The Fire (Part 2)

Tuesday morning, S called bright and early. She drove past E’s house before going to office and said it looked bad when viewed from the back. Told her I was taking half-day’s leave and meeting P at 1.00 pm.. S said she’d also try to take off but it would depend on her workload.

At 1.00 pm. P was already at E’s, chatting with Mrs. Lee. We couldn’t go for lunch because they had to wait for the arrival of the MT container. Mrs Lee was there early, helping to clear the debris but they were advised to stop cleaning before the Insurance Adjuster assessed the damages. E & Dr were out filing reports with the various Departments but came back shortly after with our lunches. Diane was in school. She had a paper that day. Storm was running in and out barking non-stop till they locked him in Jo’s room. (Yeh yeh very good.)

Dr’s brother came with his family followed by Sue who brought some empty cartons. Then came the container. S was to return in the evening with a trolley and she was also trying hard to get hold of some workers to help with the moving.

We planned to be very systematic. Items from each cabinet were to be packed into one box and marked so that it would be easier to unpack later on. That didn’t work.. Halfway through we found certain boxes were too heavy to be lifted and eventually we had to mix the items. Sigh… S called, no luck with the workers. Doubly sigh…

The adjuster came and Dr and his brother went through the list of damages with him. Mrs Lee was tireless. She worked non-stop as compared with P and I who kept taking breaks to satisfy our cravings for nicotine! S called, she managed to get workers but they would be coming in much later as they had day jobs.

From the room upstairs, we notice the 2 Quay brothers standing outside. (the adjuster had left). The 2 strong able-bodied men were smoking and chatting while the ladies were hard at work.. Doesn’t that reminds you of a little village in Indonesia where the women worked whilst the men strummed their guitars and played checkers followed by long sessions of siestas??

Evening came, E left for classes. S finally arrived with 4 scrawny guys along with rolls of plastic sheets as well as a heavy trolley. P was the one who requested for the trolley but I doubt we would be able to handle it on our own. The leader opened the doors of the container with just a kick and some quick movements of the hands. P and I had earlier struggled to get the latches on the container to budge with no success. We wanted to do a test that the container was leak-free. It wasn’t roach free though and we had a fine time spraying Ridsect and sweeping away dead cockroaches !!

The 4 ‘scrawny’ guys were stronger than I would have given them credit for and boy did they work fast and efficiently! They made shrink-wrapping looked so easy but when we tried it, you know it definitely isn’t easy! They finished loading everything in less than 2 hours and there we were wondering if we would be done by midnight! It was just before 9 p.m. S, who had gone home after leaving instructions with the guys came back with cold drinks for everybody.


E came straight from class to meet us at the restaurant for dinner. Admittedly, we looked a trifle scruffy….. and I for one would pass off as an Indon maid had anyone been observing our group that night. We were pleased with the amount of work done. What was left were the smaller items, Diane’s books etc…Tomorrow, she would be able to help since there was only 1 more paper left to “merdeka!” …

F