Here is a very interesting poetry I had found to get you going when things get tough:
When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all up hill,
When funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must - but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns
As everyone of us sometimes learns
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Dont give up, though the pace seems slow -
You might succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than
it seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup.
And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt -
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So, stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that you musn't quit.
(Anon.)
cited in Cryer, 1996.
Friday, April 15, 2005
Long Tough Months..
For those that has been bugging me the entire time as I hardly updated my blog for the past few months, please accept my apologies as I had to settle quite a lot of personal stuff lately :) This unfortunately includes finding new place to stay, and 'fighting' with my travel agent besides my normal day to day work in finding and reading my literature reviews..
Mind you, I had stayed for about four years in my current house, shared with the landlord and his spanish girlfriend plus two other tenants that come and go. Alas, instead of having all the facilities getting better each year (with the room rent being increased each year) it has, unfortunately, gets worse; greywater from shower and bath that leaks down to the kitchen, hot water boiler that never work properly, despite the landlord's promise since December 2004 that they are going to install a new boiler in new year, up till today 15th April 2005, I see no improvement with the old boiler let alone having a new one. When being challenged on the 'prospective' of getting a new boiler, he mentioned that he already spoken to the boiler man and that they are 'measuring up' the empty space in the kitchen now since the new boiler is apparently bigger than the old one...hmm..and so, as I 'waited', days gone by, weeks turned to month and then three months has passed by, still I see nothing new!! am I gobsmacked? apparently nope... These problems combined with his lack of self control (read: banging and trying to get into people's room 3 o'clock in the morning- thank God I always remember to lock my door every night before i snooze off -lucky enough, I am the only tenant that able to get a key for her room-that is, after a long and painful whinging for a year-, abusive and trying to get into fight with passers-by outside the house..) during most of his drunken night with the other two tenants and the state of the whole house especially where you can see slugs wandering around the kitchen floor, table and chairs in liberal, I decided to pack my stuff and say 'cheers!'
Other obstacle I had encountered was the difficulty to get my airline ticket from the Emerald Travel Agent (words of advice: NEVER EVER PURCHASeD YOUR TICKET FROM EMERALD TRAVEL AGENT NO MATTER HOW CHEAP THEY ARE!). I had booked my airline ticket in January for travelling back home in March. Being informed that the ticket will be issued a week after my payment in January, I find it strange when it did not arrived two weeks after that. Calling their office was a real pain in the arse as well since they refused to co-operate and keep asking me to wait and wait and wait. Two weeks before my departure in March, I decided that I had enough and so had fiercely calling and bombarding them with emails until the woman dealing with my itinenary, Ms Natalie Koycheva replied to my email stating that a new ticket will be issued BUT I am liable to pay £40.00 to re-issue the ticket!! For the love of God!! There is no need to be a scientist to know that the fault does not lie in me as I never received the ticket and that the ticket apparently stated to be lost in post! No matter how I argued with her, she refused to settle the problem and said that there is nothing she can do about it as the order came from her 'manager'! Furious and overwhelmed with anger, I decided to call my airline network (Emirates), they agreed that the Emerald travel agent is the one responsible for the charges and ..guess what..it's actually cost £35.00 not £40.00...hmm... Tired of the whole situation, I decided to write a complain letter to the manager of the Emerald Travel Agent (Janet xx) and ABTA. The next working day, I decided to call them again to settle the 'unfinished fight' and glad enough to know that only this time they admit that the charges to be paid by themselves and that new ticket will only be issued one week before my travel. No apologies (especially for trying to overcharged me), nothing.. Even at this stage, each person has different explanation..some says that the ticket will be issued and sent straight to the issue desks in the airport but some says that the ticket will be issued and sent to my home address..
Anyway, yes, after a long and painful fight..I managed to go home and yes, here I am now back for my research :)
Mind you, I had stayed for about four years in my current house, shared with the landlord and his spanish girlfriend plus two other tenants that come and go. Alas, instead of having all the facilities getting better each year (with the room rent being increased each year) it has, unfortunately, gets worse; greywater from shower and bath that leaks down to the kitchen, hot water boiler that never work properly, despite the landlord's promise since December 2004 that they are going to install a new boiler in new year, up till today 15th April 2005, I see no improvement with the old boiler let alone having a new one. When being challenged on the 'prospective' of getting a new boiler, he mentioned that he already spoken to the boiler man and that they are 'measuring up' the empty space in the kitchen now since the new boiler is apparently bigger than the old one...hmm..and so, as I 'waited', days gone by, weeks turned to month and then three months has passed by, still I see nothing new!! am I gobsmacked? apparently nope... These problems combined with his lack of self control (read: banging and trying to get into people's room 3 o'clock in the morning- thank God I always remember to lock my door every night before i snooze off -lucky enough, I am the only tenant that able to get a key for her room-that is, after a long and painful whinging for a year-, abusive and trying to get into fight with passers-by outside the house..) during most of his drunken night with the other two tenants and the state of the whole house especially where you can see slugs wandering around the kitchen floor, table and chairs in liberal, I decided to pack my stuff and say 'cheers!'
Other obstacle I had encountered was the difficulty to get my airline ticket from the Emerald Travel Agent (words of advice: NEVER EVER PURCHASeD YOUR TICKET FROM EMERALD TRAVEL AGENT NO MATTER HOW CHEAP THEY ARE!). I had booked my airline ticket in January for travelling back home in March. Being informed that the ticket will be issued a week after my payment in January, I find it strange when it did not arrived two weeks after that. Calling their office was a real pain in the arse as well since they refused to co-operate and keep asking me to wait and wait and wait. Two weeks before my departure in March, I decided that I had enough and so had fiercely calling and bombarding them with emails until the woman dealing with my itinenary, Ms Natalie Koycheva replied to my email stating that a new ticket will be issued BUT I am liable to pay £40.00 to re-issue the ticket!! For the love of God!! There is no need to be a scientist to know that the fault does not lie in me as I never received the ticket and that the ticket apparently stated to be lost in post! No matter how I argued with her, she refused to settle the problem and said that there is nothing she can do about it as the order came from her 'manager'! Furious and overwhelmed with anger, I decided to call my airline network (Emirates), they agreed that the Emerald travel agent is the one responsible for the charges and ..guess what..it's actually cost £35.00 not £40.00...hmm... Tired of the whole situation, I decided to write a complain letter to the manager of the Emerald Travel Agent (Janet xx) and ABTA. The next working day, I decided to call them again to settle the 'unfinished fight' and glad enough to know that only this time they admit that the charges to be paid by themselves and that new ticket will only be issued one week before my travel. No apologies (especially for trying to overcharged me), nothing.. Even at this stage, each person has different explanation..some says that the ticket will be issued and sent straight to the issue desks in the airport but some says that the ticket will be issued and sent to my home address..
Anyway, yes, after a long and painful fight..I managed to go home and yes, here I am now back for my research :)
Thursday, November 04, 2004
The Driving Force towards Prefabrication Housing in the UK
The Egan Report “Rethinking Construction” published in July 1998 by the Construction Task Force, has concluded that UK construction is in need to concentrate towards a more efficient and improved output quality. The construction industry is to focus on improving client’s satisfaction. This can be done by cutting the construction costs, increased in quality of construction, and moving towards sustainable construction with emphasis on prefabrication and off-site assembly. As being cited in the DTI report (prepared by Phillipson, 2001), The Egan Report also suggested that the construction industry is in need to become more innovative to streamline the construction process and to develop partnering between contractors and suppliers in moving towards a dispute free industry.
Since the publication of the Egan Report, prefabrication has then been identified as a major way forward in delivering these required improvements (Phillipson, 2001). Major impact caused by the Egan Report has included a range of initiatives such as Movement for Innovation (M41) and the Construction Best Practice Programme.
Currently, the UK construction industry is applying prefabrication to a wide variety of forms and applications. This ranges from the simple prefabricated site hut, which has been a long established application, up to volumetric units that can be delivered to site to integrate into the structure of the building.
At the beginning of the 21st century, UK has been predicted in need for about four million and 225 thousand new homes by 2016 (DETR 1998a, Cavill 1999). The issues include increasing the current density of housing developments from 30 houses to 50 houses per hectare, curbing carbon dioxide emissions from water and space heating without eliminating a comfortable internal temperature in the particular house, reducing the destruction of Greenfield land and building sustainable houses which allow the occupants to feel part of a community (DETR 1999, DETR 1998b).
This concern has lead to DETR producing a Housing Green Paper “Quality and Choice: A Decent Home for All” in April 2001 which identified prefabrication as a way forward in providing affordable housing, and have considered ways in which more resources could be used in schemes that use prefabrication.
Modularisation or modular design has been described as the key to prefabrication (Loetterle, 2004). Modular design refers to construction using standardised units or standardised dimensions. Modular buildings do not have to be built using prefabrication techniques, but they are usually involved.
Since the publication of the Egan Report, prefabrication has then been identified as a major way forward in delivering these required improvements (Phillipson, 2001). Major impact caused by the Egan Report has included a range of initiatives such as Movement for Innovation (M41) and the Construction Best Practice Programme.
Currently, the UK construction industry is applying prefabrication to a wide variety of forms and applications. This ranges from the simple prefabricated site hut, which has been a long established application, up to volumetric units that can be delivered to site to integrate into the structure of the building.
At the beginning of the 21st century, UK has been predicted in need for about four million and 225 thousand new homes by 2016 (DETR 1998a, Cavill 1999). The issues include increasing the current density of housing developments from 30 houses to 50 houses per hectare, curbing carbon dioxide emissions from water and space heating without eliminating a comfortable internal temperature in the particular house, reducing the destruction of Greenfield land and building sustainable houses which allow the occupants to feel part of a community (DETR 1999, DETR 1998b).
This concern has lead to DETR producing a Housing Green Paper “Quality and Choice: A Decent Home for All” in April 2001 which identified prefabrication as a way forward in providing affordable housing, and have considered ways in which more resources could be used in schemes that use prefabrication.
Modularisation or modular design has been described as the key to prefabrication (Loetterle, 2004). Modular design refers to construction using standardised units or standardised dimensions. Modular buildings do not have to be built using prefabrication techniques, but they are usually involved.
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