shuffling on by…

Finally sat down, (literally, due to the height-challenged state of my store-room) to spring clean my storeroom. I’ve accumulated so much stuff over the years and kept shoving them into the store-room that I’m having trouble finding things that I need.

When I was done, I found that I have, among others, 4 hammers, 2 caulk-guns, 7 paint brushes (4 unused and 3 used), 3 water levels and 2 hacksaws.

Finally, one fine Sunday…

A vase, some savanna or floral foams. Jam the foams in tight.

Cover the top with dried moss. Spray some spraymount to keep the moss in place.

In go the synthetic orchids. We don’t call them plastic flowers. Either fake or synthetic. Never plastic. Plastic is so… err… cheap.

Then the synthetic orchid leaves.

Next the fake mossy pebbles…

… stuff them in between the orchids and leaves.

Finished. After almost a month in storage.

Na: “Finally!”

a nephew got married yesterday. as usual, missus and me got assigned to do up the hantarans. these are offerings of gifts exchanged between the groom and bride. it may consists of any odd number of gifts, normally starting at seven from the groom, and the bride must reciprocate with two extra gifts, nine. these gifts normally consist of personal stuff like cosmetics, handbags, shoes, watches… and lately handphones and digital cameras.

mostly, missus did the work. i just did the finishing touches.

the sirih junjung. not counted as part of the hantaran, but is a must to precede the hantaran.

the wedding ring and ‘maskahwin’ money. the maskahwin amount differs from state to state, and for kl it is rm80.

the ring, close up.

the ‘duit hantaran’ or dowry. the amount is normally requested by the bride’s family.

the quran and telekung (prayer gown). though not compulsory, are quite common as part of the hantaran. the bride would normally reciprocate with quran and prayer mat.

handbag.

cosmetics.

cake. the flowers are actually made of icing sugar.

fruit basket. the cake and fruits are normally included in the hantaran to make up the ’something sweet and something sour’ requirements normally insisted upon by the elders. i do not know what it signifies, maybe that in the life that lay ahead for the newlyweds, they must be prepared for the good times (sweet) and the bad times (sour).

the groom…

…and the bride.

congratulations, kids. may you find bliss and happiness together.

more photos at the gallery.

had planned for this project for a while. deadline finally arrived. we’re having a kenduri tonight and the buffet table would be poorly lit under the old 40 watts filamen bulbs.

so off i went visiting our friendly neighbourhood lights shop and bought four sets of flourescent downlights. some assembly required.

a. phillips 18 watts bulb
b. reflector cup
c. downlight holder/fitting
d. safety goggle. i’d need this, since i’ll be looking up and sawing circular holes in the ceiling.
e. clips for the holder, that will hold it in place on the ceiling.
f. small saw, specially made for this kind of job.
g. ballast. you wont need a ballast if you don’t mind spending more on the bulbs. special bulbs for direct connection cost more. the difference is that, with ballast connected downlights, the bulbs will flicker a few times when switched on. no flicker on direct bulbs.
h. 2-core cables.

first you need to make holes in the ceiling for the holders. determine where you want to place the downlights and use the reflector cup to trace out the hole.

get sawing. this was actually the hardest part of the project. would have been easy if it was plaster ceiling, but my porch had asbestos-like ceiling. damn hard to saw, especially when you’re working ala michalengelo doing the sistine chapel.

when you’ve got the holes done, it’s time to insert the holders. but before that, connect the ballast, or choke as the locals call it, to the wiring on the holder. important: the live cable (blue) has to go through the ballast to the holder, while the neutral cable goes direct.

after inserting the holder, use the clips to secure it in place. this was how the clip looked like halfway through.

and this was how it looked snapped into place.

half completed downlight, sans reflector cup and bulb. notice that i had to cable-tie the ballast to the holder to prevent it from dangling and risk short-circuits from disconnected live cables.

completed downlight.

my porch before the project

after

now my kenduri guests can see what they’re attacking better.