Weekly Update

Greetings,

December is finally upon us. I still can't believe how fast this year has gone by. It seems like just the other day that I was starting my first day here at Nightingales. This was somewhat of a short week as I still had leave-days outstanding, one of which was taken on Monday past.

As you may know from my previous update, the Papworth project is no longer being worked on, therefore therefore there has not been much work in the office. When I returned from my long weekend, I was informed by one of my colleagues that Nightingale Associates will be retrenching quite a few employees, whichn includes all of the contract employees. The firm will be retrenching employees due to the lack of work coming in. Hence, there will not be enough work to accommodate for the entire staff in the new year. In addition to this, Nightingales will no longer be employing students. Seems like the recession is not taking a rest, but let's hope that things turnover soon enough.

Aside from the bad news, we as the students at Nightingale Associates were required to do a presentation on our Hub projects as well as our Major Integrated Project which took place in Grabouw. One thing I must admit, I was abit nervous at first when doing the presentation and trying to memorise what I wrote down for my presentation speech. However, the more I didn't look on the page on what I wrote down, the more comfortable I felt speaking about the respective topic. I felt that somehow this was my breakthrough in improving my presentation skills.

The only next big thing to look forward to is my results for the year. I am patiently waiting in anticipation, just a few days to go and then I'll know. Peace and Blessings people.

Ciao -G

Weekly Update

Greetings,

Finally the last hurdle has been reached with my student work. I've finally managed to upload my essay for my MIP (Major Integrated Project). Now all I have to focus on is finishing the rest of the year at Nightingales. It's not that much time to fill though, because the office closes in the middle of december.

To keep you guys updated on what's happening at the office, in my case its always on the Papworth project. We got all the work done for the deadline last week friday. There was no overtime required, because our team worked hard and pushed through to get all the work done in time. However, despite all our efforts in finishing the required drawings, we got word in from our Director that Papworth is currently experiencing some controvercial issues between the contractor and the client. This resulted in the project being put on hold. I was so dissapointed that all our hard work that the team put into this project, was being sidelined until further notice. Our Director noticed this and then came up with a solution. He suggested that we complete the Papworth Revit Model to immense detail, so that it can be reviewed by IBI. The Revit Model will be reviewed so that we at Nightingales have record of what the Cape Town office is able to produce with Revit. The better reviews we get, the better the chances there are for Nightingales to get in more projects. So all in all, that made it a bit better. I know that we produced an excellent Revit Model and I'm positive that it will recieve some great reviews.

Its strange how the project of Papworth reached its final drawing up design phase, and then got put on hold almost immediately thereafter practically when our academic year has reached its end. I guess things have a way of working themselves out. Peace and Blessings.

Ciao -G

Weekly Update

Greetings everyone,

After what has been a very busy week lastweek, it has still not come to a stop just yet. As last week was one hectic week at the office, as well as having to get together some of the final work for student work. So I had to juggle both my office work along with my student work.

We were requested by our Director last week that we had to keep 3 days vacant, for possible overtime. However we only worked 2 days overtime last week. That's still a lot, because those are 2 12hour days. That is sure to drain you. More layout changes were recieved on the Papworth hospital, and therefore it was back to having to remodel these changes on Revit. One of the most outrageous things though, is that the changes were sent through the week before, and the deadline for issue was scheduled for Friday 11th Novermber. Although our team was already sceptical from the beginning whether we would make the deadline or not. The Thursday night, which was the night before the deadline, more changes were recieved while we were already working overtime and they requested the changes be done for the next day. I was so upset, and thought to myself that those people sending the work had no consideration. I then suggested to my supervisor, Lennie, that he send them an email on the matter. Once he did that, they were kind enough to extend the deadline, I was so relieved.

After all this work, I feel like I need a good long rest. I think I should take leave, good thing that I still have 5 days of leave to take for this month alone. I'm excite. lol. Peace and Blessings to all.

Ciao -G

Weekly Update

Greetings everyone,

It has been quite a while since th last time i've updated you guys on the progress I've made over the past few weeks, that's because it's been so hectic. However I had a great learning experience over these past few weeks, because I've so much more in these past 2 weeks than i have in the previous 2 months.

So we as the 2nd year architecture students went to site in Grabouw to start working on the St. Michaels' school prject. I was so excited to start working on the project as it was a first time experience. We built a Pergola for St.Michaels' Primary, which strectches from the classrooms, all the way to the playground and jungle-gym area. We also include timber decking that steps outside the classrooms, as well as a small staircase the depresses toward the jungle-gym area. Taking part in this project for the school really taught me alot, not only about aspects in this field of work, but to also appreciate everything that we have been blessed with in our lives. We successfully finished the project lastweek friday, including all finishes and final touches. It gave me great pleasure to know that I was part of giving back to the community, and seeing the look on those childrens' faces really made this year worthwhile.

It feels so different being back in the office, I wonder what my supervisor has in store for me this week. I really hope it's nothing too hectic, because I still feel a bit drained from working in Elgin. There's only a month and a half left for me here at Nightingales. I can't believe how fast this year has passed us by. I know I'm going to miss the staff the most. Peace and Blessings.

Ciao -G

Weekly Update

Greetings,

I apologize for not updating you on lastweeks events, things came up and it just slipped my mind. This week was cut short due to my site visit to Hermanus on Wednesday.

It's been a while since I've been to the site in Hermanus for the hospital upgrade. Wednesday's site visit was for the Progress Meeting. Judging from my last visit to Hermanus, I can see that things have surely taken off in terms of construction work done. The project is basically starting to take form. Nonetheless, I had to take down the meeting minutes and as it was my first time taking minutes, I was given more time than required. I managed to finish the document for the meeting minutes and thereafter was put back to work on Papworth, but work this week was minimul.

I've been looking forward to the weekend since this week started, because I felt like I needed a break and just felt like doing something fun. Although now that the weekend is here, I don't feel like doing much of anything. Oh well, we'll see what the next few days bring. Peace and blessings.

Ciao -G

Weekly Update

Greetings,

Lastweek was a bit of a laid back week for me, nothing too hectic, although for majority of the staff here at Nightingales, it was a roller-coater. Many of the staff worked about 3 days overtime lastweek, and yes that i alot of overtime for one week.

I managed to complete all the tasks assigned to me on McGill, Í completed minor adjustments according to the mark-ups sent to me by Annie Cheung. Once I was done with that, I was back on Lennie's team working on Papworth, a project that was reaching a very hectic milestone.

With regard to working on Papworth, the team and myself seemed to have been having trouble with Revit. The program just crashed out at random times. We had to take precaution to this by saving or synchronising as often as was possible, to make sure that none of the work was lost. As this problem persisted, our IT department had to take action, and sent the Papworth BIM (Building Information Model) to the IBI Group for a general review in order to assess the problem. (IBI Group is an organisation which consists of a number of firms which includes, engineering, architecture etc). We recieved feedback from IBI, and they informed us that there were over 1000 warnings in the Papworth Model, which is what caused the program to crash all the time, and it is also what caused Revit to lag. So Lennie assigned me to the task of fixing and cleaning up of the Papworth Model. Revit has a special feature with fixing up warnings, it has a special tab just for this particular problem which lists all the warnings, and with the click of a button, it takes you to, and highlights the problem immediately. This is what I spent most of lastweek doing. It is a long and dragging task to do, but I managed to fix over half of the warnings and errors in the project. Our team have agreed to fix warning messages as soon as they pop up while working on Revit, this will save us the trouble of having to fix them afterward, and not causing anymore crashes.

The entire office worked so hard lastweek, that the UK were so pleased with the time and effort put into the work, that they gave the entire office (Cape Town Branch), friday afternoon off, so we all got an early start to the weekend after a very stressful week. Seems like the saying is true, "a little goes a long way", it really does, goes all the way to the UK. lol I trust all are well, peace and blessings.

Ciao -G

Weekly Update

Greetings,

So this weekend, surprisingly I was not asked to work on Papworth, which includes the rest of the team. I suppose this must be because I was working on McGill all week. So my week was quite moderate, not too hectic.

As I said, working on McGill all week, that means working with Annie Cheung once again. The changes which she sent me lastweek, surprised me quite abit. All the work which I completed for her during the previous weeks, were reveiwed and she sent me back major internal layout changes. I carried them out as instructed, and now all thats left if the finishing touches, so that they can be sent away for final submission. I'm assuming that won't take up my entire week.

One exciting thing to tell though, they set up the projector here in the office, so that whenever the Rugby Worldcup games comes on, preferably when South Africa play, then the entire staff can gather to watch the match, how generious. Peace and Blessings.

Ciao -G