#100 - Painting, Portfolios and Summer Weather

This post marks a big milestone- the 100th post! 

I've spent the last couple of weeks trying to come up with an interesting enough post to mark this event, but sadly, had no such inspiration. 

My parents thought I should blog about my new job, but sadly I don't have one yet. Having sent out my job applications just a few days ago, I'm still waiting for replies. Oh, just in case any of you readers are architects and are recruiting, here are my portfolios- semester 1-9 and semester 10. :)

A couple of weeks ago, The Renegade Arts and Theatre Society put up a production of Paula Vogel's 'How I Learned to Drive'. It was great fun working on the production from stage design to actually painting the backdrop. It was a bit of a risk volunteering to paint 32 ' x 12' of canvas, considering my not-so-great talent of painting and the four days I had before show day. It finally took two of us, a LOT of paint, worn out rollers, a couple of bottles of turpentine, two and a half days to complete it. It looked better than I expected it to look on stage. I guess it was all worth it. 

After such a successful production, I decided to create a separate page for R.A.T.S on my blog. Check out here. And just in case you didn't notice- the blog also has a new header/background etc. :)

So, in celebration of #100, I've decided to share some of my favourite blog posts so far.

1. Most favourite food post:

Making pasta from scratch is much easier than most people think and mushroom and pasta combination is hard to beat. 

Mushroom Tortellini/Ravioli

2. Most favourite architecture post:

I never expected to find great architecture whilst camping. Merging perfectly with it's natural surroundings, Charles Benninger's campsite was rare treat.

Written in Stone

3. Most favourite place post: 

It's got to be Covent Garden. I've never been so fascinated with how much life one place can have. Food, music and everything else I enjoy.

Opera, Food Fairs and Chainsaw Jugglers

4. Most favourite trip post:

A recent bloggers trip to the Serai, Chikmagalur was quite extraordinary. Exquisite suites, private pools, delectable food, tractor rides through coffee estates and I got to meet some great ladies. 

Coffee Scrubs, Poolside Dinners and lots of Good Conversation

and to complete my list, 
5. My favrourite random post:

A bit hard to choose one more post to round up my favourites. Crossing off bucket list things bring so much satisfaction, that this post had to be here. That rush of adrenalin! I can still feel it.

Free Falling

Happy reading. 

Until the next post, I will brave the heat with lots of buttermilk, some swimming and constant mail-checking waiting for someone to hire me!

Adios. 

P.S Fudge Together now has it's own Facebook page- Go and 'like' for updates.

London Laureates

My escapades in London included many architecture walks. I had a long checklist and managed to cross off most of the list.

Out of the list, I can group some of the buildings under Pritzker winning Architects. For the non-architects among my readers, the Pritzker prize is the Pulitzer and Nobel equivalent for excellence in Architecture. 

Here goes...

Renzo Piano 1998 Laureate

Central St. Giles court designed along with Fletcher Priest Architects sits in the middle of Camden town. The lego colours are like sunrise and spring in contrast to the greys and browns of the surroundings on a the rainy day that I was there. Even the chairs in the courtyard matched. 

The Shard- Europe's tallest building is London's newest addition to it's skyline. The multi-purpose building has 11,000 panels of glass on it's facade covering 56,000 sq. m of surface area. London's most expensive apartment will be a penthouse on the 65th floor. *I want*

Notice the difference in weather. And no, the picture on the left is not desaturated- that's just how grey the skies were. 

Street Lights

While on my long vacation last year, I remember being quite fascinated with street lamps and managed to take pictures of a few. Only now did I realise that all the ones in Galle were actually the same design. I've made them into postcards.

Reminded me of a Haiku I wrote sometime ago.

Street Lights

Weathered and rusty
Or shiny metal finish
Many sorts I’ve seen

At day forgotten
At night, a guiding beacon
On street corners stand

With styles of eras
Cityscape accessory
The street lights still shine

Sketch

One of my days galavanting around London, Joanna, Jason, Kim and I had lunch at Sketch. 

Located on Conduit Street just off Reagent Street in London's posh uptown, Mayfair (the most-wanted Monopoly property!), it is an 18th century neoclassical townhouse, which later housed the RIBA headquarters. 

Sketch includes two restaurants; The Gallery and the Lecture Room, two bars; The Glade and The East Bar, and an all-day cafe; The Parlour. French head chef Pierré Gagnaire, known for his three Michelin star restaurant in Paris has successfully earned Sketch two Michelin stars for his french nouvelle themed menu. The Lecture Room is a fine dining restaurant with a meal for two costing about 200 pounds! Crazy!

We ate at The Parlour Room- the little patisserie at the front end of the house. The decor was most unusual. An eclectic mix of 18th century antique with a 1970's twist. Mismatched banquet chairs and footstools, stag heads, metal sculptures, tasseled lamps, post modern art work and wallpaper that was different on every wall provided quite an bizarre, yet fascinating setting. I couldn't help but stare into every corner as my brain tried to assimilate this style. I felt a bit odd to take pictures of everything, so you'll have to rely on Google to get a full picture.

The design of the menu was equally interesting. I counted a total of 11 different fonts used. From 19th century calligraphy and it's contrasting sans-serifed type. It was illustrated with black and white sketches of classical household objects. 

The cuisine in The Parlour, although typically French and English cafe fare, is termed as comfort food. The prices weren't cheap. Thankfully we weren't too hungry and were satisfied with the gourmet portions too. Between us, we ordered a Leek Quiche, Macaroni gratinated with Emmenthal with a side of celeriac remoulade salad, warm pitta pocket with feta, baby spinach and cherry tomatoes, and Asparagus with Hervé This eggs, pecorino and rocket. It was a tasty array of food. The emmenthal flavour was delightful, but I wasn't as much a fan of the celeriac remoulade. The Pitta pocket was slightly ordinary, but still tasty. I always thought 'Herve This eggs' were just poached eggs. On further research, Hervé This is actually a food scientist who discovered that cooking eggs in 65 degrees produces the perfectly cooked egg with the whites coagulated but the yolk nice and runny. 

Dessert was the bigger hit. It was so hard to chose. I have this big phobia of menus. There are always too many options. The names of dishes and their accompanying description only makes the process harder. This was no different. I finally decided that I'd chose the most weird sounding dessert. I remember it having the most unappetising name out of the lot- 'Bob' but had an unusual combination of sweet and savoury flavours. Unfortunately it wasn't available.

This was our final order- Strawberry Hill: Sable biscuit, almond cream with kiwi compote, Greek yoghurt and lime mousse topped with strawberries and an edible yellow pansy. Chocolate Tartlet: Sweet pastry dough with Macae chocolate ganache and chocolate jelly, glazed with dark chocolate. 

Gateau Chocolat: Salted butter caramel, Manjari chocolate mousse, sacher sponge cake and hazelnut and an Exotic Pate a choux: Tangy pate a choux filled with vanilla mousse, caramel, passion fruit jelly and Tonka bean chantilly.

Flavours were quite grand. Many of the flavours were new. My conclusions:
1. Fancy types of chocolate do taste better. 
2. Tonka beans aren't much different to vanilla.
3. Edible flowers have no flavour. They are just pretty. 
4. Kiwi and Lime make an excellent combination!

A little bit of Zaha!

One of my classmates in college nicknamed me 'Zaha' from my fondness of angles and assymetry and oddities, synonymous with the famed architect, Zaha Hadid. My designs are quite far from her work, and thankfully that name never stuck!

No doubt, she's pretty awesome. The only female holder of the prestigious Pritsker award with projects dotted all over the world and has lectured in some of the biggest architectural institutions.

I was lucky enough to be in London during the two week London Festival of Architecture 2012. As part of the festival, was the opening of the Zaha Hadid Exhibition. It was definitely something I looked forward to, but unfortunately forgot to carry my camera and had to rely on my phone.

The exhibition was the basement and ground floor of a building with her studios on the floors above. If only she wasn't on one of her world travel, I could have met the woman herself. sigh. 

There were about 8 or 10 sculptures on display. Most of them were her furniture or landscape design. You can see them here. I particularly liked her Floating staircase design and the Aqua Table. Such smooth lines and seamless surfaces make up her wacky designs.

Opera, Food Fairs and Chainsaw Jugglers

Of all the areas in London, Covent Garden has got to be my favourite. The life and culture cannot compare to any other part. If at all, I had nothing else to do, I'd spend the whole day in Covent Garden.

The piazza and French style housing was designed by Inigo Jones in the mid 17th century and the landmark neoclassical market building in the centre of the piazza by Charles Fowler 200 years later. The area speaks of centuries of history but has always been synonymous with entertainment. 

Cobblestone streets flanked with tiny boutiques and quaint cafes spilling out onto pavements leading up to the piazza bursting with activity- from street dancers, magicians, acrobats, opera singers, orchestras, and more. People crowding around, sitting on pavements and eating hot jacket potatoes, more little boutiques with tiny doorways and spiral staircases, many more cafe's with live cooking and tables with white umbrellas dotted around the plaza. Souvenir markets with London city, Queen's Jubilee and Olympic paraphernalia and tourists and locals trying to breathe in as much as possible.

Wimbledon!

June 26- WIMBLEDON

One of things that got me most excited about visiting London in the summer was that my trip was coinciding with Wimbledon 2012.

I did my usual research about tickets, etc. The starting cost of the men's final was 2000 pounds that went up by 20% a day in the final week of Wimbledon! (I think they went up to about 12,000 pounds!!!!!!)

I guess the best way to experience Wimbledon and getting cheaper tickets was by waiting in queues and getting tickets on the day.

Schedule of play comes out the day before and unfortunately, we missed having a chance to see Federer because we decided to go on day 2.

Excess Baggage! Excess Flirting!

"The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage."
~Mark Russell

Ayubowan! (the only Sinhalese I picked up was on the plane)

In celebration of completing 5 long years of Architecture, I left Bangalore for my long long vacation! 

Home - Colombo - London - ( Watford - London ) x 15 - Colombo - Passikudah - Baticaloa - Colombo - Galle - Colombo - Home

I did much more than was on my list in 54 days (and my lists are pretty long), ticked off many things off my bucket list (many of which were added to my bucket list just before I did them. :P), ate as much food as I wanted to (put back all the weight I lost with Typhoid), filled up my suitcase with more souvenirs than I needed, and came back with 3000+ pictures as memories of my trip.

July 4, 2008

Day 2 at the LFA.

Along the Thames

With some time to spare before the first event on my list for the day, I spent the morning at Westminster. I marvelled at the architecture of the House of Parliament and Big Ben and then walked down to the abbey. I first went into a small little church next to Westmister abbey and although photography was not allowed, I managed to get a couple of pictures of the interiors with the camera on my lap!

July 3, 2008

I was really looking forward to attending the London Festival of Architecture 2008-a month long festival packed with hundreds of different events around the city ranging from exhibitions, building tours, cycling tours, open studios, etc. I stumbled upon the site while looking at a site about free things to do in London.


I traveled for the first time by myself in the underground. It was a lot of fun and as long as I had my tube map and London street guide I would be fine. (felt like I was walking on the Monopoly board!)

London- the city and the parks

June, 2008

June 27


The long awaited for trip. Just one week after wretched exams and submissions and all my bags are packed and I'm ready to go for a 5 week holiday to England.


The journey was not exactly memorable. I had travelled alone before, but this was minus the benefits of unaccompanied travel. I watched 3 movies back-to-back; The Kite Runner, The other Boleyn Girl and P.S, I Love You and landed at Terminal 5 through grey clouds and cold rain- typical English weather.


What I remember from the next few days:


~Sleeping from 3 on Saturday afternoon till 7 the next morning curled up in the duvet of the top bunk.
~Strawberry picking on Sunday morning- Stuffed myself with strawberries, raspberries and tayberries.
~Being united with my laptop.
~Jumping on the trampoline!
~Eloise locking herself in the house the day I was babysitting her. I had to climb over the side gate (not that easy!) to get to the back door which, thankfully was not locked. Surprisingly, I was asked to look after all 3 girls by myself on several occasions after that incident!
~Jason choking with laughter, unable to breathe at Jo and my first attempts at the dance. My spastic hands!
~Losing in MAM- sorry girls. We never lose, do we? I completely take the blame-
I was blind:
Proof 1-
(thinking to myself): hey cool, Im out of yellow, and I have so many blues... maybe I should take the bid. Only later did I realise that this set didn't have yellow and had purple (It looked BLUE-ish) instead. This confused me throughout the ENTIRE game.
Proof 2-
I didn't realise that I had the Tiger till the second last hand. I'm telling you, it looked like the bull and where on the card does it say 'Tiger' in capital letters?
I also suffered temporary Alzheimer's and lost count of all cards. Where did 30 trumps go?
~Eating a mushroom Blintz. Very yummy!
~Punching 150 gold puzzle pieces.
~HAY FEVER!- finishing all the tissues in everybody's house!