7th December 2023 Thursday - meeting Feruni

 

6th December 2023 Wednesday - Faybians and Zayn

 

5th December 2023 Tuesday - Francis and Jane

 

4th December 2023 New faces

 

3rd December 2023 Sunday - run, squash and screw

77 minutes seem long overdue for a 10k run, I would have said 5 years ago. But folks tell me that this is not bad - I do not have a target except to NOT walk. At the end, I am comfortable enough to walk to a laksa breakfast, and  later that evening, play a decent game of squash. After which, I go to No. 40 to finish the hanging book shelves before dinner. I am determined to finish it over two weekends. 

Normally, I would have completed it over one weekend, especially with Sam's help. But my mom duties takes its toll with  my time. The good thing is that it makes me more determined to finish my tasks.

 

2nd December 2023 Saturday - building shelves at No. 40

I decide to rest today, no tennis since I have a 10K on Sunday. Sam and I decide to go and build the book shelves at No. 40 instead. I have not done carpentry for a while, and take some time assembling all the gear together, but we are ready before noon. 

It looks easy to assemble these shelves; just pieces of thin plywood - that is because those are the 'tension' members - they support by hanging. And the short lengths which are the shelves, they are fatter so we can put screws through them more easily (they are 20mm vs the 12mm hangers). These are modules and have to be pre-assembled before they are hung from the first floor joists - that takes part of the weight while the remainder to be supported by the rough-sawn timber legs cut from the old roof timber.

As I explain to Ivy - it works by every element doing their part to help each other.

1st December 2023 Friday - Khaliq

Two days ago, I saw an email from a former student from UNIMAS looking for work. I pass it to SML thinking that they'd need more staff. But in view of the confirmed project yesterday, I thought that Sean and George might need a pair of steady hands.

I rang Khaliq, who arrive Friday morning ready to work. We did put him to work, he'll start officially on Monday.

I next receive a call from a project manager from our apartment project, his daughter is an architecture student and in need of internship. Good, she can start on Monday s well together with Anisha, Zayn's daughter. Zayn was my Co-tutor in Year 1 UNIMAS. I enlist the help of Sean, Melvin and Fiona to put these young people to good use. 

Just this morning, Jenny and I have a conversation about her charge, who has put himself to good use but is not able to learn new things from the process. In fact he seems to go out of the way to learn new things, we agree on this and she decides to frame some assignments for him to 'take away' back to school in January.