shitey weekend

not exactly the best update i have but can't think of anything else to submit entry.

i came home friday night, tired from the extraordinary jam encountered en route home, i received the kind of news that you wouldn't like to hear upon returning home knackered. the domestic helper told me that the sewage box culvert had overflown and the stagnant, murky raw sewage water has flooded my backyard. on friday night? oh no!!! gone were the days when friday night means fun fun fun till the crack of dawn but i'm expecting to wind down quietly at home at least. but an overflown box culvert on friday night? darn! i get splitting headache just thinking about it.

how i wish i have somebody to tai-chi the job. but wifey? err maybe not. domestic helper? i don't think so. she didn't even clear the cat poop on the lawn and you want to ask her to wade the ankle-deep raw sewage water? though we initially suspected that she had flushed down her sanitary pad much to her denial but that is another story.

so, wading the pool of water that had even overflown into drainage in the moonlit night, i was virtually feeling my way through with a stick looking for the manhole cover while removing the mulchy rotting garden waste that i normally put on top of the manhole cover for composting purposes, failing miserably to not imagine the source of the ankle-deep water that i was walking in. miraculously, i succeeded in opening the square manhole cover and discovering no surprises in there. more murky, stinky water of course.

then i proceeded with my normal modus operandi of clearing blocked drainage (which i had succeeded in doing so several times without having to call the plumber) by trying to insert a rubber hose into the main outlet rather than heading into the house which will bring less headache and less "moisturising" encounter. which of course, i failed miserably because who knows how long the outlet pipe goes all the way into the mains.

after trying several for several minutes without any success, this time my hands basically swimming in the water, i admit defeat. i made a resolution to call the "beautiful water", our sewage and waste treatment provider, after i took a loong, hard shower (mandi wajib siap even though no event related to it whatsoever). and they promised to come within 48 hours.

surprisingly, they were already there on saturday morning. not bad for a company that i have never paid their bill, ever for the past 2 years they've been billing us. ok ok. *make mental note to nudge wifey to go pay now!*

according to the technician, apparently my house is "sewageically" the lowest house in the neighbourhood so if there is something wrong inside the mains, my house would be the first one flooded. upon inspection, he said there was definitely a problem with the mains. while it was a huge relief that it was not a localised problem (hence saving me from some burning hole in the pocket), it wasn't really a comforting thought that i had waded through raw sewage generated not only by my household but a cocktail of everybody's piece in the neighbourhood. *sigh*.

they eventually fixed it after trying for 2 days. now my backyard is back to its green, dry state and my splitting headache had magically disappeared. it is a happy ending after all.