Snap Light by Tom Dixon

My parents got this from Selfridges while they were in London. They tried to describe it to me but I never quite got how it looked like. Having just seen it online, I find it really does look quite nice!

It's called the Snap Light and is part of a project by designer Tom Dixon to bring manufacturing into the retail space. An injection moulding machine is placed inside Selfridges; customers get to choose their own colour combination and a unique piece is made to order on the spot. This Saturday (1 October) is the display's last day.

Read more about Tom Dixon at Selfridges, or visit his website.

Will Ferrell

I've just watched Wedding Crashers and strange as it may be, my favourite moments were Will Ferrell's cameos. He has his detractors, but for me watching the guy always cracks me up.

Remember him as Mustafa in Austin Powers?



Or as "The Architect" in that MTV Movie Awards spoof of Matrix Reloaded? Ergo, vis-a-vis, concordantly...

Hôtel Costes 8

Treat yourself to the lush sounds of Stéphane Pompougnac's latest Hôtel Costes compilation.

I would love to visit the actual hotel in Paris. According to Wikipedia,

The Hôtel Costes is a famous hotel in Paris, France. Located in 239 rue St-Honore, it is perhaps best known for its bar and courtyard café. The hotel was commissioned by Jacques García, and is renowned as a den of opulence dedicated to detail, intimacy and the expectations of its wealthy customers (the design maxim was "all things in excess"). Hôtel Costes also releases its own compilation lounge music CDs, which contain music played and mixed within.

¡Hola!

After some thought, I've decided to take up Spanish as my special study module rather than continue with French. I am reluctant to give up French, as to me it is a truly elegant language. But it is supremely difficult to master, and I figured there was no point in struggling with a higher level of French in what will surely be a challenging school year ahead.

I think it'll be useful to pick up some basic Spanish. After all besides Spain, it is widely used in Latin America and increasingly in the US as well. Perhaps I'll then be able to understand what those Spanish football commentators are saying apart from their trademark exclamation of "Go-go-go-golll!". Here's to learning some Español!

Sushi delivered fresh

Today, my household has discovered the joy of sushi delivery thanks to Bev. No more pizza delivery or Chinese takeaway (for now). Yum!

Hokkien classics

Chen Lei, king of Hokkien pop

Here are two Hokkien classics for your enjoyment. I had to search long and hard before I found complete versions of both songs. I find the female backup vocalists most amusing, they seem to be a staple in Taiwanese Hokkien pop.

Ai Pia Jia Eh Yia by Chen Lei
爱拼才会赢 · 陈雷
Ji Ki Shio Ho Sua by Hong Rong-Hong
一支小雨伞 · 洪荣宏

You must think it strange for me to be listening to Hokkien music in London.

In memory

It was nice having my parents over, they hadn't been in London since I started medical school in 2003. Having them over for the past three days has meant I've gotten to enjoy two sumptuous meals every day on the house!

It's just highly unfortunate their visit had to be for such unpleasant circumstances. I have lost an uncle dear to me and the world has lost a doctor whose humility and humour belied his brilliance. His memory will forever endure. RIP

Yann Arthus-Bertrand

Get the beautiful panoramas of Yann Arthus-Bertrand for your desktop!

His exhibition Earth from Above on the South Bank runs till December; he has an exhibition on Orchard Road in Singapore slated for November.

The first day has passed...

Thank goodness I didn't get picked to display the full glory of my half naked self at the clinical teaching session today, neither the group nor I would have enjoyed the spectacle. Sure am tired out, the long day and all that rambunctious shouting over a session of Winning Eleven at Nik's place have taken quite a bit out of me.

And that horrid flu is really getting me down. I've just had more Panadol along with copious amounts of water but the nose just seems to get more stuffed and runny. My bin is filled to the brim with tissue.

Oh, and for your enjoyment here are the many forms of the word 'fat'.

beefy, big, blimp, brawny, broad, bulging, bulky, bull, burly, butterball, chunky, corpulent, cow, distended, dumpy, elephantine, fleshy, gargantuan, gross, heavy, heavyset, hefty, husky, inflated, jelly-belly, lard, large, meaty, obese, oversize, paunchy, plump, plumpish, ponderous, porcine, portly, potbellied, pudgy, roly-poly, rotund, solid, stout, stubby, swollen, thickset, tubby, weighty, whale

Butterball? Jelly-belly? Haha.

They're over

The summer holidays are over. Long year of toil awaits *groan*.

Antigirl posters

Antigirl artwork going on the cheap! Wish I could get Flights of Fancy, but I've still got posters lying around the room waiting to go up.

I've never figured out the best method of poster display. Blu-tack causes the corners to protrude and I like my posters flush with the wall. Double-sided tape causes the paint to peel when removed, the landlord wouldn't like that very much.

Drab draw

All the anticipation and it ends up goalless against Man Utd. It's another clean sheet, but one goal in four games is a little worrying.

Match report: Liverpool 0-0 Man Utd

Saturday afternoon

View from my window

The weather today is absolutely brilliant, a clear blue sky will become a rarity here in London in months to come.


Glorious mess

The sight of my room isn't so pretty at the moment though.

Check the fuse

Really must remember to check the fuse in the plug next time round and save myself a long trek to and from the lamp shop downtown.

Just arrived

The past week and a half have been difficult for my family, especially my dad, with the passing of my uncle. Leaving home is never easy but I've never had quite so much worry on my mind before flying off. And of all songs, Home by Michael Bublé just had to come on while I was listening to my music on the plane.

It hasn't been a good start in London either :\ Light, bothersome drizzle throughout the evening, slipped on the stairs and fell on my ass while greeting my new housemate (classic) and my beloved Artemide lamp somehow blacked out after I knocked it lightly against the wall. #@?*

Tomorrow has to be a better day. It's 4 in the morning now, I'd better get to bed before I do more damage to myself or my immediate surroundings. Bloody coccygeal region of my ass is bruised and aching.

Hey Mish

Hey Mish, I've linked your blog so now you'll be ever-present and never archived :) Take care of yourself, I'll be seeing you in December.

Stevie's little wonder

I think Apple has thrown all its competitors, including Creative and iriver, off-balance with the release of the iPod nano. It was long rumoured that a video iPod was in the works, and I'm certain Creative and iriver thought they had trumped Apple by releasing their Zen Vision and U10 portable video players not long ago.

Nobody expected Apple would instead deliver the smallest, sleekest and most stylish iPod yet. Amazingly, development of the nano started just nine months ago, while everyone was clamouring for a video player from Apple and the iPod mini was enjoying phenomenal sales. It demonstrates how Apple has based its success upon innovation and Steve Jobs' knack of going against industry norm. Time Magazine's profile of the Apple's latest iPod makes an interesting read.

Real Betis & Joaquin

Liverpool eked out a great win against Betis in Spain, this is probably the toughest fixture in the group after the two with Chelsea. Good performance in the first half, a little under the cosh in the second.

Despite being doubtful for the match due to injury, Joaquin showed glimpses of his brilliance in the second half after being restored to the right. He made several mazy runs including one where he waltzed past the Liverpool defence into the box only to see no one waiting to receive his cut-back. No doubt he's a class act, I hope Liverpool get him during the January transfer window!

Match report: Real Betis 1-2 Liverpool

Joaquin for Liverpool?!

"I know Liverpool are looking for a right winger and I'd love to play there if they want me," said Joaquin. "Liverpool are a massive club and Benitez knows what he wants. But if he comes in for me he's got to agree a deal with the Betis president."

Buy him! I hope Liverpool use the money set aside for Owen and Sabrosa to buy him, he's class.

Joaquin reveals Reds desire

Handling love

I was browsing the Skype website and this came up:

"If this was a perfect world, there’d be no yodelling, we wouldn’t be ashamed of our love handles and everyone would be using Skype to talk for free."

Love handles are just gross, I wish mine were detachable. They are nearly impossible to get rid of. I googled a site all about getting rid of love handles, but sadly if I could stick to such a regime I wouldn't have those blasted things hovering above my belt line in the first place.

Yodelling's not half as bad (I think).

iPod nano

Wow. Apple's latest iPod is stunning. I'm getting myself one of these little beauties! Right now, I'm trying to sell my 3-month old colour iPod on eBay, take a look at my auction if you're interested. It's hardly been used and I'm selling for £30 less than Apple's online store.

Getting an iPod nano will be a big step down in terms of song capacity but I never manage to get through all 2125 songs on my colour iPod anyway. For me, the nano brings together the best features from the rest of the iPod lineup. It has the portability of the shuffle and the convenience of the Click Wheel and colour screen of the iPod.

Aside from the iPod nano, Apple also unveiled the new ROKR iTunes phone by Motorola, a sleek new version of iTunes and the addition of Madonna's entire music catalogue and Harry Potter audiobooks to the iTunes Music Store at a special event held earlier today. Watch the Quicktime webcast.

iPod nano
Buy my colour iPod!

Shit, school is starting

The 'official' school emails have started trickling into my inbox and I'm just beginning to feel the dread deep down inside. School's starting in just under two weeks, I'm definitely not looking forward to starting my clinical years :s

Priceless

There really are some things in life money can't buy :)

Rediscovering Civ3

I know Civ3's been out for some time, but I've been rediscovering the game this weekend. I last played it on my old Dell notebook, but the map looks totally different on a crisp 15" PowerBook screen. This game is so addictive, I'm hooked all over again.

And now that the holidays are coming to an end, I seem to be desperately cramming in all the unproductive things that'll soon be in short supply: games, late nights and late mornings, football and generally just all-round bumming.

Hurricane Katrina

I still can't believe more wasn't done to prepare for the aftermath of the hurricane. The world is in a mess at the moment, what with massive floods hitting Europe recently too.

Donate to hurricane relief