Keeping Up with the William & Joneses

Deafening Silence

The silence in the office is deafening. For a good couple of days, it was an awkward, uncomfortable silence that I could not seem to bear. But now that I’m into my 3^rd month of working in that beautiful office.. I am surprised that I’m liking the much-needed peace and quiet.. (in fact, I’m liking it a lot!). I am not exaggerating when I say that the only sounds we hear are our fast fingers tinkering away at the keyboard.. or the relentless clicking of the mouse (frantically trying to move some walls and ceilings using our autocadd programs).. the sporadic phone calls from clients, architects & suppliers, and the occasional “RRAAAJ” (our office teaboy being called by several Bosses). Oh.. and from to time, some screams from one boss to another. But nobody really minds them.. It’s actually part of their SCOPE OF WORK. We just had to learn how to deal with it. And I must say that we’re getting better at pretending not to hear their arguments. The tagalog phrase “Trabaho lang, walang personalan” takes on a whole new meaning now.

But aside from these seasonal strife, our workplace is still considered a fairly quiet one for most parts of the day.. And come to think of it.. it is through that silence that I can create all those wonderful and the not-so-wonderful designs (depending on the mood and the time of the day).

It is through that silence that I can literally listen to my body as my tummy gurgles to tell me that I am hungry.

It is through that silence that I can listen to my inner spirit telling me to take work easy.. and to enjoy everything that life brings me (whether be it good or bad)..

It is through that silence that I get to control my moods and my temper plus some bouts of irritation everytime something or someone (everybody knows who that is) gets in my nerves.

It is through that silence that I get to de-stress when the client… as well as the boss (actually, the “non-boss” who acts like a boss)… and not to mention, the officemates who “seasonally” breathe down my neck.

It is through that silence that I get to realize and admit my faults and mistakes as a designer. As well as my flaws as a person..

On that note, it is through that silence that I could easily catch myself from thinking negative thoughts.. from spiraling down (after thoughts of my “being no-good” start to creep in)… and for reminding myself that I should not be too hard on myself.

It is through that silence that makes me admit that I’ve still got sooo much to learn about sooo many things (work or non-work related).

It is through that silence that I appreciate my work as a designer... Telling myself how lucky I am to be where I am right now.

In the same breath, it is through that silence that I get to hear the chismis in the other room (no matter how soft their whispers are).. haha.

And it is through that silence that I get to muster all the energy to be able to talk incessantly right after work.. Through the evening.. And onto the stillness of the night…And right through the next morning while preparing breakfast..

But the moment we step into our own sacred creative spaces at 8-ish, silence begins once again. It is through that silence that I get to listen to my inner voice telling me how happy it is to be here and now.

Took some time to get used to this daily retreat into myself.. But my soul seems to be at home.

Best Dance Performance Ever

A live dance performance made my day today! Nope it was not in a huge amphitheater by some popular dance groups.. Nor was it performed with some hi-tech sound system. Truth is, I watched it only through my little webcam with choppy and static laptop speakers.

It was a dance performance by my little and uber-adorable one-year old niece Lois. She beautifully choreographed some sort of a ballet (or was it a fusion kind of dance?) to the tunes of “Doncha Wish” by Pussycat Dolls.. “My Hump” by Black Eyed Peas.. and the teeny weeny classical sounds produced by her “Winnie-the-Pooh” pushtoys. She donned a little pink shirt, white shorts and a pink furry headband that her Mom said Lois personally handpicked.

With all her might.. and with her biggest and cutest smile, she put her hands up high (which would only actually reach the top of her furry headband).. and then turned and turned and turned (like a professional ballerina). Then maybe after two or three turns, she paused… faced the webcam (mind you, her eye contact with the cam is just oh-so-perfect), and then swayed and waved her hands to the left, then right, then left again before making another series of turns. And boy-oh-boy (or should it be “girl-oh-girl”)… I must say that it is one of the most fabulous dances ever!

At this point, I applaused and commended her while saying… “WOW.. you are such a great dancer, Lois!” As if on cue.. she instantly pressed her musical toy and did her whole dance routine once again! And after this, I said.. “Wow.. that is one great dance!” To which she started all over again..

Her Mom and I realized that everytime I would mention the word “dance” or “dancer”.. it is her cue to be effortlessly cute and endearing again!

Needless to say, her dance performance made my otherwise normal day. I had to consciously stop myself from saying anything related to “dance” so she wouldn’t tire herself too much from doing a series of “performance level” dances all in a span of 15 minutes or so. After all, even the professional ballerinas need some rest from all those turning, sashaying and tiptoeing.

Oh gosh, just can’t wait to tune in to another wonderfully-Lois-choreographed dance show once again. Nothing beats this dance, by far. Kudos to you dear sweetie Lois-kee, for a great dance! (Wooopps.. not that word again!)

Happy Little Indian Tea Boy

Our world inside the office seemed to have stopped today. Not because our clients decided to run away… nor because our Big Boss was too exhausted or burnt-out to go to work.. But because our teaboy was on sick leave. Yes, our quiet and efficient little Indian teaboy named Raj.

Everybody today is a notch higher than the usual crankiness because nobody had any caffeine fix (of 2 or sometimes even more than 3 cups of daily coffee).

Everybody felt like dying out of thirst today… Nope, our water dispenser didn’t run out of water.. Everybody just got so used to having our glasses and coffee cups unnoticeably re-filled by Raj day in and day out..

I won’t be surprised if Raj is the lowest-paid in our office. But I am pretty sure that he is the most indispensable employee (…okay, maybe only a close second to our Big Boss).. And I can’t seem to agree or understand why he had to be the lowest- paid when he is in fact one of the most essential parts of William & Jones.

Raj is the first to arrive (an hour & a half earlier than the earliest employee in the office)… And the last to leave in the evening (to clean up after the mess of piled-up blueprints and worn-down floors). But you don’t hear him complaining about that. In fact, once I saw him at the hallway… smiling… and practically skipping and hopping too. And I can’t help but say.. “You look so happy, Raj.” To this, he replied in his sing-song little Indian boy voice… “I’m happy twenty-four-seven..”

It was just so refreshing to hear somebody say how happy he is even with one of the simplest jobs. And I must really commend him for that. Seeing him practically skipping and hopping is a constant reminder for me to also be happy 24-7 -- what with a job that I enjoy, a quiet and conducive-to-thinking office, a good Boss and happy officemates such as.. yes, you guessed it, Raj. And like Raj, we have more than enough reasons to be happy 24-7. :-)

Finding solace in the old streets of dubai

Egyptian princesses in Dubai

Dashing Dubai Debonair

Nine-oh-five in the morning… In his most effortless, gorgeous self -- our boss Johann dashed into the room to give us some bit of a news... He was pleasantly beaming as he said: “Ladies, it’s a catastrophe… Apparently, the hotel and mall that we’ve been working on… uhm, well, they are not what the client was expecting for us to design. They wanted us to design the luxury hotel apartments first.. but not the hotel.”

At first, we thought he was pulling our leg. How could he say such terrible news with the most beautiful smile (honest -- it was one of the most enigmatic and beautiful smiles I’ve ever seen in eons! Sidenote: When he dashed and posed by our office doorway, clad in his nice striped blue, white and brown polo with a matching beige jacket (collars flicked up)... I had visions of him jutting straight out of the pages of GQ magazine. Gosh!… (Sorry guys but i don't have any visual aids of Johann.. so i just posted our Office Building called Fairmont. tsk. tsk. too bad.. :-))

Now, where was I? Going back, he was the one who gave us the sheets and more sheets of 30” x 40” blueprints of this huge hotel and mall located in India. We’ve painstakingly worked on the designs for exactly one month today (incidentally, it’s our first monthsary in William and Jones Interior Design and Architectural Firm today)…We eagerly took the extra mile in perfecting the concepts and details. Picked the most luxurious materials. Changed the colors until we got the perfect hue and tone, etcetera etcetera... All these to prepare for our Big Boss’ big presentation in Chennai, India. Suffice it to say, the client is prioritizing the hotel apartments. They also own the mall and hotel.. located in the same city in India. But it’s not on the “rush list” just yet.

Anyway, after Johann finished explaining the “catastrophe” (as he called it), I managed to say.. “You’re kidding, right?…But when he didn’t nudge a bit… as he kept that big sincere smile (or was it a smirk?!) plastered on his face, I started to believe that he was actually really really telling the truth. For one second, I felt bad realizing that a whole month’s worth of hardwork suddenly equated to nothing! Nada, Zilch. As if our designs didn’t exist. As if the whole month didn’t actually happen.

But surprisingly, the terrible feeling only lasted for practically one second. I didn’t dwell on the bad news. It suddenly felt good knowing that I wasn’t too attached to the fabulous designs. Modesty aside, I liked our designs a lot (a collaboration with the brilliant boss and other designers).. It may have taken us around 216 hours to make but it only took a couple of seconds to let go of it and literally shove them into a shelf. Who knows, by some strange miracle, the client might push through with the project (after we finish the priority hotel apartments).

I also realized that they have not exactly gone to waste. All those hours made me realize how much I love my work. How much I love designing. How much I enjoy turning an empty space into something. Now, that’s probably something. Call me baduy but all those hours that I’ve been designing, I would catch myself muttering under my breath.. “Lord, thank you for this. These hands and mind are not mine. They are just borrowed. Thanks for lending it to me. This is to glorify you.” And true enough, the creative outputs and designs are not the only important thing. What matters more is how we remember giving everything back to Him. With these thoughts, designing is much more enjoyable now than it already is.

Nine-twenty five in the morning… We’re looking and studying the new assignment. Research and preparations have (again) started.

Two-Oh-Five in the afternoon... The phone rings. It was Johann – asking us to come into his office. We dashed (yes, it was our turn to dash) into his office which is around twenty steps away. And saw again this dashing debonair boss of ours. This time, he didn’t give us any bad news.. He gave us some directions on this new project. We’re on board again for another challenge.. while hoping that this is the right one this time. The only tiny hitch, we only got a week to finish it. Guess we have to make up for the funny mistake. Can’t waste no time now.

Believe You Me.. It's Really An Open City!

Sandy carparks are the only reminders that I am in a desert. I have not seen a single camel just yet… not even a cactus (hmmm, that friendly camel that you see here actually lives in the museum -- so the real thing is yet to come, hehe). Anyway, what they say about Dubai being cosmopolitan is very true. But contrary to warnings about the Arab culture, it is a pleasant surprise that Abu Dhabi and Dubai are two of the safest cities in the world. Both are clean and far from polluted, the architecture is marvelous… and the weather – pleasant. The worst weather is yet to come (40 to 55 degrees starting in April until October) – similar to being baked inside an oven. But so far, we still enjoy 16 degrees outside… and freeze in what seems like “below zero degree” inside the office and the flat. Yup, I can still wear my pink furry jacket!

Dubai has a multi-cultural set-up with over 70 nationalities, one of which are Pinoys who seem to be in every nook and cranny of this city. The locals are not as hospitable as Pinoys… But they are nice people. They are actually very educated and can communicate well. They even find it amusing when I greet them with “assalam alaikom” (which means “peace be with you” in arab).. and with that, they reply “alaikom assalam” (“and also with you”) with a smile. When they recognize us as FIlipinas, some would even say "Kumusta ka..." in their most awkward Tagalog intonation coupled with a very warm smile.

On the streets, we go gaga over luxury cars -- hummers, range rovers, ferraris, bentleys, beamers and whatnots of the world! -- cars that I didn't even know exist... Cars that i once saw in my brother's matchbox collection... And these people (these people!) change their cars like they change their cellphone models. Whew.

It is March 28 today... exactly our eighth day in the office and I still haven’t heard nor seen any project for Beckham or Posh Spice just yet. But I’ve already learned so much from our "Beckham-looking South African boss" who has such a brilliant and creative mind. He’s a cool, hip and very well-dressed six-footer architect who also happens to be a fashion model and an interior designer. On day one, he gave me and Tantan (my friend from Phils) one “puny, little” project to design… It’s the entire 15 storey-hotel with a three-storey mall in Chennai, India!). We were so overwhelmed that we caught ourselves staring at the huge plans for one whole afternoon. Gosh, we wasted the day pinching ourselves (to check if this were real) while feeling so grateful for being given such a big, challenging yet exciting responsibility.

There’s also Chris.. our Filipino senior interior designer who gives us design pointers and insights every so often… that we practically had to erase and change our drawings after talking to him for the first time. He made us move out of our comfort zones and made us want to have a total paradigm shift in creating concepts.

We also have one uber gregarious Canadian archi boss, a handful of Turkish, Lebanese & Palestininan officemates… (talk about united colors of benetton!)... two super quiet Indian officemates (who play all these “na--aah na-aah” Indian chants all day that I would catch myself humming along with it! Hah, meron na kong kakantahin sa videoke pag balik ko dyan sa pinas, hehe.)... one motherly Indian receptionist who brings us Indian desserts for lunch… and one Indian tea boy who serves us coffee for breakfast, coffee after lunch and if our systems can still take a couple more cups, he would gladly serve it in the afternoon too! Gosh, too much caffeine in our systems now!

Then there’s (let’s see… one, two…) nine of us, Filipino designers out of a total of 25 employees (from the design and architecture divisions)… that they’re starting to call our office “Pinoy mafia”. We haven’t really explored Dubai just yet. In fact, we only have a few photos of “lakwatsa” except when we landed in Abu Dhabi and when we went to check out one mall. But since we arrived in Dubai from Abu, we’ve been busy looking for a permanent place to stay and we’ve been all work… and no play. But now that things are starting to settle in, we might plan to check out the beach in Palm Jumeirah sometime soon.

Dubai is a cool place to work in – especially for people in the construction and banking businesses -- as everything seems to be booming here now. Not so sure though if it’s a great place to raise a family as everything is just so expensive and cosmopolitan. They say education here has high standards. But it seems like the kids don't have patintero, jumping rope and agawan base here.

Stealing and crime are not so popular here.. since most of them are rich, thus not having the need to steal nor kill. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen any streetkids or beggars yet. They are also afraid of punishments so nobody dares to do anything ill. Sabi nila ibabalik pa ang cellphone mo ‘pag naiwan sa cab. Can’t say it’s a good tourist destination because I haven’t really seen much yet.. except for spectacular buildings that come in all shapes and sizes. Name it, they have it! Boat-shaped, parol-shaped (complete with changing lights at night)... everything.. and I mean everything! I won't be surprised if one day, they construct a building shaped like an arab in dishdasha (those white long gowns with turbans). After all, they've got all the money to burn.

Religion is also not an issue here. Everybody is free to practice their own religion. Weekends here are on Thursdays and Fridays.. so we hear Sunday Catholic mass on Fridays. There’s a compound of churches, temples and mosques set in one place. So it’s one biiiig happy community (with different versions of one and the same God).

They don’t call Dubai an open city for nothing. I feel free here (so far).