I think that the day things started going downhill was on the 8th of February. You see, my sister was coming back from Australia with her boyfriend and his sister. And in preparation for their up and coming arrival, my parents decided to install a new water pump in the house so that they could have a decent shower (the water pressure in her bathroom wasn't great). So, plumbers came to the house to install this water pump. Through the chaos of it all, they somehow managed to semi flood our living room, soak some shoes and wet our Persian carpet.
That however, was not the only incident of the day. I decided that it was time that I fixed my scanner... I had been having some problems hooking it up to my new computer and I had been putting it off for a while. So, enough procrastination already... I started working on it. Unbeknownst to me, my scanner had an electrical problem... I won't write the sordid details but I managed to (in 6 hours) burn out my scanner AND my modem whilst almost causing an electrical fire... my adapter actually melted!!
As things would have it, the house was besieged with electrical problems (no fault of mine mind you 
). An electrician had to be summoned at the last minute to fix the wiring problems of the house. This was not an easy feat by any means as most electricians are Chinese and were already preparing for their Chinese New Year break. However, strings were pulled and the electrician was duly summoned. He managed to fix the major problem but his diagnosis wasn't good. Walls had to be broken down in order to find the electrical fault that was causing the house to short circuit when a specific light was turned on. As this wasn't a pressing issue, the decision was made to postpone the repairs till after the New Year.
So, whilst all this was happening, my sister and her entourage landed in Singapore and had to make their way up to Kuala Lumpur. As tickets from Sydney to Singapore were almost half the price as that of Sydney to Kuala Lumpur, they decided to go to Singapore. We had planned for me to drive down to pick them up. However, our parents were against this idea as it was deemed "unsafe" for me to go by myself. Parents have to learn to let go of their children eventually *sigh*. Big fights followed. So, my parents being my parents, they organised for one of their relatives (who is a professional limo driver) to go pick them up. This resulted in a drama all on its own as the trip was confirmed and cancelled no less than three times. The driver's wife had some serious health problems and ended up in the hospital... at the brink of death or so I was told. Needless to say, the female parent was completely harassed trying to find alternative solutions to get her youngest off spring up to Kuala Lumpur. At the 13th hour, the driver finally confirmed (and insisted) that he was indeed able to go.
So their journey from Singapore up to Kuala Lumpur started. The driver left in the wee hours of the morning to arrive at the previously agreed upon meeting spot. They managed to meet up with no dramas... however, it took them 1.5 hours to leave the vicinity of the meeting spot as Chinese New Year was approaching and everyone was in the town shopping. The traffic was horrendous apparently. Then, halfway through the journey, the car they were travelling in died. Panic engulfed the parents, particularly the male one. Not wanting to put up with their panic any longer, I prepared to get dressed to go rescue the party... it was only a 2 hour journey at most. Again, a fight followed. A taxi service, found on the Internet was the solution. A car was organised to go pick them up. Approximately 1.5 hours after the orginal car had died, they were safely in a taxi, headed back to Kuala Lumpur. A tow truck was organised to haul the original broken down car back... at huge expense.
Naturally, as fate would have it, the hired taxi broke down, less than an hour after pick up. Again, panic engulfed the parents... enough was enough I said and hopped into my car and headed off to pick them up. The drive took about an hour. So end of their travelling drama... it took them longer to get from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, then it took to get them from Sydney to Singapore!
Everyone knows that Chinese New Year is a big deal for the Chinese. How it got blown so out of proportion, I have no idea. Stressed reigned the household as preparations were made for the big family reunion dinner... I come from a very boisterous family... and it was a classic case of "too many cooks spoil the broth". This happens every time we have a party. People are yelling at everyone... stress levels go way up, tempers are flared and it's all for a family meal (eaten in less than 30 minutes). As we were also short on cars, transportation and logistics proved to be a problem and a major stress point was that our fourth family car was not returned to the family at the agreed upon time.
Then, one of the family dogs, Lucky 
got hit by a car. He got a dislocated leg. The vet also determined that he might be seriously sick and might need an operation. At the time of writing, we are still waiting for the results of the blood test.
Remember the water pump we had installed? Well, this pump is causing massive havoc right now. As it increased the water pressure in the house, one of our pipes began to leak. We didn't know this as it was leaking into our NEIGHBOUR'S house. The poor man sprung a leak in his guest bedroom during Chinese New Year. As he couldn't get a plumber, his house was leaking for a few days... He managed to get a plumber yesterday and together, they started breaking down his portion of the wall to try to find the leak. It was only after a large hole had been broken into the wall did they determine that the problem was on our part of the house and right now, there is a worker knocking out our wall. Thankfully, we have a VERY, VERY nice neighbour and this incident brought both households together... both the male heads proceeded to get extremely happy and drunk last night.
This is a stupid story... thus I will end here. It isn't the type of story that I thought that it would be.
