Lost & Found

Life is filled with colours again. How wonderful........

Just within this week, I finally reconnected with some old friends. From primary school to secondary school to ex-colleagues. I cannot believe this but yes, it is for real. I reconnect with not just one but a few.

Suddenly life is happening again. I spoke to a few of them, catching up with updates. For the umpteenth time I repeated my part. It's all being told like a script by now coz I have been answering the same questions and telling the same old uninteresting life of mine.

It is so strange how life revolve around us. At one point of time, I told myself I would never see this person again. Never thought we would someday touch base. But hey, thanks to the advance technology that we have, we are all finally reconnected.

We have all grown older and wiser, I supposed. Not to mention some has grown sideways while some still remain the same. I find myself more comfortable and chatty with all my long lost friends. Could it be because I am now more mature, more forgiving and have better PR skills?

I am still searching for some more old friends....just like searching for my lost soul. Once I find them I will categorise them under "Lost & Found".

It just fits perfectly well.

Down, down and down

Life has not been good to me lately.

I hate going home. I hate stepping into the kitchen especially. Everyday I see the incomplete kitchen, I get so mad. So frustrating I just didn't know what to do. It does look like the contractor is never going to finish the job despite having taken the money.

Who would want to finish the work now that the money has been paid. Only a fool would pay up before the job is completed and that fool is none other than ME.

I blamed myself for listening to my mother. My mother kept telling me the old man will not cheat us. So I trusted her and I paid. And look at the mess I got myself into.

Already stressed with the contractors, suddenly business picked up and I am overloaded with assignments. So many until I began to have sleepless nights. I think and think of where to find "heads". Been working late daily as well.

With all the worry and stress, I am now rewarded with gastritis. It was bearable until a few days ago, I had to take sick leave. I puked. I felt my stomach filled with gas and acid. Then the pain. Then the bloatedness. Then the hunger pang but after eating 2 mouthful, I felt so full but then an hour later I am hungry again but I could only take another 2 mouthful. And for the past 2 days, my stomach has been churning.

Oh...not to forget during my sick leave I was working from home. Not that I liked to do it. Boss was on the phone with me talking about work and I had to get things done.

I am not happy at all. I'm still having gastritis. Medication has not been of much help. How can I get the contractors to finish the job? I paid him out of sympathy. He has a sick wife whom I have met. His eldest son is utterly useless. He is an old man in his 60s. I feel for him when I see him climb the ladder to nail the wood and so on. I wished he didn't have to work so hard anymore at his age. For these facts, I am being taken advantage of.

It is an expensive lesson. Never be kind anymore. Never have a soft heart anymore. Never trust anyone, not even your own mother.

Life sucks.

Contractors

Has anyone has any pleasant encounter with house contractors? I'd like to hear your good stories.

Let me tell you about my experience with contractors.

My house is undergoing renovation. Not a very extensive one but it is to extend the kitchen, shift the toilet to the back and build the wall fence in front. Renovation started somewhere in end July. I was told it takes 3 weeks to complete. Hmm...3 weeks is not that long. I could live with the mess for 3 weeks, I told myself.

As usual, I don't quite trust these people. So I told myself...ok...give them 5 weeks. Should be sufficient to get everything done. Guess what? It's not completed until now!

The problem? This old man kept telling my mom he has no money to buy materials. So mom pitied him and gave him some money. And yes, he did buy the material. But it was not enough for the entire works. Now he has taken almost all the payment and he has yet to complete the reno. Despite calling him to come over and get it done, he still said he has no money to buy material.

Honestly, my patience has run dry. I have exploded right in front of them. Still no movement. During times like this I wished I have a "taiko" who can help me to talk to them.

Not much work left actually. Just a little bit of tiles to replace because they ran short of it. And then the painting and fix up the kitchen cabinet. That is all that was left to be done. I have gone for months without electricity for the kitchen, no fridge to use and poorEdrik had to make do with bread everyday as his lunch pack. I couldn't make him egg sandwich because I was not able to cook in the dark. The pipes weren't ready and I had no water to use in the kitchen.

Now I have water and electricity, but I have no cabinets to store my things. The whole house is in such a mess and thick layers of dust can be seen all over the place.

Today I cleaned the new kitchen until my fingers ached. You know the new windows which they put up? There were cement splattered all over it. At the sill and on the glass. And then the door frame also had the same problem. Had to wipe hard and use scrapers to scrape off the cement. My nails all turned ugly because of the harsh work. We even decided to paint the place on our own now. What to do? We cannot sit and wait. It has taken too long. We have to go and get our own paint now. Means, more money needed to pump in again. It was so much of hard work and I began to curse and swear them in my heart.

Finally, tonight I told my mom this. "So suey to have given the job to them. Please tell this to the contractor.They have been fortunate to meet us but we have been unfortunate to meet them"

Moral of the story : Never ever trust contractors. Never ever have a soft spot for them, regardless if the contractor is an old man who comes to you with very, very sad story. You just have to shut your ears and conscience when you deal with contractors.

While you may pity them, once they put your house in a mess and you have no water to wash, no electricity to use, you can't cook and you plead with them to quickly get it done..they will still turn a deaf ear on you. You will not get any sympathy from them.

My feelings about them at this very moment : I wish I could get my hands on them and wring their necks till their heads drop. That would give me some satisfaction.

Closed Chapter

Okay, I know I have bragged and bad mouthed my neighbour by putting up the photos accompanied with a write-up.

But who to blame for all these? Had you all been in my shoes, you would know how I feel.

Anyway, their contractors came and rectified the gutter and the pipe at the back of the house. Whether there will be more problems or not, we have yet to find out. Will only know when there is heavy downpour.

As for the "jaguar" and the plants, nothing has been done. Honking still carries on whenever they come back. Like a handicap person who got no hands to open the gate. I will stop here before I begin bad mouthing again.

This chapter about my "beloved" neighbour is closed for now until I detect more problems of which I hope not to.

My "Beloved" Neighbour

Today I am going to tell you about my neighbour.

This picture was taken right at my gate. Each morning when I wake up I am greeted by this rotten "jaguar". The "jaguar belongs to my "beloved neighbour. As you can see, the "jaguar" is already in a bad shape. The body has got holes caused by the rust. The car has not been in used for more than a year. Someone came and stole the car battery one day and the "smart" owner went and replaced another one which got stolen again within the next few weeks. As you can see, someone broke the window too and now it's being covered by garbage bag. Such an eye sore!

Now..behind this car, there are some trees and plants. When the neighbour first moved in, they started planting all sorts of trees and plants, Not just this amount that you are seeing, there were more! It was like a mini jungle. Despite telling them not to plant, they still did. The second son said this is a public area, so it's not up to us to sound him. The last straw came when my mom saw them planting sugar canes. You know how messy sugar canes can be? Well, mom was adamant about them removing the sugar cane. They had no choice and relented.

You see, some time ago before they moved in, one night some robbers hid on top of a tree near where their plants are now, waiting for their victims. The victims could be any of us that were getting down from the car to open the gate. My mom spotted and alerted the neighbours. Despite telling them these story, they were still very stubborn. Maklumlah.....the one hidding on top of the tree happened to be the same skin colour as them. Very difficult to be noticed at night unless they start to grin and you will notice the two rows of teeth.

This neighbour always makes trips to India and each time when he returns he has some new faces in his house. These people will act like his servants ie opening the gate, washing the cars and gardening. Lately, there hasn't been any servants around. So no one to tend to their plants. Some of his kacang plants or what..I don't knowla has grown too tall, I think and fallen. But no one is chopping it off or at least clean up the mess. It's just left there.

This is not the end of the story. There are more. here is a picture of his house. Notice the 2 red arrows? You see when they painted the house, both his neighbours share of walls also he painted his house's colour, making his house looked complete. The part which I have circled, I believe there has been some leakage into his house, hence his contractor greased the roof. Well, I don't mind if he greased only his roof, he actually greased my wall too. Look at the black patch.

*Note : This pic was taken before I put up a wall fence.

To get a clearer view on the grease.

If you also notice, there is a lighter shade of peach sticking to their wall. It is actually a thin piece of metal painted in peach and stuck that for reasons which I believed is to cover up some holes to prevent the house from leaking. And because of that when there is heavy rain, the water just flowed over to my house, like rain taking a trip down the water slide. Not that the water get into my house but it actually landed on my porch roof. And I am pissed.

I have told them to remove their gutter several times as they have exceeded and invaded my territory. This picture is so obvious. Even a blind person can tellthat they have "makan" my house.

But...guess what? Their contractor came yesterday and insisted that no, they have not exceeded what is allowed. The contractor claimed that it is ngam-ngam at the border of their house. Mata setok, I tell you. I thought he has cock eye but when I looked at him, he has perfectly normal eyes.

Last week, my family decided to build the wall fence. And so we did. After plastering the wall, the workers wanted to go over to their place to plaster the other side of the wall. But my "kind" neighbours refused to let them in. So we had no choice but to leave it unplastered.

A few days ago, I saw these 2 tiny dried up cement which look like pebbles on the wall.

Then I found out that these 2 cement piece were actually from their side. You see, when we put up the bricks on layers of cement, there are bound to be some cement droppings. These 2 were the result of that and the "kind" neighbour has decided to let us know by picking it up and place it on our wall.

Oh not just that, they even had the cheek to question me if I am going to plaster the other side of the wall. When I told them that someone in their house has refuseed to let the workers in, the elder son simply shook his head and deny it.

Their gutter has been leaking again. The last time it leaked we told them to get it repaired because the water actually flowed into my car porch. If, like what his contractor had claimed, ngam-ngam at the border, how can the water flow into my porch? Anyway, they didn't repair the leakage. After months later I couldn't take it anymore. I hung a canvas over my fence, below the gutter so that when water flows, it goes straight back into their house. Don't blame me...they forced me to do it.

This round it leaked again. 2 spots. You can see it from this picture.

And the result :

Nice patch, huh?

Let's move on to the back of the house. Looked clean, ain't it?

My "kind" neighbour is so generous. The wife always throw the leftover to feed the birds. I find it so dirty. Not only that. The pigeons and crows come for it. We all know how toxic their droppings are. Shouldn't some people need to be considerate here?

The garbage bin which they got their contractor to do for them has no lid. There was one day I took a peep in it and saw so many flies...the big and shiny ones. This pic which I took is considerably ok comparing to the one I saw last week.

You know this pipe is supposed to be like their front gutter, meant for water to flow. Its facing towards my house again. Unfortunately there has not been heavy rain during this weekend. Otherwise I would have another lovely picture to show. when it rains heavily, the water gushes out from this pipe. if I happened to be opening my back door during that time, the water from this pipe will be cleaning my door from me. Seriously, it gushes out like waterfall . You see, I cannot understand. Why need to put that elbow? Just allow the water to gush straight into the drain will do whatttttt!!!
Last week, when I saw it with my own eyes, I couldn't take the nonsense anymore. Under the heavy rain, with an umbrella, I banged their back door. Bang, bang, bang until they came. I showed it to them. To the elder son, actually who happens to be a lecturer at a university. See....we have educated people in that house but do not have civilised minds. He said he will get the contractor to rectify it but a week has gone. Gutter not removed, this pipe also not rectified yet. Sighhhhhh.

Lastly, look at this.

Remember their back lane looks clean? Well, yea, of course it looked clean because they don't throw the unwanted stuffs at their area. Instead they threw it right across the backlane near another neighbour's house. Both our backs are facing the side of this neighbour (try to imagine, k? I don't know how else to explain). One look and people will think it is this house owner which threw the stuffs out without realising it is the doing of my exact neighbour.

Cool neighbour, eh?

Continuation - Bali Trip

After the Monkey Sanctuary, we moved on to Kintamani Volcanoe. Apart from the breezy wind, it drizzled a little when we arrived. As we got down from our van, we were approached by many sellers selling t-shirts and souvenirs. All of us were hungry. We ignored them and proceeded to the restaurant. I have to say that was a smart move.

Kintamani Volcano

However after lunch and a few snapshots, we decided to leave. It was raining again and while waiting for the van to pick us up, big mistake.......my family decided to open their mouth and asked how much were the souvenirs. In no time they were swarmed by the sellers.

Next stop - Tirta Empul in Tampak Siring.

Before we are allowed to enter the temple, we had to wear sarongs. One pakcik decided to help me tie the sarong. Don't know if he was sincere in helping (because I didn't ask for help) or he was trying to "menggatal". My mom asked for his help to tie the sarong and he turned her down.

First..like this.

Then...like this.

The outcome...tadaaa

After donning on the sarong, we were taken to this place. It was filled with people and all were queuing up for their turns to bathe in this holy water. It is believed that the holy water is able to cleanse away the bad luck and also to cure illnesses.


And where did the holy water come from? It came from this spring. If you noticed the black spots, those are actually the water sprouting out from the underground. This is not a man made spring. It is from a natural source and it has not dried up since it was first discovered.
Next we visited other areas and saw prayers taking place. The Balinese here usually prayed for peace and safety.
From the spot where the prayers was taking place, we saw a big house seated at the tip of a hill. Our tour guide said this house belongs to one of the Indonesia's president. I cannot recall his name though. And that hilltop is actually a breast of a woman, if seen from a top view and that house is actually built right on the woman's breast.From this view, you will see both the breasts. A bridge was built to cross from one breast to another. Amazing..if this was during Gulliver's time, his wife's breasts would need to have a bridge in between so that those tiny people would be able to cross over.

Another death

I guess I should stop grieving. Just when I was to think I should stop grieving, I heard of another death. Teo Beng Hock, whom I do not even know, one who is not even related to me. But I feel for his family. He died while under MACC's custody and his death has been unexplainable.

While I want him to rest in peace, I also wished he would appear into somebody's dream and relate what transpired during his last hours.

His fiancee's words to him on his funeral was enough to move everyone to tears. His sson-to-be mother-in-law was crying uncontrollably. So were his own parents.

I think I have blogged enough about death. Otherwise in time to come, my blog might be turned into an orbituary session.

Pray that justice will be served.