Friday, October 5, 2012

Very very busy.



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.

No comments: