So what's been happening?
Garage still have the car so we may as well catch up on recent events.
READERS OF MY BLOG and those who know me well enough will know that I have a rare spinal illness. While most of the time you'd not know there was anything wrong, I'm sometimes left paralysed or too weak to walk. Thankfully that hasn't happened for a couple of years. What I'm left with is a need to attend a clinic to keep my spine in good order which is small price to pay for the ability to walk.
Unfortunately I've been in a lot of discomfort recently, which is one of the main complaints the clinic deals with in my case. I've been in a lot this month to little avail. Forgetting the hiccup with my car this morning, today is a bad day - I'm in pain and just can't get comfortable. My tolerance is high ((you get used to it after so many years)) which helps but I'm toying with the idea of switching doctors.
I've seen three of the others in the past and they're very good. All with different methods of approaching the problem...but I'm finding my current doctor leaves me feeling no better, far too often. Seeing how I'm paying for this, I shouldn't have to feel bad about wanting a change but he's looked after my spine for so many years it seems disrespectful. Guess I'll have to chat with him about it sometime. Got to go in again soon if this doesn't settle. Urgh...
AT WORK THINGS HAVE been busy, as is always the case. Nothing new there. Today I should be working on a house in East Looe, Cornwall which is actually a redesign of a scheme I produced over three years ago. Client has been sitting on it and now wants a smaller design - which is fair enough, so long as he is sent fee accounts. I don't deal with them personally.
Last week the big concern was a mental home. Good big job, plenty of fees. Unfortunately I have a problem with the clients’ motive, which seems purely profit driven. It's also another numbers game. I mean, sure, someone has to play it and if it wasn't our firm, it would be another. Doesn't make it feel any better. We're increasing capacity of the place more than double what it is currently at the cost of limiting each patient's private space. At the end of the day, I can only do what I'm told to do but I'm concerned we're mathematically correct, yet lacking in good design. But that requires money and our client does not want to spend much. What can you do?
We had a meeting over our preliminary sketch scheme and at that point, hadn't met the client's expectations. We were sat around mulling over the design until 1830 that night. I promised him drawings for the following night, though warned him that if by then I hadn't finished the fancy extras he wanted on the drawing, he'd get the drawings without them. I'd like to think that far from pessimistic, I'm a realist when I tell people what I can deliver at work. Unlike some, I'm not going to start promising a client the world only to let them down.
The following morning I completed a set of plans, fancy stuff et al. Woohoo! Totally ahead of schedule - give that man a cookie! Got my colleague to call the client in and he was soon stood there wowing at his new high-capacity facility. One could almost hear the cash registers chime in his ears. Later that evening we handed over a second set of drawings, an alternative design giving him even greater capacity but pulling harder on his purse-strings. He'd run off to see his people and talk them over and let us know later what's what.
My colleague phoned him Thursday and Friday, to no avail. I'm hoping he got somewhere today. The partners' concern is that the client will run off and we'll have put a lot of effort into nothing. That's a risky thing for a small firm like ours to do but again, it's one of these things I have little control over. Something to catch up on tomorrow when I'm hoping to get back to work ((too late now to catch a bus into Plymouth and have time to do anything meaningful)).
COLLEGE HAS BEEN PAINFULLY dull of late. It's not the people, the other guys on my course are cool - purely the subject matter. Our thesis has been a little up and down. We were supposed to be presenting for a planning application a couple of weeks ago, however, that's not happening and in a few weeks we'll be presenting both planning and building regulations applications. A little unorthodox to think about doing the two in one go but there you go.
As my workload as lessened, the others in the group have found themselves having to put their thinking caps on. Thankfully they're adept with things I'm not familiar with - such as programming building works schedules on site etc. One of them is a site manager so his input is invaluable.
As ever, the other group seem to be a little behind but that's not my concern. I'm happy to lend an ear and help discuss things when asked. I'm not being competitive in that sense, though this is undoubtedly a great chance for me to strut my stuff and let not only my classmates but also my employers, see just what I can do.
NOW THAT I'VE FINISHED The Runaway Jury, I'm onto The Client. Read two books this month, which isn't bad going - I'm a slow reader as such because I think a lot about what I'm reading and allow my mind to paint a picture of what's going on - like watching a movie. I really enjoyed the last book but it took a while to get into it. One of the many talents of John Grisham is to be able to write in different styles and set a pace to his books.
READERS OF MY BLOG and those who know me well enough will know that I have a rare spinal illness. While most of the time you'd not know there was anything wrong, I'm sometimes left paralysed or too weak to walk. Thankfully that hasn't happened for a couple of years. What I'm left with is a need to attend a clinic to keep my spine in good order which is small price to pay for the ability to walk.
Unfortunately I've been in a lot of discomfort recently, which is one of the main complaints the clinic deals with in my case. I've been in a lot this month to little avail. Forgetting the hiccup with my car this morning, today is a bad day - I'm in pain and just can't get comfortable. My tolerance is high ((you get used to it after so many years)) which helps but I'm toying with the idea of switching doctors.
I've seen three of the others in the past and they're very good. All with different methods of approaching the problem...but I'm finding my current doctor leaves me feeling no better, far too often. Seeing how I'm paying for this, I shouldn't have to feel bad about wanting a change but he's looked after my spine for so many years it seems disrespectful. Guess I'll have to chat with him about it sometime. Got to go in again soon if this doesn't settle. Urgh...
AT WORK THINGS HAVE been busy, as is always the case. Nothing new there. Today I should be working on a house in East Looe, Cornwall which is actually a redesign of a scheme I produced over three years ago. Client has been sitting on it and now wants a smaller design - which is fair enough, so long as he is sent fee accounts. I don't deal with them personally.
Last week the big concern was a mental home. Good big job, plenty of fees. Unfortunately I have a problem with the clients’ motive, which seems purely profit driven. It's also another numbers game. I mean, sure, someone has to play it and if it wasn't our firm, it would be another. Doesn't make it feel any better. We're increasing capacity of the place more than double what it is currently at the cost of limiting each patient's private space. At the end of the day, I can only do what I'm told to do but I'm concerned we're mathematically correct, yet lacking in good design. But that requires money and our client does not want to spend much. What can you do?
We had a meeting over our preliminary sketch scheme and at that point, hadn't met the client's expectations. We were sat around mulling over the design until 1830 that night. I promised him drawings for the following night, though warned him that if by then I hadn't finished the fancy extras he wanted on the drawing, he'd get the drawings without them. I'd like to think that far from pessimistic, I'm a realist when I tell people what I can deliver at work. Unlike some, I'm not going to start promising a client the world only to let them down.
The following morning I completed a set of plans, fancy stuff et al. Woohoo! Totally ahead of schedule - give that man a cookie! Got my colleague to call the client in and he was soon stood there wowing at his new high-capacity facility. One could almost hear the cash registers chime in his ears. Later that evening we handed over a second set of drawings, an alternative design giving him even greater capacity but pulling harder on his purse-strings. He'd run off to see his people and talk them over and let us know later what's what.
My colleague phoned him Thursday and Friday, to no avail. I'm hoping he got somewhere today. The partners' concern is that the client will run off and we'll have put a lot of effort into nothing. That's a risky thing for a small firm like ours to do but again, it's one of these things I have little control over. Something to catch up on tomorrow when I'm hoping to get back to work ((too late now to catch a bus into Plymouth and have time to do anything meaningful)).
COLLEGE HAS BEEN PAINFULLY dull of late. It's not the people, the other guys on my course are cool - purely the subject matter. Our thesis has been a little up and down. We were supposed to be presenting for a planning application a couple of weeks ago, however, that's not happening and in a few weeks we'll be presenting both planning and building regulations applications. A little unorthodox to think about doing the two in one go but there you go.
As my workload as lessened, the others in the group have found themselves having to put their thinking caps on. Thankfully they're adept with things I'm not familiar with - such as programming building works schedules on site etc. One of them is a site manager so his input is invaluable.
As ever, the other group seem to be a little behind but that's not my concern. I'm happy to lend an ear and help discuss things when asked. I'm not being competitive in that sense, though this is undoubtedly a great chance for me to strut my stuff and let not only my classmates but also my employers, see just what I can do.
NOW THAT I'VE FINISHED The Runaway Jury, I'm onto The Client. Read two books this month, which isn't bad going - I'm a slow reader as such because I think a lot about what I'm reading and allow my mind to paint a picture of what's going on - like watching a movie. I really enjoyed the last book but it took a while to get into it. One of the many talents of John Grisham is to be able to write in different styles and set a pace to his books.
posted by Matthew E Cornish at
13:18
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