Neverending Story ... of Problems

Last two days, our next neighbour contacted us, telling us about that some of their things in their store were damaged due to dampness and fungus growing in the store. They asked us to check our own store which is next to their store, True enough, our store had the same problem.

The suspicion is that there is an underground pipe from our side that is leaking. Why from our side? Well, the last few months we had our water bill increased from around RM20+ to RM30 to over RM50. Trying to be a good neighbour (we know that they are upset with us), we immediately decided to call a plumber to bypass the underground pipe from the main source to an external piping. So yesterday, the plumber came and did the piping bypass. It took them a whole day to do this and as a consequence, we did almost nothing yesterday. The whole external piping costs us RM1800+ which my other half helped pay. So forget beauty (with hidden wiring and piping), consider practicality instead.

Reflecting on the whole situation with previous problem of internal wiring  (see here) and now the problem of internal piping, it seems that problems come in batches. In this case, there is a natural explanation for this batchy behaviour; we did our renovations arounfd 5 years ago and nothing is build to last forever and perhaps with things deteriorating over time, these two problems come around at the same time. But we did not expect these to come that soon; the thought of our previous contractor might have used substandard materials comes to mind. That is why we prefer to call somebody else.

So today, we clear out things from the store and some of my books were damaged. They were put there ecause we do not have enough space in our book shelves and some of these books I have read and others were on the not-so-high-priority list. Thus, I decided wither to sell them or give them away; the latter is easy for me to do since in Mydin, they have some containers for the purpose of book donations. One immediate decision is to give away these journals that I have subscribed from the Islamic Foundation, name The Muslim World Book Review and their supplementary Index of Islamic Literature. I guess I was ambitious then when I subscribed them but with Part III study being so intense and one is busy with PhD research, these books were left untouched. 

I've put the 'ad' on FB, in case if anyone is interested (so far none). The issues that are with me are as follows:

• Vol. 8 No. 4 (1988)
• Vol. 9 No. 1 (1988)
• Vol. 9 No. 2 (1989)
• Vol. 9 No. 3 (1989)
• Vol. 9 No. 4 (1989)
• Vol. 10 No. 1 (1989)
• Vol. 10 No. 2 (1990)
• Vol. 10 No. 3 (1990)
• Vol. 11 No. 1 (1990)

So, if anyone from Malaysia is interested, just let me know.

Another expense for today is our Malibu car was sent for service as this is the only available day before my other half use it for work next week. The servicing plus a battery cost us RM700+. In th afternoon too, our youngest son told my other half that his money is running out as he had to buy books. With all these, I have to apologize that I will not be able to help others at all.

The Certain Future

Yesterday was the passing of Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali (12 July 1926 - 28 September 2026), wife of he former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir. Inna lillahi wainna ilaihi raji'un. Allahummamaghfirlaha warhamha wa'fuanha wa'afiha wa' fu'anha. Condolences to Tun Dr. Mahathir and family.

As a plain commoner, I do not have the good opportunity to know her personally apart from knowing her from afar as the wife of Tun Dr. Mahathir. She was accorded an honorable state funeral and laid to rest at the National Cemetery in Putrajaya. Having not personally know her, I headed over to her wikipedia page and it has been conveniently updated.

Each time there is a funeral, it serves to remind us of our definite future, our own ending. In the case of Allayarhamah Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah, there is the soothing sight of people putting their political differences to pay respect at the funeral. Many commoners like me have become tired of the constant political bickering. Saw that there are still disrespectful comments from our own local breed of fasadists but we should ignore them.

Speaking about negative feelings, I have been disappointed with myself for not being able to complete some tasks before September ends. I need to find ways to renew myself appropriately and soldier on.

Youngest At Kampung Seri Mendapat

Yesterday, we went to send our youngesr back to UiTM Jasin and brought along the newly repaired green Chevrolet Aveo driven by our eldest. The car still has a good pick up since we were trailing behind the car. We arrived at the house our son rented in Kampung Seri Mendapat just around 10 am.We were quite early and met a Sarawakian student (Adit, I think) who had arrived earlier.

We had a look inside; I think this has been left vacant some time and needed some cleaning. Our son told us that his room is the fourth one and we need to get a few things for him particularly a table for his computer. The room is not big and we need to make sure what size the table should be.

Later, we met En. Rizuan, the person who helped the house owner (En. Suffian) to look after the house and coordinate with the students renting there. Apparently, he has alao his house rented to students nearby and thus there is a community of students there. The door to our son's room is pretty stucked after locking and we need to buy WD40 to ease up opening the door.

We went to Merlimau town for lunch and get a few things for our son. Unfortunately, we cannot find the 'right' table for our son. Thus, we decided to go to Mydin in Jasin and bought a table with foldable legs.

Back at the house, helped unpack and cleaned what is appropriate. Prayed Zuhr there. Finally, we decided to take some photos outside the house.

We left the place (unfortunately my son is still alone there) around 3pm. There was a bit of congestion on the highway back to Seremban. Apparently it is due to the installation of 'lamp poles' with what looks like solar panels on top. I first noticed this when we first arrived at Jasin toll; the poles are put st a nearby distance apart, which I find was quite odd.

Reched home around 4pm and had received a message from our son telling us that his room mate has arrived. Here ia a photo of Idris (room-mate) with Izzuddin.

I hope that he will quickly get comfortable with his new environment and focus well on his studies.

Sandalous Varia

Update: The cost of car repair and service amounts to RM991. See photo below.

This is my pair of s(c)andals. Took them off while having a rest after our monthly shopping for our needs (usually last only for a little more than two weeks) this morning and also bought things for my youngest son's needs when he is back at his university (rented a house shared with his friends). We are supposed to send him off to the house this Saturday.

We have sent our old Chevrolet Aveo for service and the estimated cost is around RM850 and possibly more if there are further parts to be replaced. Definitely my limited budget will burst. My other half has kindly offered help to pay the semester registration. Staying ourtside of campus will also certainly require more pocket money especially with a car.

My other half once made the remark that it is a pity that during his studies, I am already retired and have less money to spend on him. We tried to be fair to all our sons but circumstances differ from one son to the next. Thus, there will be variations on how we can help and take care of them. My prayer in early morning today that our sons will be matured enough to understand our situation on this matter. It is important to me to ensure my children will not go hungry though we are aware they sometime skip meals. Sometimes I regret that I did not apply for professorship so that I get a higher pay and hence a bigger pension. At the time, there were several things going on and I sort of gave up on that opportunity (perhaps some would consider me not worthy enough?).

Currently there is rivalry between two factions in (s)electing the 'next' king (called Yamtuan Besar) of Negeri Sembilan, between the sitting Yamtuan and a challenging contender, made complex by Adat Perpatih. Social media is rife with competing narratives on who should be king; some can be very rude and unruly. I told my family to stay out of this dispute, though for our sons who are born in Negeri Sembilan should take better note of the situation. While I'm not a N9er myself, there was this 'name' that cropped up during the current controversy namely Pagaruyung, which I recognised from my younger days. I never had a proper knowledge on this but what I was told while I was very young, that our great, great grandfather had a royal lineage related to Pagaruyung. At that age, I had no understanding of the matter and of course, I did not bother to find out further. My elder brothers and sister whom had the opportunity to live with our grandfather in Tapah might know more on this. In some way, I wish I had know more of my roots coming from the Rawa tribe. I tried to teach my kids Rawa language which is similar to how the N9ers speak but there was little interest.

On scientific front, I'm going through second revision of my former PhD student's paper which had detailed comments by the referees. It sort of disrupted my work on a (possible) semitechnical popular article. Perhaps I will blog on this at another convenient time.

Just a few minutes ago, the serviced and repaired car is ready. Here is my youngest (the driver of the car) with our dinner tonight.

Six Series

Yesterday was the 60th birthday of my other half. So she has joined me in the community of senior citizens, beginning her journey within the six series. Me, I'm almost half way through the six series and I should remind myself that time is running out.

To celebrate, my eldest son bought her a chocolate cake.

In the evening our third son gave us a dinner treat at the new eatery Boorak Chill & Kitchen in Centrio, Seremban 2. The location was previously Polperro Steakhouse but it has now closed. Business is hard these days; another one that has closed is Nasken Coffee. Shop rental is expensive here and business owner has to make sure there are enough customers  just to break even. Here is a picture of us at Boorak:

Now back to the worries mentioned in my last post. On the data on external hard disk, the freeware can only recover small amount of data, so that I had to buy the licence for an advanced version of the software. On top of this, I had to renew MathType license last week. So both of these cost around a thousand ringgit.

For my youngest son, he has found a house to rent just nearby the campus (see video below). Despite being near the campus, it is not of walking distance. Thus, there is still a need for a car. We hope to get our Chevrolet Aveo to be serviiced (another financial worry).

This coming weekend, we will be sending him back to UiTM. Will miss him.

Troubled on Malaysia Day

My youngest son will be going back to UiTM Jasin before the end of this month. So I will need to worry about the upcoming semester fees. As if this worry is not enough, we just heard yesterday that he will not get a place in college for his accommodation and he will be required to find a house outside the campus to stay. Staying outside woud mean higher expenses plus the trouble of getting into camous for his classes. An idea is for him to bring the old Chevrolet Aveo car but the car has problems and I m certainly uncomfortable with the idea. Food relatively is more expensive outside but this is a lesser worry.

Yesterday too, our Malibu car sent out a warning signal probably in need of a service. Just this morning, one of my external hard disk (which was my internal hard disk before and where I stored my work before) went unresponsive after my computer restarted. Right now, I'm trying to retrieve the data on that disk (unsure how well it works with the freeware downloaded) and there are around two and half hours to go till it 'finishes'. Still thinking where I should store the data if it works.

What a way to start Malaysia Day today! Would now have to consider seriously of side income generation. Here we are, having our breakfast together, courtesy of our eldest son (not working this public holiday and not in pic).

Auta-Gate

"When the going gets tough, the tough gets going", they say. Or probably the second half should just say, "act or pretend to be tougher". 

In my last post,  I mention about my other half was down with fever and bad cough. The fever has subsided, but there is still residual cough and had to buy more medication for the phlegm. Medicine are getting more expensive these days and one feels the financial pinch.

To add more financial worries, our auto-gate stopped working. This has happened before and at the time we only replace the battery for the autogate motor. Apparently, the problem did not stop there. The reason that the battery died is because the electrical wiring for the auto-gate was faulty, causing a blackout for the front portion of our home (living room and porch). This time, we call our usual handy-man, Lan, to help diagnose that wiring problem. The unfortunate thing is the wiring are all concealed. To check where the problem is would mean to break the floor tiles and the wall, a thing that I would rather not do. From what Lan was saying, the auto-gate was a quick job done improperly and for concealed wiring, it should be done with 'aro' cables. The auta-gate affair (Note: 'auta' means untruthfulness).

My first workaround is to let the gates be opened at least temporarily. But then we had a visitor (a stray dog) that did not just sntered our property but caused some mess.

Thereafter, we figured out to open the gate manually and for nowuse whatever temporary workarounds to help our gate to remain closed (particularly at night).

Hopefully we can find a better and more permanent solution to this.