Somehow i keep losing my work to faulty hard drives and i'm not amused by one bit. People always say to back up, back up and back up. So yeah. I did. On to those frickin' stupid dead hard drives!! Arrghh! Hmm i know i work my tools proper hard but I'm a graphic designer therefore techy wise these damn machines gets a mean workout whenever i roll, haha...

Speaking of hard drives, this month i got some fabbo news announced in our annual company meeting. It turned out that my Christmas banner design that i did for Play.com won their best Christmas banner award of the year out of many affiliates and was given £160 to spend on their site!! Oooh!!

Originally the prize was this top spec'd sat nav gadget, but seriously, that'd have been totally useless to me, hahaha... anyways, so what should i get?? Yup you guessed it. A 2TB Lacie HDD!!! Seeing as though my 1TB (that's 1000 GB) had died a few months back and my portable 500GB mini drive is part corrupted. Yes i know, it's only been a few months since i blogged that purchase which i-oh-so decorated fantastically on, this defo came at a great time. My Macbook pro is dying with lack of RAM and memory is hanging by with an average 8GB (OMG!!!), so i must back up all my work and reformat all the hardware. *Sob sob*

Ooh let me show you what i've been busy working on lately. I currently work for an ecommerce marketing company and our clients include L'oreal, Dove, All Saints, Urban Outfitters, Guinness, Apple and Nike. This year i've single handedly designed and self managed the Christmas section on our site. During the better times of the company before the recession, we had a nice team of 6 designers... well no rest for the wicked eh?? We have two sites, one UK and the other is Irish as we're originally an Irish company.

Dare i say it but there's been an on-going competitiveness amongst the 2 offices. Ireland has the bigger company in Dublin and consists of 4 designers and London office only has me. Our CEO sent out a company email to both offices with feedback on the 2 designs the day the both went live.

- Michael

Ste is my Art Director. Hahaha...I've pretty much been a rebel in the production team as i tend not to like their way of designing. It's tough when you're just another number on the plate. We're supposed to follow orders and give clients what they need in the fastest time possible. These days it's all about the turn around. Unfortunately that also means cutting corners and therefore compromising on creativity.  Well i'm sorry if i'm the slowest designer in the club but my designs seems to work better. Right?

I've been with the company for 2 and half years and had been constantly trying to better myself. Since all the redundancies the past year or so, it's come to light that what i'm doing for the company is actually influential. Finally.

You know what? Sometimes it's better to work for a small company. Get an ok pay, gain more in experiences and opportunities than to work for a major company, swim in numbers and hidden away, get a fixed salary and have very little opportunities to climb. There's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting stability but for me, i pine for challenges too. There's nothing far greater than the feeling of succuess and achievement, especially when the odds are all against you.

So, working till 4am in the morning and waking up at 6.30am for 3 weeks straight was kinda worth it in the end. I may have lost a few brain cells, developed some nasty skin rash, consumed horrendous junk food as had no time to cook, slept very little and fallen ill for a couple of days here and there, i actually did it. Yay!



I needed to update my portfolio again and without my work at hand it's pretty difficult. Luckily i found some pieces on a usb key i did within the last two years but i reworked them again.

As most of you know i became a really proud auntie a few months back. Babies are amazing little beings (literally) and Yoshi is definately no exception. Time's flown by so fast and i can't believe he's hit his 4 months mark now, gosh.

Me and my mum filmed him last month whilst his mummy took a quick shower. Man, you gotta check it out for yourself, but at 3 months old, this baby is so damn clever. Seen at 0.14sec when i say 'hey leng jai' (not 'handsome' boy but 'dude' in chinese) he answers! You can also hear him trying to speak at 1.58secs . When my sister comes back into the room and calls for him at 6.19secs, THAT response he gives? Woahhh... :O

Am i besotted with him? Frickin' yes. I can't wait till he's a little older and so i can pass on all my wisdom to him, haha... :D

WARNING: Please excuse the high frequency voice transmissions sounding like 'owl' and 'bok bok' from me. It's a highly skilled baby lingo - don't knock it. :P

Due to the massive Crossrails development project in central London, a big area of Soho was forced to relocate, our company included. We were situated at the top end of Dean Street and now have moved across to the other side to Mayfair, right next to the Apple store on Regent street. That was about 2 months ago. The new office is ok, still have pros and cons, either way, I do miss Soho a lot. I miss the Tesco across the road, I miss China town at the other end of the road, and I miss all the other convenient (cheapo) places as opposed to the high end patisseries Regent street serves for lunch... sigh.

Has anyone heard of Ronnie Scotts? They have a bar down in Soho and is one of the best Jazz bars in the whole of town. I went there earlier this year with my friend Folu.