The new Garden Hose

OK, I got a new garden hose. To replace the broken garden hose which I accidentally ran over while flushing my Bengmobile's radiator. That was a very #@%& expensive RM15.00 garden hose. Goes to show how smart I am.

Anyway, I went back to the same shop this morning and asked for the hose. Same hose, same price and I don't know what came over me but I said, "Got better design, ah?" which the guy said, "I have some better but expensive one, wait here while I get them from upstairs". Yeah, these guys keep their precious stuff "upstairs". Its always the same answer. Next time, I'll just brush him aside and go one a shopping orgy "upstairs". Ooh, what's this? A goldplated garden shear with diamond encrusted handles...... yeah, right.

Anyway, his "better one" costs me RM30.00 and
although some parts are metal, the trigger and I
suspect, the body are made of plastic. Still, it has
a very good grip.

Holding it like a gun, it can fire short bursts of
about 3 shots per second. Here, I am on the
lookout for some vermin... slowly... slowly...

Aha! There they are!

Fire!
(Missed)

Luckily I turned the tap off as their aiming
are quite good now, thanks to the NERF guns

High quality leather

Remember I ordered a new leather case for my Nokia 5800 months ago? No?

OK, read this.

Now you remember right? So, take it from me, when you buy stuff from eBay, sometimes its too good to be true. And if its good, then its seldom true. In other words, not everything you buy is a quality item unless you know what you're expecting or, you have lowered your expectations from expecting too much.

Anyway, the leather case is receiving a lot of abuse from the pockets of my jeans and from the two girls. However, on the outside, the surface still looks reasonably presentable. What is not, is the black plastic holder which had cracked and bits broken off just like this one I had long ago. It seems that for the case of this plastic holder, once it suffers a sharp force, it will crack and it does not matter if you used glue on it. It will still crack. Even the strong plastic melting PVC glue dow not work for long on this stubborn yet stupidly fragile material.

And so, I used my blade to scrape off the glue
that binds the plastic to the real leather. Whoa.
I didn't know cows are made from recycled
cardboard.

See? This is what I hate about this material. Its
flexible. It holds your phone. But once you go
and drop it, it will crack and suffer from the
Humpty Dumpty syndrome.

Why can't they just produce casings from those
wonderful aircraft grade aluminum like the one
I had for me HP iPaq?

Anyhoo...... I used the double-sided acrylic tape
and glued the Nokia 5800's back cover to the
real leather casing.

Note the slightly out of alingment placement of
the phone with the casing. This is to ensure the
screen protect slider function is easily reachable.
OH, OK, so I fudged when I stuck it on the stupid
thing. Happy now?

In theory, I have given the casing another lease of life. How long it will last, I am not sure. But because of these touch screen devices, making casing for them is not easy:

1. Silicon wraps (condoms)
I hate this. They're either sticky or collect fluff from your pockets. Touching it is like holding a vulcanised condom with a chocolate bar in it.

2. Faux leather with plastic windows.
This is even worse. Its like going to the supermarket, and fondling the mince meat in polystyrene packs. Only difference is, the is a big hard bone in the pack. And and when your ear sweats, you can bet all your little public hairs the sweat would not go anywhere but into that special little cut-out. Weeks later, you find strange dark greenish stuff in the electronics and keypads. And don't even try smelling it.

3. Non-silicon wraparound
Its on my hate list but not so much as hate-hate. Its a good casing but for class, its like wearing a pair of worn Crocs. And as usual, this is CSI's God's Gift to them. Because if you die, they can, from all the sweat, ear wax, hair, sperm, public hair, etc. in the casing, determine how bad the conversation was when talking to your Mistress.

4. Swag bag pouches
Not sure what you call them but they resemble those Santa Claus bags except in a smaller scale. Calling them Santa Bags is just as wrong. Anyway, these are made of cloth and you know, as well as I do, what happens when you do not wash your underwear for months. And gluing small little diamond or glittery stuff on it is just asking to be sent to a Mental Asylum. No, wait, opening the bag and taking out the phone with your thumb and forefinger qualifies. I'll even donate a whip if you happen to be a man.

5. Clear 'crystal' cases
This used to be the rage years ago. But now, its as useful as using acrylic plastic sheets and superglue to make a fish aquarium.

6. Leather pouches.
Oh Lord! I hate this one! By the time you figure out how to unlock the latch/button and pushing the phone out, you have a missed call and you will waste more money calling them back.