31.7.2024 Wednesday - another lunch, another one leaves us

 QK sits next to me, he did so for two years - I like him; he is hardworking, polite, and has a good grasp of what good design entails. Quite different from the other young people that I have met, and he is only part 1. Which is why he is leaving us, for part 2 studies in the UK. 

We cooked lunch for him yesterday, and again today - likely because AC missed out on yesterday's lunch (no one told her). Today, we ate and then cut a cake, share doughnuts, take photos. Then he gives everyone in the office a present; a cacti. Mine is for the both of us, with a sweet handwritten note.

30.7.2024 Tuesday - slow jogging

 Start the day with a 30-min slow jog - I have decided that this body is not designed to run another half marathon and that the sensible thing to do is to train for a really good ten-K. I did chest exercises after that - incline machine press (20kg x 20 x 3), bench press (20kg x10 x 3) and machine flyes (10kg x 20 x3)

29.7.2024 Monday - PD Bomba inspection

 Penghui flies in to oversee the Fire inspection at PD Residences, I think he used the opportunity to coach Fiona who conducted the briefing. She did well, our fire fighting services were approved. 

Others might claim credit for it, but no matter we know who did the hard work and who did not. 

I meet the nice people at the Kenyalang Park community centre; the Penghulu, his secretary and their team. They offer an office for the students, and listen intently when Chai KS brief them about our Taiwanese students' workshop. 

28.7.2024 Sunday - chasing my own tail

 

27.7.2024 Saturday - cough is finally leaving

 

26.7.2024 Friday - reading like going to the gym

 

25.7.2024 Thursday - GBI celebrations

 

24.7.2024 Wednesday - George meets Andrew

 

23.7.2024 Tuesday - still coughing

 

22.7.2024 Monday - Sarawak Day working on car parking structure

Over breakfast, we talk about how architecture firms practice differently, some like our friends are good in the business of architecture - they make plenty of money and drive European cars, others struggle because they are neither good in the business of architecture neither are they good in architecture. I think we are better in architecture than the business of architecture, although we are starting to do better. 

The business of architecture becomes good if the architecture is good, it is a slower process because it requires time to implement projects, to test ideas physically through prototyping, through built work. A full cycle could take ten years, client whom we have completed private homes only started to give us projects now; some 14 years later. 
 

21.7.2024 Sunday - I am a GBI facilitator!

 

20.7.2024 Saturday - working on the exoskeleton

 

19.7.2024 Friday - still coughing, second visit to the TCM

18.7.2024 Thursday -

 

17.7.2024 Wednesday - change

 We are called to a meeting to coordinate the new hotel project, to meet the potential steel fabricator. We had been earlier working with another fabricator, and liked his work attitude. And now, this new guy - I did not know what to expect, no one likes change of plans. But then I thought I have nothing to lse, let's meet this new guy and see how he is. 

We were scheduled to meet at their board room, as the consultants and the sub-contractors started filing into the room, I searched for a new face. As I was scanning the room, someone tapped me on my shoulder and said - 'eh, remember me, I am Shing's brother, Andrew'. In the course of the meeting, he explained his pricing and intended schedules and details - he seems to know what he is doing - change is good sometimes. 

16.7.2024 Tuesday - cleaning up No. 40

Housing scheme diagram to confirm unit sizes and mix in each block, there are 6 blocks.

 Finally, I get to No. 40 in time to tidy up the bits I wanted to; the books on the floor, sorted again for friends, move the belian shelf into the store (and swap the oven into the skylight space. Sam help to remove the crockery we have no use for, we will give this to the Tzu Chi organisation on Sunday. And as predicted, it does not take long - it is the putting off that takes a long time. Lesson here

15.7.2024 Monday - trying clean eating but ended up coughing

Feeling frustrated with myself because my cough is not going away, the black pepper in today's 'clean lunch' made it worse. I see the Chinese doctor and get a five-day course, let's see - today is Day 1.

At lunch, RF tells me that she will be going back to uni., in Sibu - she will apply for a scholarship which she will likely get. I think about replacements and whether we need to, or should we contact out the CAD work. And we just take charge of the design, and its development.

I also speak to George about contacting the Terasek House client - we have done the work, so we should just call up and meet. Instead of trying to iron out all possible problems. I think George gets the drift, he sees it as PH prepping him for potential questions from the client, and its answers.

 

14.7.2024 Sunday - a breakfast treat, a wedding and the Norwegian Protocol

 

13.7.2024 Saturday - not a productive day

 

12.7.2024 Friday - a good conversation with Freddie spurs on two ideas

I make detailed plans to meet up with Uncle Ee Beck and take him for breakfast and a walking tour; and text him extra early about it (4:24 a.m.) But he declines and promises to tell him if he wants lunch with us at the office. 

This means that I have extra time on my hands, and start work. Freddie texts at 9 a.m. for a coffee - a distraction but a good one as it turns out. He suggests that Sean briefs the client fortnightly on TTSB projects, the full team to be there to answer and deliver based on deadlines. I like this idea of Sean taking the lead, I like even more the idea that Freddie is making plans for Sean (and me).

The other idea he gives me is for the planning of AU's resort - I go back to the office an hour later more energised and start on the resort planning. I end up cooking lunch for the office folks and small like the one-pot rice lunch for a rest of the afternoon.

11.7.2024 Thursday - clear bill of health

 Well. maybe not totally but lungs are clear.

We wake up early this morning and Sam drives me to the medical centre for an X ray, it is because I have been coughing on and off for some months. I don't like going to hospitals, but then again I don't anyone does. It is quick and easy, I go in and press my chest up against the cool steel plate and I am done. 

The results are equally quick, 2 hours later Sam send this to me. And I forwarded to the family group and also Jenny, who has been badgering me like someone closer in blood ties than she is. 'She insist!' were her words. 

Later that morning, Sean goes to the Springvale site where piling has started. I wonder if it has sunk in yet, that his first major project has begun. 

10.7.2024 Wednesday - Beck call

"the roof is a gatherer of loose ends, and makes everything underneath it neat and tidy. Because life can be messy. It appears a little boring but there are surprises such as an air-well with a tree in it"

Very fruitful today - on a whim I started to root through the sketch up drawing that George sent for the house in Bangsar and I arrived at a solution which I quite like. I send this back to him, and see what he can do with it. 
Even earlier that morning, I look through HP's latest MAC2 and I updated it with details and information which I think can carry through to the construction stage. 

There is a phone call for us to replace our drawings for the Sibu condominium, with a letter of appeal - it is scheduled for re-assessment at the end of this month. Fingers crossed.

 

He does look like my father, he is my uncle from my paternal grandmother's side - from Singapore (formerly Batu Pahat). He is ex-army now retired, we share some common interests; travelling, squash (in his past) and sketching. He is here to visit mom, whom he recalls as the most lovely woman he first saw when he was 10 years old.

9.7.2024 Tuesday - Nick drops by

No gym, another early walk to work. We have a full day today - Sean and Freddie has a meeting about tower cranes, we have a zoom to confirm a housing project. Later on the afternoon, Nick drops by to see if we can collaborate on a few of his local projects.

I want to clear my desk, (and also my throat - to see if I can get rid of this persistent cough) and in the end, I am glad as I get MAC2 and the Terasek house sorted before 9 a.m.