A friend’s ordeal

A couple of days before the Chinese New Year, I had a chat with an ex-colleague in my Company No. 3. I had not heard from her for 3 months, so I was eager to find out how she was doing, knowing what she had gone through this past year. She didn’t need much prodding from me. Soon words spilled out of her mouth like torrential rains. This friend, whom I shall call Anne here for the sake of anonymity, has had a turbulent year where career and home are concerned. She left Company No. 3 shortly after I did so in September 2002. She joined a small telco, but was retrenched at the end of 2003 during her maternity leave. She finally got a job sometime in the middle of 2004 as a tutor at a private university. However, her morale was low mainly because of the pittance pay (compared to her previous jobs), among other things. Meanwhile, she had purchased a house while she was still working at Company No. 3. The house was supposed to be ready early 2004, but the developer failed to get a CF on time and hence, the house was only ready for vacant possession towards the end of 2004. There were lots of complaints on matters such as leaking roof, broken tiles and the likes. When the house was ready, she engaged a contractor to do the grilles, the kitchen cabinet and other things. There were a few weeks delay on the grille, but at least it was delivered. As for the kitchen cabinet, she paid a deposit of RM3K but never got to see the product. Tired of the delays, she asked for the deposit back, but what a hassle it was. She must have called the contractor hundreds of times, ending with him refusing to answer her calls. Since the contractor regarded her as the satan and her DH as an angel, the DH took over the liaison job. Things didn’t go smoothly either, and the DH too lost his temper after numerous calls. After the temper outburst, the contractor sent an sms to the DH, giving his address, so that the DH could send people to beat him up! The DH refused to be goaded into such fights. At another time, the contractor told the DH to make a police report if he really thought it would him good. They never got around to making the report. Several missed calls later, Anne and her DH decided to go to the contractor’s house themselves. It turned out that it was not his house at all, but a house where he did a job a few years back. Finally, with the help of the contractor’s ex-partner, they managed to get back the deposit, with RM500 still outstanding. Anne bought some furniture for the new house. When the furniture arrived, the house was still in a mess because of the contractor’s delay in renovation work, so Anne couldn’t inspect the furniture. When she did inspect it sometime later, the dressers and wardrobe had numerous holes that were caused by termites. The salesman told Anne that the model was out of stock so she had to choose other models. Anne picked a model that looked exactly like her previous model but was told that it would cost her more. The salesman kept telling her that it was a different model. After arguing with the manager, she managed to get it at the same price. Anne started yet another new job at the end of 2004. She decided to buy herself a car. When the car made wheezing sounds and had many other problems, she took it to the workshop. When she collected the car, she asked about the wheezing sound. The mechanic told her it was due to some holes. When she asked where the holes were, he said there were too many but he had covered them all. He assured her all problems had been resolved. She got in the car and it refused to start. She had to stop herself from telling the mechanic that apart from closing the holes, he also needed to close his mouth. When the car managed to be started, she noticed that the wheezing sounds were still there, louder than ever. There’s also the problem of uprooting her daughter from one nursery to another due to the career and house moves. After what they went through, Anne and her DH concluded that the past year had been a terrible year and they just couldn’t wait to start over a new year, be it CNY, Awal Muharram, or whatever, as long as it is a new year. Listening to her stories made me feel exhausted. I don’t’ know if I could go through the same ordeals in a short span of one year. After their runs with bad lucks, I hope that this year will be a better year for them. To the readers, Happy Chinese New Year and Selamat Menyambut Awal Muharram. I know it’s belated, but I was too busy to update my blog before the CNY/Awal Muharram holidays.