So.... That IS Grey BUT....

I walked over to 1Utama for the first time yesterday for dinner. No. I'd still have walked even if I could drive my car. It's that near.

Shortly after I'd walked into 1U, my cell phone rings. It's the delivery guy with the faulty x-ray vision. He says he's here to make the exchange so I tell him to wait 5 minutes and I'll be there. I go in and grab the box containing the tap. It's a little box (about 1' x 1') how big can a tap be? And the guy is walking in from his van carrying a BIG ass box. Stunned, I ask him what the hell is that? It's a grey sink. I explain to him kindly I've already got a grey sink. It's the tap that I want changed. He grumbles a bit. There's a 'Miss X' involved in his mutterings who is surely the charming young lady I spoke to yesterday over the phone.

I think I know who Miss X is. I've seen her and spoken to her at the shop itself. Shame really cos she's a bit of a hottie. She's quite sexy even without the tattoos on her neck and lower back. Viva la tramp stamp!!!! She just doesn't seem that bright that she doesn't know the difference between a basin and a tap. Then again, my only interest in her would be happy fun time not engage in a discussion about medieval poetry (and other brainy stuff). That and I'd like her to get my order right, dammit!

It's grey dammit!

Had an interesting phone conversation yesterday evening.

My glass sink and tap finally arrived. I have been waiting more than a month for these things to come. Apparently the sink needed to be imported in. So after a long wait, hallelujah! They arrived. Only the tap wasn't the right colour. They're supposed to match. They're supposed to be black glass. The tap was clear glass. In the business, black glass is called grey. So I ring up.

Me: I just got my delivery and the tap is clear glass. It's supposed to be grey.
Her: Let me call the driver and call you back.

I waited over and hour and I didn't get a return call. So I call again.

Me: Hi, it's me again.
Her: I called the driver. He said he delivered a grey tap to you.
Me: (thinks: so both of you think I'm an idiot and I don't know the difference between a grey and clear tap?!) He didn't. I have here a clear glass tap.
Her: He said he gave you a grey tap.
Me: Oh really? Should I bring the tap over to you and you tell me what colour it is?
Her: .........
Me: Tell your delivery driver his x-ray vision's not working properly because not only did he give me the wrong colour he also didn't open the box in front of me to verify its contents.
Her: (after a pause) We'll exchange the tap as soon as we can.
Me: Thank you.

Yeh, I know I haven't been posting at anything like the rate at which I was going before I moved house.

Sorry. My bad.

But it's been one thing after another. Of course with the shift I was totally occupied with that. After moving, I went back for CNY and after I got back home I had to move my phone line over and get my internet connection going. TM took a while with the phone line. That's okay. They didn't move over my broadband connection till I called to complain. It was supposed to be done within 3 days of my phone line being active. So on the 3rd day with still no connection I rang TM.

Me: Another two working days?!?! (This was when I realised they hadn't done anything about activating my line.)
TM rep: Sorry....
Me: (sighs) That's alright. It's not your fault.

It wasn't her fault. It's the damn system.

I did post a coupla postings after that but then I fell ill and some fuckhead broke into my car and stole among other things, my car road tax. WTF?!? If I wasn't ill I'd be hiding in the bushes right now with a baseball bat near where I'd parked my car. Them bastards took my road tax, my SmartTag, all the money the could find in the car and (get this) my air freshener. They left behind my cheque books and two pairs of expensive sunglasses. And I know they didn't look in the boot. Guess it could have been worse. However, if I smell Ambi Pur on some bastard hanging around that area, I won't wait. I'll tag the cunt with the bat and without asking questions first.

So yeh. I been stuck at home all week. Surely with all the time I spend at home now, I would be connected? Nope. Not really. I don't have a place to sit down properly with my laptop. Don't have wireless at home so I am plugged into my modem which is beside my bed. The phone outlet which is in my office doesn't work.... That, where an office is concerned, is a HUGE stick in the spokes. Sitting on the floor with my laptop on the bedside table tends to put pins and needles in my legs and my ass goes numb after a while. It's already started to happen as I type this. Sitting on my bed with the laptop on my (well....) lap kinda gets really hot after a while.

I plan to buy a wireless router modem. I just need to get my road tax so I can actually go places. On the bright side, I haven't been spending much money since I can't go anywhere. The downside is is that I haven't been eating regularly since I haven't been able to drive my car. Eat at home? Cook? Sure. I just need to go get groceries yeh? Hop in the car and head out to buy some. No wait. I can't drive my car. Well.... that's fucked that.

If it wasn't for Barbsie bringing food for me, I'd have starved by now.

Oh yeh. And you might have realised that there was no way I could have taken to tap to the sales rep so she could have told me what colour it really is unless I walked all the way there. It's a really good thing she didn't take me up on my offer!

Literacy in the Postal System

I'm getting rather concerned about the post office and their employees. I suppose it's good coincidence that I'm reading 'Going Postal' by Terry Pratchett at the moment.

I think my postman is illiterate, dyslexic, drinking on the job, smoking weed on the job and/or blind.

My house number is 27. I get both my next door neighbours' mail. So I put up my house number. Nice and big next to the mail box slot. I still get mail for #25 and #29.

I also get mail for #27. Only it's the wrong street. I get mail for 2/5, 2/1 and 2/9. I used to drop these wayward letters on my way out (or in). Now, I can't be bothered. To the residents of BU2, if you want your missing Astro Guide, it's probably with me.

Connected Again

Today, the second of March is a historic day. I am finally online. I would like to thank TM for getting me connected to the world once again. I also would not like to thank them for taking a week to move my phone line and another week to get my broadband connection going.

Ya bastards.

On a lighter note I have discovered why I had no signal for my sat/cable TV. There was No Satellite Dish. My thanks to the electrician who did such a good job of putting in the cable and concealing it within the walls and then forgetting to tell me that there was no dish on the roof. But it's ok. I had my Astro connected at 11pm last night. Crazy hardworking Astro installers. My next door neighbour was wondering what I was doing sending 2 guys up onto the roof at 10 o'clock at night.

Phone, broadband, cable.

Hello world!

No Words. Just Pictures.

Where are we runnin'?

I'm still running about. I can spare a few minutes to type something out. I've been putting up blinds, curtains, pictures, clocks, shelves, etc and moving stuff over. I'm really tired but still runnin'. On empty it seems. Furniture is in on Thursday.

My house is looking awesome.

Pictures soon.

Like a Bee

Hiya! Sorry I haven't been updating. Been really busy. I was back in Ipoh on the 7th to the 8th and spent the first night in the new place on the 8th. I've been moving stuff over and sorting things out. I should be settled soon.

Zis ees where zee majeek happenz baybee!

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Well, whaddya know.... I'm in Ipoh.

I got into town at about 6:30pm today. It's nearly 8:30pm now and I am stuffed full of good Ipoh food. I'm supposed to be playing footy tonight at 9 till midnight. Instead I'm 200km away and I ate like a pig during dinner. Life's good sometimes.

I came back on a quick last minute decision. Decided at 3pm and left the house by 4pm. I will be back in KL tomorrow though. Here today. Back tomorrow.

I declare the 8th of February to be the official date I moved into my new house.

Wooohooooo!!!!

Soft Hands

Argh. My hands are full of blisters. They're soft.

I've been swearing away at the people who thought it was a good idea to dump building materials in the garden of the new house. Probably the developers' people when the house was built. So far I've had to dig up and remove stones, bricks, floor marble, tiles and concrete. Damnit. I've got multiple blisters to show for it. Yeh. Soft hands.

I'm determined to get the garden done. It was weed heaven when I bought the place. Right now it's bare soil with hint of weed. The obvious thing is to get someone to level out the land and plant the grass but I have to do it myself.

Quite simply, it's my house.

I need to make something mine alone. There was a lot of stuff done to the house that I could have done. A lot of the electrical work, some of the plumbing but all of the fittings. Sure, I can paint but it isn't realistic for one guy to paint the whole house, in and out, all by himself.

The garden is mine. It's going to be tiring, painful and frustrating but I'm going to love it. It's just like a tattoo. It hurts but it's the end result that counts.

I showed a friend the blisters. Conversation follows.

"Dammit look at my hands man!"

"Like that you're not holding a golf club. You can't. You can't even hold your dick."

"That's okay. I'll find someone to hold it for me."

Some things you do yourself.

Some things you don't mind other people doing for you.

HAHA!!

Source of Pride

Why am I so proud of my new kitchen? Well, it's new for a start! But mainly of the simple issue of bring down part of the wall and removing a door and a window. It opened the whole place up. The window was particularly stupid. I've never liked the naco-window-inside-the-house thing.

My kitchen designer and I can argue all we want over whose idea it was. Initially, I wanted to knock down the wall to open up space and for airiness as well as for more light. Then it came down to the aesthetics.

So, bringing down the whole wall was my idea. Bringing down half the wall was the designer's idea.

I think it can be said then that the whole thing was my idea and only half hers'.

Haha!

Oh well.

Anyway, the lights over the breakfast table. That one I can claim all to myself as well as throwing out the naco windows and installing a ledge there instead.

SuperKitchen

It's done. It's fabulous. It's got everything. Yeah. Including the kitchen sink.

Click on the pic for full size.

The Kitchen

Picture taken at 10AM


Picture taken at 7PM

It's coming along nicely. Done tomorrow. Will post another picture then.

Two Handed Typing

Out of the sling and into a wrist support.
Lucky for me I wasn't wearing the rings you can see in the background.
My fingers swelled as well and looked like sausages at the worst of it.

Ah.... back to typing with both hands. It's a good thing being able to have use, though not complete, of my right hand again. I can drive once more (I drive a car with a manual transmission), brush my teeth, write and sign my name. It's not such a bad thing then that while I'm right handed, I mine for boogers with my left hand. Been like that since I were a kid! Hahahaha!

My new house is coming along nicely. I had the lights installed and my bathroom done up today. I have changed all the original lights at the house. I've had a closer look at them since and they're just plain butt ugly. The green wall lights have silver hearts all around the edges and the other ones have pink plastic balls sticking out. I'd bought new lights but I also brought ten lights from my current house to be installed in the new house. So yes, after they were taken out, I had to have them replaced with the butt ugly lights. It ain't pretty....

It should be well worth it though. While I was looking over the new house which finally has lights, I'd look at the familiar things and feel like this is really home. Even before I've moved. I'm very sure that once I'd settled in, I'd get used to the place and feel 'at home' which was what happened with my current house. Having familiar things at the new house though has really accelerated the feeling of belonging. I have the same porch and garage lights to welcome me home. Believe you me that that is extremely important to me. My living room lights are also from my current house. My bedroom has my old (and familiar) ceiling fan.

So yeh.... it's all good. I just have to put up with some butt ugly lights till I finally move for real.

Halfway There

You may or may not know I'm moving soon. My new house is being renovated. It's more fun but more stressful this time round since I do know what I'm doing and what's happening this time unlike my current house. These are various pictures of my new house as it is now.


View from the dining area


Kitchen


Garden Shed

8

I've been asked before what my parents' house in Ipoh looks like. Especially with reference to the posting about bullying Well, okay. I'll post the pic. This is the house I grew up in. My parents moved in April 1974, I was born in June.

Fish Pond Blues

Argh. The mechanics of a fish pond is giving me a headache. I am designing by myself, a fish pond for my new house. It's not just a rectangular hole in the ground, there's more to it than that. My pond tentatively will be 12 feet in length, 7 feet width and 6 feet depth of which 4' is dug down and 2' is built up above ground. Of the 2 feet built up, only one foot will have water. I'm not sure about aesthetics but building up the 2 feet is definitely safer. Ponds at ground level have a certain notoriety in having people and animals falling in. My parents' front pond has claimed every single dog we've had (till they learn it's there) and a certain number of children.... including myself!

My headache is the filter. I don't know the pond volume to filter volume ratio for a comprehensive pump driven filter. It's causing me a headache in the design as my first design showed its glaring errors when I drew it out. To by pass the need for an extensive filter system I was going to use two cannister filters which could filter up to 1000 gallons each. Here's the trouble, I had them designed sunk down to fit level with the 2 foot build up. Once looking at an actual diagram of it last night I realised that the outflow works on gravity i.e. they need to be higher than the surface of the water. Crap crap crap.

Back to the drawing board.