Oh!pEnions: 24052016 Getting All Wet in the Dark

24052016 Getting All Wet in the Dark

I'm starting to adjust to the solitary life (or rather, the things I need to do in the evenings, as a hermit) that sneaks up after office hours. It's very simple really. We stop work at 1730, and I wait in the office for the next hour until my colleague/s, who have transport are ready. I am no longer taking the evening Company Van back because the 1730 slot was gone months ago. I either have to take the 1700 or the 1900 where the latter is usually full. Compared to the simple normal life as a KL-lite I had back home which was to rush home through the evening jam, rush through another evening jam to pick up the kids from their tuition, help with the dinner, and if all is well, hide in the Works room where all my electronics and models are. Or if necessary, suffer through some more jams to go to some Hobby Shops or the Post Office to mail stuff out. Then again, I usually end up hiding in the room, which is my private little World until midnight where its quiet and I can either concentrate on my stuff or take a nice shower and doze off next to my Wife.

Anyway, by the time they dropped me off, its seven-ish. Provided I did not ask to be off dropped at the Supermarket to top up my food supplies or donate extra cash to other shops. A quick cooking session using the prepared sauces in the freezer and with the pasta boiling in the pot means I can eat by 1930 or so. Unless I wanted to make something extra with the dinner, that is. Watching some movies from the HDD (thank goodness the Samsung has a built-in media player which can play most of the files) and lazing around completes my evening at around half-past nine or thereabouts. Then it's time to start the water heater for my shower while I go through the Laptop to see what else I can do from the day's work before going to bed. Alternatively, I can just do the dinner and start the water heater at the same time but then, I would have to content with lying in the bed for the next three hours. Alone.

And that's usually how I spend my evenings unless there's work or I was at the Supermarket, or some emergency laundry needed quick drying at the Laundromat or well, some other stuff. And basically, that's the most exciting things that can happen i an evening.

At 2135 or so, the power went out.

Great.

I hate being in the dark.

At first, I thought the cause was that flickering bulb outside my room or the power socket at the lounge and, who the heck is drilling at night? Quick thinking means the drilling from the neighbours means they have power. As I came to the fuse box, right away I noticed the drilling sound came from the kitchen sink. OK, now I know the source of the problem, I'll deal with that later. Getting power back on is the main priority.

Isolating all the circuit breakers and testing them one by one, I came to the conclusion that there is no power to the unit (phew!) and it's not my fault (hooray!). As I ventured out half-naked (it was dark and I was too lazy to get my shirt and pants, etc.), I noticed some neighbours were sitting outside talking while the whole block was in darkness. Did I mention that of all the 5 or 6 blocks, mine was the only one that was affected?

I also realised there is a stark difference between a blackout in KL and the blackout here at where I currently staying. In KL, with the power being out, you WILL feel the heat and stuffiness within minutes. But over here, tonight, the was a cool breeze. And in most nights, even if there weren't any, you won't break out in a sweat unless you really work on it. Compared to the place here which is quite near to the sea in the North (OK, about 45km or so away) and living on ground level with other units above me as sunblocks, I'm cool as a cucumber. Things would be very different in KL where we're away from the sea and the closest semblance to the sea was a Port about 40km or so in the Southeast. So, yeah, it's hot like hell and the only way to cool off was to lie on the cold tiles while the mosquitoes feasts on you. Surprisingly, over here, the mosquitoes are the normal ones and they're not really greedy at all. Most of the time, they're just like flies on a holiday. So, actually sitting around or taking the evening stroll can be quite enjoyable.

While the Guards were patrolling and waiting for the SEB to come, I decided to deal with my second problem; the noisy faucet in the kitchen sink. I am not sure why its making that vibrating sound but it's weird. I think its the rubber part that has failed or something as the faucet was really hard to close. I really had to push it tight to stop the water. Worse of all, I can't even locate the main water valve. After going about the kithen and eventually outside the unit, I figured that the main valve could be in the ceiling above, and I don't even have a proper ladder. And so, using the only screwdriver (my precious but fragile test pen), I managed to get the cover of the tap open and that's as far as I can go without making things worse. Stupidly, I used a layer of plastic bag and screwed it tight with the tap's outlet. Yeah, it stopped about 20% of the flow before ripping open. With all the water splashing around, I was really thankful for the power trip.

Only did I realise that today, with last night's power trip, the electrical water pump was not working and so, I was dealing with weak water pressure, which was just strong enough to 'push' the weak rubber seal tight but not stop it completely, hence the vibration. In the meantime, after communicating with the Maintenance Office and all, I'll just the Company's Admin sort it out in the meantime.