Nomad

 

 

17 JUN  Singapore/Hong Kong

24-25 JUN Shenzhen

25 JUN late evening to 27 JUN midday Hong Kong

27 JUN  Singapore (dinner)

28 JUN  Home

My old friend Ang was a student when I met him in the 1980s.  I introduced him to Anthony and later he introduced Stephanie to Anthony.  Ang is friendly with that younger guy in OMA Beijing who has recently been dating a Chinese actress.  Because of Anthony and Stephanie's wedding, Ang came to town and we had a nice reunion.  Yesterday, Ang sent me some photos taken with his iPhone.

 

Stephanie surprised everyone by wearing a red dress. (click photo to enlarge if you are using a laptop with smaller screen)

 

 

The wedding cake was very funny, but it was a pity that the grey ribbons were not edible.   The cake looks a bit like the Tower of Babel in the photo. 

 

 

I have known Stephanie's nephews for some years.  They are less wild now that they are more grown up, but they still call me Grand Stan(d).  I promised Eddie (left side of photo below) a present for his birthday next September.

 

 

My thanks to Ang for the photos!

 

Anthony and Stephanie's wedding was held last Saturday at a scenic location.  There were a lot of farmers and also a lot of Chinese migrants of 40 years ago.  A few clients of theirs were invited: there were a few barristers, a man from Deutsche Bank and a judge of the HK Court of Final Appeal (who was formerly Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia).  One of the clients was a masseuse.  Anthony and Stephanie did a kitchen extension for her and instead of receiving a fee, they get a series of massages to the value of the design fee.  The masseuse was very outgoing and insisted on dancing with me.

 

 

(click on photo to enlarge)

 

David joined Fitness First some weeks ago and already looks different.   In accordance with my doctor's suggestion, I have been thinking of going to a gym several times a week.  Today, I bought, on impulse, a pair of Adidas running shoes, the AdiStar Cushion 6.  :)

 

 

應徒孫兒Thomas之請，提供Alberti筆記如下。

 

 

This is an old article in JWCI.  Written and published during WW2, Wittkower was unable to access any Latin edition of Alberti's Ten Books in London.

 

pp. 1-2: the main interest of the opening paragraphs is the distinction Wittkower makes about Beauty and Ornament in Alberti's text.  The subsequent development of this line of discussion produced the following groupings: wall-main feature of Renaissance architecture-column as decoration or ornament.  Greek temples-columns the main constituent, i.e. not ornament-wall was less important. 

 

there are two supplementary points: (1) Alberti knew Roman architecture: this is midway between Greek and Renaissance as far as the wall-column spectrum goes； it is "essentially a wall architecture".  Wittkower shows how Alberti contradicted the understandings of Antiquity even though dumb art history books tries to tell us that the Renaissance revived classical antiquity.   (2)  In classical antiquity, columns were freestanding sculptural units, but Alberti imagined them as "remnant of a pierced wall".  Wittkower shows how Alberti's misunderstanding was related to 12th-century buildings.  He pointed to San Miniato as an example.

 

(more later)

 

 

The bed that I had been sleeping on since 1988 was called the Canbra "Full Weight" Special.  It was given to me by Desley when she bought a new bed, so this bed must have been around 30 years old.  I remember very well how my friend Ray Firth had brought the bed to my apartment and had singlehandedly lifted it off his truck before I helped him carry it up three flights of stairs to my apartment.  Until recent years, the bed was quite ok.  When I thought of it, I was a bit surprised that I had begrudged the expense of replacing it for so long.

 

Last night the Canbra was removed from my apartment when a new bed called the Sealy Posturepedic Premium Comfort Eurotop Plush was delivered by two guys.  They impressed me a lot at first because one guy could carry the mattress by himself, but it turned out that the new bed was made of much lighter material than the old bed, which prided itself for being "Full Weight."  One delivery guy was middle aged and a bit gruff. The other guy was young and seemed to be amused by my apartment, but he just smiled faintly momentarily and didn't elaborate when the older guy asked about it.  (The young guy was probably a typical Quiet Achiever.)  They were gone in a matter of minutes. 

 

James arrived a little later after work and helped me dump the old bed on the side of the street downstairs.  Afterwards we had sashimi nearby.

 

 

This morning, there was light rain.  The Canbra Full Weight Special had disappeared ... some homeless person probably collected it in the dead of the night.

 

Apart from Kitty and Hello Kitty, my hospital visitors included David and Bart.

 

 

David was the photographer of the whole occasion and he documented the shower at my request.  On the ceiling of my room, there was a TV and two cameras that record my movements during my sleep.

 

 

In the shower was a chair for the patient to sit on, and next to the shower are three boxes of gloves (S, M, L, but no XL) for the nurse who might have to assist the patient in the shower.  Notice there are no tiles on the wall behind the chair (a special waterproof paint was used); this seems to minimize a cleaning problem.

 

 

The taps of the shower are outside the shower for the convenience of the helper.

 

 

Bart gave me a soup package and some canned chicken broth as presents. 

 

 

So overall, I had something to hug (Hello Kitty) as well as somethings to eat after my release from hospital.

 

thanks to everyone for their best wishes: luckily, i have been kicked out of hospital; the food looked ok but the vegetables were really bland.

 

 

clockwise from top left above: white genuine napkin wrapped around metal cutlery. vegetable soup with plastic cover, two pieces of toast presented in a paper bag labelled "Your Toast" [homophonic with "You're Toast" (你完蛋了)], main course of crumbed fish fillet with wedge of lemon, boiled carrots, zuchinni and mashed potates, cheesecake. 

 

after dinner, a man who looked like an indian, with hair covered by paper hat just like a surgeon on tv, delivered some hot milky water in a cup with tea bag in it.  the indian also gave me some biscuits (wrapped in plastic).  next to the tea is a large Hello Kitty doll and a mystery by Iain Pears entitled An Instance of the Fingerpost.  the story was about a murder in Oxford around 1660s.

 

 

among my visitors was a girl who was a former employee of oma beijing.  she gave me the doll...her name was also Kitty.    i got quite excited by the whole situation and momentarily held Hello Kitty upside down.

 

 

the medical report will come out in 2 weeks.  my medical insurance covered the hospital costs completely. (click on the photos to enlarge them)

 

Some months ago, Jack introduced me to a nice cafe near the College of Fine Arts and it has become one of my two favourite cafes in the world.  A couple of weeks ago, we had brunch there and then went in search of frames for new prescription reading glasses.  The lenses had to be specially grinded and that took 10 days.  Last Friday, I collected them from the HCF shop and met Lin Feng, who was in town for the weekend.  David and the two of us had Vietnamese noodles together.

 

3 Jan  Singapore

staying at the Royal Hotel, Newton Road

4 -10 Jan  Hong Kong

staying near Caine Road

11-12 Jan Shenzhen

looking for a hotel

12-13 Jan Hong Kong  

Conference!

École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris - La Villette

 

The Nomad website at nomad.archi.cn is offering a voice recording of the lecture by Alberto Pérez-Gómez given in Nanjing on 30 October 2007 for free download.  Also available is the text of the lecture.  These files will be available for about 6 days.

为了庆祝张顼的baby的来临和周明的