Not such a bad place to be detained ...

Sometimes you don't care too much if a meeting begins late and you're made to wait.

Sometimes. Okay, rarely.

This morning was one of those rare times. I turned up to the Civic Centre at Penrith for a meeting with a client of ours.

I strode up to the reception desk, showed my card, and stated my appointment. The receptionist rang it through, but was informed on the other end that my client was unavoidably detained in another field meeting.

"Go and get yourself a coffee, if you like. You'll be waiting at least 15 minutes."

"No," I replied, "I think I'll just sit here and wait."

I sat down and began to go back over my notes, putting the fine-toothed comb through my questions. I looked at my watch. I did some more fine-tuning. I looked at my watch again, and began to add decorative flourishes to my scribbles.

As I began to contemplate the ostentation of question marks, sanity laid hold of me and I did the best thing I could think of: nothing. I just sat back in my chair and looked around.

And the view was very cool. As I ran my eyes up to the ceiling, I had a sense of being in a space both open yet embracing. There is a delicate balance of curves and straight lines. There are some sweet little pecularities which add charm to the space by their cautious intrusion. It feels clean without being minimalist. On a day like this, it was a really nice space to just sit in and appreciate. On a really sunny day, it would be sheer delight.

The building is the work of architect Feiko Bouman. As I look at his other designs, I get the same sense about them too. I also love his use of colour; it makes his buildings fit so naturally into the surrounding environs.

All too soon, I heard the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps and looked up to see a smiling middle-aged lady approaching me.

"I'm sorry for being so late" she said to me, extending her hand and looking genuinely apologetic.

"Not a problem," I said, smiling back and feeling quite relaxed. "Please don't apologise."