HAPPINESS IS A LOOONG WAY AWAY

        YES, exactly 24 rusty drain grills away. It has been 5 years since the last paint job. We all know our weather has gone havoc. First, the scientists blamed it on the El Nino effect, and now it is global warming accelerated by burning of fossil fuels.

         In Malaysia, we have had more rainy days in the past 2 years than ever. There are no rainy seasons anymore, it just pours when it fancies. Not the piss-weak drizzles but full blown thunderstorms, with gale winds, booming thunder and lightning streaks frightening enough to make alpha dog Thory pee all over the house. With all the wetness, the grills rusted quickly. 

      Painting the drain grills was long overdue, but the very thought of this chore gave me panic attacks.  Just this Wednesday, I must have woken up on the wrong side of bed with brain freeze cos’ “kakak” and I laid the grills all along the garden and started the tedious task. Each grate is about 4 feet so we had about 96 feet to paint, 29 metres. Actually that's only one way, it is 96 feet up, flip over the grates and 96 feet down the garden again. Then it is probably, over to the chiropractor.

       We started every morning at 7.45 am. The sun gives me loads of Vitamin D but loads of pigmentation and sun spots on my face too.           So we were early and night birds, plodding along grill by grill, 

       even after dark with the garden lights. Neighbours probably thought we had gone insane with the partial lock down. 

      But who cares, it’s my face that is going to light up like a Christmas tree with freckles. 

      Three cans of glossy black and three days later, today SATURDAY at 9am, we ARRIVED at HAPPINESS. Phew, all glossy and looking new. A rolling stone gathers NO moss. But yikes,

       the inside of my drains had plants and tons of moss which had happily lived in the moist environment. 

This is a healthy Malaysian drain with its own unique ecosystem. Naturalist David Attenborough could have produced a video on this - "Flora and Fauna of Malaysian Drains."

        This was a job for a superhero and his Karcher high pressure jet spray. Gizmo Man to the rescue. One thing I must tell you about Gizmo Man is, besides his love for gadgets, he loves to do his chores in the heat of the day. So during the hottest time of the day at 11.52 am, 

he cranked up his jet spray and with Thory supervising 

he started shooting into the drains. 

Even wild horses couldn’t drag me out at midday,

 I was inside with the curtains drawn, away from my source of pigmentation and writing this post,  but there was Gizmo Man shooting away. It must be a MALE thing. After 3 hours, it was FINITO.

 So this was yet another memorable day under CMCO (partial lock down). 

I must say 2020 and the pandemic has its exciting moments!