I have not been blogging because been really , really busy trying to finish-up whatever remaining work for this teaching semester . I want to go for a longish break to settle my bank account and a much needed holiday. Not taken a long break since I started work in January of this year.

Have ordered this from Shopee to be installed at the house in Muar so that I do not have to be in Muar for anyone to have access into the garden & house . This means I can leave the spare key of the automated gate in front of the gate for anyone who wants to have to access into the garden & house . The house main door is a SMART Door so that requires a combination number which is fine as this again no longer requires a physical key either. The wonders of technology .

Going to drive down to Muar this Saturday with my Aunt ( my father’s youngest sister, only 2 sisters left out of all of my father’s siblings ). My father’s family is from Muar , my dad was born in Muar and so is my Mum who is also from Muar . However my dad is from the kampung ( village ) while my mum is a townie ( from Muar town itself ).

I need to settle a few things like ;

1. Meet the CCTV man to settle on the CCTVs in terms of placement & setting of timing of CCTVs and to be linked to my mobile phone
2. Check on the grills of the house , this is suppose to have been done
3. Pest man suppose to have done the termites thingy again so have to check that
4. Meet Encik Rahman to check on the progress of the kebun at the back of the house
5. Going to Muar to look around for curtain shops in town as need to fix Roman Blinds for the house . I need to check the Internet for this .
6. Visit Mak Pun shop as need to buy kerepek pisang for Rahiyah as meeting her in Cairo so I can pass this to her
7. Go to Graveyard with my aunt to pay respects to my late grandparents graves at Bakri

This window will not have a grill as this is a special reinforced glass that requires a couple of times of hard knocking before the glass breaks . I will probably put lace curtains for this and not blinds. I have not done the concrete and steel rods for the porch of the house as this requires more money . Just going to wait till cracks appear on the porch then will do up the porch , I guess when I have no choice .

The driveway is cemented which I do not like because 1) its so hot ( Malaysia is already so so hot ) 2) not eco-friendly 3) aesthetically looks brutal and if one likes Brutalist architecture then that’s fine but I do not ! Would prefer a gravel ( batu kerikil ) driveway but this can also wait as this will costs as well . This will require taking out the cement and putting in the gravel . A man has been messaging me on getting the driveway tarred which I do not want to either . A tarred driveway gets heated up on hot days so no, no and no.

The brown gravel is more like the driveways they have in the UK and I have seen many driveways like that over there . Accordingly to Rahiyah , gravel is used because one can hear the crunching of steps on the gravel so is forewarned of impending guests ( wanted or unwanted !) which makes sense . The downsides of gravel is that grass can grown in between the stones so there is a bit of maintenance . I guess, depends on the size of the stones of the gravel too.

The sliding door will have grills but I will probably put simple lace curtains not blinds.

The French doors will have the grills as the photo on the left . All other windows will just have horizontal grills . Will know how the grills looks like when I get into Muar on Saturday.

So, a few things to do this Saturday . Hope to have a productive trip !