it rained the whole day. for the past week or so, it rained most of the days. rainy season is here. and it's good. if nothing else, for the coolness it brings during the nites.
marathon man played the 9-hole yesterday. the course was a like a paddy field, clogged up with water and mud, with ponds of water here and there. some of the sand bunkers were soaked in water, the ones remained dry had a layer of yellowish silt on top, making the surfaces very hard.
the sky was getting dark earlier these days. at the 6th hole, it was so dark that he lost two balls when he got to the green. the nite birds started cookooing, the insects creaked, the bats swarmed the sky, the monkies went back to the trees for their rest, the moon sow the ground with silvery rays placidly.
it was a happy nite.
and a happy day.... he jogged in thomson ridge, jln pelatina, taman permata.... when he was absorbed in appreciating the different housing alterations in this area; you have the bali type, the modern-minimalistic sytle, the europian-chunky-like-a-boulder, archaic look, the simple, down-to-earth, kiasu maximum-built-up-area design.... one of the houses in taman permata particularly caught his attention - a simple two-story terrace house, nothing unusual excpet there was NO front wall in the 2nd floor. the whole front wall was replaced with a sliding glass door, with the door slided to one side, and the curtain pulled to one side, the whole of the 2nd floor was exposed to marathon man's view, right thru to the back of it, and the back was also having the same see-thru sliding door design as the front. marathon man could see the whole of 2nd floor; it was a split-level big room, with a big couch in the front, and a bed at the back, some closets... a table.... an an opague, enlcosed wc - quite a view to behold.
the owner was in the front of the house, mending the flowers. marathon man approached him, "hi, uncle, your house is new, you just rebuilt it?"
"yes. how is it?"
"very good, i like it, especially the window-display theme of the 2nd floor. how much did you spend?"
"$300k, redo the floor, kitchen, the whole of 2nd floors."
"was the design from you?"
"yes. i like the idea of a house with alot of light, ample air flow, and watery...." he pointed to a small water fall in one corner of the front lawn.
"how long to rebuild?"
"oh.... 1 year lah." he said, "it was not that simple, you know. i had to deal with the architect to finalize the design and plan, and asked for quotes from the contractors. then supervised the work..... must be very attentive to what the contractor was doing.... but after all this time, when i saw the completed project, and the moment i moved in, every effort that i had spent did not go to waste..... young man, if there's anything that a man must go thru to prove to himself he could hold up to be a man, is to undertake a "housing project".... ie build his own house, or rebuild his house. of course not everybody can afford that."
"hmm... for a guy like myself, i guess the next best thing than to build my own house, is to build other people's houses - be a construction worker."
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