Sunday, April 30, 2023
Saturday, April 29, 2023
28th April 2023 Friday
Fridays I have to reach the office early to let the cleaner in, Doreen likes to have an early start to the day as well. She does her thing, I do my thing.
Thursday, April 27, 2023
27th April 2023 Thursday - interns on the website
Judging from the big hug Sam received from Yasmin (and Grace earlier this month) it is clear that we have a strong relationship with our interns and young colleagues. We were cooking lunch for some of them who returned home for Raya and some whom we have not seen for a while. We decided recently that we would invite the Min-ions alumni to be part of our website overhaul. I think it is relevant as they are part of our personal journey as well, and it will be an interesting task to curate and see if we can hit 300 interns (which Bryan think we have)
After lunch - Sean, Jenny and I dashed off to Singgahsana to meet Teck and Kamal to discuss the exoskeleton to support an extra 4 floors above a 3-storey building.
Wednesday, April 26, 2023
26th April 2023 Wednesday - meeting new people
To do this, I knew that we have to put together a package to illustrate this. And to have a good engineer willing to go the extra mile - and as luck would have it, I had arranged for Kamal to meet Teck.
Monday, April 24, 2023
25th April 2023 Tuesday - drawing in small sketchbooks
re planning a scheme we had earlier sent to the client because we thought of a better idea |
I have decided (a bit late) that drawing in sketchbook and colouring them (not necessary for information, it is for me) is good therapy for me. I enjoy the habit of drawing in sketch books while Sam drinks her tea, or when dinner has been eaten, or while waiting for my ride, or just to be alone for a while with my thoughts.
recording my conversation with PH about the mail room on the ground floor for Sean |
for JY while she was busy with many of things in the office |
Sunday, April 23, 2023
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
19th April 2023 Wednesday - buka puasa
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Sunday, April 16, 2023
Saturday, April 15, 2023
Friday, April 14, 2023
Thursday, April 13, 2023
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
8th April 2023 Saturday AGM
The highlight of the morning was the Office Bearers and committee's photo session |
7th April 2023 Friday meeting San and Kummy
Today is Good Friday but Fiona kindly agreed to come with me to the PD site to coordinate the ID design package between NSC and main contractor. Fabian was very helpful and proactive. The ID contractor is a familiar figure although his wife wasn’t ready to be familiar. She worked with Sam ages ago but were not in good terms, but it’s ok. Work is work, not all will become friends.
It was a good meeting and I rewarded myself with an Indian lunch with Sam and Sean. Sara was away at a friend's wedding.
That evening, we got out of the house after dinner (sometime we do not frequently do) to go and have drinks with Kummy and San. Kummy's late husband, Marcel was my mentor at my first job in Kuching - he passed away on the 23rd of December 7 years ago. This evening, I got to tell her how I wished he was around to see his proteges succeed in our careers - he would have been proud.
San is her new husband, he was formerly from Kluang and seems pleasant enough as Canadians tend to be. They are traveling all over Asia, perhaps as part of an extended honeymoon and when in Kuching, they have an extended family of friends who want their time. This is why Marcel never seems to have time for us when he was in town.
Saturday, April 8, 2023
6th April 2023 Thursday. Fellowship
As a result, I reached the office after 9 a.m. which felt strange to me; as though I had missed an important event. That afternoon, I returned home for lunch with Sam and worked from home until the evening when we went to a ramadhan buffet dinner with Syahidah, Peggy, Melvin, Jenny and JY whom I was particularly pleased to have join - she's opened up greatly and speaks very candidly about many things to us at the office these days.
Wednesday, April 5, 2023
5th April 2023 Wednesday - thunder and lightning
model for the wall art in the lobby of a new hotel |
Tuesday, April 4, 2023
Sunday, April 2, 2023
2nd April 2023 Sunday - Jenny
We go to a Korean lunch, after I finish talking to PH about plot 13. My idea for it is coming along nicely and I think about rewarding myself with a nice meal; a vegetarian one (I decided recently to not eat fish or seafood as my protein anymore).
Jenny arrives at 130pm from KL, she invited herself for a period of work while waiting for an interview in Japan. She had earlier trained with me at DNA before leaving to do her Part 2, which she never did. Now she is coasting, I don't think she has had a steady job in the past 5 years. I realised that I have been connived into accepting her as an intern, but I don't mind - I am happy to be naive, and helpful and hopefully get her into the next fruitful chapter of her life.
In the meantime, she lives in a room a few doors down from us and will eat her dinners with us. And in return, she will work on my projects (in an effort to boost the currency of her portfolio) for 3 months (the length of a tourist visa). And I will pay her a wage.
Saturday, April 1, 2023
1st April 2023 Saturday - keep on keeping on
Rather happy with yesterday's productivity, I took the morning off from work after sending out one email for the student hostel project. I accompanied Sam to No. 40, she had to meet the electrician and I thought I might see the builder to talk about construction details he needed. He was not there.
I struck up a conversation with Auntie Rosie next door, she wondered who was going to live in the renovated house. I told her my plans to stay there once in a while when Sam and I had a fight. She also asked after mom and wondered if she would be visiting No. 40 after the renovations. I told her my intention of bringing her on weekend afternoons, to see if she can still recognise the place. Rosie thinks not, 'but never mind, she might think that it is your new house and that's ok as well.
Later that morning, Sam and I went to the book sale and I found a book of diary entries by Alan Bennett 'Keep on keeping on' - I have always liked the way he spoke and told stories in his unique reading style. And now there is a shared interest in keeping a diary - there is a photo in this book of Alan taken from behind him; he is seated at table reading something, there are books and papers on the table with 2 tea cups white with blue rings. I can imagine myself lost in a book seated this way at a table, perhaps at the new 40.