Kristine's Recorder

Kristine is going to be in her Final Year in 2010 and so, as part of her syllabus, she gets to have a recorder. For those who are in the dark, a recorder is not a magnetic tape storage system but a fancy word for a hollow stick which makes a lot of noise in the wrong hands.

Kristine trying out her
new recorder. Ouch.
My ears!

Kaelynn, being curious, disturbs her sister

Well, well, the recorder comes in three parts.
This is the noisy part.

This is the not-so noisy part

And this is the part where you decide if
its noisy or not, depending on your
blow job skills.

My friend in Serendah, Rawang

I have this friend of mine, who is actually my Ex-Colleague to be precise, can repair almost any electrical or electronic equipment without killing himself. Which means, he puts me to shame.

Here I am, with a fancy Degree in Electronics and I can't even open up a TV let alone a slide projector. He is the classic case of being able to survive without a Degree. For you see, when you do not know what is going to hurt/kill you, you're actually braver than those who do. I have been taught what electricity can do and how it can kill, even from an innocent electronic component and so, if you ask me to repair something, I am terrified.

Anyway, I need to get two TVs delivered to him as I could not open it without cracking the 10 -year old plastic. Which is not a problem until he tells me the exact place in Rawang, or to be more exact, Serendah. I have been there before and its just one heck of a straight road. But his place is deeper. And 10 years on, that place still has bad mobile phone reception. But we still made it despite all these hurdles in the dark.

But Rawang has changed.

Just a few hundred metres before the Highway exit, it was already jammed up with cars, even at eight in the evening. There were cars everywhere from the Rawang town to his place. This was because of a few new housing areas that was completed. Just two years ago, it was a quiet town. Now, its crazy.

Anyway, age is catching up and he is thinking about giving it all up next year to tend to an orchard for someone which he only needs to clean the place up and whatever fruits it bore, he can have it. Very impressive for someone who has no Degree and yet is responsible for the while Department's repair services.

I have his house coordinates in my GPS since the signal was strong. The next time, it would not be so difficult.

And his house has the biggest (free) mangoes I
have ever seen! Just compare it with my 5800!
I could not refuse as I loved mangoes. And he
gave me some rambutans and langsats too and
I think my Wife who was there, also tried to
refuse since it was too much. Ha ha ha ha!

Making holes on a Monday

The moment I picked up the drill, I regretted not forcing my Technician to pay me back for the special drill bit he broke. I mean, it was fun to watch the bit glow red hot and then shatter but its not fun when you realise that you do not know how to use the tool in the first place. Rather than spend another RM30.00 or so, my Boss taught me how to drill through tiles with a normal mason bit, the ones we always use. OH, OK, its the only one we had.

Anyway, the theory is, set the drill on Hammer mode, and then gently squeeze the trigger. This way, the bit will slowly scrape and hammer the tile until you have gone through it. Then, you can turn it full blast. However, there is a small problem in the sense that it takes ages. If you rush it, you can guarantee that the tile will crack.

The best spot to make a hole is where the two tiles
join. This is the weakest part and its easy to drill
through. But you have to be very patient.

However, its also easy to crack or shatter. $#%@!!!!
I spent 25 minutes on this hole and it cracked!

Now, making a hole where there is no weakness is
a bit of a problem. The risk of shattering is high.
And so, this stupid little 5mm hole took me more
than 40 minutes. Its' not easy, I tell you.

And every once in a while, you have to add water
so that it sort of lubricates the hole and also keeps
the grains from being airborne. Or something like
that. But its fun to dip the bit into the water, hear
it sizzle and then while wet, drill the hole at high
speed (not in Hammer mode, mind you) and see
the water bubbles and evaporates as the drill bit
heats up. I am very proud of this hole as I this
was the result of my patiently fingering it.

And so, for more than two hours, I only got
four holes made.

Yeah, the tile is very thick, about 7mm.

See this bit? Is for concrete or brick walls and not
for tiles. But if you're curious, the drill bit for a tile
looked more like an arrow. And it will cost you.
And if you do not know how to use it, it will most
definitely cost you.

And so, when my tech arrived, I got him to take over.

It was not until the other tech
arrived that he completed the
job in less than 1o minutes.

In the meantime, while the three of
us were busy, the fourth tech did this
I tell you, if this keeps on, I'll be
taking headache pills like sweets.

And so, the 50mm distracted me me for some time.
Although it was 1:8, it was hard to hold the camera
still after using the vibrating drill for two hours straight.