6.10.2024 Sunday - new watch, new plans?

Quite a milestone today, running 5K into town at a fair pace to meet Lance and Yasmin. All 5 kilometres are under 7 min pace - so I am happy with myself. Furthermore, Sam has bought a new watch with GPS, and it can sync with my phone which gives a print out like this one above.

She has blossomed (again) and we talk about her plans to return to Kuching in the future.

Later that evening, we get a full house at No. 40 - dining with Eric and newcomer, Na-na who is a lecturer from China teaching Art Management at UNIMAS. Eric talks about the future of his collaborations in Kuching, about some people he would rather not work with any longer. I have not seen him so agitated, I think it affects him mostly when he feels that his assistants/students are taken advantage of.


 

18 Feb 2022 Friday Meeting KW and RT

Yasmin - one of our borrowed children and a delight

Fridays are often an excuse to catch with friends over a long lunch - I was early invited to have lunch with KW and I thought it would be good for him to rub shoulders with other architects. I am very fortunate as there is always an offer of a lift to the lunch venue by someone; Freddie, Si Yong, or Ivy. 

The drive was a chance to continue my chat about work collaborations; he needed continual income. 

At lunch, I spoke to a young architect who grumbled about his inability to make changes to his family's property development business. They made money developing low to medium-cost housing for the government and my young friend felt that his design ideas were not given due attention. My old self would be scolded him, my current self gave him 2 pieces of advice: ask for a small plot of land to execute as a prototype - architects need to build to test ideas and gain confidence, and to build up your portfolio of built work for others to have confidence in you. Secondly, I reminded him that the uninspiring work that his father built was responsible for putting him through a prestigious architecture school in Melbourne. And that perhaps he should consider this period as time to return the gratitude and kindness of his parents. He has only been back 3 months!

 

A morning at Segu

The Segu Bungalow has been featured in this blog before, so I won't dwell on it except to mention that recently Tom Walker gave a talk there and Louise (who lives there) asked if I could frame one of my Segu sketches as a memento for him. I could not decide which view to frame for Tom, but Yasmin saved the day by stitching all my little vignettes together into a scroll.

Prints of this series are for sale at the Zinc restaurant on Jalan Tabuan, owner James Lo will donate proceeds to the Friends of the Sarawak Museum.