Culprit identified

30th May 2010

As I have mentioned in one of my previous posts, the road leading to our home is not in a good shape. It gets worse every time it rains. After a couple of times patching the puddles with free gravel (courtesy of our neighbour), the road simply wouldn't be fixed, especially the area exactly in front of the house. I became more puzzled when the road continues to be muddy even though it has not rained.

Curious, my neighbour and I decided to figure out the problem. After a scrutiny, it turned out that the actual culprit is a broken water pipe underneath the ground. Since it was already dusk when we found out about it, the plumbers decided to check it out the next day.

Thankfully, the problem has been fixed. An advantage which came out from this, my good neighbour now has his new water meter fixed. Currently, our road is better but certainly asphalt would be much more nicer.

Permanent water pipes underway

5th May 2010

After almost a year moving in, there are finally signs of having permanent water pipes installed. It may sound like such a long time, but we are actually quite lucky since one of my neighbours had been living on our street for years and only now that the relevant authorities take action. This whole time, we had been relying on temporary water lines with the help of black rubber pipes (as you can see in one of the pictures below).

The main water meter has been put up close to the entrance of our street and pipes have been laid down underground. The only downside is that our dirt/gravel road has now worsened after the digging works. To add more to the deterioration, our neighbour at the end of the street owns a lorry that passes by daily. Thankfully, perhaps acknowledging their contribution towards the damage, the lorry driver had agreed to find some unwanted gravel stones to patch up the road.

I hope that the works will be completed soon. At the same time, I also hope that our application for asphalt will be approved in the near future.

Marking the territory

1st May 2010

Hahaha... The title might sound selfish but I do believe that my actions are justified. The pond adjacent to our land has long attracted strangers to try their luck with fishing. Frankly, we are not annoyed by that, it's just that some people do not respect things that does not belong to them. Once I saw a passer-by kicking the plants that took me time and money to plant. Some others ignorantly hang out ('lepak') on our land and put their belongings under our water tank. Most recently, somebody drove their car across my sisters' land and parked behind our house.

I don't know about you but these things make me uncomfortable. Safety is also an issue especially during times when nobody is home, or when my wife and I are at work and the kids are alone with the maids.

Of course my long-term plan is to build a proper perimeter fencing and hopefully all the problems would go away. However, that will have to be delayed due to the cost. My wife and I have discussed and decided that when we build it, it has to be of good quality and long-lasting. We are hoping that our plan can be realised by the end of this year or perhaps early next year.

As for now, this is what I did...

At the entrance of my sisters' land, I put up some wooden poles. I'm planning to add some more all around the land with barb wires attached.

Along the border separating their land from ours, I planted some saplings. Long term goal; they will grow bigger and form a hedge.