A series of FORTUNATE events (part 1)

To think that we were able to escape the earthquake, tsunami and radiation, and be able to come back home in one piece is indeed a blessing. We are really grateful that we are back in Malaysia. Good food, good people and it has been great catching up with my old friends. But things back home has not been going too smooth ever since we came back.

So what... it has been more than one month since I came back to Malaysia. Both husband and I have started work soon after that. We left Sya with his grandparents whenever we are at work and at the same time looking for a suitable kindergarten for him. Since both of us work in KL, we have to get up at 5am to prepare ourselves for work. 6.15am is the ideal time to move from my home in Shah Alam. If we were 5 minutes late, we would have been caught in bad traffic jam and we would end up late. We finish work at 4.30pm but we never reach home earlier than 5.45pm. We would be jumping with joy if we could come home at 5.30pm. So as you can see, the stress level due to the traffic jam is so much higher if compared to our previous life in Japan. We didn't have to deal with traffic there. Just easy bicycle riding.

Hence, we decided to look for a new home.

Looking for a new home in the middle of KL is absurd. If you browse the internet, you will notice that the price is impossible for government servants to buy or rent. At least to us. We had one choice though, which was to apply for government quarters. The procedure didn’t take too long and we considered ourselves lucky when we were granted a bungalow house in Federal Hill, Kuala Lumpur. It was still under renovation when we first went there. The house is huge with five rooms and a big garden. It is shady with big trees around, possibly aged at least a few hundred years. We have just learned that the Federal hill is a conserved area due to the limited greens in KL. What a fantastic place, we thought.

While waiting for us to move in, the house is guarded by a lady guard who stays in 24 hours. She stays there with her family. She is pleasant and chatty. Whenever we visit the house, she always asks us when we would move in, so that she would move back to her home town. Apparently she has not been going back home ever since the last occupant left. She advised us that we should get more people to stay in this house. I asked her why? She said, oh nothing… that house was too huge for three of us and it’s a waste to leave the rooms unoccupied. How nice of her, we thought. We did not think of any hidden meaning of her words then.

We went there every weekend to make sure the renovation was done timely. One of the reasons why we need to move in fast is that, our cargo has finally arrived. I will talk about that in another entry. Anyway, my more than 100 boxes are occupying my parents house and it’s not a beautiful sight. So, we desperately need to relocate them somewhere. Of course with another main reason that we want to escape the terrible traffic jam every day.

One week ago, I had paid the deposit for the house since the renovation was almost done. We went there last weekend and we were pretty satisfied with the final product, with our eyes half closed. Haha! It was only then that we noticed that we had forgotten to make curtains. The twenty three grilled windows and two sliding doors surely need nice curtains, right? Yup, twenty three windows…my mind was calculating the price for the whole house. Anyway, we didn’t bring any measurement that day and unfortunately I would be busy with an afternoon tea date the next day. So darling hubby volunteered to make the measurement himself. It was late in the afternoon when he went for the measurement. After that, he came and fetched me home and we went to our nearest Nagoya textile to make curtains. I don’t know about other people, to choose materials for curtains, and tell the tailor of the exact measurement was definitely not an easy task. It was one thing I would like to escape if possible. And to make things worse, each room had different window measurement!

While choosing the materials for my curtain, my husband and I was discussing regarding one particular area which I thought need not to have curtain. It was this area in the middle part of the stairs where it has one long vertical window stretched from the second floor to the first floor. I thought it was unnecessary since all the windows are tinted dark. As long outsider can’t see us, that should be fine…I thought. However hubby insisted to have the window covered.

Hubby: Lebih baik tutup dengan langsir lah yang.

Me: Ala…kat rumah my parents pun ada tingkap camni, tapi mak tak pasang langsir pun…

Hubby: Bila malam-malam nanti, nampak pokok bergoyang kang, ada yang suspen nanti. Hubby laughed.

Me: Ke abang takut nampak kain putih melayang? I asked jokingly.

Hubby: …

Me: …

Hmm, someone took my joke seriously. Something's fishy, I thought.

Me: Did anything happen while you did the window measurement yesterday?

Hubby: …

Me: Is there something I should know?

Hubby: Hmm, yeah. I felt weird yesterday. In that house alone.

Me: But previously you said the house felt ok?

(For your info, my hubby claimed he could see “the unseen” when he was a child but later after adulthood, he couldn’t see them anymore but he retained the sense and can feel them)

Hubby: But this time when I went alone, the feel was stronger. Previously when we went together, the feel was weak and those things can disappear when there are more people around.

Ohh…ok. Now I know why he insists to have all windows covered with curtains.

Me: Are they “keras” type. Or just naughty type?

Hubby: Hmm…more of a naughty type.

That surely didn’t make me feel any better…

Hubby: Especially the guestroom downstairs and the storeroom.

Me: ….

Hubby: ….

Me: Seriously…do you think we should reconsider about this house?

Hubby: Yeah we should. We were so occupied and anxious to start our new life in Malaysia that something like this just escaped some serious discussion. Moreover, I didn’t want to make you worry unnecessarily since you were so into it.

We had a long serious discussion.

Me: I think we should just quit the thought of staying there. It’s not worth to take the risk too. Well, I may lose my deposit but it’s worth it. I totally believe your intuition. Besides, the place is quite isolated and both our neighbor houses are vacant. Everything is just too good to be true. Let’s just call it off darling.

Hubby: Yeah, I agree.

So, here we are. Back to square one. Back to house hunting again. Together with a long list of other things to do. First thing first…I need to ask my tailor to hold the curtain making. I will definitely have to get a new window measurement. Oh dear, there is no way we can afford a house with 23 windows and 2 sliding doors. So, what am I going to do with the leftover materials? Oh well…that can be arranged I suppose. Worse comes to worst, I will have many pairs of curtains enough for the next few years. Hahaha…

Hmm, I wonder whether we should look for condos instead…

Now I have to keep myself busy again. Oh yes, I have to tell you that I don't get internet access at work so it’s impossible for me to do internet searching and read blogs during lunch time. Yup, there is a story behind that as well. Will write about that part of the story later. Believe me, many dramas had happened after coming back and some people had even asked me whether I am jinxed, coming back from Japan.

Hmmm...maybe I should seriously consider mandi bunga? Nah...just joking!

Till next time friends! I will update. For my blogger friends, thanks for being so concern and patient with me. It's going to be a while till I find back my own pace. Meantime, do take care!