of pain and paint

Last week, I had a little project going for me. I came back to the UK knowing that I’d be moving room.

The current one is near perfect and comes with a balcony for lazying around in the summer. However, one thing I could not stand is the leaking and water dripping from the ceiling. There’s a bathroom on the floor above me. No way I could endure that anymore!

I knew that the ground floor room would be vacant on last Wed, and it happens that I knew the boy who lived there so I kinda know the condition of the room. The walls were sorta dirty with ashes and black mark. They looked pretty rundown.

Yet, that didn’t stop me since I plan to paint them all over (with the management approval, of course). The manager told me that he could get Rarebit, the handyman at the block, but I’d rather DIY. First, because I could get it done quicker and second, I was very impatient.

Stopped at Wickes to get cans of paints and I was unable to make up my mind about the colors. I had enough of soft green, and I don’t fancy blue anymore. Not interested in red or purple though I like to have purple hair. After spending more than 2 hours, I decided to use tones to create some sort of depth in the room and finally got a can each of caramel and soft sand.

So, on both Thursday and Friday, I was busy going up and down the ladder. Sampai rasa macam nak tercabut lutut. Looking at the room now, I am very satisfied and happy that it looks the way I want.

Though, I was annoyed with one comment made by a Malay guy who saw me doing the walls. He said, and I quote, “Eh, pompuan pun boleh buat keje ni ke? Ingat kan lelaki je”

Huh?

Hello mister? Ish ish ish… You ingat ni zaman apa? Of course women can do these kind of things when we put our mind to it, except most of us sometimes chose not to. CJ, PS and I did it once when we lived in Bandar Baru Sentul, and as I remember, we had fun doing it.

I can’t imagine a man who lives in the UK saying that. Haven’t he seen any of the DIY home makeover programs on telly? The 60 Minutes Makeover has a lot of handywomen doing the dirty job and I’m sure there are a few other daytime programs.

This guy should at least open his mind to the surrounding. It’s quite embarrassing to be ignorant.