Besides tees

Posted on April 29, 2009

Picked up some new collared shirts to bolster my t-shirt laden wardrobe. I don’t have much luck when it comes to business shirts, as although many are marketed as being slim fit, they still fit me like crap. These ones from Hawes & Curtis in London are close to spot-on, and while they’re not spectacular in terms of quality, they were very affordable.

The calm before the storm

Posted on April 28, 2009

Certainly by now most of you will know that I’m an avid Gunners fan. With the end of Europe’s football season only a couple weeks away, it’s crunch time as all of the teams fight it out for silverware. Arsenal’s form in their domestic league - the English Premier League - has been rocky at best, with some poor performances meaning that the best they can hope for is third. That said, Arsenal are now unbeaten in 20 matches, a clear indicator that their super young squad (sometimes playing with an average player age of just 21) are starting to gel.

In my opinion, one of Arsenal’s main problems this season has been their lack of depth in the squad. Less depth means less rotation. Less rotation means more individual match-time, and more match-time leads to a greater chance of injuries. So how do other clubs make do? Heavyweights like Manchester United and Chelsea are fortunate to have billionaire owners, and so they are gifted with considerable finacial freedom to buy at whim (case in point would be Man Utd signing Berbatov for 30mil pounds, while Arsenal broke their record by signing Arshavin for just 15mil). Considering the current financial climate along with Arsenal having to service the loan taken to build their Emirates Stadium, it makes sense that manager Arsene Wenger holds the purse close to his chest. Sadly fans - quite rightly - don’t care about all this; the only thing that matters are results.

The injuries cost Arsenal dearly in the recent FA Cup Semi-Final against Chelsea, where three of the four regular defenders were out along with Number 1 keeper Almunia. So Arsenal’s last chance of grabbing a trophy is in the Champions League, with their Semi-Final Leg 1 match against Manchester United on midweek. Both teams have been leaky at the back, but both have also been in goal-scoring moods. Even for those who aren’t passionate about soccer will find this clash of the titans enthralling. I’m excited already!

R & R

Posted on April 26, 2009

After such an exhausting week it was awesome to do absolutely nothing today. I caught up on most of my sleep, read a book and did nothing but chill. I was too lazy to cook dinner, so instead walked down the road to see what I could find. This evening was freezing, and so ramen was a no brainer. Ended up at Ichi-ban Boshi.

Since it was too cold to sit outside, most of the patrons crammed inside. The only table available was the bench, which I must say was pretty narrow. You couldn’t sit opposite someone as you’d be banging knees.

Sitting right next to the kitchen meant I could feel the warmth from the stoves and the aromas had my stomach grumbling.

Every time I eat ramen I always deliberate over which type to get, but inevitably I always choose tan-tan ramen. After all the crap we’ve been eating during deadline, it was so damn good to have a meal that absolutely hit the spot. Now that I have a full belly it’s time to kick back and watch the Bahrain Grand Prix. I’m tipping Vettel to make it back-to-back victories!

From the past

Posted on April 25, 2009

While cleaning up I stumbled across my 3 unit Visual Arts process diary, from way back when I was in Year 12. It was pretty much intact, and as I hadn’t seen it for many years, it was as if I was looking at a VAPD of a complete stranger. Now I’m determined to find my 2 unit VAPD, which I remember as being a lot more indepth as well as being quite personal.

Visual Arts wasn’t a popular subject at my school, especially amongst the Asian students, no doubt because of parental pressures to excel in subjects like maths and physics instead. Indeed, I remember a couple of my friends didn’t even get to choose the subjects they sat for; instead it was all pre-determined by mum and dad. Pretty sad really.

I absolutely loved photography; from experimenting with camera settings, developing my own film and composing shots with the enlarger. With a very supportive teacher who allowed me to spend many an afternoon in the dark room, photography was my way of escaping from all the things that bug teenagers. For me, the most exciting aspect of film photography was the element of uncertainty; you could never be 100% sure that you had translated what you envisaged. Sometimes they were totally disappointing, and other times you’d find an absolute gem as you scoured your negatives. With today’s digital cameras - giving you infinite shots and instant playback - that insecurity is no longer there. Point, shoot, review, delete, repeat. Which one’s better? My mind says digital, but my heart will always say film.

Tees in the mail

Posted on April 24, 2009

Somebody from FABNOB was kind enough to send a care package in the mail, which was the perfect pick-me-up considering I had been stuck in the office since Wednesday morning.

Sweet high quality packaging.

Received tees by Local Celebrity (above) and Deter. Both are made from super soft fabric. FABNOB stands for Fabulous Nobodies, which pretty much sums up the company as they stock U.S. boutique labels that you’re not likely to see on others as you walk down the street. Which can only be a good thing. Check ‘em out here.

Don’t do the rain dance (please)

Posted on April 21, 2009

Ironically, deadline is hanging over our heads like the black clouds that blanketed Sydney. And it those clouds - and their torrential payloads - that has caused quite a bit of nail-biting around the ASM office. I’ve already mentioned the impacts the recent weather has had on our schedules, but things are getting a bit silly now.

Here’s the view from my desk at work. Sunny and clear skies at one moment, and then thundering rain the next. Melbourne’s trademark unpredictable weather has nothing on what Sydney’s going through! Photographer Mark Pakula has had it worse than me as he’s been caught out by the sudden change during last night’s shoot and tonight’s reattempt, getting absolutely drenched as he dashed around trying to quickly cover all of the lighting equipment and generators. We’ve had to reshuffle a lot of things, and after a quick sit down with Papz, our Art Director, it’s looking like we’ll be doing a 55-hour marathon (starting tomorrow) to get back on track. The upside? At least I’ll be there to catch all the water that’s dripping on my new computer!

Energy drinks

Posted on April 20, 2009

When it comes to energy drinks, I’ve only really liked Red Bull or the defunct Black Stallion (which had a nice passionfruit taste). While I was in the States I was shocked to see how many different brands there were - entire fridges dedicated solely to energy drinks - and so I made it my mission to try each and every one of them over a two week period. Yes, I was quite a buzzy person as a result (kind of like my Krating Daeng experience in Indo, but I’ll save that story for another time). Most were so sweet that you could almost feel your teeth rotting as you downed each gulp.

While in the supermarket over the weekend I spotted Rockstar’s Juiced variant which, as the name suggests, is a mix of energy drink and fruit juice concentrate. It was surprisingly good. Sure it was still loaded with half a kilo of sugar, but taste-wise it was pleasant enough.

Occasional weekend racer

Posted on April 19, 2009

Spotted a neat little Datto in a garage the other day.

Interesting race number!

Pretty sad to see it all by itself, covered in a thick coat of dust. I was kind of surprised that it was just parked there, considering anyone could just hop in and do or take whatever they pleased.

Jinxed

Posted on April 17, 2009

Perhaps I really am jinxed. Whenever I attend an important ’shoot, things always seem to go wrong. Recently we’ve been trying to nail our all important shot for the cover of our 75th Issue. Our first attempt had to be scrapped because of torrential rain, the second one canned because our experimental concept didn’t turn out, and tonight we were booted out of the perfect location by security. As Kula said, hopefully we’ll be fourth time lucky!

Java @ Randwick

Posted on April 16, 2009

Definitely one of my favourite Indonesian restaurants is Java in the suburb of Randwick. Years ago I used to come here regularly with my old house-mate (who was Indonesian and introduced me to the place). While the restaurant is tiny and there’s a few things on the menu I wouldn’t dare try, one dish has me hooked: their ayam bakar bumbu bali grilled chicken. It’s so good…

Cleats

Posted on April 15, 2009

Yesterday could’ve been dubbed Shoe Day, with a couple of deliveries arriving from the U.K. and Italy, where stores are drastically cutting prices of boots due to their football season coming to an end.

Here’s Papz’s tatty Valsport shoes that’s he’s been using for our indoor games. They’re so old that he’s had to hold them together with gaffer tape! Since Valsport isn’t carried by many stores any more, it took a couple of months of online hunting before he found a stockist. Garth’s pretty keen to join our team next season, and so he picked up a pair of Nike Tiempos - similar to the ones that team-mates Cisco and Hons use - although he chose the new black and fluro green colourway.

Since I only own a pair of soft ground cleats, I’ve been looking for a pair for hard ground surfaces (which will probably make up 90% of the fields we’ll be playing on for the club we’ve joined). I wanted boots that were lightweight, and so I did come close to buying the Puma v1.08 but found the toe area to be awkwardly designed. Instead I decided to wait a few weeks for the new Nike’s Mercurial Vapor V.

Back at the Beijing Olympics, Nike caused quite a stir when they unveiled running spikes with ‘Flywire technology’, which basically allows them to reduce the material thickness (and thus weight) while maintaining strength. The Vapor V is the first football boot featuring Flywire to be released to the public. Its only used on the instep of the boot, with the rest in Teijin synthetic. Weight-wise they’re around 230 grams. Nike do have an even lighter boot - known as the Mercurial Superfly and made completely with Flywire - however these were recalled just days before their public release due to an expose showing how fragile they were.

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