Penang -- Catching up, Week 5 (Part 3)

MONDAY, April 14th
I'm tidying up and trying to put some stuff away when all the shelves in my wardrobe collapse downwards. Great! Then...

Our stuff arrives from the States! Yaaaaaay! Some guys come to deliver it. Again, the shoes come off, the door is left ajar. They hand me a list and ask me to check off the packages as they read me the numbers. Hmmm... am I doing their jobs now?

There are MANY packages without numbers, and some with two numbers. The total number of packages that have arrived is greater than the number written on the paper that we are to expect, which means, we can't possibly know if we've received all the packages since there may be further packages that they didn't record when they picked up our stuff in the first place! Grrrr.... As they unwrap the packages, I am trying to check the inventory (and my memory) like crazy to see if things match up. I'm also looking for damage, which I find, but I can't keep track of it all as there is a guy unpacking in the dining room and one in the kitchen, and I am running back and forth between the two of them. They are putting all of our glass canisters and games, and vases, and bowls and everything in cabinets and on shelves and on the floor -- all in places Regin can reach, and cooking stuff away in disgusting cabinets that I haven't been able to clean yet!!!

The guy in the kitchen let's me know that there are several broken glass containers and cookware (wedding prezzies, bummer). Some frames are broken, and one painting is stretched and bowing. George comes home to help me check everything, but the guys are pretty much done by the time he gets here. I write a list of everything I caught so far. The guy says we can call with other damaged items later and to take pictures. I suspect we won't get much, because they had written down that there was all kinds of damage to a lot of stuff before it got here. One of the frames, for instance, had scuff marks and things already, but now it's broken, and they'll probably claim it already was. Stay tuned.


TUESDAY
More workers. Humph. I'm just not in the mood to follow them around and tell them where to go and what to do. The landlady's assistant is here. I give him a long list of everything we've noticed that needs work: Some parquet flooring is loose, the fridge doesn't work, a window isn't sealed, the curtains/rails are falling off the walls, no drains have stoppers, some of the toilets fill incessantly, one toilet leaks, the wardrobe shelves have fallen, etc., etc., etc.. He takes down the list and tells me it'll all be taken care of (and that it's long! -- I agree!).

We're also starting to realize that they really didn't try very hard to clean before we got here. The dinge on the tiles can (at least some of it) be removed with a heckuva lot of elbow grease, and George at some point found trash and a roach behind our kitchen drawers. Yuck!

Yep we have roaches. They are all over our bathroom at night -- gross.


WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY
Much of the same. Workers, doors open, getting grumpy, ants, geckos, roaches. Lots of time spent getting still more household goods and groceries. We buy a vacuum cleaner, a broom, an iron & board, and --get this-- I actually buy and cut up brand new towels to use as floor rags! It's really weird starting with nothing. I've always had a few essentials with me whenever I've moved. Now -- nothing. We've been using empty baby food jars as glasses, and we have no trash cans yet because we're looking for some that Regin can't get in to.

We also spend a lot of time looking at my American IKEA catalog and my photo notes, and making plans. Can't decide on anything yet. We start thinking about checking out local stores even though that sounds like a huge time sink. And what are the odds of finding something affordable and modern looking here? But we're told we can get custom-made stuff cheaper than the IKEA store. George asks, "Are you sure it's cheaper than IKEA?" The locals respond, "IKEA isn't cheap!" They haven't changed the prices to match the local economy, so it's a wonder they have a market here!

More shortly!