20.12.2024 Friday

 

19.12.2024 Thursday - generosity

Looking at the photo taken during my birthday do, only 2 people were not smiling. Two sulky teenagers, I'll excuse them. Maybe there's a third person who doesn't seem to grasp the situation, lower left corner looking on with a puzzled expression.

He tells me that he is a bit out of touch. I think he means the socialising part, which ties in with the sharing, the generosity and the freedom to make yourself at home when you're with us.

18.12.2024 Wednesday - Sean turns 30

 

Sam has arranged for her parents to be taken out for a lunch treat in Dad's birthday; window shopping and a nice lunch. They probably thought that their children had organised this, and not just Sam who thought of this. Sam is a little miffed, but I will tell her not to let this prevent her from doing more of this. 

17.12.2024 Tuesday - taste of own medicine

I got a taste of my own medicine as I played squash against a younger layer. He out played me with craft even though he is not as mobile as me. I come home still thinking about the games, and realise that this must be how the others feel after their games with me. Lesson learnt - when you have the upper hand, take it and keep it, and not feel inferior to him. This Thursday - I will try and combat again. 

On a brighter note, Au comes over after telling Freddie that he wants to reduce the GFA for the Bar Barn. While this is not normally good news for designers, I see this as a good thing - the client is reviewing our design in detail. When he arrives, the first thing he does was to confirm our fees (taking the higher number rather than the lower). He mentions that he does not want the reduction in area to affect our fees. That is the other positive note to the morning's meeting.

I reduced the GFA by scaling down the overall form of the building, and letting that decide on the building grids. This enables me to retain the overall proportion of the building which I rather like.

16.12.2024 Monday - running happy

 

15.12.2024 Sunday - birthday party

 

14.12.2024 Saturday - home alone

 

13.12.2024 Friday - today is Sam's birthday and she receives an award

I sleep in, hoping to treat Sam to a birthday breakfast. I mention laksa and she takes us to the shop at 3rd Mile. 

She has a meeting at the EPF building, they have some certificates of participation for us. She is dressed up nicely, but complains that her hair is flat (it isn't). 

Sam rings me at 10:15, it isn't certificates that the Employers Provident Fund are giving out. It's an award for Best Employer for small businesses (under 50 people) - they had invited for a prize presentation yesterday but we were not able to attend. 

How fitting! Getting an award on her birthday. 

At 5pm, we head off for an old fashioned treat - a movie. 

A Cantonese movie about a wedding planner who takes up a job as a funeral planner after the pandemic. He is the agent for the funeral parlour, the 'brains' while his partner, an ancient Taoist priest is the 'brawn'. The title in Chinese is Breaking Hell - a ritual conducted by the priest which enables the dead to transit into the next realm. 

I like it, the dialogue is very authentic and the main characters are flawed individuals with their prejudices and challenges. As the lead actor says 'the living need salvation as well, because life can be hell'. 

12.12.2024 Thursday - playing too much.

The day starts well, with a meeting with Freddie and Sean about deadlines for re submissions and drawings production. I'm happy because I figured out the framing for the drop off canopy. 

plans for the drop off and the roof framing

long section through canopy

Afternoon meeting with a client, and although our main projects are going well - one with Building Plans approved, and the other accepted for planning submission, I leave the meeting without the usual sense of achievement. Maybe it is because he's distracted. He has his clients as well, with targets and deadlines to meet.

Tennis at 4, Saturday at 5 until 630 - too much strain on my body. First time playing Donald T, there is something sneaky about him, too much guile behind his smiley face.

Dinner for Sam's birthday is a success, I sit between my 2 women who feed me Korean barbecue. The aunties join us and add chat and laughter to the evening.

11.12.2024 Wednesday - talking about having the guts to leave things as they are

initial drawings about springvale canopy

I send this to the engineer but he needs to check with his boss

 

I forget that we have my mum today, and go to play tennis. Sam does seem to mind, but I feel bad about it. After tennis, Si Yong collects me from the club and we go to the Good Design week 'gala' dinner. The event is under-populated; 8 tables in a giant hall and not all tables are filled.

The food is surprising good and table company a mixture of familiar faces and new ones; SY, Tay & Suan plus a couple of young graduates from Digital Media and Management. I bully them a little and make them laugh to entertain ourselves because there is none from the organising committee. After the dinner, SY and I think that the OC must have been so disappointed (and embarassed if I were him), especially because we are there to witness this fiasco. All said, it is a nice end to the day.

10.12.2024 Tuesday - BP approved, dinner follows

Plan and section for a resort in Lundu

This is a message to you, you, you. 

Listening to Bob Marley while writing things down, enjoying the day drawing in pencil on butter paper.

I suggest to Sean that we should treat his team to dinner since the Building Plans for Springvale has been approved. We decide on dinner at the Club, and that PH should invite TY while Sean invites Leong. During the evening, while I chat with JY and other separate conversations are taking place - I think to myself  'this is a good thing'. 

 

9.11.2024 Monday - site plan

My attempt at an early start to the week, result in this pencil drawing only - but nevertheless it proved to be a good start as things start rolling on from here. Often it simply takes a small step. And although this looks like a simple drawing there is plenty of important information and decisions within. The structural grid, distance from the road, placement of the two buildings, roofed areas and some notion about heights and section of buildings.

Later that day, I locate the large trees on this site plan.

8.12.2024 Sunday - Incomplete or Unreliable?

This morning starts earlier than I would have liked, I eat my Hilton breakfast quickly and we get to the airport before 9am to check in our long long table legs in time for the flight back to Kuching. 

It is good to be home, I feel for those who do not have a life in their home towns, or do not a nice home town like Kuching to work and live in. And to prove the point, Sean collects us from the airport, we drop off the table legs at No. 40 well before noon, in time for nice early lunch before getting mom at 1:15 pm. I do some gardening before the good Doctor collects me for squash at 4:15pm. 

Complete and reliable.

7.12.2024 Saturday - KL to KCH

Executive lounge listening to other people's conversations while drinking G&Ts and reading coffee table books. 

I run up and down the hill behind SS3/22, and eat a rava thosai alone. The birthday lunch is at noon, and some guests have arrived when we get there. We sit with Sam's cousins, sister and her husband - during the meal I decide that I will stop attending these events. These people have only self interest, and I am not interested in spending time with them. 

We begin doing something constructive after lunch; check into the Hilton, go to IKEA, wrap up four sets of table legs, return to the hotel for pre-dinner drinks (complimentary, of course) before preparing for our respective dinners (she with Meow, and me with Sher-lin).

SL and I have a long dinner, talking about experiencing joy in our work. It is the case of 'just because we make it look easy does not mean that it IS easy. Likewise, just because I appear happy at what we are doing, it does not mean that we are happy doing what we are doing ALL the time. We have just learn to relish the good times more than the bad. 

6.12.2024 Friday PNG - KL

 

5.11.2024 Thursday - KCH to PNG, Block 3 activated

 

4.12.2024 Wednesday - entrance

 

3.12.2024 Tuesday - 3D printing, one pot rice and Corliss

I ask Sean if Part 1 graduates are able to assemble a Building Plan set - he doesn't think so. I ask after reviewing the set sent to me - to be fair I did ask for a mock up set. Questions to ask:

1. How many percent is this set? What else do you think is missing? 

2. Is your drawings list complete?

3. How much longer do you need? And how much would you like to be paid?

2.12.24 Monday - door details

Au asks me what are the advantages of retaining the existing building, isn't it simpler to demolish and rebuild? I answer him, and give him my reasons. 

I refer this question to Freddie - the narrative he says. I ask him - how much is narrative worth? I think the client would expect a financial return, not a psychological one. 

1. Time and cost benefits from retaining the existing foundations. 

2. Treating it as a refurbishment project makes it easier to obtain approvals. 

3. And exempt it from latest infrastructure requirements. 

The benefits are not obvious, and would take time to surface.

4. Kok Ming suggests that the reduction of carbon footprint is another factor, the environment benefits. 

This is the beginnings of an article. 

 

1.12.2024 Sunday - 5K run

 

30.11.2024 Saturday

 

29.11.2024 Friday - strange end to the week.

Freddie is upset because some folks (a surveyor) is dragging his feet about a task he should have done earlier.  

I am upset because the client seemed upset about the whole thing (which includes us). 

SY is upset because there is no fellowship in the committee anymore, folks are simply ticking the boxes and waiting with the their mouths open for dinner meetings and working lunches. 

AS is upset because he realises now that the contractor is not listening to the team, something which we have known for some time now. 

But despite all that, the five of us are quite calm about things; Fiona will call for a meeting on Monday to iron out loose ends. PH will plan for our trip and meeting in Penang, while GW will stay involved while getting me involved in his projects (no matter how small). Meanwhile, Freddie will take a deep breath and arrange for another meeting with the Lands and Survey Dept. for the surveyor. 

We have better lives to live. Right on cue, our young people have made plans for our company trip to Japan next year. Things are falling into place.

I have also made some firm plans. Not to have the long lunches anymore, or lazy afternoons. It is not productive, I can be reading a book or at No. 40 flipping through an old copy of Architecture Australia. 

going to Kl next week, and looking forward to it although I am not sure why.

28.11.2024 Thursday - meeting Glennys

 

27.11.2024 Wednesday - meeting school friends

Highlight of the day is the dinner with old school mates, we eat pizza and burgers, and drink beers with soju. I enjoyed Jon and Sasha's company - they are quite genuine and funny. 

I treated Sasha and Jeanette to dinner and walked slowly home, work problems temporarily set aside. Interesting note: Da calls medicated rubs 'gosok' which sort of makes sense. 

The low point of the day was hearing that our serviced apartment project has not been given planning approval. We would have to re-invent the scheme and re-submit.