29th October 2023 Sunday - Fiona

Penghui sent me these photos which he took at my 36 birthday, we had it at the McDonalds in town.

Fiona has an interesting life, we first met her while she was working in an interior design company with Sam. Sam introduced her to KDI, where I was working, we became firm friends (even gym buddies at one time) Coincidentally, I stayed at her brother's flat while I was studying for my Year 12 in Oakleigh High. 

After KDI, she moved on to work with one of the firm's multi-national clients. In these years, we saw her bloom and take charge of her life, she left her unhappy marriage and found new love. She travelled the world in a yacht, staying in different places in the world, even Rwanda at one time. She now lives in Scotland, so when she is in town we meet up to hear what she has been up to. 

Maggie Centre at Nine Wells, Dundee

A House for the end of life
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b00wr7rp

Maggie's Centres was founded by and named after the late Maggie Keswick Jencks, who died of cancer in 1995. Like her husband, architectural writer and critic Charles Jencks, she believed in the ability of buildings to uplift people. The buildings that house the centres have been designed by leading architects, including Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid and Richard Rogers.^[1]They are not intended as a replacement for conventional cancer therapy, but as a caring environment that can provide support, information and practical advice. They are located near, but are detached from, existing NHS hospitals.

In May 2019, we were near one and dropped in for a visit.

A lady at the centre very kindly asked if we needed any help. We explained that we were just visiting - 'you must be an architect, I know because you have a posh sketch book'. She smiled at her own joke and left us. There was a meeting at the kitchen, half a dozen people gathered around a dining table with steaming cups of something; tea perhaps and biscuits.
We went upstairs and sat in the Quiet room, in the belly of the tower with a solitary window and a skylight. It was very peaceful.

The Quiet room

Sculpture by Andrew Gromley

This was Frank Gehry's first building in UK, and won the 'Building of the Year' in 2003.