Showing posts with label China Street. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China Street. Show all posts

Friday, August 26, 2022

26 Aug 2022 Friday - moving day



As much as I love this part of Kuching, I am very glad to get out of the building into new larger premises. Sure, it is not as romantic without the history and location, but we have more space for more interns, models, books and all on one floor. Extra bonus - it is a 9-minute walk from home.



 

Monday, October 26, 2015

My 'hood


When I first moved to my new office, I joked to my colleagues that I will eat my lunches from one end of town to the other. Since the new office is in the old centre of Kuching, this can be quite an adventure - plenty to experience amongst the streets and alleys.

To date, I have only explored a small number. This sketch is completed while seating at the five foot way outside a tiny Malay shop selling Kek Lapis together with some breakfast snacks.  Packets of nasi lemak, curry puffs and peanut and anchovy crackers.

I tried to convey the activity and the pace of life around me, but I am not able to re-produce the sound of 'tin' (galvanised iron) sheets being hammered into kitchen utensils, water cans and so forth. In the shop just across from where I was sitting, instead of being a nuisance, the rhythmic beating lulled me as I sketched.
Photo courtesy of gazzarooni

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Getting there

At the end of May, the first floor of the shop house was gutted and cleaned up. The floorboards are strong in some places, springy in others and rotten through in most - they will be removed and replaced. The wall plaster was bulging with damp - they will be removed as well BUT not replaced.







Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Change

At my age, most would settle into a comfortable routine and cruise into retirement. So, my decision to relinquish my shares in DNA to set up a smaller practice would appear strange to some, financially foolish to others and a step in the right direction for those who really really know me. One such friend summed it up by saying "time to do good rather than to do well for oneself"

So by July this year, I will working with people whom I like, doing work that I enjoy, in a part of Kuching town that I love. There is still plenty to be done; logistics and paperwork but I won't bore you with them.

This is my first impression of the new premises.


And later, when I visited the shop with Leong and Arl - I made some more sketches and impressions.


The shop house has a small frontage, dwarfed by its neighbours and forgotten by its owner for nearly ten years. Someone had padlocked the front door; using it as a store illegally, we cut the padlock and went in. The inside was dirty and filled with debris of human life from a decade ago when it was last occupied. But looking beyond the filth and water damaged wall plaster, the timber structure was sound and many of the building elements such as the double hatch front windows and the metal window frames are original and intact.

five foot way entrance
first floor


 more soon...

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Sketch 6/30 - Kuching (Dec 2012)

....continuing my search through old journals for stray sketches and posting them for 30 consecutive days