Moules, frites, et biere...

How Belgian. i first had this when i was in Paris two years ago. since that was a chain restaurant (Leo..sth), it was cheaper than what we had tonight. Belgo is in fact a chain, too, albeit a little more upscale. The mussels are fresh but the overall taste (Provençal: tomatoes, celery, and other ingredients) was okay. i preferred the Thai green curry style my friends got, though (people over here co-opt lots of thai cusine into their food, from "Belgian" mussels dish to potato chips). However, the chips are really nice (crispy on the outside, juicy soft on the inside: see image) and the beer (St.Feuillien Blonde, 7.5% alc.) is good, too.

As a devoted vegetarian Mimi had to miss out on the mussels.

This place is crowded even on a Monday night. but then this is Covent Garden we're talking about.

Some of the mussels weren't "cooked", that is they're not all that firm but i ate them anyway. hope i won't get food poisoning later tonight haha. but my sturdy Thai stomach is immune to all kinds of things.

Gah. i'm too sensitive. in every possible way and it sucks. i should stop caring about every single thing, especially those things that don't matter to me at all. this is one of the reasons why i dislike growing up as an only child.

speaking of being an only child...i miss my dog! (i think my dog has ADD because he can't stay still.) going to school abroad means that i have to go without seeing him for 9 months! and believe it or not after all these years he never forgets me and always gets excited at the sight of me getting off the car. 5 more months until i see my dog again! Sigh...

last week's episode of Desperate Housewives

is amazing. AMAZING. marc cherry has outdone himself again. more often than not the story revolves around the main characters in all their top-form bitchery. tonight the housewives bubble was broken and we got a broader glimpse of Wisteria Lane and its fictional landscape. i'm not gonna recap it; i'm just going to keep raving. so good. how the story pans out is a tad unrealistic, yes (as it always is). a little on the cheesy side, yes. but in the process a point is made, faith in humanity restored. Bravo.

earlier tonight i went ice-skating with 8 other friends (whose respective skills and learning curves varied tremendously). last time i did this was a little over a year ago in providence so i was a little afraid that i'd forgotten and shit. and i did! it took a while to get familiar. AND i fell, um, twice. that said, knowing how to rollerblade helps a bunch. ah how i miss grade school.

me looking stoopid as usual. should photoshop sth in so i look like im holding sth. guitar? maybe a huge watermelon.

OK, i'm not over desperate housewives yet. and it's not just me and my natural tendency to melodrama, since lots of people can attest to this. i should give the ultimate credit to the guest star Beau Bridges though. i'm not a fan of drama (thus grey's anatomy consistently on my bad side) but tonight's episode can move all hearts.

penne al salmone affumicato

and i'm in italy again :)

pasta has been my staple for the past three years but i didn't get creative with my recipes until recently (thanks to a proper kitchen). i got the recipe above from a survival guide for american students when i visited tran in rome. easily the simplest of all. plus my love for smoked salmon. not bad for the first try although the salmon is too cooked, and thus barely different from, well, salmon. next time i'll put salmon in last because i want to retain that raw smokey smell. and onions more finely chopped please!

i'll be in italy again one month from now! talk about how time flies...

now i can sleep again

The final presentation today was really inspiring and key to my progress as a thinker and doer. i'm starting to think more and more about the complementarity of school and profession, that school is merely the platform where you learn only the basics and later jump off to the real world to take those basics to the next level. you've heard it all before, i know, but it's becoming increasingly real for me. there are lots of part time students in the program whose commitment, professionalism, and worth ethics are so strong you wouldnt believe they were just out of college a few years ago. their works are refined and well thought out. they seem to think everything through, think it again, and over and again, hit it from every possible angle, and study the potentiality of every act and process. it's these people who make you look at yourself at the end of the day and see where you stand. i'm glad there's something new for me to see, learn, and absorb everyday, and hopefully own it someday.

but what this means in an immediate term is i can sleep again! and eat! and catch up on my lovely google reader and ABC shows! the past 4 days are whoa. but at least i'm done.

aaaand screw autocad (for now). seriously, sketchup is easy and awesome. glad i decided last minute to resort to it. once again, nobel prize to google!

2009

Wallpaper's annual Graduate Directory is out. As usual, the directory is overwhelmingly populated with British and continental designers/artists. a few Asia's rising starts have been nominated of course. i don't know if it's a question of information access, but then design is a visual discipline, action, and product at its core and should transcend barriers. And of course, young alums from the Bartlett win a spot :)

Looking at the Architecture list, i am pleasantly surprised to see a wide range of orientations other than deconstructivist madness. Of course i'd love to see more divas a la Zaha Hadid running around, but something simple and refreshing is sometimes underrated.



Kudos to the webpage designer for making things so clean, classic, and simple yet very playful and easy to navigate. because last year's diagrammatic lay-out for this huge bundle of information was a design faux pas.