Had been very busy lately just like shifting house. Termites
or white ants as commonly known decided to share a living at the first floor in
my house. It started possibly from a small leakage from the Master Bedroom
bathroom to the Family Hall. The terrorists were accidentally spotted during
pre Aidilfitri housekeeping. The parquet flooring was laid sometimes early 1984
during the house construction. It was the trend then as marble, terrazzo and
tiles were more expensive.
We now had no choice but to change the whole parquet
flooring to tiles. The Master bedroom bathroom was refurbished with waterproof
walling preventing further leakage. It was a messy exercise as four (4)
sections of the first floor, the Family Hall, Master Bedroom, Room 2 and 3 were
involved. The tiling work was address at respective sections and tedious work of
removal and relocation had to be done from one room to another. Tiling work for
each section took two (2) days to completely dry and stable. Weekends, tool
down. Had checked the roof trusses and it was free from any attack. Thank
God…..it would cost a fortune to replace them.
The mess.
I had been absent from my daily morning workout at the Jogging
Track as the daily strenuous work of removable and relocation within the house
is good enough to sweat out. Took the opportunity to get rid the rubbish within
the house, like old magazines, journals, old clothing and useless items. Sometimes
it is interesting as I found something that I had long been looking for, snoop hidden
among the piles in the cabinet and closets. In one closet I was surprise to see
some good old jackets, which I had completely forgotten, still hanging in place.
I don’t need them anymore. I found the
pile of old neckties during my working days but they are still wearable. When I
looked at them, nostalgic memories came to mind. I remember Ben, the young cheeky
Marketing Executive who practically robbed my tie from my neck whenever he
wanted to attend to something special. The following morning he would return it
and commented that my necktie was the witness. I never asked where he went. I
have now piled nicely all the good old neckties into a box perhaps one fine day
someone can wear them. Who knows, the trend of the 90s may resurface in the 2020’s?
The biggest headache was with the television and the computer wirings. With the
Astro and the Unifi, it was an additional headache. I was lost to which holes
it should be plugged or connected. I am not an expert plugging holes and
sockets. The saddest part, I had to axe off a cabinet self designed in 1972 which
was specially made by the Seremban Prison inmates. It was too heavy to remove
as one piece. My idle aquarium cabinet was disposed as the termite had made a
score. Luckily there was no water in the aquarium otherwise I would have a
flash flood at the Family Hall. One of my Hi fi set speaker had to go to the
rubbish dump.
Due to the mess, we had to cancel off our usual Aidilfitri
Open House. We had to squeeze time off attending only to the most necessary weddings
invitations. I nearly forgot the periodical medical checkup appointment at
Pantai Medical Centre.
As of today, the mess had not been completely cleared. Some junks
had been sent to the kampong store room, the paper materials would be sent for
recycling and the old clothing may go to some needy poor. There is Imelda
Marcos in the house too. Old shoes and handbags can fill up a closet.
My advice, please remove all your parquet flooring before
the menace decides to squat in your house. It’s bloody crazy when a small
colony can terrorize the whole house. This is a second attack; the first was in
1987 and only involved the ground floor. I had to burn off my LP and EP
records, the 60s archives stacked under the staircase.
I should be back on the jogging track by mid October.
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