Thursday, July 23, 2015

Despicable

There are certain types of people that are really despicable. One of them are extortionist. We had an encounter with one such person. This person is an electrician. He happens to be staying a few doors away from us. We had several times engaged him to fix several electrical appliances and fix several lights in our house. We have never bargain with him. Whatever price that he mentions after the service, we would just pay. Usually the sum that he mentions is quite exorbitant. Anyway, this person is becoming more and more of an extortionist. We engaged his service to fix an air condition unit (against my wish to engage this electrician because he is an extortionist). We enquired about the price and he came up with the price of below $1600 all in. The price of the air condition unit itself is about $1400. So it was agreed that he would do it for that price which is $1600 that he came up with. A relative of ours recently installed the same air conditioned unit. The price  of the air condition plus installation was only $1400. So the mother casually mentions to him while talking. He just kept quiet and said he would come in the next two days. He never showed up two days later. Neither did he show up two weeks later. He didn't inform the old folks that he isn't coming nor whether the deal is still on. So after over two weeks of waiting aimlessly, the mother asked him when she managed to "catch" him ( he avoided them by disappearing really early in the morning and sneaking back late at night) when he is coming. He replied, in a couple of days. He didn't show up after the couple of days. He only showed up after a week. That was also late in the evening. During dinner hours. He was like those thugs in the gangster movies, doing things as he wish. We had older air conditioning unit in our room. The old unit was mounted in a window. It was the trend in the past when air condition was one block unit and not like the models these days which splits into two ( part of the air condition is inside and the fan thing is outside). So he had to install the new one at another spot because the previous spot was not feasible for the modern type. He started drilling the walls. It was as though he wasn't satisfied with the house and wanted to bring it down. He threw the drilled chunks down from the second floor like shooting canons at the enemy. That went on for hours. Each time bigger pieces were thrown down. It was supposed to be a small hole so that the pipe can be attached to the outdoor fan portion of the air condition. Don't know what major construction he was performing on the wall. He basically trashed the whole room as well as the living hall upstairs. That was not all. He even occupied the downstairs area. He was also occupying the room next door and was moving in and out of both rooms. It was just one air condition unit, but he make it seem as though it was a major house renovation. Not to mention every few minutes, he would ask his son to call us upstairs to watch him in action on the pretext of asking for opinion. So we were running up and down like stupid fools. He arrived unannounced  a little over 5 in the evening and left at around 9 pm. Before calling it a day he said that he would be back tomorrow morning at 9.30 and that he would leave his tools behind. With that he went home. The next morning, he didn't show up at the mentioned time. When he did appear he marched into the hours demanding for paper on the top of his lungs. As it was breakfast time, we were in the kitchen. Not knowing what he was babbling about, I run out to get him paper. I thought he needed paper for the air condition. He grabbed the paper from me and demanded for a pen. He found one on the table. He started scribbling. Then he slammed the pen on the table saying it's out of ink and proceeded in raiding the house for a pen. Clueless on what he was doing, I went to look for a pen for him. I thought he wanted to sketch out some blueprint or something. He then started his drama. He spoke on top of his lungs that this whole deal is a loss making deal. He doesn't earn anything. He has to buy good quality wires to fix the air condition. If other electricians were to do it, the would use lousy wires. His wires costs a lot. X meters cost this much and xy meters is needed. But he is charging only minimal price. He then continued, that he had to engage a worker, if it is an outsider that would be expensive. So he engaged his son paying him $70 an hour. Then he had to go pick up the materials to fix in the air condition unit, that takes up his precious time and petrol. That is a loss. Then he has to make the stand for the part of the air condition that is fixed outside the house. That stand costs money and time to make. Again it is a loss to him. He spent x number of hours at out place the previous night and another couple more the following day, that is something he can't get back. He can easily make big bucks by just servicing a.k.a washing air condition units. Everything he does is a loss to him. If he were in Australia he would be making big money. People like him are needed in Australia. In short he just wants a higher sum. Higher than the price he mentioned and agreed upon. He was also vengeful that the mother mentioned that the relative had everything done for only $1400. He added that his workmanship is out of this world. He went on and on, over and over with the same thing and wouldn't proceed to finish his work. He just wanted us to say we will pay him higher. So the mother had to say "paiseh, to you for having to do all this for this price. I wasn't haggling with you about the price. You make me really paiseh. How much does everything cost overall? What is the final sum? Kindly let me know" . Only then did he shut up. He then started with the noise pollution again. Hammering at things with a vengeance. He called us up for inspection. I was really losing it. He dumped his toolbox on the bed and was using the bed like it's his dressing table. Nails, screws and rubbish everywhere. He was spoiling the bed. Bloody idiot. That whole toolbox was heavy and sitting on the bed. Bloody hell the bed is expensive. He removed the old air conditioner and moved it downstairs into his van. When he came down he continued with his drama on how he has to find ways to dispose that. Removing the old unit left a ginormous hole in the wall above the panel of windows because the old air conditioner was mounted in a hole in the stupid non close- able windows. Stupid designing of the house. So there was a giant hole there and needed to be covered. He then said what do we want him to do? Since he mentioned that he is very busy but forcefully squeezed out some time to accept this loss making business, the mother casually asked him if he wants her to go get the wood herself for him to fix on. He was offended by that and said "sure, go get it yourself". So the mother took it literally and wanted to dashed out to get it. When the old unit was removed, the old wood panels were removed as well. So his son was taking them out to be thrown. So I just said "use that" referring to the wood panels. So the mother went up to him and repeated what I said. He was very unhappy about that, because he couldn't charge extra for another wood panel. He came downstairs and started sawing the old wood panel (and cursing me in his heart.). When he was done fixing the air condition, he started his broken radio story again on what a major loss he is making from this business. The mother paid him in cash ( he only wants cash) close to $2000. More than what a fresh grad earn per month. He left with a black face. What annoys me is not the price but his behaviour. If he wanted a high price, just say so. Don't have to drama and behave like a thug. Him making the list of nonsense and making himself sound like he is victimised is so despicable. 

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Lucrative Business

We have been made to belief that we need to study hard and graduate from university in order to land a white collared job because white collared jobs pay well. Pfffttt. What a bunch of bull crap. We spend our youth slaving away to become graduates and enter the dog eat dog business just to earn a measly salary that we can barely survive on. What we earn from working like low lives, in the so called comfortable jobs, bitting bullets and becoming punch bags couldn't even match with what blue collared workers get from one job. A blue collared worker easily earns $1800++ from just installing an air condition unit. That is the starting pay for a university fresh grad in most white collared jobs if they work in big firms. Some white collared workers don't even earn $1800 a month. 

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Weight

My weight has remained pretty much the same ever since puberty. There wasn't a need to weigh myself because the readings never changed. Yesterday though, for no apparent reason, I weighed myself. Well, just because the weighing scale was lying there. To my surprise, I'm actually at my heaviest. Hip hip hooray. My heaviest point was at 42kg, but that was just for a short while and it was way back in high school. I am now at 44kg. Now I just need to learn how to do handstands for the fat to fall into the designated spot. 

Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Blond Moment

The phone was running low on battery. I took the charger and plugged it to the phone. Then I turned on the switch. Hmm.... Why isn't the phone charging? Is the charger spoilt? Few seconds later... Looks at hand.... The charger plug ( whatever that it's called) is still in my hand. I turned on another charger. Spastic much. Dumb blond moment.