it had not been a good day : news had come in that a tall building project planned for construction in manila , with work due to start in 2011 , and which carver had thought that he had succeeded in halting , on the strength of an objection based on environmental grounds that he had previously lodged at the philippines department of building and planning and which , at the time , had looked like it might take many months to overturn , had actually been dismissed as irrelevant to quote the letter he had received that morning .