22.9.2026 Tuesday - the Bahai

I have a hit of tennis with Ho (and later Robert) and feel good about it, happy with my ball contact and movement. And it feels nice to be in the sun again, although it is a bit hazy.

Kamal invites us over for dinner, I am feeling very privileged - two dinner in two nights. I have not been to his house in Kuching before, so we are both quite taken aback with the size of the house compound and the maturity of the trees in the garden.
There are some familiar faces amongst the dinner guests, as expected because Kuching is a small village after all. Sam and I have a good time chatting with Kamal's sister Shirin and her husband, Payam. Their daughter, Lian is a delightful young lady - we offer to cook for them when they next visit. Jowie offers to take them pickle-balling then.  Kamal's family is Bahai, and have the loveliest way about them, although this is first time we have met this family - it feels like we have known them for a long time.

26th December 2023 Tuesday - Melvin pays for coffee

Notes from a project meeting with the client, engineer and builder - this is a medium to high end landed housing project
 

7th June 2023 Wednesday PAMSC meeting

I will add a cover piece to protect the timber tops and add height to the recycled timber panel.

There was a phone call yesterday asking for an early morning meet up - I knew what the topic of conversation would be (or rather what the request from the person involved would be) He had not done his homework and is depending on us to do it for him). 

I decided to be gracious and share the information with him as JY had diligently done it already. 

At 1030am, I went to the Stampin site with Sean to meet RAK - the outcome is quite good though there are some areas to be improved. I asked Sean to take charge of the design element of the project and that improvements can still be considered at this stage. 

We agreed to meet on site again and view the mock up of the car port steel works. 

Nice living room window - deciding whether light or dark colours

RAK missed out a narrow RC ledge on the TV wall

Later that afternoon, a good design chat with Kamal about drain diversions and steel structures

 

PAMSC meeting no. 3

The day ended with our monthly PAMSC meeting, and as usual I felt that there is not much for me to report as our report is in the form of two newsletters monthly. But tonight I reported on the progress of the PDF, our design festival in November; 2 moderators are confirmed and 3 of the 6 speakers.

26th April 2023 Wednesday - meeting new people

18th of April - Teck texted a image of a familiar house and told me that the house and land was for sale. We designed this house for a wealthy family more than a dozen years ago, it was well designed, it was well built, by the owner himself who now had to sell it because upkeep was too big a chore, because the daughter in law does not get on with his wife. Many reasons. I was interested only in one thing - to retain the house and make it part of the new development. 

To do this, I knew that we have to put together a package to illustrate this. And to have a good engineer willing to go the extra mile - and as luck would have it, I had arranged for Kamal to meet Teck.

The two of them got on really well when they found out that they had something in common - that the land that the Sematan resort stands on had belonged to the Fozdar family. Later, we had a good discussion about two projects, this current one where we had designed apartments straddled over the existing house and another where an exo-skeleton is built over an existing building to add new floors above. 

I have taken to starting the day even earlier, walking into the conference/dining room and starting work at 630 am - ignoring the meowing Fish and Dory and drawing. Ideas come to me then; how to proceed with a client, what to do with an awkward corner, who to make a model. I like that feeling that I have done so much by the time the others arrive at the office. 

Today, I got Sara to start a cardboard model and to finish it in a day. It was not very good, but it is ok we will make another one tomorrow. Hui Phing finished the Desa Apartment scheme, she did well ( I told her) Sean working hard to complete the condo drawings, tomorrow I will suggest a break and a site visit and an escape to the gym earlier.

Sam made an appointment for me at the Physio, and I got hammered with a Swiss device - I hope to recover from this ankle/heel injury. It has been about 2 weeks of me eating only one meal a day. I feel better, and even have enough energy to play sports in the evening.