settling into the new/old place

i've finally moved back to penang yesterday.
took up the small room in the old place that i was staying before, since the fella moved out. the room is really pretty damn small. i only brought half the stuff that i had in penang here and already the room is freaking crowded.
here's a corner where i'm using boxes to put my pc for the time being. i'll need to get a small table that can just fit the dual monitors soon. it's cracking my back sitting like this while on the pc.


the fella that last stayed here with his girlfriend was acting weirder and weirder. according to one of my housemates, he went cuckoo over a few unwashed dishes and nearly started a fight because of that. sometimes when he's fed up with stuff, he'll take a knife and start jumping and stabbing mineral water bottles. everyone else was glad that he moved out. i still remember waking up to clinking sounds at 2am in the morning to find him on the floor doing flies with dumbbells right in front of my room door.

well, work starts on tuesday. bad news has been steadily coming in through friends, latest being 2 more of the better fellas in the team just resigned last week. i'll be next if i find a better offer.

wrecking a new car at home.

this came roughly one and a half weeks ago.


along with these.


a week after i got it, i backed it into a wall in my house. so it really seems like my leg is not fit enough to drive yet, cos i'm thinking it's mostly due to me still not being able to control the gas well.

the car doesn't look too wrecked from the outside, but according to my bro's "professional evaluation by visual examination", the whole rear bumper and the back panel will probably need to be replaced, along with a few other things.


the wall's pretty bad. this section of the wall is mostly made up of bricks, without actual supporting beams, so the whole thing sorta looks crumbling already even though the impact wasn't too great.
here's a pic of the damage from the outside.


damage from the inside.


right now, a couple of masons are over to fix it. they've already wrecked most of the wall now. after this is getting the window grill to be fixed, then wall it up again. it'll probably take 3 days to complete.

my recovery progress has been good these couple of months. the last checkup in march had good results. the doctor asked me to start walking with only 1 crutch, which i'd already been doing secretly for a couple of weeks before that. right now, i can already walk without crutches, but with a very pronounced limp. it seems like my leg has forgotten the correct way to walk. :)
the next checkup will be mid may. hopefully, i'll have everything settled by then to get back to work. the only thing left now is to get a new place to stay in penang.

things for my car are mostly settled. i should be able to get it by this week or latest early next week. it's not a very good time to be getting a vios now. the latest face life will probably be out this october, a yaris 4-door sedan rebranded as vios. i'd wait for that if i didn't need a car now for work. the idea of taking cabs for trips everywhere til the car is out doesn't really sit well with me, especially with cab fares in penang being quite high.

work might not be all good news either. it seems that in my absense, the management had everything arranged to their liking and things has been going on for some time the way they wanted. i'm the part that would unbalance the whole thing now if i went back. so, instead of giving me a much deserved promotion, they're trying to push me over to another team.
although this new team is more prestigious than the 1 i'm currently in, it's still not a promotion. plus, i'll be having bad shift work, extra responsibilities and without much added benefits or increment. not to mention it's kinda like starting all over with my past 2 years efforts in the current team mostly wasted.
i'm just hoping that i'll be lucky enough to land a better job elsewhere soon. job market isn't all that great lately.

what happened in these few months, part 4

moving all my stuff back from penang cost me RM500, including 2 movers. the lorry owner's james neighbour. i kinda get the feeling it wasn't really that expensive, and that he probably put some in his pocket, but i'm just relieved that things were settled. i tried to sell off the queen-sized mattress, fridge and aircon before moving, but couldn't manage to. so these 3 things are actually lying around in ipoh now, not being used. if i ever need to move to an unfurnished house again, i might bring them with me. another RM500 for moving is cheaper than buying them again.

earlier in january, mom discovered termites in the wardrobe in my room here. a lot of my old stuff were infested and totally damage. i guess probably around half of the stuff i kept in ipoh were thrown away because of that. the rest were all moved and packed into huge plastic boxes that we bought later. most of the wooden stuff were disposed off, just in case. and so, all the stuff that i moved back from penang were also repacked into huge plastic boxes.

around a week before chinese new year, i was finally able to move back upstairs. bro was giving a lot of trouble by then, not willing to help dismantle the bed and move the mattress upstairs. mom got really pissed with that and had a friend helped. i was totally useless in that. at the time, i still needed both crutches to be able to walk. anyway, we managed to get the living room back to how it was supposed to be a week before chinese new year. i know mom takes pride in how she designed and kept the place looking good. it'll be a pity if it doesn't look well when a lot of people are visiting during that period.

anyway, bro was giving a lot of trouble to everyone at home. truth is, he's been a total different person since coming back from the UK. before that, he was always good to mom, very helpful, and kind. after he got back, the good part was only to his friends. he's gotten this attitude that somehow says "i've been overseas for 6 years. i've seen more than you and i'm better than you". very bad attitude when talking to mom too, as if he's feeling that mom's more of a burden as she gets older.

all this while, he's telling his friends and our relatives that the reason he's back from the UK, and the reason he doesn't want a job outside of ipoh is because of mom. the truth is, he's hardly home and is always out with friends until late at night during work days, and out the whole day when he's off. i've seen the looks and the tone of voice of his when mom's asked him to drive her anywhere or help her with anything at all, and it's not nice. i feel like slapping him sometimes when he pretends to be all good in front of other people.

he's also became very lazy - doesn't make his own bed when he wakes up, doesn't help with chores around the house, doesn't even keep himself clean. i've been telling him that mom likes the place clean. chores like mopping the floor, cleaning the windows, fans and toilets need to be done. there're only 3 of us, and i'm mostly in penang, so it's either he does it or let mom do all these at her age herself. it's like i'm talking to a wall. he just doesn't listen at all.

mom got really fed up with his attitude the day before chinese new year, and scolded him. instead of realizing his mistakes, or just taking it in stride, he yelled back at mom. i tried to stop the whole yelling match, but i guess mom got it pent up inside too long, i couldn't do much. that ended in him just driving off and mom crying the whole afternoon, then asked him to move out after chinese new year when he got back. after that he never even spoke to mom throughout the festive season.

i spoke with him about the whole thing a couple of weeks after that, after he had enough time to really think about it and cool down. he still insisted that he did nothing wrong, did everything he can for the family, we just don't know how to appreciate him, and that he is too disappointed to care anymore. he said he'll move out soon and is already looking for a place. i made it clear to him that we can't stop him from moving out, but he should at least make peace with mom. if he just moved out like that, it'll be showing that he really doesn't want the family anymore and there will be no turning back. i left him thinking about that.

it's been one and a half months already, the two of them are still not on talking terms, more like avoiding each other. bro's still living at home, but is out everyday, doesn't come home for meals at all. i'm now the person to relay messages between them. both of them are just too stubborn to make an obvious first move to resolve this. i wonder how long this will go on.

i'm posting this from my mom's pc, while waiting for a new graphic card for my newly assembled pc. :)

what happened in these few months, part 3

so, i got discharged from the hospital on dec 15 last year. lied in the back of my brothers perodua myvi, with tons of pillows around my leg, all the way back to ipoh. i was hoping that the pillows will help support and also minimize the effects of the bumps along the road. (yeah, malaysian highways still have bumps occasionally) in the end, the pillows didn't really help that much.

mom bought a new single bed, along with a new mattress and put it downstairs. the whole living room was rearranged, with 1 corner's furniture shifted away to accommodate the bed. i still couldn't go upstairs to my bedroom yet, so that was where i slept and spent most of my days for a while.

my ex ling got wind of what happened from this big-mouthed florist that we both know and came visited. the florist knew cos he was asking about me when my mom was over there buying flowers, before i got back to ipoh. she changed quite a bit, looked better than before. but that's where the good things stopped. in a 30 minute conversation, i found out that she'd became this really super superficial person. it made me glad that we never got much further than 2 years.

i transfered all my history from pantai mutiara back to ipoh specialist centre, consulting amother doctor while i'm here as it was easier for me to not travel so far. my first visit was to get the stitches removed and to have the doctor, dr. leung, revise the x-rays and stuff.

yes, i had to have the stitches removed!! that's why i mentioned earlier that the procedure i went through was really out-dated. (refer to part 1) 19 stitches on my thigh, and 8 on my butt.
to top it all off, dr. leung actually told me that with the newer procedures that he use, i didn't even need to have stitches on my side of my thigh. the small opening on my butt would've been enough to realign the bones, insert the steel rod, and even screw it tight if needed. at that point, i decided on two thing - i will switch everything back to dr leung, and if there ever was a way to sue the doctor from penang on this, i will.

the next time i went back for a fresh round of x-ray was in the middle of january. by that time, i can already get upstairs, very slowly. mom was still pretty worried about my falling down the stairs, so she forbade me from moving back up, and i was still sleeping in the living room. (by this time, i'd also finished a few novels and ps2 games, including ffxii, and gotten pretty damn good in tekken 5. that's pretty much says how much i get outta the house, which is almost not at all)

the x-ray showed signs of the bones growing back together. it looked like dust gathering around the part where the bone was broken in two. the little chip that broke off from the side will be the problem, said dr. leung. before that piece grows back together with the rest, the bottom part of the bone will be able to be rotated slightly, which will cause my foot to point outwards. this has been going on all the while and i've been consciously rotating it back to the correct position all this while. funny how i forgot to mention this earlier.

i was already asking him when can i expect to drive and get back to work. he just laughed and asked me to be patient, estimating another 3-4 months, went ahead and gave me two month's worth of medical leave. new medication included calcium and another 2 types of pills for the damaged cartilage in my knee. those cost me almost RM300. of course, my company wasn't very thrilled about this, since they have to pay me even though i'm not at work. :)

i think that was the same day when the next bad news came. the new place i moved into (i haven't really lived there yet, just dumped my stuff there) had some contract issues. the house owner wanted to sell the place and gave everyone one month's notice. according to what i heard from my (didn't quite make it) housemate, the owner refused to fix the problems with the water and the piping, saying that he will be selling the house anyway, and if we didn't like it, we can fix it ourselves or move out. (i found out later that the owner is a singaporean-indian, based on experience dealing with this type at work, i guess it's just typical) so everyone ended up moving out, and i had to get help to move all my stuff back to ipoh.

what happened in these few months, part 2

i was in this temporary room with 2 beds. it's where they put people after an operation, before the actual room the patient wants is sorted out.

my mom and bro were there first thing in the morning. mom worried the whole night even though i already called and told her that i only broke a leg, everywhere else was ok except for minor scratches, the ct-scan was all clear too. after seeing the truth of it, she was in a better shape. :) anyway, the worse part at the time, besides my leg, was my lower lip. it was all swollen and raw.

james and a few other were there a bit later. then a few of my superiors. the doctor came by, told me the surgery went well, that i'll be in pain for some time (as if i can't feel that), that i'll be able to start learning to walk with crutches in 3 days, then discharged within the week.
with the pain that i was in, i was really skeptical of that.

towards noon, one of the staff nurses came by to move me to a room that i was entitled to according to my company's insurance. i was all too happy to move because the old man on the bed next to me turns on the tv too loud.

the nurse told me that it'll be on the 3rd floor. imagine my surprise when i was pushed out of the elevator and was pushed towards the direction pointed to by a sign that says "executive suite" (or something like that). the room was huge, nice bed, sofas, fridge, tv, and a big closet for clothes. my mom was wondering whether they had me in the wrong place, which i totally agreed. my brother was going on about how the room is more like made for visitors than me, cos i couldn't move anyway, which i totally agreed with too.
after much checking, the nurse told me that they actually did make a mistake. i'm entitled to the twin sharing rooms downstairs. i was too tired by then, so i just told her that i'd pay whatever extra that the insurance won't cover. she was all too happy about that. :)
(later, i found out that they're still gonna cover everything for me. i haven't been back yet to confirm everything, hopefully they won't let me down on this.)

so, i ended up in a nice room with a nice view for the next 2 weeks. i over-stayed cos i had to arrange for the rest of my stuff to be moved to the new place, and also wait for my bro to be free to come drive me back to ipoh for my recovery.

i also had to make a police report so that i can claim from squall's insurance. the bastard didn't want to take any responsibility and just said that his insurance will take care of everything when i ask him. after that, he just stopped calling or answering calls. til now, i still feel that there should be something in the law to make people like these bear responsibility, even though they have insurance.
the police report was a hassle. i had to travel all the way to the hq in georgetown to make the report. they wouldn't send anyone over to the hospital to take the statement. another fine example of how malaysian public service is in total contradiction to it's supposed goal - provide convenience and simplicity to life.

the nurses are great. very friendly, except for one. i have no idea what's wrong with her. anyway, i made a couple of pretty promising acquaintances with a couple of them. i'm not sure if anything will come out of those, but we're still in contact now. :)

learning to walk on crutches was easier than i thought. i was all over the room after a couple of lessons despite the pain. it was a really healthy change from being confined to the bed. i was really glad it wasn't too hard, cos they'll be my best friend for at least a few months.

the 2 weeks in the hospital more or less let me know who are the best friends i had in penang at the time. i didn't really let too many people know about the whole thing, didn't want to make a big fuss out of it, but news traveled efficiently, especially in the office (thanks to james for scaring some people by sending them email about my accident, haha). quite a lot of people came, some came everyday. +2 even left me her ipod speakers/charger so that i wouldn't be too bored, which (somehow, unknown to me) i broke. the thing still charges, but the speakers died. i still have yet to pay her back for that.

updates updates updates (or what happened in these few months, part 1)

updates updates updates (or what happened in these few months, part 1)

i took the phone that was on the previous post for repairs under warranty, and got a phone call that it was fixed later in the afternoon. pretty good service from samsung in ipoh. :)

now, the story is not really about the phone, but the phone's malfunctioning is probably part of the aftermath of the story. after all, besides the (probably) huge shock that the phone has from my fall during the accident, i also kept dropping it while i was in the hospital. being pretty much immobile as i was during the first week, reaching over to the night stand for the phone was an ordeal. so, to cut the bullshit short, the story is about my accident.

the when:
november 28, 2006. after work, on the way home. this is in the middle of my bad luck streak, which started roughly 2 months earlier when the landlord suddenly said the apartment is sold, and that we all had to move, then after i found and confirmed another place, the apartment buyer didn't wanna buy the place anymore. oh, and i was supposed to move into the new place on nov 30th. fuck.

the where:
which is a very embarrassing topic as i've been using the same road almost everyday for 2 years, even had an accident on it now, and i still can't remember the name of the road. it's just this big main road in front of PISA, right at the junction where traffic can cross from the other side of the road to turn into Relau.

the rest of it:
i was on my way home after work, slowing down when nearing the above mentioned junction as usual. some bikes were waiting to cross, but waiting by the side as usual since i'm coming on the main road. a car just swerved out from behind the bikes suddenly, crossing the road right in front of me. i couldn't stop or avoid him at all as it happened too suddenly. bang!
the next thing i knew, i was on my back on the road. no pain then, i was totally conscious. my first response was to put my feet under me and get up, and that's when i felt my right leg just wiggled a bit when i tried to move it. so i looked at it and found my right thigh in an S-shape. my first thought at that was actually "this is gonna be fucking inconvenient".

thinking back on it all, i'm still amazed by what i did next.

so, the fella who hit me (which i later found out, calls himself squall. *gah*) got out of the car and wanted to help me up, so i just shaked him off and told him to leave me alone and call an ambulance. i just got my phone out and started calling friends and colleagues to arrange for my company's insurance coverage, someone to come get my stuff etc.

anyway, the ambulance got there in less than 15 minutes. by that time, the pain already sunk in and i was sweating and gritting my teeth when talking because of it. well, the paramedic was surprised that i was still conscious enough to make decisions. i had him pass me my ipod and wallet, which were both in the pockets on the right side of my cargo pants before cutting my pants open to check the damage. i asked them to take me to pantai mutiara, which was the closest private hospital, instead of the general hospital coz that'll probably take another hour due to the heavy traffic after work.

the worse part was being lifted into the ambulance, bumped inside it all the way to the hospital, then being lifted onto the hospital bed. the whole thing happened before any painkillers. the painkillers came after the doctor had a look at me. after that, being lifted onto the x-ray table and the ct-scan machine wasn't that bad.

the exact term the doctor (which, later i found to be not that good) used to describe my leg injury is "a fracture in the femur". that doesn't sound very serious, does it? i mean, people get fractured bones when they fall down in a basketball court. that's exactly how misleading some medical terms sound. the real description in this case is probably something like "thigh bone broken in two, with a chip on the side, muscles torn but luckily no open wound on the outside".

james and lai, two of my colleagues were there trying to help. great guys, both of them. :)

the surgery was 3 hours later. before which, i told the doctor i don't even want a single finger to be conscious of what's happening during the surgery. basically, they cut open my thigh on the side, and also a smaller cut on my ass, rearrange the bones, then sew it back up. this procedure, as i found out much later after getting back to ipoh, if fucking out-dated.

i woke up the next morning in pain even with pain killers. just bandages, no cast.