work.share.run.fly

I am very pleased with my time spent in Penang - busy the whole three days that I was there. 

I traveled there with Alfred, Sofia and Eng Hooi - we arrived at noon on Friday just in time to collect our Penang Bridge Marathon race packs, and eat a ChaKuehTiaw lunch at Lorong Selamat before heading to my first task. 

WORK - site meeting to resolve construction issues for the Ramp House, a three-storey house designed as a series of landings connected by ramps and in between these landings is an urban forest designed by Pe Yang. The photo shows the first ramp which is in concrete, the rest will be built in steel and clad in timber.

arrival ramp from entry to dining room

SHARE - on Saturday morning, after a quick hotel breakfast with Alfred and Eng Hooi, I headed to the PAM (Malaysian Architect's Institute) Centre to give a talk titled "do what you like", sharing my thoughts about the sustainability of our profession, doing 'bread and butter' work to support our design 'explorations' which sustain our creative interest and therefore the lifespan of our practice. I also talked about the importance and my enjoyment of working with and nurturing architecture students. Despite the potential seriousness of these issues, you can probably guess from the title that there were many light-hearted moments in my presentation.

I told them the story of the ramp house

It is always enjoyable to give talks in Penang, the venue is intimate and people are genuine and inquisitive. They always take me out for a nice lunch, with good company.

after the talk, I chatted with Ar. Jong, Datin Teng and Ar. Boey

RUN - at 3:30 a.m. Sunday I started my fourth Penang Bridge Half Marathon. It would have been a nice birthday present (the next day) if I had better-ed my personal best of 2:29. But I didn't, and to quote dear Sara after her Additional Math paper, - "it's in the past, I don't want to talk about it".

Penang International Bridge Marathon - I did the Half

For the rest of Sunday, we were 'gallivanting gourmets' Alfred, Eng Hooi, Frances, Larry and I strolled from cultural spot to food destination; sampling history and folklore with chendol and curry noodles (more in upcoming post).

FLY - We took off from Penang at 7:10 a.m. on Monday - I left my sketch book in my luggage which explains why these two sketches are done on the AirAsia barf bags.

Early flight home with fishballs from Ah Chiat, my favourite cab driver in Penang