yes, it has an impact on your site and your building. Sustaining the building is a concern, not in terms of monetary but occupancy. It will be under-utilized if the building serves only a certain period of season or time, despite having a nice program for its user group. Other than that, is also has to do with things like security, location of management office, number of employees in the building, and so on.

As their seniors, i noticed that most of the programs that were proposed by the students are identical: Urban farming, sports centers, cultural hub, and what not. I certainly understand why is this happened since I was like them during my final studio. Most probably it is because these programs are easy to tackle. As if, these programs can be placed at any sites they want as long as there is an empty land. It happened to my studio 2 years ago, and now this culture is some how self-sustaining. I hope students in the future can jump out from the box and able to propose more exciting programs, which would definitely lead them to another level in terms of thinking, planning and designing.