Keys!

Got our keys already!! It was passed through our lawyers. So tonight will go check it out once we collect it. Phew! No delays, no drama... and hopefully no dead dog left in the acquarium.

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Ok, no dead dog in the acquarium but looks like a tornado swept through the house. All their things are still there, the beds, the junk, mattresses etc. They took the fish, which they said they'd leave behind for us so my newly purchased fish food is going to be kept one side until we get our own fish.

There's even a motorbike in the driveway and cupboards, drawers and other junk left on the driveway too. Which also means they still have a set of keys to the house. Our lawyer is now talking to her lawyers. We'll see what happens next.

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We're giving her until Wednesday to clear everything out.

Bye-Bye Klang

Yes, although the place is far, we will miss our first home in Klang when we sell it off. The few but beautiful walks we had around the man-made lake:
We used to keep our expired bread in the freezer and then come Sunday evenings, we'd come here to feed the fishes. I wonder if they survived all that oily bread people kept feeding.

This is how my house looked like. It's been renovated and given a makeover by the new owners. This is how I'll always remember the facade of it to be. The once scrawny tree is finally blooming and is now one of the healthiest on the street.
We have a huge master room and 9 foot long wardrobe. (Ahem, as you can see, we never got around nailing the mirror on the wall). The master bedroom in our new place is very much smaller, that I'm worried my king sized bed isn't going to fit. Then we had cheerful guards who somehow managed to find us on the rare times we visited the house to come collect protection money. Well, he wasn't cheerful when we complained they didn't inform us when one of our windows was accidentally left open for a few weeks.
We found two good places to eat near that area. One is a tim sum shop but since we can get fairly good tim sum in PJ, the other shop will be the one we'd miss most. Yes, Klang Bak Kut Teh:
This shop we frequent serves both soup and dry versions. We always order both as you can't have one and not the other. We have yet to discover a good BKT place in PJ, let alone the dry version.
KS assures me we can come back to eat this but we're just not the type who'd travel 45 minutes just to eat good food. So looks like it would be some time before we will come back to eat there again.

Memories of Good Ol Times

During our trip back to Melaka with Ron, we took the effort to go back to my grandma's old home. We spent many school holidays there, climbing the guava tree, playing in between the banana trees, walking along the monsoon drain to the market in Tengkera and almost destroying my grandma's vegetables.

Now, the house is owned and used by a contractor who has turned it into a store house. The garden has been replaced with a shed to keep tools.

This is where my grandma used to plant banana trees and pineapples. She had trouble with people stealing her fruits and she'd sometimes wait with her lidi broom to chase the thieves.

Karen and I would play around this area. We had sadly carved our names on the trees on our trip just before they migrated to Canada, knowing it would be at least a decade before we met again, declaring this would be our secret place forever. The carved names are gone and I'm not even sure if it's the same tree.

This is the monsoon drain. It used to look much larger and scarier while the bridge of the far right used to seem so far away. Now, the drain looks smaller and the bridge no longer looks like it is unreachable by foot. However, the stench still remains the same so it still brings back memories.

Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted the photo of the house while clearing my phone. Ron, do you still have it?

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Your phone camera is so clear! Time I went to fix mine.

The house now.

Pineapple Tarts

I blogged about this fantastic pineapple tarts some time back, made by my aunt-in-law in Melaka. This year, their maid who helped out with the most tedious part of the cookie making had gone back to Indonesia.

So they decided not to make any this year. I have had at least 4 friends who called and wailed when I told them there wasn't any this year. Hopefully they will start making it again next year.

Someone said the pineapple tarts from IKEA (yes, they sell cookies in IKEA here) so we bought 6 packs. Unfortunately, they're just not the same, you know? :( so no pineapple tarts this CNY.

Buying House Stress

Our journey of purchasing a house so far has just climbed a notch on the stress-o-meter. Our lawyer preempted us that our loan would be disbursed very soon and set our expected date of key handover before Chinese New Year, which is in two weeks.

So last Sunday, we decided to go see the owner, bring our architect to take a look so that we can start discussions on the renovations. However, the owner seemed slightly misinformed and said her lawyer told her not to shift out since she still hasn't gotten the payment. When I tried to tell her that the loan is on the brink of being disbursed, she simply waved me off by repeated, "My lawyer says not to shift until payment is made". So since I didn't have the loan yet, I kept quiet but I was very disturbed. Her house didn't look like it was being packed.

Today, our loan has just been disbursed and we are about to make payment. Normally, the owner is supposed to handover the keys in 3 working days but she had requested for 5 working days in the Agreement, to which we consented. So by right, she's supposed to handover the keys next Thursday or Friday. Otherwise she will have to start paying us a daily interest rate.

So she calls me and say something to this extent, "Remember last Sunday I told you that I wanted to shift after CNY right? So just wanted to ask if you can waive off the interest rate until I shift. After all, you can't start your renovations just yet isn't it?"

What do you think? We chased for the payment after you first indicated you wanted to be paid in two months instead of the normal three. And just when is "after CNY"? She also did mention "end of the month". So we pay for our loan for almost a month before you decide to vacate it for us?

At the same time, we don't want to antagonise her too much because what if she destroys something in the house? Block the sewage?

Grrr... I hate being held hostage. We were considering letting her stay on for free but I'm just glad that my lawyer is a good one who advised me not to let go of my right so soon.

Facials

For a couple of months now, my face has been "attacked" by massive pimples on my T-zone and my U-Zone. I've never had such bad acne since I was in college so why is it all coming back again after more than 10 years?

I've tried refraining from using my BB cream, used toothpaste on budding acne, bought benzoyl peroxide but nothing seems to work.

I am now tempted to go for facials. At the same time, I am worried about going to them. Why? Because I've seen two girls who had perfectly good skin to begin with end up with really bad scars after their face was pressed for black and white heads. There was a cream someone recommended me to try with miracle results in 3 days but for something like that, it sounds rather fishy, doesn't it?

Sigh. Guess I have to go by recommendations on which facials are okay.

Baroque Music

When I was in secondary school, I attended this “Learn How to Study Smart” course and was told that studying with Baroque playing in the background would enhance my brain absorption.
So, at that time not really knowing what Baroque was, I fished out one of Ron’s CDs and started playing it while I tried to study. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to work after a few hours. Only much later, when I told Ron about the false advice, he asked me what I was listening to.

The Planets, Holst.

Now, as I’m listening to it again, I laugh and wonder how on earth I could have tried studying with that all that drama going on in the background.

But then, I’m not the only one. I was stationed at Starhill Shopping Mall many years back, where all the high end brands are located, and they were playing really dramatic music as their “background” shopping music. I can’t remember what they played but it was something like Rossini’s William Tell. It was amusing at first but after a week, it became torturous.

Sound System

I'm rather particular about sound. I can't stand players that give weak sounds and speakers that sound hollow. KS, on the other hand, says, "As long as there's noise". So when he went out to get our first radio without bringing me around, let's just say I will be taking charge of putting together our sound room in our new house.

When I was growing up, I'd follow dad and Ron to showrooms in Penang which would play gorgeous music through expensive sets. We'd sit there and listen to the acoustics while dad and Ron would discuss the quality of it.

Then, during Chinese New Year, we'd visit my uncle who would frequently upgrade his hi-fi set. Without fail, each year he would excitedly show us his latest collection of LDs, CDs, VCDs, DVDs what have you not. Despite the crowd of chatting people in his house at that time, he would blast his latest favourite song and envelope us all with the music. He would also show us the latest technology in improving the sound, from using a green marker to mark the sides of a CD to placing a special felt on the CD. He would even compare CDs made in Malaysia and those imported from the US. And I can tell the difference.

Hence, the strive for good acoustics in my new house. However, while I know I want really good sounds, I have no idea about hi-fi, what I should be buying if I want surround sound etc.

So begins the exciting journey of discovering what this is all about. Hi-Fi for Dummies. Right after we get the house together.

Busy!

Sorry, I know I have Blogger access at work but it's just been absolutely mad at work! Haven't had the chance to breathe much. But it's good busy, you know?

Anyway, we've managed to sell our house in Klang so even more busy times ahead. As for the new house status, it's moving along smoothly and think we should be getting the keys some time before CNY. Yay!

Ron & Air Travel

I don’t think I ever blogged anything about Ron’s unfortunate air travels but now I can’t help but to compile it into one posting since it’s gotten to be quite a fair bit to tell.

Two trips back to Malaysia, Ron was going to catch the plane back to Melbourne. He read 0950 as 9:50pm so by the time he realized it was a morning flight, the plane was about to taxi off the runway. It took him a few days after to catch the next plane since it was peak season.

Then the last trip back, he happened to check with JetStar on some details about his flight back to KL which he bought months in advance, only to be told JetStar no longer flew to KL! So he had to quickly make new arrangements, luckily with the help of the airline.

He flew from Bangkok back to Melbourne for that trip. And his luggage was so overweight, the airline had to charge him for it. As he scraped his remaining Baht, Euros and Ringgits, he found he didn’t have enough to pay! Plus his charge card was maxed out after his holidays so he had to sheepishly offer his mixture of currencies and ask for a discount. The girl over the counter just gaped and in the end, accepted his offer.

After a slight flight delay and upon reaching Melbourne, his friend who had waited to pick him up had already incurred $20 for his car park ticket, no thanks to the delay. He was hoping Ron had some change on him because he was also flat broke. So, two penniless guys, wandering around the airport for hours trying to find ways of paying the car park ticket. In the end, they had to call another friend to come loan them the money.

This trip, now this trip, Ron was delayed for 5 hours sitting in the plane the whole time as the flight crew could not let them on the ground after checking them in while they fixed the plane. So, his flight time doubled. The only good thing was, AirAsia crew decided not to charge him for his meal after he argued for it.

And most recently, he was supposed to go Cambodia with a friend, who, on the day before their flight, postponed it to a further 2 days, only to scrap the whole trip in the end.

Usually, if any of these incidences happens to someone, it would be quite traumatizing. However, since Ron’s been having so many occurrences, it’s become rather funny.

He flies back to Melbourne next Monday. If anything happens, I’ll blog it again.