Sara returns home after weeks away minding her grandfather, she seems relieved to be free of that task. She tells us funny anecdotes about her experience there with the relatives, and concludes that West Malaysians are wired differently.
I do not cook with the Taiwanese students, and am relieved for it - I have been feeling a little tired especially after the heavy kettlebells session.
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| It appears that they are all very capable (innovative even) cooks, and do not need my help at all |
We were meant to meet up and have a coffee, but it kept getting postponed. So, this morning we sit down, she makes a coffee for me and herself and we talk; about work and income, about degrees and employment, about Jenny and the granny flat, about medication and the gym.
She seems relaxed speaking openly, I did not feel that she is in a hurry. I end the conversation by reminding to eat at home more often; mom likes it, it is healthy and it saves money. Bring the boy, I tell her.
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| Idea for Toorak house interiors |
I do some work but felt like it isn't enough, I didn't go through all the projects, in one project I haven't gone through all the plans. I didn't work on the book shelf, I haven't moved the oven in, I haven't cleaned up the kitchen. I feel fine but my lethargy gets better of me and I start to feel achey.
One thing I did do is to visit Sara at her place of work, she invited mom and I to go (and even reminded us). And so we go, it is raining heavily but we find a car park at the end of the five foot way, and we stroll right in. Mom enjoy herself talking to strangers and drinking the free beer, but we get into trouble with my sister who shows up looking a bit stressed after teaching her yoga class.
I get carried away and suggest too many things to Raha and Ricco. But I'll see if they ask for help before I speak about it again.
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| Sam is at W Hotel with her former school mates, accompanying a friend who is quite ill from cancer. |
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| The tall dining space has nice light in the early morning, I start after returning from my walk. Working on the Tasik Biru apartments. |
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| I know you asked me to design a house for one of your sons, and since you didn’t tell me which son we decided that all your sons can have a new home; three villas with similar layouts organised around a courtyard to create a garden entrance into the houses. |
Still coughing but better after a full night's rest - I expect a full day of work at the office because of my two days away. Sure enough - I was cornered by Peggy and her team about the masterplan once I set foot in the office. Something about coordinating the plans for the various precincts and the various comments offered by team leaders. Soon sorted out by asking for a print out by the end of work, nothing like a tight deadline to coagulate a fragmented team (like making taufoofa)
We lost another team member when Sara decided to take a break to focus on helping her friend set up a event company. Nothing ventured, nothing gained - I thought as I was also mentally preparing for my meeting with a young man who wants to apprentice at our office. Perhaps it is for me to give him a chance; to learn, to find his passion when no one else will. Not even his family. Besides, it will not be me alone teaching him these things, but the whole village of us. Peggy calls it saving a 'life'.
2:30 a.m. I was surprised at how small he was; slight and simply dressed, a bit nervy. I took all talk about poor health off the table at the start, and we talked about goals, commitments, and family. After 45 minutes, we agreed that he would try out for a week; we are not a school, it is a job and work products are the paramount outcome. And after a week, we will talk again and decide there is a future in this.
6:30 p.m. PAMSC meeting - the food at the Rock Road place was expensive and tasted mediocre (as it would if I tried to cook them). The company was lively as always with one person being particularly opinionated while not having done anything so far, annoying. In any case, I managed to convince them to have a couple of free CPD events, to encourage student and technicians turnout.
I went home and worked until one a.m. to finish the sketch up, powerpoint and frame letters of rebuttal for Annie.
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| All I want is a clean sofa without cat fur or dog fur, to lie down on and read a book. I will be 60 next year. |
I did the leg-work before seeing an important client today, nevertheless there are still lose ends to tidy up and having to slot in another meeting with GB on site did not help with my time - planning. Furthermore, I had booked an expensive physio sessions which I did not want to miss. These are the minor trials when running a practice, so no big deal.
The killer of the day was having to pick up the pieces of work half done, half communicated for a project on site - this means that people are waiting for our decisions, our instructions. I will try to finish the construction of this project in two months - I ll work with Sara to make a list of things to do leading to this completion. I had spoken to her about being pro-active, being on time and being communicative.
My second session with the shock wave therapy - it seems to help and is quite expensive.
PD meeting resulted in more pressure from GB on Fabian - the first time you think about when you wake up is to think about how you can get enough people to finish this project on time. They will meet tomorrow about man power.
Rewi was happy with the status of work so far and there is a clear direction for the show room as well as the Sibu Condo. We package the Elev8 for quotations from two builder in May, starting now.
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| 222 Moorabool Street, Geelong |
And later that evening, Sam and I shared a private joke about how much I liked her new eye-lashes.
She has not been calling regularly and missed talking to her. Over the weekend, I decided that I would let her know this and told her. Hopefully this will become a habit; of calling dad to disrupt him in the middle of the work day.
She said she'll ring again tomorrow.
