I'll put money on people dying in the Emporium during a fire.
How does one even begin to contemplate going back to a five-day working week after the past fortnight of long weekends? I refuse to believe that I now have to work for five days in a row; how will I survive?? How will I get all my errands done on a two-day weekend??
I would like to be reincarnated as my own rabbit because then I could have seven-day weekends and get more kisses from my boyfriend.
We actually wore semi-nice clothes and checked out the new Emporium shopping mall this weekend. A bit of a backstory: I work in the construction industry and these are the things that I specialise in: risk management during operations, interior fit out and defects, implementation of building services (lighting, HVAC etc.) and movement of people in spaces. Having said that, the Emporium is a really badly designed shopping complex. Like REALLY badly designed.
1. They've sacrificed walk-way space for a bigger atrium. This equates to more natural light, but means that there's no sense of personal space when shopping. There's also no sense of direction in the building, which means people zig-zag in all directions. As far as I could see, there was no obvious signage for evacuation routes or screens that would be using during an emergency. If there's a fire in there, I would imagine that people would not know where to go.
2. There's not enough seating in the cafe areas. It really is a joke; there's probably more seating at my local shopping centre's food court. This, and there are cleaning staff pushing and placing heavy metal trolleys in pedestrian pathways. A big no-no when designing operational processes. I will be watching the news for multiple reports of people getting hit by trolleys.
3. Building services seem dodgy; it feels like the capacity of the exhaust fan in the toilets is too small. I guess this is okay if you like your toilets humid.
4. DEFECTS EVERYWHERE. I spent one year doing defects for clients, wherein one goes around a newly completed building and picks up faults where a builder has not finished a job to an expected standard. So I see defects everywhere in my life: my parent's house, other people's houses, my own house etc. I really would not have expected as many defects, considering that the Emporium is a newly completed building.
Considering that around 40 per cent of the shops in the complex are currently open, I would hate to experience what the area would be like during a normal day, let alone during a busy period like Christmas.
I'm not sure what this entire post was for. I guess the moral is: just go to Melbourne Central if you want to shop in the city.
--
House update, wherein everyone is welcome to come and bitch about the amount of defects in my house.
We have finally finished painting the living room. I knew from the very beginning that I wanted something dark blue and pretty much settled on Mitchell Blue from Dulux about two months ago. Then I got cold feet because people started telling me how BLUE and dark it would look. The paint man at Bunnings even convinced me to try two lighter blues. Long story short, we painted the feature wall Mitchell Blue and it looks fantastic and I should have just trusted my gut in the first place.
Next weekend we (Ken) will be attempting to paint and fix new skirting boards in the living room. I almost regret pulling the old ones out because I'm ready to start decorating and I'm sick of hanging out at hardware stores.
We have most of our furniture picked out, which turned out to be less painful than expected considering that I am all about bespoke quality while Ken prefers the trying-to-save-for-an-extension furniture options. We do plan on having a house-warming (and taking someone photos of what our house looks like)(so hold your horses, people!), but are waiting for the house to be fully finished. I mean..you don't really want to come by and see the huge hole in the wall where the old fireplace used to be, do you?
I would like to be reincarnated as my own rabbit because then I could have seven-day weekends and get more kisses from my boyfriend.
We actually wore semi-nice clothes and checked out the new Emporium shopping mall this weekend. A bit of a backstory: I work in the construction industry and these are the things that I specialise in: risk management during operations, interior fit out and defects, implementation of building services (lighting, HVAC etc.) and movement of people in spaces. Having said that, the Emporium is a really badly designed shopping complex. Like REALLY badly designed.
1. They've sacrificed walk-way space for a bigger atrium. This equates to more natural light, but means that there's no sense of personal space when shopping. There's also no sense of direction in the building, which means people zig-zag in all directions. As far as I could see, there was no obvious signage for evacuation routes or screens that would be using during an emergency. If there's a fire in there, I would imagine that people would not know where to go.
2. There's not enough seating in the cafe areas. It really is a joke; there's probably more seating at my local shopping centre's food court. This, and there are cleaning staff pushing and placing heavy metal trolleys in pedestrian pathways. A big no-no when designing operational processes. I will be watching the news for multiple reports of people getting hit by trolleys.
3. Building services seem dodgy; it feels like the capacity of the exhaust fan in the toilets is too small. I guess this is okay if you like your toilets humid.
4. DEFECTS EVERYWHERE. I spent one year doing defects for clients, wherein one goes around a newly completed building and picks up faults where a builder has not finished a job to an expected standard. So I see defects everywhere in my life: my parent's house, other people's houses, my own house etc. I really would not have expected as many defects, considering that the Emporium is a newly completed building.
Considering that around 40 per cent of the shops in the complex are currently open, I would hate to experience what the area would be like during a normal day, let alone during a busy period like Christmas.
I'm not sure what this entire post was for. I guess the moral is: just go to Melbourne Central if you want to shop in the city.
--
House update, wherein everyone is welcome to come and bitch about the amount of defects in my house.
We have finally finished painting the living room. I knew from the very beginning that I wanted something dark blue and pretty much settled on Mitchell Blue from Dulux about two months ago. Then I got cold feet because people started telling me how BLUE and dark it would look. The paint man at Bunnings even convinced me to try two lighter blues. Long story short, we painted the feature wall Mitchell Blue and it looks fantastic and I should have just trusted my gut in the first place.
Next weekend we (Ken) will be attempting to paint and fix new skirting boards in the living room. I almost regret pulling the old ones out because I'm ready to start decorating and I'm sick of hanging out at hardware stores.
We have most of our furniture picked out, which turned out to be less painful than expected considering that I am all about bespoke quality while Ken prefers the trying-to-save-for-an-extension furniture options. We do plan on having a house-warming (and taking someone photos of what our house looks like)(so hold your horses, people!), but are waiting for the house to be fully finished. I mean..you don't really want to come by and see the huge hole in the wall where the old fireplace used to be, do you?