Me and Jet Li

Last night, my dad was trying to convince me to change my profile picture on Facebook because it was blurred and he couldn’t see clearly who it was.  I told him it was Jet Li and a lot of people don’t have trouble recognizing him.  In fact, it fooled some into thinking that I really worked for Jet Li or was married to him.   My dad didn’t like the photo but I told him it had a special symbolic meaning for me and anyway, I upload a lot of family and friends photos so it wasn’t an urgent need.

That Jet Li picture was taken in Beijing when I was covering a conference of top Chinese entrepreneurs for the Business Tianjin magazine where I sidelined as a writer during the time I lived in TEDA, China for five years.  My boss, the owner of the magazine also attended the big event which awarded Jet Li for his work in philanthropy.  My boss is a funny, adventurous, live-life-to-the-fullest kind of guy and we snuck into the cordoned VIP section during the awarding ceremony by walking on the red carpet pretending we were one of the invited guests.  I just followed him and ended up getting a table near the stage within autographing distance from the "autographables."  


When my boss found out that I wanted a picture taken with Jet Li, he egged me to follow him as he went outside and like giddy groupies and pesty paparazzi, we ran after him.  My boss wasn't used to holding the camera so the picture ended up blurred but I was so touched that it was even my boss who took it.  

Since then, it's been my profile picture and I've never replaced it because I wanted it to always remind of my dreams.  Not dreams of working for or becoming Jet Li's wife but of finding what it is I'm supposed to do in this world, making a contribution, a difference, an impact.   There are days when it seems this is a far away, unreachable, pie-in-the-sky dream when failures loom larger than life.  But there are days when a healthy optimism rules and I'll hurdle all the trials.  

Jet Li made a career out of acting but he went beyond and set up One Foundation to help provide relief in disaster areas around the world.   I've always admired people who have a career and who use their success as a vehicle to give back.  But I'm far, far from even getting a decent career so I'm at a loss how I'm ever going attain that dream and be able to finally change my profile picture.

  

Anatomy of a Spiral

This was quite exciting to install: the spiral staircase.  Met with some mistakes - one was easily solved while another still awaits the next day of installation.  The second mistake involved bumping your head into the final landing.  To solve this, we're adding an extra quarter of a circle to be able to twist the spiral ahead, giving the climber the necessary headroom.   Will be excited to report to you how it goes in the next few days.  The installer has to get the additional metal and pipe posts prepared first. 

We got to figure out how to insert a quarter or half-moon landing here.

Or a simpler solution would be to just twist the whole staircase until step #17 lands before a square metal plate landing.  This occurred to me only after churning out ideas and computations about the half-moon extra landing only to be convinced that it still had the same headroom problems.   So I just stared at the pictures longer till the elegantly simple solution came. 

Checking In

Ceiling, check.

 Floor, check.

 Corridor wall system, check.

 Electrical . . . all there except for the connection to the main line which is still under a back and forth discussion.

 The space where the spiral staircase will go, check.

 The landing that will meet the top of the spiral staircase, check.  

Five Plus Three

The broker's been calling asking when are we going to finish with the renovation.  Two weeks ago, I told them it was last week and now this week, it's next week.  Our original target finish date was June 10 so we're officially five working days delayed plus three more is estimated before the job is completed.  Crossing our fingers, that's the last "next week" I say.

I wanted to try using polycarbonate sheets for the upper kitchen cabinets to convey the feeling of lightness but then that would cost more in terms of labor.  So I was happy that we were able to apply that idea to this door to the laundry which doesn't get any direct natural sunlight.  Now it can get it indirectly through this translucent door and four small openings inside.  We couldn't also use glass in this case because that meant the door had to be made of solid wood thus much more expensive.

So it's basically just finishing the kitchen cabinets and painting the baseboard that's left and hopefully that will take no more than three days.  Cross your fingers.

Oh and after staring at the picture of the stove exhaust hood for some time, I'll have to get that redone so it looks better with a slant.  Hmmmm.  Three days?   Let's see.

Fave Chile

 Since a few days ago I started a sentimental trip to last year's Shanghai Expo via the UK pavilion, and since I have a lot of extra time due to doctor's orders not to leave the house, I've decided to post photos of one of my favorite pavilions from Expo 2010.  My family went together on the second to the last day of the event.  As such, we went through the pavilions chosen for us by the Philippine Embassy, which we were so grateful for since it saved us hours and hours of excruciating lining up.  On the last day, my mom wanted to go elsewhere and I opted to go back to the Expo to visit buildings I wanted to see because of the architecture.  I went with my baby and conveniently, there was a cool lime green stroller that you could borrow for free.  It turned out I couldn't get into the pavilions I wanted to examine and gawk at because of the impossible lines, so I had to find at least one building I admired that I could easily get in.  Chile was it and boy, was it a design wonder to behold! Tactile. Sensual. Light and spatially dynamic. The pictures speak for themselves:  

          

Check out the architect of the Chile Pavilion:

http://sabbagharquitectos.com/_eng/0000_FONDOS.html

My son's the perfect model to show off the building's features.  Hehe.  Biased Mom.

The Other Ongoing Project

We stumbled on a major issue that is still left hanging pending further talks: the water pipe connection.  It taught me to be more thorough about the utilities.

The foreman and I were trying to trace where the pipes will pass through to connect with the client's main water supply and meter.

First, we were contemplating which side of the wall to place and it was impractical to put the pipes on the side of the ceiling where there's a spaghetti of electric pipes.

Used plastic containers line the wall of utilities that seem to be a work of art alongside the crisscrossing electrical pipes.

Days Away

 Just a few days away from the finish line

 Just when you're near the end, time slows down

The granite counter top finally installed

Kitchen cabinet doors drying

The aluminum sliding glass doors installed after many texts and phone calls running after the supplier

Testing finishing methods with

two shades of closets in two different bedrooms