Task #1 and #2. Paint guest room 1 and 2

As i mentioned sometime back, i had already painted one of the guest room with my dad's help. I needed him to show me how to paint correctly and to learn from that experience so i could do the rest on my own.

The whole process took around 3 hours, which we painted 2 layers. That time, i was in charge of doing the corners/borders, and looking at how dad painted the main portion of the wall.

The end result was surprisingly well done, just like a pro. My dad is ever the handy man.

Guest room 1 in Lime Freeze.



Nice, right?
The green gave the room a fresh and revitalizing feeling. As though the energy has been super charged.

Ok, so the guest room 2, my wife and i decided to do it ourselves. The room is not that big, and we had stolen my dad's painting techniques seen how it is done, so how hard could it be?

For this room, we chose a very different colour.

Ok, so here is how the room looked like before we started.



Here are all the ingredients you need. Roller, brush, paint tray, paint, pencil, wooden stick, etc.
also remember to use masking tape to tape off all the bottom portion of the wall.



My wife doing the corners.



Note the colour we used is pastel purplish/pinkish.
We chose this colour because we liked the calming effect it gave off. You can really see if at the end when the room is done.

Reaching the high corners.



Progress at half time.



Once we finished the 1st layer, we let it dry for a while, then proceeded to do the 2nd layer.
We started with thicker paint for the 1st layer, and then the 2nd layer dilutes with more water.
And we had to be careful on the amount of paint we are using as we barely had any paint left once we are done.

* Note to self: 1 litre of paint for this room size, 2 layers.

Finally, the room is done. And that is after 4 hours later.



Nice or not?

The colour is just nice, luckily not too dark.
Hope anyone staying here could feel the calmness aura emitting from the wall.

The next time i have insomnia, i'll know which room to sleep in. hahahhaahha

Task #12. Kitchen wallpaper liner

That night after i got my list of home improvements, we quickly decided to tackle task #12, which is basically the easiest of the lot.

I just need to stick some stickers, right?



Got this from Ace Hardware store at Sunway Pyramid for RM 54.90, 10 meters long. This is the self-adhesive type, so just peel it off like a sticker and stick it. There is another cheaper type, which is of cloth-type material, but is not self-adhesive, so you need to apply glue to stick it. I figured that playing with glue could get messy, so what the heck, for once in my life, i rather pay more.



So we start off with one section of the kitchen wall, as shown above, perfectly plain and boring. Time to jazz it up.



My lovely wife figuring out how to cut the liner. Note that it is not as simple as just cutting to the required length and stick it onto the wall. From the earlier picture of the kitchen wall, there is a light switch on the path where i need to stick this, so we have to cut around the liner to accommodate the switch.



Tada!!!
Looks nicer right?



Another part of the kitchen wall with the wallpaper liner.
Sure is cheaper than putting in border tiles.

Home Improvement plan

For all married guys out there, there comes a point in time when our wifes would suddenly give us a set of tasks to do around the house.

This happens once you have settled into your new home, and is relatively comfortable living there. Then all of a sudden, the wifes would slap you with a list of what needs to be improved around the house (even though you may argue that everything is fine, why fix something that ain't broken?)

And that is the dreaded home improvement plan.

Last weekend my wife gave me such a list.
And her dateline is set for the end of Aug 09.

Here are the items in the list (not according to priority).

Tasks:

#1. Paint guest room 1 (easy)
#2. Paint guest room 2 (easy)
#3. Paint master bedroom (easy)
#4. Paint upper living hall (need to top up my insurance premium)
#5. Paint main living hall (a lot of walls to cover)
#6. Paint study room (easy, as soon as i can clear out the junk in the room)
#7. Paint outside (please don't rain)
#8. Window tint (please kill me!)
#9. Fix accessories for guest room 2 (drilling on tiles!)
#10. Fix kitchen curtain rod (easy, but messy)
#11. Fix study room curtain rod (easy but messy)
#12. Kitchen wallpaper liner (child's play)
#13. Living hall lighting (need more ^@#$!#@ $$$$$)

The notes besides the tasks are self explanatory.
Wish me good luck.

Thanks Panasonic for the free air conditioner!

Sometime back in April i bought a cheapo Panasonic air con for my house's guest room where my brother-in-law's family would be staying for a few months.

It was the most entry level model that anyone can find in the market. And if air cons were shoes, then this would be the Croc knock offs that is being sold in the pasar malam. Basically it just blows cold air out. No fancy ionizer, plasma cluster, allergy free, death rays, or what ever new technology is being put into an air con nowadays. I got it for RM 1050, including installation, which i was lead to believe was a good deal.



Anyway, few days later, while i was reading the newspaper, i saw that Panasonic is having a contest, which is giving a way 333 prizes every month, for 3 months. That's like 999 total prizes up for grabs!!!
So without waiting, i quickly went online to check for details of the contest.
Found my way to the Panasonic website to download the entry form and get a better understanding of how the contest works.



So basically the contest is pretty simple.
Each RM 300 you spent on any Panasonic product entitles you for 1 entry. So the RM 1050 i spent got me 3 entries.
Answer 2 very idiotically simple questions. And no slogans whatsoever (thank god!)
Complete the form, attach a photocopy of the receipt and the original copy of the warranty card and send it back by post.
Cross your fingers, count your lucky stars and get ready for a lucky draw.

Pretty simple right?

Each draw happens at the beginning of the month, eg. i purchased my air con in April, so i am entitled for the May lucky draw. And each month, 111 lucky person would win an air con, another 111 would win a refrigerator and the remaining 111 would win a washing machine (crap prize).

I mean how hard would that be right? After all, i got 3 entries. Eat dust to those who bought a measly rm 300 product hahahaha

But then later only i realized that at that time, Panasonic was having a lot of promotions, especially with the Viera plasma and LCD TV (i too was almost tempted to swipe my card for a cash and carry 32" LCD TV promotion)

Then it hit me that my measly 3 entries might not even win me anything. Sure, there are 999 prizes to be given away, but we could be talking about thousands of entries. Anyone who bought the plasma and LCD TVs would get no less than 9 entries alone! Thats 3 times higher chance than me.

Well, if it is mine, then it is mine.

Very quickly i forgot about the contest. I did remember checking the newspaper in the beginning of May for the result but didn't see any. In fact the May results came out sometime in mid June i believe. Talk about being slow!

Then one fine day, i got a call from Panasonic that i had won the air con in the 333 contest. She asked me to check the past few day's newspaper. At first i thought it was a prank. I mean, i need to see some proof before i get too happy for the wrong reasons.

Sure enough, when i checked back the newspaper at the date she mentioned, there it was, the results.



Wohoo!!! That's my name!



Ok, so now i have to wait for a letter from Panasonic, informing me which Panasonic dealer i should contact to collect my prize.

After a few weeks of endless waiting (surprisingly the more you expect of something, the longer the wait seemed), the letter finally arrived.



The dealer was the shop where i bought the cheapo air con from. I promptly called the dude up and demanded my well deserved prize inquired about the prize.

"Erm, your air con haven't come yet lah"

"So when can get?"

"Donno leh. When come lioa, i give you a call"


Well, that's what basically happened and after another few weeks of waiting, finally the dude called me to inform that the prize is in his shop. After doing some research, i tried to persuade him to trade the prize (1.75 hp inverter) to a non-inverter 2.0 hp, which should roughly be the same price tag. But no deal he said, since the prize came directly from Panasonic and he won't make a cent from this (apart from the RM300 commission for being the dealer of the contest winner)

So after haggling with the installation price (yeah, inverter uses different piping and is much more expensive to install and service, which is why i preferred a non-inverter version), I finally got it down to RM280 (non-inverter installation is around RM150) and asked him to come today.

Installation was a breeze (well, i would assume so. But heck, i wouldn't know since i was at work today but my dad did called me up saying they broke a few roof tiles which by the time i got home was already repaired but the question is where did he find some new tiles to replace the broken ones?)

And why the heck was the air con unit installed so high up? And whats with the ugly white cable concealer?

* Note to self: remember to paint it over.



Now still testing the air con performance.
For a 1.75 hp, the blower is quite strong and effective to cover the whole living room.

Though at first it took some time to cool down the whole area (area was not confined and the air escapes everywhere), but once it is in high gear, we found ourselves shivering under its strong cold currents. Don't play play ar.




Ah... Panasonic... you complete me. my living room.

Business trip to Senai, Johor

I just came back from Senai yesterday after a tiring week attending Baan training there.

Went over to Senai on Monday morning, taking the 7.30 am MAS flight, which means i took the taxi at 6.00 am, waking up at 5.00 am. Add that to the fact that i slept at around 12.30 am, that means i only got like 4.5 hours of sleep the night before.
So you can imagine how tiring it is to travel like this.

Once touchdown, it is straight to the office. And enduring another 8 hours of training (well, you know sometimes these can get pretty boring).

Once the Day 1 training is done, time to check out the hotel.
This time i stayed at the Puteri Pacific Hotel JB. Ahh, this hotel certainly brings back memories, as few years back, this was where i called my Second home.

It was called Pan Pacific back then, and i have stayed here collectively for more than 90 days throughout (probably even more, i lost count). Too bad they don't have any reward programme, otherwise i'll probably be a Gold/Platinum member by now.

And it is within walking distance to the City Square mall, so it was a good choice for me.



The comfortable bed. This will be my bed for the next 4 nights.

Just FYI, i slept on the left side of the bed (the opposite side of what is shown below).
No specific reason for choosing the sides, but just make sure the other side is piled up with stuff eg. clothes, bags when you sleep, to prevent ahem from getting too comfortable.



For dinner, my colleague and I went over to City Square and tried the Portuguese Chicken. At RM 11.90, it was a deal for half a chicken, but later we realized that the chicken was kinda small, and it was only so so in the taste department. But we saw a sizeable crowd there, so i guess we KL people have higher expectations on what we eat. (hahahaha)



After dinner, time to head back to the hotel and start working.
Yes, the perils of being on business trips. Seen it before, will again.

Sunrise the next morning.
Look at the dirty glass windows!



Another round of sunrise the next few days, greeting me in the morning to endure more boring trainings.



So does the sunsets, greeting me when i get back to continue working my ass off till wee hours into the night.




C'est la vie. What a wonderful life.

More kitchen renovation pictures

These were taking like 2 months back.

6 concrete support beams went up. Hope this will provide the required foundation. As i mentioned before, the backyard area is sinking and the developer did not do actual piling there, so we can see alot of the neighbours doing such extension having cracks there. It is only a matter of time before the whole thing rips off (well, maybe not so extreme lah), so i pray pray ours will be ok.



Once the beams have set, time to put up the brick walls.
Look left. Wall is up.



Look right. Wall is up too.



The opening for the windows.



Next up would be the ceiling and roof.

Life without blogging - I am back

Wah, been almost 1 month + since i had my last post. Sorry for the long hiatus.

Too many things going on that i have to take a break from blogging. I needed the extra time to organize and prioritize my life back again. :)

Short post this time, just to let you know that i am still alive.
Summary of what went on during this period of time.

1. Went for a quick business trip to Zhuhai. Just 3 days with no weekends. Rushed like hell to get back. And a shit load of work waiting for me with open arms. Its a wonder how some people get to go to business trips for relaxation, while i am totally the opposite. I go there to work like crazy for the project during office hours. Go back to hotel to work like crazy for my other projects. Quickly get the hell out of there by catching the next available flight back. Only to realize that once i am back i still need to follow up and support the project. And did i mentioned my other projects as well. Die die must do.
   
2. My kitchen renovation is still not moving as quickly as i hoped due to most resources taken up by my brother-in-law's house renovation. We have the same contractor, and since his house is more urgent, his house gets priority (yeah, now i know how second class citizens feel). But it is moving back on track in the last few days and considering how a (and i quote my contractor's own words) "simple 3 weeks job" had dragged on for over 2 months lioa, i have to pray hard hard for this to be over with cos now we can't use the kitchen at all, meaning cannot boil water and wash clothes and dishes.
3. Painted the feature wall of one of the rooms with lots of help from my dad. It is not easy ok. Bought 9 cans of 1 litre paint for 6 more walls to go. Damaged? approx RM 270. Slogging for the next few weekends to get them painted. Priceless.

Kitchen renovation progress

Here are some progress for the past week on my dear beloved kitchen's renovation works.

Remember how previously they dug 3 grave holes at my backyard?
Well, they quickly filled it up with concrete the very next day, and upon coming back from work, this is what we saw.





My wife looked at me and asked "Erm, why only filled half only?"
I had no idea, but i tried to tembak the answer "Cos they ran out of cement mah"

Of course, that has got to be the stupidest answer ever, since earlier in the morning i saw the contractor with the concrete mixer truck, so it is impossible for them to run out of cement.

So i called the contractor and he told me "No worries Mr. Wong. That one is just the footing, as the base foundation. The other half will be filled up later"

Ok lo, since i know nuts about construction, better leave it to the experts.

A few days later, once the footing concrete has dried up, they proceeded to the next step.
I came home and saw this.



Wah, good progress *clap clap*

Looks like they have all the steel bars tied up and ready. These bars will act as the foundation to strengthens the concrete structure from the inside.



Another closer shot to see how they all come together.



The new steel bars are connected back to the steel bars in the existing structure for added strength. The whole house's foundation will support the new area from this, preventing the kitchen from sinking.

Yes, my house's backyard actually is on soft ground, so it is actually sinking slowly. Some people said we should not touch this area until it settles, which takes around 5-10 years. It has barely been 3 years, so we are actually risking the whole kitchen sinking into the abyss.

Even some of the neighbours' renovation works have resulted in cracks appearing due to the sinkage. Only time before their kitchen (the extended area) will be ripped off from the whole house.

But of course our contractor promised us the Sun and the Moon and gave us a lifetime guarantee that it will not sink.

Well, either he is that good, or he has a short life span. hahahahah



Ok, everything looks set with the steel bars structure.

The next day, the concrete mixer truck came again and filled up the area.



Everything that needs to be done to make the foundation strong has been done.
Now only time will tell if it could withstand the sinkage.

As they say, the foundation is the most important in any structure. If it fails, there goes the kitchen.

With this in mind, every night before i go to bed, i pray that my contractor may live up to 99 years old.

His lifetime guarantee better be good. He better not die on me dammit!

My dear beloved kitchen...

Of all the parts of my house, we love our kitchen the most.
This is where we enjoy doing what we love most... cooking.

Well, actually i love the bedroom as well, but that's another story. hehehe

But as much as we loved the way it is now, we have always thought that the kitchen is too small for the both of us. We practically can't move when both of us are cooking, and that is something we would like to improve on, getting a better kitchen!

So after spending some long and brain-wreaking days trying to justify and calculate our financial standing (well, more like a constant nagging from my wife to demand me to do it), we decided to extend our kitchen.

We can get another 5 feet worth of space for our wet kitchen area.

And how much is the damage?
About RM 20k for everything. (holy cow!!!!)

Here is how our wet kitchen looks like before.



Here is how it looks like from the outside, the extra 5 feet that we can utilize.




That was how it looked like before.

Now?

It looked like someone dug 3 grave holes at my backyard.






There, can even fit dead bodies in there.

Anyone has got some dead bodies but no where to dispose off?

My Photographic Journey

For as long as i could remember, i have always been fascinated with photography.

The thought of packing up everything you own into a small backpack and go globetrotting, capturing and sharing the sights of the world and the people you meet.
Or going front line into a war zone armed with only the camera, capturing the most realistic sight of the horrors of war, and making it back in one piece to submit the award winning picture to the publisher.
Or going head to head with a king cobra in a life or death situation to capture the precise moment when it pounces into the camera.
Or be surrounded by a bevy of beauties in a fashion shootout, capturing the essence of timeless beauty in the designer gowns. (I think i was more inclined towards this hahaha).

I could still remember clearly my first exposure to a camera, the first time touching and be fascinated by such an amazing tool.
The camera in question was my cousins' from Singapore. Long long time back they came visiting to Malaysia and brought the camera (actually that was the only time they brought the camera over).

I was still in primary school (can't remember actual age) at that time so handling the heavy camera was a task itself, but there was a feeling of empowerment, a sense of satisfaction (or maybe that was just my inflated ego. hey pretty girl, look here!) but at that time i knew that i would be interested in something called photography (well, at that age i probably couldn't even spell photography but you get my driff).

They taught me how to correctly hold a SLR (which by the way needs one hand to support the lens), how to load/unload the film (yeah, it was back in those film days), change lens, etc.

After that short encounter, i never did gain access to a camera for a while as the family could not afford one. Sometimes when we go on holidays, we would borrow a camera from relatives to take the vacation pictures. That was as far as i got to touch a camera.

All that changed until one fateful day while the family was holidaying at Sunway lagoon.
Again, we were camera-less so the night before when i lit up the joss stick to offer my wish list to God, i prayed that somehow magically a camera would suddenly appear, thereby allowing us to finally take our own vacation pictures.

Ok, that was not the actual wish. the actual wish was for us to strike a lottery winning 1 million ringgit.

But surprisingly that night the inner core of the joss stick did not break (normally they just turn to ashes) and according to some urban legend, if that happens, then your wish would come true. (yippie kay yay!)

Ok, it is safe to assume that we didn't strike the lottery the next day. Or the next. Or anytime soon. Else i won't writing this blog and trying to earn a living.

So the next day we were having fun at Sunway lagoon, playing our hearts out (this was when i was still in secondary school). Lo and behold, at one of those rides (if i remembered correct, it was that ride with the spinning cups) someone left their camera on board.

Being the responsible family, we looked around to see if anyone was seaching for the camera. We paused for a short time (yeah, for like 5 seconds), wondering if the owner will come back and claim the camera, before we quickly took possession of it (yippie kay yay!).

Anyway, we got out of the ride, took the camera out from the camera pouch and lo and behold, it was a Canon compact film camera (i knew i should have prayed harder for a SLR hehehe).

That camera became my cherished treasure that accompanied me through alot. During family vacations, during special moments, during my oversea travels, it has captured a big part of our lives.

But of course developing the films is a pain, and very very expensive, so don't get me started on that. Whoever invented digital photography should be given a Nobel prize.

Ok, enough of text for today (wouldn't be surprised if you developed bloodshot eyes by now).
Here are some pictures taken with the film camera, developed and digitally scanned for your viewing pleasure.

Family vacation, Genting Highlands


Family vacation, Putrajaya


Cousin's graduation ceremony


My graduation ceremony


Collegemates during graduation


Ex-company, Sufsys gang


Business trips, Minnesota


Business trips, Minnesota, 4th of July celebration


Business trips, Chinatown San Francisco


Business trips, San Francisco