will i am's delayed diary

My mood was kind of off on Saturday due to AirBnB woes. Customer service is definitely no fun especially when it's related to home maintenance problems at midnight. The problem was discovered one booking ago when I did a quick spot check, but I had no time to fix the problem. At that time, I was already pissed off with the cleaner for not notifying us that the wash basin stopped was stuck! And the problem continued to the next booking. Once again, the cleaner was silent. I have no idea how she does the cleaning and not complain about it. And with 4 people on the job, we can still fail to get these important things sorted out. To placate the guest, I promised her that I would try to solve the problem the next day. Found a DIY solution on YouTube that involves using a suction cup to raise the stopper. Looks simple enough. Turned my morning market trip into a treasure hunt for a suitable suction cup. Went from stall to stall and couldn't find it. Adhesives are more popular no...

The morning market was abuzz with bakzhangs. The number of bakzhang stalls seems to have sky-rocketed this year. All sorts were on sale~ the usual Hokkien variety, the albino Cantonese variety, the pillow type, and the crystal-like kee zhang . Marketing aside, I also had some chores to run for the Airbnb. An idiot guest had broken the key for the front door, and it's now stuck in the lock. Talked to the St. Guchi customer support representative on FB Messenger, and they advised me on how to fix it. Initially I thought that I had to replace the whole lock set, but I was relieved when I found out that I only needed to replace one of the three components. I gave KH the specifications for the thumbturn and key cylinder profile, and he bought it from the hardware shop that St. Guchi suggested. Things didn't go smoothly. The replacement part actually didn't fit. The 60 mm was too short! I did some comparison and found that it was suited for the room doors, not the ...

On the second day of Raya, mum and I went out to breakfast at Restoran Yoong Seng . I had pork ball noodles, while she only ate the sam gan chong pork balls. In the afternoon, we had to get to Old Klang Road to check out our very first AirBnB guests. It was a joint effort between my sister, BIL, BIL's siblings, and myself. My sister did most of the interior design, and even made some of the furniture and decorative items from scratch. I just helped in setting up the listing. When mum and I got there, we found that the guests were a group of young adults from Penang. I thought they were students. Collected the keys and access cards from them, and sent them on their way. They left the place very tidy and even left the used towels in a neat, folded stack on the floor. Made our work easier, but it still ain't easy being the 'housekeeper'. We put the towels into the washer, changed all the linens, and washed the bathrooms. The most hated task would be making the beds...

For the whole month of Ramadan, my client in Brunei was in half-hibernation mode. Staff left the office at 3:15 PM, and things couldn't move much, no matter how much their gangster COO bellowed and cursed. Most obvious was the week before Hari Raya where everyone was already in the holiday mood. The whole floor was decked out with lights, ketupats , tinsel, lanterns, and they even set up a desktop for a slideshow of photos from last year's festivities. Felt a little like Christmas to me. Whatever the case, I also welcomed the fact that I would not need to fly to Brunei for more than a week since most of the staff would not be working. Arrived back in KL on Friday evening, and had a short meet-up with SK at my sister's place. She had brought pungent cheese and cold cuts from her trip to England and Scotland. The next morning, we had breakfast together as well at Ker Yuan Kitchen , Taman OUG. Ate a whole lot of YTF that morning. The Tribe were there too because we had t...