Rescue at Desaru Beach

There are not many dates that I can remember vividly,  other than the day my Father passaway, September 11 Twin Towers collapse , and the boxing day tsunami, but I am very sure that this day,  1 Jan 2012 will be a day that I remember for a long long times.

It was a Sunday, as usual, it is the season of North East monsoon and my wife and I were at the Desaru beach for bodyboarding.

We reached there at about 11 am which was consider late as we tried out new route from Perma Jaya to Pasir Gudang and then to the connecting PLUS highway. Upon reaching there, I immediately went down to the beach for my most enjoyable sea sport that is bodyboarding, by the way, the morning waves were not so strong and it was a receding tide, but still it is  layable and I was at the beach for about two hours until 1 pm, came back to the shelter for some rest and drink, and eat lots of fruits prepared by the wife.

After that, I went back to the beach for second round of bodyboarding, as the tides were receding,  the area of the shallow water at the beach were quite far and many people went into the shallow water area to play with the coming waves,  It was about 15 minutes of my second season and I paddle with my board toward the sea and I saw one Indian couple at the beach hugging at a chest height water level.  I was looking at them and suddenly,  I saw them drift away very quickly by the force of receding wave, and I notice the man started to look very frighten and the girl was hugging tightly on him.

Inside my mind I was thinking, what the hell is this waves (It really is pulling people away) Just I was thinking about this, the man already started to wave at me to help them, In a split second, I was thinking whether I am able to help them or not, but I did not think further as they have move back far more as I was looking at them, I quickly swim toward them and slide my bodyboard toward them while the leash still attach to me.  The man quickly holds on to the board while the girl still clicks to the man in a frightening mood, as I tried to pull them back toward me. 

There is no way you can pull two person while you are floating in the rough waves situation, after trying and failed,  I quickly joined them to hold on to the board and started to swim back to shore, I was struggling to swim but the couple seem to be non-swimmers and just grip the board, all three of us did not say anything at all, as the strong waves keep pounding us and I drink quite abit of water, I believe they too drank lots of sea water. 

I was very tired and felt like I have no more strength to swim anymore and wanted to let go the leash and swim back on my own,  at this instant, a big wave just hit our board and I take this opportunity to control the board so that it move three of us inward and a second wave came and I did the same,  at this times there are a lot of people at the beach looking at us but no one come in to help,  only one guy signal to me to swim toward my left side which I believe is shallower, I tried again to kick and kick and with the help of coming waves, and it is nearer to the shore,  it easier to move and finally we are able to touch the sand bed,  and one of the Indian couple friend’s quickly grip them to the safety.

At this times, I was soooo tired, and it felt like I could’t feel my four limbs at all.   I was resting for more than 10 minutes before I was able to stand up.  As I look at
that couple over the far side of the beach, they are still sitting at the beach with their second life surrounded by their families and friend. One Chinese, One Malay and One
Indian came to give me a tap on the shoulder.

My wife was so worried and keep telling to go back already,  and took a half dead picture of me.

We pick up and left Desaru at about 3 pm and proceed to Penawar town as my wife like the two Renggit shop there, and after that, we proceed to Johore Premium Outlet, the new shopping concept open by the Genting group but nothing interest her, after that, we went back to Johor Bahru for a good massage and after the massage, again go shopping at Zone Duty free shopping centre. And arrived home at about 11 pm

 Orh, forget to mention,  on the way back to JB, I realised that I have miss call from my 4D friend, inside my mind, I think don't tell me I kana 4D, true enough, I really Kana but just consolidation prize only, What a coincident or the Indian God give me monetary reward for saving 2 lifes.  May be  anyway, that it for today.

House Renovation 3

22 April gas turn on, Deliver TV for living room, deliver furniture for two common room.

24 April deliver refrigerator, house warming gift from Judy.

1 May House warming,

After 3 April when we had move our  furniture from 252 till now,  I have been stay over at the new house during weekend,  usually I will go over on Friday night, and go back to Jurong East on Sunday, I used to park the car at Evaton Park multistory carpark and just display one overnight parking coupon and 3 x $1 parking coupon for Saturday (Under park and ride scheme), Sunday free parking,   after receiving two parking  offence on Saturday,  then I knew that this carpark doesn’t have park and ride scheme.  In the end I decided to buy season parking at Duxton which cost $90 per month.  My wife given me a lecture, said that  during renovation, I don’t want to buy season ticket, every time I have to drop my purchase and then drive over to Evaton park and then walked back.  Now I have finished my renovation, then I bought season parking. 

From April till  middle of June,  my weekend would be doing  miscellaneous work, such as drilling work, electrical  and some carpentry work. I am really a handyman which I really enjoy doing only problem is after the work,  I will have difficult standing straight.  After I had finished the work,  next few week we have some weekend jogging in the city and it feel nice, especially when we reach destination such as Marine Bay Sand, or Esplanade.  

The first tenant is a Vietnamese lady working in Marina Bay Sand, she shifted in on 4 May but she smoked in the house and I have no choice but to ask her to go, her last day wsa on 21 June,  and I found a Malaysia lady working as auditor and she will shift in on 31 July.  Another room was rented to a China lady on 16 May and she is working in a resort hotel in Sentosa.

House Renovation 2

1 April Buy bathroom accessory and good hammer drill.

2 April install bathroom accessory, with the new drill, drilling was so easy.

3 April Today move furniture to the new house , and deliver sofa.

6 April Deliver TV console and activate SCV.

7 April Repair water leaking

8 April Deliver washing machine, install fibre optic cable, repair floor tiles.

10 April Install common toilet, viewing by korea tenant, floor tile repair finish.

11 April delivered kitchen cabinet  and installation.  Paid $800

12 April Install table top.  Paid $500.   

13 April Install false ceiling $380 did not issue receipt.    

Getting Mr Teo to get the work done is a headache,  I keep calling him when is he coming to do the work but he keep changing the date.  In the end,  I promise him if he can finish everything by end of 18 April, I will give him $500 as reward.  That is why on 11 April, even though it is a Sunday, he delivered almost all  the cabinet for the kitchen and living room, and fixing up the kitchen cabinet,  hoping that he can finish the work by the dateline,  but the quality of the work is very poor, I will list out the poor workmanship after this. 

In order to rush the dateline, he deliver the living room display with shortcut method,  he simply use ply wood, paste formica and two small display on the upper board, two shoe rack suppose to be at the low portion no where to be seen. 

My sisters (give me $1000 Hong Bao money) came to the house to see the progress was so angry and told me that I must ask the contractor to alter it

19  April, the contractor came to alter the shoe rack, install the mirrors, he did not finish the work, but I paid him all the balance payment,  I told he that I paid him all the money without holding any balance, and want him to finish  all the balance work which is not much more.  I want to give him one more time to prove that he has not lost all upright character of humankind.  But he proved me wrong, he is completely incorrigible,  he did not turn up again and did not answering my phone call from then on.

House Renovation Part 1

I collected the key to my new house on 13 March 2010,  that same after noon,  I met a renovation contractor at the new estate who are soliciting for business.  I invited him to the house and get him to quote me for the renovation work.    The price seems ok, but I think it better to get another quote before I commit.

Inside my mind, I was think whether to let my friend renovate this house as the workmenship and quality is not bad,  but when I think of selling the house after 5 years, and the new owner will just demolish everything,  and I tell myself better to get a cheap one.  So I flap through the newspaper looking for the one who will quote the lowest price per sq foot.

14 Mar 2010,  we start painting our house,   15 March 2010, when to IMM and shop for basin and stove. Select lights for all room except the walk way as I plan to install false ceiling once the aircon is installed.

On 16 March 2010, the contractor came and I told him what I want,  and he immediately give me a quotation and promises to give me the best quality formica, best quality granite top, and can finish within a week.   And the price he quoted was really cheap as compare to the first one.

I immediately confirm order with him and he came with  a order book and start writing the scope of work,  the amount come up to $6K + and he ask for $3000 deposit.  I saw him writing in the order with the company name Lye Choon Furniture & Renovation, with business registration.  And I didn’t doubt about him, so I paid him about $800.00 as that is all I have in my wallet. 

The next day, he arrange with his worker to came down to do the measurement as reminded to bring the balance of $2200.00.  In the end, he came down to collect the money only as the worker said that we are not confirm with how to run the aircon pipe.  So I told him after I finish the aircon, I will contact him. Selecting of aircon contractor is a problem because it not about the prices, it is date of installation,  due to overwhelming  of order from owners of Pinnicles at Duxton,  the date of installation have to be 1 month wait which I do not agree at all, in the end, I call a contractor recommended  by my brother in law, install a Toshiba inverted system 3 at $2900.00 and the it was done on 27 March 2010.

18 March install the lights.

19 March brought cooking stove and hood and washing machine, all from Best Denka.

20 March buy toilet mirrors, water heater from Jalan Basar, and continuing with the painting.  

21 March went to Ikea to buy certain rod, borrow the van from brother and brought the old oven, coffee table to new house. 

23 March, install water heater, so  we enjoy our first hot shower in the new house.

25 March, On leave for prayer, cooking stove and hood delivered, drill curtain hole, the electrical drill is not mean for mortars wall, take so long to drill 8 holes for the two common rooms. Wife continue with the painting.  Store room rack completed.

27 March, gas pipe installed, aircon installed.  Contacted Lye Choon contractor  to do measurement and he promise to come on 29 March  but on 29 March, that guy did not turn out.

Buy and Sell houses

I want to write about my experiences of buying and renovating my houses, especially, the latest one at the  Pinnacle @ Duxton.

All in all,  I had buy and sell 4 houses during the last 17 years,  the first one was in 1993, I brought a 4 room flat at Blk 349 Bukit Batok which was shared with my sister,  during that time,  we did not renovate the house at all.  The house was brought at $100K and sold it three years later at $200K.

 1998, when I reach 35 years old, I brought my second house.  A 3 room flat at Blk 349 Jurong East, this time, I also did not renovate the house, except changing all the lights and install a system 2 aircon. Later on, when my elder brother sold his flat and left behind all the furniture,   I salvage some of the cabinet, such as the kitchen table top and, one wardrobe and 3 book shelves.  I still remember, I replace the kitchen table top with a black formica, even though it is not very well done, but still I like it very much.

I sold this house two years after I bought a new 4 room flat in Bukit Gombak, together with my Filipino wife.  At that time,  my wife have a kabayan who is married to a Singaporean, and he is a renovation contractor,  therefore I engaged him to do up the whole house, including, floor, lighting false ceiling and carpentry work . 

The design was simple, but the quality of the work and material are quite good and I don’t need to worried about the progress of the work, whether thing are done properly or not , total cost of the renovation was about $20k .

After 5 years of occupation,  it is time to sold my flat, I sold my flat in June 2009 and the profit was $200k.  not bad at all.  The new owner told me that they want to redo everything, and told me to take whatever I want.  I dismantle whatever is usful and forget the rest because I got no place to keep the furnithre. Inside my mind, I was thinking , what a waste !! such good plywood going into the incinerator.

Here come the latest purchase,   the best investment I have made, thank to my wife for it as otherwise I would not be able to buy this house.

To be continue…