Before I begin this essay, please allow me to break my own rule of posting articles every Friday only – #everyFridayblogpost advocacy. I just need to get this off my head and I believe the thoughts are also worth sharing. 😉

This is my first time to view a wide-scale construction site a la bird’s eye view from where we’re staying now. When the construction was just starting a few months back and all we saw are lots of digging and excavating here and there, it wasn’t interesting at all. But now that they are starting to lay down the foundations, it fascinates me to see how they all work.

When my Dad (who’s a retired civil engineer) visited last summer, I’ve had this great opportunity to ask him a lot of questions I’ve been brewing being the inquisitive me. And of course, he was able to answer all of them because he’s an engineer. 😉

I got to know what that grinding equipment with a long metal rod (it’s just so hard to explain. lol) is called and the pillar-like structures are called pylons, then why the workers have color-coded shirts and a whole lot more of interesting facts for me.

I wish my Dad is still here to explain more interesting structures evolving from the construction because I still have a lot of questions. lol It really fascinates me to look at the progress, from a vacant land to a now almost finished foundation and the nearby newly constructed buildings are being painted. It’s like a beautiful project that is slowly coming to life.

Just imagine an idea or a concept created on a piece of paper and now becoming real. I really admire engineers especially when it comes to projects like this – turning something as small as a piece of paper into something as big as 3 hectares perhaps. Of course, with the help of a big team of architects, project managers, and all.

Going back to my questions, here they are:

– Do they ever make a mistake with their calculations? (Now I get it why engineering students should be very excellent in Math. Which, sadly, I can never do.) *sigh*

– How many engineers on-site (and off-site?) are required to pull off this project?

– How can you make cement harden inside a pit that’s filled with rainwater?

– How would you know how deep is how deep?

– Did engineers study every single construction material used (which I know are quite a lot) to test which will work in certain structures i.e. type of buildings, land type, etc.?

– Is there a team leader for every color-coded team or only one for the rest of the workers on site?

– How would you know the very exact spot where to start constructing the building? (I am guessing for this one it is through the land measurement which is in square meters. Which means you have to painstakingly measure every single corner of soil and dirt. Whew! Hard work, it is.)

These are just some of the questions I have for now based on what I am seeing from afar. For sure, if you’ll bring me inside the site, these questions will triple. 😀

I once told my husband while watching them how patient every one involved in these projects is. It is a delayed gratification thing and it all requires intense hard labor.

When I look at the construction workers, they seem like teeny weeny tiny ants doing easy peasy work and the construction equipment looks like matchbox cars. And yet I know what they do is no joke and when I see the construction equipment up close, they are sooooo huge. They are overwhelmingly scary to look at. But I am dreaming of operating one of them “Transformers trucks.” (Transformers is my fave movie of all time. Yep!)

And then I see female engineers going in and out and I’m like, “All hail to you alpha females. How to be you?” 😉

It made me contemplate about life. When you’re looking at things through a bird’s eye view, you get to see how every process works and each process is involved in the totality of one goal and completion of the project. And yet if you’re gonna be placed on site and up close to where everything is happening, everything may also seem overwhelming. You can be lost if you have no blueprint, your guide.

Also, you’ll never appreciate the beauty of the going ins and going outs of the process if you’re in the middle of it. It’s like asking why you’re doing the things that you’re doing. But when you see the bigger picture, ah yes, now you know why this structure needs to be here and why it has to look that way and why others are different from it.

Just like you, me, us, life, God…. 😉

Always contemplating about everything under the sun, the stars, and the moon,

P.S.

The construction noise albeit muffled because of the excellent soundproofing of the windows and doors made me do this article out of a deeper contemplation. lol 😀

I don’t like Math and yet it’s a weird situation I’m in that I’m making calculations now. Though I am happy and relieved every time my bro’s father-in-law brings in the finished output. He’s such a genius craftsman. He can translate your ideas very well and will add something more to make it even better, if not, the best of the best.

Blueprint

Finished output awesomely crafted by Papa Boyet.

I know how miscalculations can be such a disaster when building a solid project. That is why I take every effort to measure and design everything well otherwise my siblings will kill me if the finished output is bad. lol I’m tasked to oversee the creation and installation of the cabinets and fixtures for my sister’s new condominium since she and her husband are in Norway.

Btw, this is a skill I learned from my parents. If Mom is not a teacher, she’ll be an architect, a fashion designer, a singer and guitarist, and a whole lot more of super mom qualities. Yup, the first ever jack-of-all-trades person in the family. 😀 I always see her and Dad laying out blueprints like this on a table when they’re on to a project outside their professional careers. They both designed our ancestral home in the province with the help of an architect friend and for the recent developments, with my architect cousin.

My 3rd sister is the one who’s gifted with superior interior designing skills. Her ideas will just leave you wondering why they never, ever crossed your mind. 😀 I am just grateful to God though that the skills we’ve been gifted with are being used towards collective efforts to achieve one common goal where many will benefit from.

I guess I’ll cut this short because it’s supposed to be a postscript. haha Sorry, my bad. Storytelling for me is always, always a long trail of words. 😀 Btw, if you’re an engineer and you read this, would you mind answering the questions I posted above? Thanks! 😊