bujangmechanic

2 days before raya my mum sent me to the NTUC for the umpteenth time to buy 30 cents worth of daun pandan.

I must have been gone for less than 15 minutes. When I got back, I found pieces of windshield on my seat.

SOMEBODY KNOCKED DOWN MY BIKE AT THE PARKING LOT.

Thing is I was fasting so I couldn't beat up anyone. Some guy from the nearby bus stop came over to tell me he saw a pickup back into my bike. The uncle apparently picked the bike up so he thought the guy was going to wait for me. Next thing he knew the uncle had sped away.

Nice.

All I could do was ride back to my parking lot to inspect the damages.

The front windshield was gone.





As was the right side mirror. It must have dropped on the right side.



Huge scratch on the tank.



Even the rear seat was chipped. And I had just rewrapped it about a week ago!



It was late, almost buka time so I had to put off the repairs till the next day.

Luckily I had the necessary tools.



I had to unscrew the whole upper part and get rid of the broken pieces.





New double bubble windshield - $23.



New side mirrors - $30.



I managed to bargain with the LAB uncle to $50. Too tired to push for more discount.







I'm broke even before raya! Maybe my raya ang pows should be reduced to $2.....

Raya Handyman

I hate the last few days of puasa leading up to raya the most. This year I was busy putting up curtains (4 sets mind you), carrying the new living room sofa set up the stairs, throwing out garbage and old furniture, moving old and heavy wooden furniture and carrying back litres and litres of soft drinks back from the NTUC.

All that in the afternoon and terawih at night. Even after that there was my preparations for the coming case conferences to worry about.

The trick to getting things done for me is find a job I really, really hate to do and instead of doing that I start on another project that I don't really hate so much.

So instead of working on my progress reports for my 3 kids and the projected goals for the next year, I decided at 11pm to fix the IKEA lamp that had been lying around the house since.... June?



Now some people are under the mistaken impression that you had to buy the lightbulbs from IKEA because they are the only ones that fit. And IKEA charges a premium for them.

Actually you can get them separately at your friendly neighbourhood shops for much much less.



The trick is knowing which bulbs to buy. Check the box and it'll tell you.



In this case the bulbs you're looking for is size E27 and max 150W. The latter tells you the maximum energy output or put more simply, how bright the lamp is.

The bulb you're buying should have the same numbers. The one I chose was E27 and 100W.



Proper tools are always encouraged.



Don't you just love IKEA packaging? I wished they'd pack my holiday bags.



Remember what I said about proper tools? Reading glasses for reading instructions.



Aiyah, it's more fun to figure it out yourself.



It fits!



See? It even lights up and everything.



Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all.