24.8.2026 Monday - dinner bouquet

23.8.2026 Sunday - missing the garden

The highlight of the day is the potting of a stray fern from next to the drain; it has been there for 6 months. I moved it from one place, I can't remember where to here. It had been neglected for this whole time, and is still thriving, so I reward it with a home. 

another highlight of the day is the game with our architect friends, we have not played together for 6 months - it is good to see everyone again. let's see if they continue playing every Sunday.

22.8.2026 Saturday - lazy hazy day

 Today marks the 4th or 5th day of waking up early to write in this blog, I like this routine - an fresh recalling and recording of yesterday's thoughts and happenings. Setting up an office in Sean's room is a smart move, I use it to make sketch-books and note-pads from old drawings. Pages of old magazines are used for their covers, they are not very thick  about 20 sheets and can be held together using staplers.

Making things is good therapy; the repeated movements, the familiar results, the sound of the paper when I run a thumbnail along a fold and the satisfying lining up of the straight edges. I found myself doing this while waiting to come on an on-line meeting. While GW and FL were chatting about lobbies and mezzanines I found myself folding the A1 sheet into sketchbook size. 

A1 submission dwgs are folded and cut, folded and cut, and folded to become A4 size

 

the edges are trimmed, the spine is formed by leaving one edge wider to create a 'foldover'

 

21.8.2026 Friday - Physio

Sam takes me to the physio, the one in Sekama - she is young and thorough; she tells me to be careful with my ankles, she tells me not to run for now, she tells me squash is 6 months away. I am not surprised to hear this, and tell her I don't mind not running or playing squash. She tells me to keep up with the swimming and the trampoline, pickleball twice a week is fine - she tells me. 

Sam probably expects me to be disappointed with this news, but no - I expected this. I will use the time to exercise in other ways, and to watch what I eat more closely. I am glad that Sam is playing pickleball now, it is something we can do together.
 

20.8.2026 Thursday - several highlights today

The campus mall is accepted as a concept to develop into the next stage; the two young ones present while FL and I sit and provide support when needed. EJ is pleased, he is excited about the steel framed buildings on a concrete plinth next to a pond. 

The young men continue their good work into lunch so I ask Sean to buy us lunch downstairs; the air is thick with haze. I won't swim today. Laurance shows up for our K2 coordination meeting No. 1, which is good to see. He picks up some engineering issues for the Springvale Hotel - he is a good reference for the young people in the room.

The next highlight is an invitation to play pickleball this Sunday by the architects' group; I find myself accepting quite automatically. I am looking forward to that. And finally, the Fukadas come over for dinner, Jowie is buzzing with travel excitement, and Yoshi has some questions about job applications; Sean helps explain.

My application to be a PAM Fellow is going on smoothly, with JC's help.

19.8.2026 Wednesday - re-visiting Alfred Russell Wallace

 In 2013, Louise* from Friends Of Sarawak Museum approached us with an idea for an exhibition on Alfred Russell Wallace (8 Jan 1823 - 7 Nov 1913), the renowned English naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and illustrator. Wallace was a contemporary of Charles Darwin, who independently conceived the theory of evolution through natural selection, and the creation of the Wallace Line; a distinct zoogeographical boundary dividing Asian and Australasian species. Notably for us in Borneo, Wallace spent some time in Sarawak (1854-56) where he wrote his seminal paper 'Sarawak Law' about species distribution. 

The former Sarawak Museum building (photo from Wikipedia)

The gallery would be located in one wing of the Sarawak Museum and is intended to be temporary lasting 2 – 3 years, targeting the general public, especially children. Our aim is to explore a different way of exhibiting the artifacts while considering educational intent, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness.

In line of the intrepid character of Wallace's work, we proposed the idea that the exhibition can be a 'traveling' exhibition; relocating from one place to another, and perhaps reaching the smaller towns in Sarawak.

Wallace spent a significant portion of his life in Sarawak and made several important discoveries here. We drew inspiration from Alfred Wallace’s ‘moth nets’ — a device he rigged in the jungle using bedsheets hung like a three-sided room, with a hurricane lamp in the middle to attract insect specimens.

The gallery in the museum is a tall open space. We propose to create a prolonged journey through the exhibition space by constructing a series of rooms using his ‘moth nets.’ The displays will then be printed or mounted on the ‘walls, of these rooms. The walls are hung from a ceiling grid and would have display information printed on them. Underfoot we proposed a layer of crushed fabric that would rustle and shift as visitors move through the rooms, mimicking the leaves in the jungle's undergrowth. 

We prepared some presentation material, made a model and presented it to the relevant authorities who were at the time busy with the construction of the New Borneo Cultures Museum. Without a firm plan, this proposal remained unbuilt; a fortnight of ideas compiled into a refreshing and nifty way to communicate with a younger museum audience. 

Recently, at the international art exhibition between Malaysia and Taiwan titled 'Tanah+Air: Navigating Asianness from Malaysia, (土地與水：從馬來西亞出發探訪亞洲性) I was pleased to see a section on Alfred Wallace.

* Dr Louise M. Macul is a prominent museulogist, widely recognized for her extensive work and research on the Orang Ulu murals.

18.8.2026 Tuesday - another good day

I had something on my mind about the campus mall as I went to sleep last night, so I arrive early to draw some ideas up for Sean and George to follow up with. By the time they arrive, I had fleshed out an scheme for them to carry out; it is so nice to speak to them as a team. Both had thoughts about separate concerns - George about the design and framing, Sean about questions that the client would raise about the feasibility of our scheme when compared to more conventional usage. We make plans to brief the client together on Thursday before George flies home. How I wish I can have them both together at the same place.

I have a break at the kopitiam and speaks to JC; to help me with my fellowship application* and to take over the management of our company website. I then ask a few 'parenting' questions - how is the money situation? lodgings? studies? I end up offering JC our apartment in KL as temporary lodgings until the SHIFT conference when I go there to stay. I sense that the offer is timely and much needed - I feel good for helping and inform Sam. 

GW and I try to defer the landscape presentation tomorrow, but as we chat, we start to frame some questions about the masterplan, and some solutions for them (this often happens). Soon, we have a semblance of a 'conversation' to talk to client during our lunch the next day. How fortunate to have this type of discourse. With a sense of accomplishment, I knock off at 4pm and cycle to the PD gym for a row and weight, finish with a swim before cycling home for dinner.

After dinner, we realised we have just been paid for a part-payment owed since last year. I was upset about the delay at first, and about us not following up closely. But almost immediately, decide that since we did not 'miss' having this sum of money we must have done alright until now. So, this is a windfall, and perhaps I should ring up and thank the client, and remind him to pay the recent claims soon. 

such a lovely letter, and so prompt in his reply; one working day

*I have been invited to apply for the PAM Fellow Membership, and need to submit documentation for review and approval by PAM

17.8.2026 Monday - a good start to the week

I arrive by bike, and get some targets for the day - the first of which is HP and her canopies and screen for the Springvale project. Freddie texts just in time for a coffee and a chat, he thinks that I have got two new projects over the weekend. 'Proposals' - I remind him, but I understands what he means. Opportunities are good ways to retain connections and practice our craft. We use this to train our young ones; Sean and George sit in at our meeting with EJ, who wants a two-storey lifestyle hub next to a university - just the type of project we enjoy doing; in a group and quickly with a short deadline. 

Sam and I have a new strategy for our doubles game; she stays back and drives - I try to attack at the net. It works, we took three games off them.

16.8.2026 Sunday - the Pomodoro Technique

 I have been working at home, sometimes it is harder to concentrate at home than at the office. I get distracted by other tasks or chores for home such as tidying up or cleaning. For example, Sam and I spend the morning from 9 to 11 a.m. cleaning out Sara's bedroom - some of the clothing on racks are Sam's, some of the books are mine, but generally it is most Sara's things collected over the past few years. I can almost track her personal history through her clothes, books and magazines found in the box-shelves in her room. While we are tidying up, I mentally question why Sara has not cleaned up the room herself, or why Sam has not put her own things away. But I decide that it is so that I can do this with her, and see what we have invested in our parenting and although this sounds like a complaint - it is not, I am glad we can recycle some of Sara's things, I will get the watches looked at and return them to Sara and re-use whatever pens and stationery found in the room. Quite timely since I have colonised Sean's room to be a little study. 

Mom comes over at 230 p.m. and we decide that we will stay at No.34 so that it is easier for Shing to collect her after getting Ashley from ballet class. But he got his times mixed up and we had to get everyone over to No. 40 so we can cook dinner for the children, the Fukadas and the Sims. In the car, I complain to Sam but remind myself that I will do less of:

1. complaining
2. making excuses
3. making negative comment
4. criticising
5. gossiping 

This afternoon, while sitting with Mom in the living, I revive an study/work technique I learnt from years ago - picking a task and doing it uninterrupted for 25 minutes. And then having a 5-minute break to get a drink, to set up the next task and then repeat the process. After 4 blocks of 25 minutes, I have a longer break for up to 30 minutes. 

This technique was developed in the 80s by Francesco Cirillo who named it after the tomato shaped egg timer sold in Italy at the time. 

15.8.2026 Saturday - sitting quietly and falling in love

After the early morning pickleball, Sam comes to collect me. Usually on the drive home, we decide where to have breakfast but today we are undecided so we arrive home to eat carrots, tomatoes, cheese and apple with slices of bread washed down with cups of coffee. I have the music on instead of the telly, and both of us potter about the houses doing odd jobs and finishing my tasks until late in the afternoon. Then at 4pm, a message comes inviting us for a game - new friends from pickleball with their wives; a chance to meet other people. One of the wives remember Sam from years ago (30) having worked together on a project. Sam has that special something which people remember; it is a kindness in her personality I think. 

14.8.2026 Friday - taking care of the aged

A rainy morning in Penang, troublesome but we have a task in hand - to meet a potential client about an aged care facility. She was introduced to us by our hospital client; an important referral which I thought we should act on. We arrive early, and depart several hours later after being briefed about the future plans for this facility. It will be a long term plan, they are doing good work so it is for us to patient and contribute instead of thinking about reaping rewards. I think we struck the right chords, she takes us out for lunch before we head off to catch our flight - it is a good outing event if the project does not take shape we have met a person who has invested time and effort planning how to improve the quality and sustainability of aged care in Penang. 

 

14.8.2026 Thursday - Doris, Terry, Grace and Luna

Today will be a long day, made longer by the extra meetings we plan, with people we want to see in different places. 

Doris and I have met twice; the first time was when she crossed the seminar hall to greet me - 'Hi, you must be Min, we are Facebook friends'. And the second time is this morning, she in in Kuching to meet her boyfriend. I invited CY who also knows her from their interactions on the Art Festival in Taiwan. It turns out that she knows SL as well - it is a small world.

Our flight takes us to Penang by 2pm in time for a 4pm meeting, even after waiting for PH's delayed flight. Work is work, there are a few areas that I have to work on still - there were gaps on both sides. But I think it can be sorted within the next week. By dinner time, it has been a long day, and I did not get a chance to talk with Grace. It is lovely to see her little family though hard to imagine when we met her as an intern ten years ago - hardworking but the system fails her, answered for but stuck in a rut (the drummer boy). She kept in touch and over the years we would meet up, hear snippets of news about her milestone, celebrate them with her - we threw a 'wedding party' for her in Kuching complete with tea ceremony at No. 40.

Our hotel room reminds me of line in the Eagles's song 'Hotel California'. - we are able to leave but I want to go back.

13.8.2026 Wednesday - fellowship

There are distinct highlights and lowlights today - an uncompliant roofer, bad air quality because of the haze contrasting with a request for me to apply for a PAM fellowship, and dinner with mom at home. There will be many more days like this. I am glad that I have a team who can handle the irritants and a home cooked dinner to come home most nights. 

12.8.2026 Tuesday - learning to make the most out of it

We have to return for a site inspection this week, and although it does not directly concern us, our attendance was requested. We could write back and tell them that, but I decide it is simpler to just show up. There might be nothing for us to contribute, but we can hear what the problem is and what the solutions are, we can meet new people who are taking over the project, we can let our presence reassure those who are there, and we can use the opportunity to settle some other outstanding matters with the builder, and we can have a nice lunch after the meeting.

 

11.8.2026 Monday - Mahatma Gandhi

 

10.8.2026 Monday - roadside dining

 Today is a good day for work, FL shows up to update me about the housing project. Sean joins us to prepare for tomorrow's meeting  for this project. The other FL and I had earlier planned to meet to discuss the hotel and the new masterplan project so we continue the design discussion with GW joining us as well. GW has another project to discuss; the house on the hill. We break just before lunch with way forward for these projects - the whole day's work done in half a day. 

It is not a good day for SY whose mom passed away this morning. Sam and I pay our last respects after pickleball. She was only 70 years old. After the wake, PS suggested that she joins us for a drink while we eat a late dinner. We have not been to this place before - they moved the tables to the roadside, onto the car parking lots next to a backdrop of giant yam plants (alocasia). A simple meal of fried rice, stir fried kangkong and an omelette for two finished with langsat. Talking about travel plans and garden lights, about pickleball and dinner on Sunday; traffic sounds and a soft breeze fill the gaps in conversation. 

9.8.2026 Sunday - working from home

Sam's forehand is getting better, and I think she gets the hang of the flight of the ball now. She is strong so her drives are powerful, surprising some men expecting girly pats. We do a typical Sunday couply thing; go for breakfast after 'exercise', followed up with a bit of shopping - flower pots for the office garden. We buy some sewing supplies as I plan to fix the elastic of my shorts this weekend. 

We have mom early this Sunday, so we return home to sit and River Cottage on telly while I work on the KD house. Later that evening, we are treated to a nice dinner by Andrew and Helen.

8.8.2026 Saturday - little gifts

 I like coming into the office and finding little gifts on my table, left for me by unknown persons. Usually it is food, other time it is cough mints when I was coughing, today it is inhalers from Thailand. I try and guess who this person is, but I usually get it wrong.

I got it wrong this time as well, these were from Rachel.

7.8.2026 Friday - a compliment and a new project

Our postponed meeting is replaced by a late breakfast at Kenny Hill Bakers, I have not been to this location. I like it. I like the sweeping low rise housing with commercial outlets on the ground floor. Fortune favours the brave, and sometimes it favours the fat, dumb and happy. I get a text from a client asking if we can work on a new project with them. Answer - yes. They pay us a compliment, and although there are some non-standard conditions to the proposal - I think we can work through them.

Brian has much on his plate; being a parent is not easy, I could told him that (if he had asked)

 

6.8.2026 Thursday - meeting postponed

the view in front of Baba Low's

Sam and I fly into KL for a meeting with a potential client tomorrow, but she cancelled while we having an early dinner. The client is under the weather, no choice but to wish her a quick recovery and replan our meeting. She enquired if we flew in especially to see her. She has been referred to us by another client, so we thought we had better make an effort. I tell her this. We decide that we will meet her and visit the site next week. Time to make alternative plans. Not difficult as I always have plenty to do.

5.8.2026 Wednesday - symmetry

There is an email from a young student looking to train with us for a year, her family name and address reminds me of a former house mate in Geelong, also an architect. So I ask him. She is his second daughter. I ring him and we chat about his expectations, her intentions and logistics. She will stay with relatives, if everything works out. I tell him that the young people in our office are good at guiding and nurturing young graduates. 

I'll leave it to the young lady to contact me, and if she does train with us there will be a symmetry starting from the time when we looked out for her father when we shared a flat in Geelong, and finishing with Sean mentoring Alena for a year. 

4.8.2026 Tuesday - going forward

Looking forward to this morning's meeting, we have new information and ideas to share with the client; way forward in an exciting new project. The engineers have been proactive as well; following up with site planning and we conclude in good spirits.

The afternoon meeting is more dreary, reminding the builder about his responsibilities and so forth, but the journey is enjoyable as I have not had a chance to chat with GW for quite a while. 

A good workout and swim to end the day, Sean joins me at the gym and we head home to dinner with my mom. I give my mom my beer nuts, she enjoys them but cannot name them. She's happy today. I think it's because she is having dinner with us - Sean fetches her a drink to wash down the peanuts which she cannot name. She is from a wealthy family, used to the good things in life; home cooked meals, servants, treats and snacks - maybe she's happy to relive those days.