Tag: Arts

Home Reno? Forget Supa


We’ve been toying with the idea of renovating our home, as opposed to looking for another one. The idea was to get ourselves a place with another living area. A house down the street from us  just had something done and we liked what we saw so we asked them to come around to discuss some design ideas and get a feel of the budget involved.

Extensions Unlimited had someone ring me, came over, and provided great service in terms of letting me know what’s involved, what’s possible and what’s not advisable, etc. The professionalism and courtesy from them was terrific and if I do proceed, they would definitely be considered.

Having heard about the SupaGroup on the radio, I thought I’d also contact them. They rang, we teed up an appointment and all was looking ok until I got a call from a Sales Rep, basically saying the job’s not what they usually do. They tried to be polite about it but the bottom line really is, the job’s not big enough for them. This sounded really strange, especially if you look at this page which describes what they do. The Sales Rep had said SupaGroup doesn’t do renovations, just extensions. Yeah, that’s right.  I mean, have a look at this page – on SupaGroup website:

Renovations

Why move when you can renovate ?

The home you are living in is most likely the home your family has grown up in.  It’s been the scene of so many unforgettable family parties and events.  Your driveway is probably the place where your children took their first wobbly bike ride, and your street has become familiar as the back of your hand.

Why would you every want to move ?  Particularly now that Supa Group Constructions can help turn the house you’re living in now into the dream home you have always wanted.

Our designers willcreate practical and stylish proposals that:

  • Maximise space
  • Effectively fuse your existing floor plan with the new renovation
  • Satisfy your everday usage needs
  • Captures the ambience of your existing home
  • Creates a setting for a new lifestyle specifically based on your ideas and Dreams

We have been thinking about converting our car port into a double garage, creating a front entrance, and building a new rumpus where our deck on the side lawn now sits. These are the main works, and at the back our minds, we were also thinking another bathroom. Sure, it may not be massive work but aren’t these sort of works precisely those within the sort of stuff described in their website? Why agree to an appointment and then call to basically say sorry your job’s too small, albeit euphemistically conveyed? All of the goodwill possibly generated by their promotional expenses on radio etc just got shot in a 2 minute conversation. Even if Supagroup provides a superior quote for me, I’d have to now think really hard before I would even contemplate going with them. Supagorup has a really strange sales practice. Not bad, not unethical, just really weird PR approach. Maybe it was just the Sales Rep being lazy. Never mind, just cross SupaGroup off my list – hopeless group, not supa for sure.

Io Non Ho Paura and Late But Happy


Last night as I settled down with a glass of red just before Tress and I went to bed, we chanced on a foreign language film on television, on SBS. We watched a little while but were soon hooked and ended up watching the whole thing.

The movie was an Italian film titled “I am not scared”. It was about two boys, Michele and Filippo who met and became friends under the strangest of circumstances. Filippo was a kidnap victim, holed up in a pit behind the family farm house of Michele. Michele’s father is part of a group responsible for keeping Filippo there. They had kidnapped the boy.

We enjoyed the movie for the way the story slowly unfolded through the eyes of Michele, the country boy who enjoyed life in wide open grain farms and liked toy cars but who had an innate sense of what’s right. He instinctively knew he had to help Filippo even after discovering it was his own parents who were responsible for the kidnapping.

When the authorities tracked the kidnappers down, the crooks decided they had to shoot the boy. Michele’s father drew the short straw and when he pulled the trigger, it was Michele he shot. Michele had gone to rescue Filippo when he heard the kidnappers’ discussion.

The end/final scene saw helicopters descending on the farm property, with Michele held by his father and Filippo reaching out to his new found friend. Thankfully Michele reached out with his hand towards Filippo, suggesting the shot wasn’t fatal.

The movie was such a satisfying way to wind down the day. It was however, close to 11.30pm – about an hour past our usual bedtime – when the movie ended. It did however wind the both of us down sufficiently for a really good night’s sleep, so good that we overslept – almost 1½ hours for me and around ½ hour for Tress.

We woke up – a la Hugh Grant in 4 Weddings and a Funeral – at 6.20 and quickly got Kiddo up and rushed through the morning routine. By the time we got out of the house it was 7.20 and it was far too late to drive to the station, where the car park spaces filled out by a little past 7 on most mornings.

So we drove to Forest Hill Chase, parked there and caught a bus from there to the station. It worked out fine for me because I was only about 5-10 minutes later than my normal start time so it was cool. It did mean however that I missed most of my morning activities, including quiet time and gym.

I think it was worth it though – “I am not scared” (Io Non Ho Paura in Italian – I just googled it) was a beautiful movie. We didn’t understand a word of it but it was subtitled and it was a satisfying watch.

HairSpray!


Kiddo wanted badly to watch the Hairspray musical so we went last week, on Thursday night. It was at the Princess Theatre and I am really glad Kiddo suggested this because she obviously enjoyed it thoroughly but not only that, Tress and I enjoyed it immensely too. It pays to listen to your kids!

2012 – Ice Age?


Kiddo and I were channel surfing on Sunday night. We were flipping between Grey’s Anatomy and a documentary on SBS on climate change. It was something about the threat of a coming ice age.
I wasn’t a convinced fan of GA and I often watched it only because Tress and Kiddo seem to like it. On Sunday night however, kiddo actually wanted to watch the documentary on SBS. We were also playing cards at the same time so we weren’t really watching either properly.

We did however catch a footage which said major shifts to herald the next ice age would take place as early as 2012.

2012. That is a mere 4 years away. Just how serious is this threat? I wish we had watched the program more closely. Not that an SBS documentary is necessarily an authoritative spiel on something as controversial as climate change, especially if this one says an ice age is a likely outcome. If leading figures such as Nicolas Stern and his school seriously think we are closer to serious global damage than we previously think, why does the inertia of inaction continue?

There was a recent movie I think, which showed a cold snap so severe the whole world froze in a matter of days. It starred what’s his name – the guy who was my favourite actor for a long time. He was in “Inner Space” with Martin Short, obviously as the leading man. He was also in many other movies including the recent one about the 24-style movie on the assassination of the American President played out repeatedly based on different persons’ views. A bit like Kurosawa’s Rashomon.

The name of that actor just would not come up – you know how it is – it’s back there behind some layers of cells in my brain somewhere but it just refuses to show itself. Anyway, in that movie the climate change caused a severe pressure differential which caused the temperature to plunge. There was a scene about some oceanic temperature monitoring station north of England somewhere and a scientist there was watching a United game. When they realised they were all going to die, they all took out a grand old scotch for a last swill. What a way to go – watching United’s game with a glass of very old scotch.

2012 – that is only 4 years away. Kiddo would only be 18. If she does well over the next few years, she’d be spending the first year in university. If however you know there’s a good chance you’d not survive beyond 18 years old, what would you do? We’re spending our 4th year here in Melbourne – it feels like it wasn’t too long ago when we first got here. That’s how long 4 years is. Sure, because so many things happened in the last 3.5 years it felt like it zipped past pretty quickly and now that we’re settled, it may not feel like that in the next 4 years. It is still, not at all very long to do…

No, it’s not Kevin Costner.

I don’t know what Tress and I would do either. Sometimes it is easier to just go on doing what we do day in and day out. It would be so much more difficult to sit down to plot your remaining days to see what the altered course should be. That’s inertia I suppose. It takes more energy to change something, instead of just maintaining status quo. Surely since life ends at some point anyway and there could well be something within the next 4 years which could end life as we know it (before the ice age hits anyway), why expand energy to change things if we are happy with life as it is now?

It’s Dennis something.

I’d not spend 10+ hours in the office everyday, that’s for sure. I’d come in later and leave earlier. What would I do with the extra time I have? I’d go and spend more time talking to Tress or kiddo or other friends and relatives. I’d have a coffee with someone I know and chat for a whole hour every morning, before coming into the office. I’d also spend the full hour during lunch, and take the time with someone, anyone, to talk and to listen. I’d go back earlier, spend time with kiddo to cook and do things together. I’d give up the cheap wine and drink better ones which I normally reserve for special occasions. Every day would be a special occasion to drink fantastic wine. We’d buy and cook different foods. I’d spend more time reading the Bible and other books about Christianity – if I was going to see God pretty soon, I’d better spend time finding out more about Him.

Not Lillee, Hutchins, Hopper…Dennis something… still not coming…

I’d also fly back to Malaysia to spend time with extended family, starting of course with my mother, my siblings and their families, numerous uncles and aunties, my grandmother and all those other people who meant so much to us in our lives in Malaysia. I’d go away with them and spend days just talking, eating and drinking and helping them prepare to meet our Maker. After weeks or even months, I’d come back to Melbourne and start to spend time with people I had come to know on only very superficial terms. I’d look them up and get to know them more and talk about their preparations for the after life. There is so much to say and do.

Not Sutherland, not Irwin, not Mortimer… Dennis something – still only Dennis something.

Life really has only 1 certainty (taxes can be avoided if you try hard enough) and that is death. That SBS doco suggested 4 years. Really though, it can be anytime, due to any reason.

Quaid! Dennis Quaid – that’s him. Can you blame me for not remembering a name like that? OK maybe I really am old… He was nevertheless, a favourite actor of mine. He’s older now of course and I haven’t watched any of his movies for a couple of years now I think. The last one I watched was the one about him becoming a professional rookie baseball player at an age when most baseball players are contemplating retirement. Some chasing after your dreams sort of a movie, if you know what I mean. He was also in that movie with the ice age onset, where he played the role of the scientist who had a son trapped in a city library and he trekked cross-continental to rescue the son. Yeah he tends to play that sort of heroic roles. I’m not sure I have ever seen him play a villain.

2012 – wow, we need a Don Quixote approach and be philosophical, and maybe a Dennis Quaid style of hope.
 

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