The Monument...

well, for those residing abroad, and those cant be asked to visit the site at night; these are for your eyes...

yes! it's the monument in town and it has a name; it's called Mercu Dirgahayu 60. I know, not very architectural is it, but hei, it's a gift for HM 60th.

well, Z finally bought be a tripod (thank you so much) and i tried it out couple of weeks ago, cos the weather was brilliant, as everyone knows the weather for the past weeks were crazy. anyway, here are some of the shots i took.

wat do you guys think of it? any names of your own? any interpretation of your own? like it o hate it? do tell. I'm all ears! pls let me know! Promise won't come knocking on ur doors at 2 in the morning to question u.

I won't tell you the concept behind it, read it in the coming BIG magazine. Plus everyone will have his/her own opinion, cos i do myself when i see some abstract installation.

so far i have heard, hmm...music note, something i stole from some HK award show, a genie lamp (this one i still dun see it) or a harp.

if you go there, do walk round it, every sides should reveal a different impression.

the music note

look closely, 'stars' on the 6

.
hei, when you are there, it's hard not to pose wor! (sorry for the sweat pit haha!, need to apply more deodorant. u know taking photos, is no easy work)

i even took short clips of the monument-wat else, later lah cos the file is too big to upload.

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2207

the day had finally arrived. Yes! Guys & Dolls, i can now 'officially' revealed the project we had been busy working on for the past 4 to 5 months, as HM officially opened it yesterday.


The Bidarlahs visited the monument previously, so did some of the public during the night as part of the hoarding was removed. I would recommend to go during the day & night just to see the difference the lighting effect does to the monument. When we were there, there were still a few minor things required to be fixed or replaced. But now, it's all in its full glory: fully erected and 'sparkled'.

I was there yesterday morning to witness the event: His Majesty 'meet & greet' the people. Well, when i say 'witness', i was there from 10am only and 'there' being next to the monument, ie. not in the taman (field)

Standing in line next to the red carpet.

It was a hot blazing Sunday, i tell you and wearing a suit does not help. Dun tell anyone...shh! i wore a short sleeve shirt underneath haha! Still...

finally... the banging started, cameramen rushed here & there, and HM arrived...

and i managed to shake HM's hand. One can just imagine what HM went through. He shook everyone hands and walked from the padang in town to our site under the blazing heat. Someone got to pass Him a towel or wipe his sweat.

HM then went to sign the plague plaque while everyone who sponsored lined up accordingly for a photo session.

only to find out, it was pushed back later - post lunch & costume changed.

a tent was purposely erected for this alfresco dining.
one hour or so later, everyone lined up again for the camera. I tell you, all the personnel lined up behind HM & family are the rich & super-rich. Their wealth combined is enough to built a new city or even buy up the town.

on the other side- the pushy media.

the departure.

I will post pics of the monument later, when i go and buy myself a tripod: to capture the night view better.

news:

i was told by my dad that there was a bomb scare on the day. Yes! All the CIDs, SWATs, FBIs, FBs, VATs, GSTs, u name them, they were there like a movie scene-trying to confirm if the unknown baggage is a device. Shops tenants/owners were asked to stay indoor, while all forces personnels trying to work it out. All this took place while the 'meet-and-greet event' is happening across the road. Gosh! Imagine all the stress and panic.

Only to find out, it was a bag of unwanted clothes.

We were not informed or notified of this event, everyone was apparently unaware. hmm...

update:

forgot to mention tat there is also a free-for-all-public exhibition in town, next to the monument, in the old custom house. So do check it. It showcases the making of the monument, the new Municipal Board jurisdiction, future work to BSB waterfront, and the new upcoming monument. yes! another one, unfortunately not by me.

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preview...2

the 'project' in town is still undergoing some minor 'facelift'. Man! I just can't wait for it to finish completely, cos the scaffolding went up, went down, and back up again.

Thus i hv not shown any shots of the actual monument. Soon! i promise.

The actual unveiling or opening is 22nd July 2007, as HM & his posses will be in town for the annual meet-the-public gathering. So only another month or so, left. And also, to keep it more shh-shh and surprise, i might not posted the actual pic till after the day or maybe one day before haha! So for friends abroad, wait lah.

But wat i can show you guys is the surroundings for the time being. wat you think?

day/nite

me thinking if i got time, i will post various shots once a week till the actual opening.

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preview...

exclusive!!!

here goes...one of my fav shot for the project in town.

Unfortunately, the hoardings are still up cos we are still adding a few finishing touches, but u can enter as long as u let the guards know u want to see see loh. Or when u drive pass, turn your head quickly for a glimpse. haha!

I will post more pics later, for those who have not seen or cant be asked to go there. Later cos busy busy!!!

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spot the difference...

compared to the previous post, the monument is changing. finishing touch - applying make up loh.

taken 2 days ago.

will try to take some more later this week as the site will be more or less done by next week. preview soon. Fingercross!

I myself so cannot wait to take night shot, cos the day & night view shall be different (tat's my idea anyway-again fingercross!!!) SO now doing the final 'adjustment'.

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up up up

so so so so so excited. why? my project in town is 'up' yeah! ie. erected haha...

you know you get the feeling of seeing it finally erected, cant really explain it in words. Got a call from the contractor and told me the thing is up. Got me rather excited man! Cos i saw it in the factory (process), saw it on site previously but was lying on the floor, now it's finally up. While walking (*rushing) towards to the site just now after another meeting, i just cannot believe it myself. It's there! it's there for everyone to see. Gosh!

Ok, it's not fully done yet, just in it's upright position getting ready for everyone to 'poke', adding more stuffs to it and add the final coating.

I was there previously marking the 'diamond' locations, and 2mr go and mark something else. Man! I just cant wait for everything to be finish and the public to either love or hate it.

There are still a few problems we need to resolve and i tell you, time is running out. argh! So fingercross. will update more when i get round to doing it.

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4 days 3 nites...

wat a trip? seriously. within 4 days, i travelled through or departed from/arrived into 5 airports & 1 ferry terminal, and not forgetting the amount of time, i sat in the car from terminal to hotels. Got to say, though it's tiring but it was a sightful journey. (need to check with royalskies for my airmiles haha!)

where did i go? well, wont bored u with the details. 1. my english aint tat good, 2. some of u dun even bother to read the text 3. i cant be asked really! not like u guys bothered.

anyway, i went snapping crazy. took like almost 250 pics. hei, it's digital so snap snap snap! why not? 98% are buildings or scenery or parks or my foot! (*will upload those interesting buildings later) most of the pics of the buildings i took were taken while i was in the car passing through. Winded down the window and snapped!

brunei airport

coach from HK airport to ferry terminal

looking out from ferry Guangzhou (nite view)Guangzhou (morning view)-rather hazyby the embankment/residential park aircraft was so tired, due to early start -5am start for the journey to the airport to catch the flight to Shanghai; but all was worth it. Dozed off and woke up seeing sandy lam's music video. wat a start!!!
in shanghai and i hv been wanting to try to suck (sip) all the warm broth/soup out of the bun.in the technology/museum centre (Shanghai)- interesting piece of architecture and the finishes touches are brillant. Must visit.
It's my 2nd time in Shanghai, so it's my second time visiting the place. We had the day planned out for our short visit by our generous guide who even pre-arranged all the tickets to visit the Shanghai pearl tower-tourist must go. JinMao Tower- the last time i was here, it's still on construction, now it's Shanghai tallest building. Shamed we had no time to visit it. So close yet so far. Damn. However, the status was taken over by the building next to it, as the new construction will now be Shanghai's tallest. Another interesting piece of architecture. back to HK

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project update...

gosh, the last time i posted about the project in bandar was a good few months back and now it's almost half way there. yes! i so cannot wait when it is fully erected.

snapped a few shots last week ard the site while showing our HK gal around Kg Ayer. the base of the monument is done if u look closely but unfinished and also awaits the monument itself.

ooo...i will be away for a couple of days so wont be blogging till then. where i go?... China-Guangzhou (via HK) to see the monument as the prefabrication process is over there, so will be visiting the factory and hopefully everything goes to plan (*gosh sound scary-wat ifs) before they ship it to brunei. finger cross!

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work work work...

finally all done...phew! Well not quite! 2mr bundling them all up and will forward all the drawings and animations to the client. As it's a competition, i cannot say or show you guys the design just in case u know, it's P&C & it's a bloody competition. So fingercross we get the job! Yes! it's my design-conceptually at least. haha! Cos at the end the day, it's team work - I always stressed this: everyone in the design team plays a part; be it QS, St Eng, M&E Eng or ID.

All i can say it's an intelligent 'green' office building. wat the ho wat the ha?

well, it's also sometimes called sustainable building, so in principle its supposed to be environmentally friendly and all the marlakey. In Brunei, there are such building slowly popping up but the client requires loads of persuasion, hence the lack of it over this end of the world. But in our neighbouring countries like Spore or Malaysia, there are many. We dun need PV cells, or Wind power, just minor steps will do. Things like louvres, sun shading devices, rain water collections, heat pumps, and planting will all contribute to giving the end-users a much better environment to work in.

I will try to upload a vague pic of the building if i can. hmm...rather not lah, in case. Maybe when it's all over and we know who the actual winner is. ME!!!! haha!

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CNY pressies...

This year a few of my suppliers have been very kind and generous to moi compared to last. So far, i received a huge hamper, a variety of chocolate in a box (on Valentine day as well), and vouchers - 3 digit figures to spend in SS. Yeah! I'm of course a happy 'pig' (no pun intended). Hopefully all these are not signs of bribing haha!ooo... and a box of taiwan super pongkam which i shared with everyone in the office. Luckily we have not done our annual shopping ritual for food & goodies in the supermarket, as it's always lastminute for us anyway; been telling mama to do it early but she was busy rolling and baking. So maybe 2mr we will be heading to SS to spend away, and most probably will go to HH too cos they do have more variety of CNY stuffs which we normally wouldn't eat ourselves but just to serve to visitors hahaha! Isn't tat was all this about?

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breathe...

Gosh…wat a week (almost) it has been. Work work work, datelines, meetings and hmm…wat else…ooh yeah…work work work, thus only managed to ‘be’ yoga once so far. Wat work? Well, none other than the project in town. Can’t wait to see it fully erected and in it’s full glory, just got to wait till sometime in May, where all will be reveal to the public unless you guys visited the exhibition last year or read the papers. Anyway…just me ranting but all is good. Not complaining and that’s a difference.

Just to update: the safari theme party is in ‘full swing’ (no pun intended), venue confirmed; so guys get your outfit ready. So far everyone is really good: got their dresses, costumes, or shirt/pants tailored. Yeah!!! Can’t wait to see everyone on that night. So dun come in your normal tee & pants and look like an IDIOT! And say I dun know, dun hv any idea, dun have time, blah di blah. Ooo…before that, guys can you come earlier as I’m moving the time earlier i.e. six till twelve. Cos we need to vacate or at least leave by twelve, and also that will give us more time to disco after food & drink. So pls arrive ard six. Thanks!!!

And also thanks to those who placed orders for mama lil’s bakery. We still taking orders.

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2day...

Finally got time to breathe man!!!!... see i dun only blog ppl as widely spread, but i do try to find 10 mins out of a day to post something, unless... wat a day today man!

to summarise the day: food, food, work, food, work, food, burn off some calories, food, blog, tv, zzz. i think tat's abt it.

to elaborate, well...since you guys ask. (i heard)

ate breakfast-pastry with red bean! yum! yum!...then off to work, and head to town for the ground breaking ceremony for my project in town, as previously posted. I will try to take some up-to-date pics next time i go on site. It's still early on the ground but at the very least it's started. phew! finally. And today, we had a couple of ministers & loads of sponsors there to do some free labour for the contractors haha! yes! pouring some concrete to the pile to signify something, which i dun really know why. ooo they read some prayers too of course. Read all about it in tomorrow papers and tonight news. ( i took 2 pics from where i sat, but left it in the office, so will upload later)



left: concrete laying ceremony (free labour) right: paparazzis...




Ladies (& guys), i felt this will be the best time to wear all your diamonds rings, gold rings, or any bling bling, cos your hand will be in shot as you will be pouring the concrete with the spade. If possible, one in each fingers muahaha! So your cost per wear is low.

Of course for ceremony like this, food and drinks are served courtesy of the contractor. We had quite a range of foods: chicken pies, cheese cakes, chocolate cakes, tartlets, tuna sandwiches, egg mayo which is overly buttered sandwiches, malay cakes, hot tea & coffee. Food was great but they forgot about the ice. Feeling hot & hot drinks do not go well together.

then back to office to do some work before lunch. Met up with the group at a new eatery place in town. well i use the word new loosely cos the place is not new but new for us cos we hv not lunch there before. Had to attend a last minute meeting cos it's my project, others are busy to attend so i had to rush there, just to show face cos it's a meeting for the other parties involved. The venue is tutong, so Soon do you still remember our joyride to the place. Yes! that far. And to make my day, the meeting was conversed in malay. And you guys know my limitations or knowledge on the language, i tried my best to listen and translate them in my mind.

As like all meetings, food & drinks were served: fried meehoon, fried mee, fried quail (i think), panggang, fried banana (fritters). Gosh! Gob Gob gob!

Then off to do some exercise to burn some calories, and that was good! ooo...

Just finished dinner and had lamb curry (yum yum!) and loads of veggies. Wat a day! that's all.

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project...

read all about it. read all about it(1).

today's paper covered the cheque/donation presentation ceremony from the private sector for the construction of the monument that we won the competition, as previously posted.

9:19pm update

just found out that the total pledging to date (actually yesterday) is approx. $1.2 million. Loads of big companies gave generously. To me, i think some of them felt obligated like hmm...shld i name them, okie...just say the company that supply your car petrol, another obligation is if you got your 'rank' thus got to maintain your 'status', and also if you own all the big supermarkets and car companies locally...you got to donate too. Whether all this is for their own publicity & obligation, or for appreciation of wat the design, somehow i dun think is the latter for some reason. Of course smaller companies are there to show support and their 'generosity'.

Despite all this, all i can say is that we still need a few more grands man! no joke! but i think there will be some cost cuttings or savings soon & i mean soonnnnnn.

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