Friday, December 31, 2021

Ending 2021 - Letting Go Old Family House

2021 ended with the disposal of our old house. It was a bitter-sweet moment. Happy, because we finally managed to find a buyer through our agent. Sad, because of letting go a house where we have stayed over eighteen years from 1986 to 2005. There was so much memory associated with this house where our three children grew up from little kids to young adults. Our older two children stayed in this house until they left for overseas to pursue tertiary education. We moved out from this house to our new home at the end of 2005.

The sale took place at an unusual time when the whole world is caught in the turmoil of the Covid-19 pandemic.

With our agent at the Lawyer's office.
Handing over the land title at the Lawyer's office.
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The skyline at the neighbourhood has changed significantly after 35 years. Now a twin tower acclaimed to be the tallest in Borneo is under construction just outside the southern boundary of the housing estate. A major traffic improvement is also currently underway at the entrance of the housing estate.
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Our involvement with the house could be traced all the way to 1982 soon after we signed the Sale and Purchase Agreement. We visited the site to check on the construction work almost from the initial stage. Our eldest daughter was then almost two while our second child was still being carried by the mother in her tummy.
The original house in mid-1980's soon after we shifted in. The porch could easily accommodate our first car, Daihatsu Charade and our second car, a Ford Telstar. The house underwent a major renovation in 1989.
Empty land and hill in 1988.
In late 80's and 90's, we used to roam the empty land and hike the hill at the front of the house. This empty land is now occupied by rows of town houses each valued at least a million Ringgit.
The kids enjoyed cycling/playing along the dead-end access road outside the house and hiked the hill in front of the house.
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There are so many happy moments that we can recollected inside the house - family meals, birthday parties, play times, Christmas celebration, CNY celebration and friends coming over.....
Play time with neighbouring kid in the bedroom.
We spent our first Christmas in the new house after we moved in in 1985. Our youngest son was barely one year old.
1992.
Celebrating my wife's birthday in 2002, that's 20 years ago!
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Outside the house, we can recall equally great moments as each of us moved into various stages of our lives!
The porch is big enough to accommodate three cars. At one time, we had a Ford Telstar!
In the late 80's, we had a Proton Saga!
The Toyota land cruiser photographed in the background was sold in August 2016 (Read here).
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We gathered that the buyer intends to shift in after his marriage. We hope that this house will last another thirty years or more for another new family story to unfold.

Friday, December 17, 2021

A Freak Accident in Devonport, Tasmania

When the news of two children have died and several others have been seriously injured after a bouncy castle was blown 10m into the air at a primary school in Devonport, Tasmania flashed in TV on 16 December, I was instantly reminded of Devonport. We passed through this small town at the north of Tasmania a few times in our driving tour in Tasmania in April 2019.

I was curious to find out what kind of wind speed was able to lift a bouncy castle some ten meters into the air. A check indicated that many parts of Tasmania do experience gusty wind. Malaysia has an annual wind speed of just 1.8 m/s while Kota Kinabalu has an average wind speed is 2 m/s. Devonport however has an average wind speed of 20 m/s. Devonport is indeed a windy town!

On the day of accident, it was reported that Devonport Airport had a wind speed of 1.9 m/s at 9.30am. It then increased to 3.6 m/s. By the afternoon, the wind speed picked up and peaked at 8.3 m/s.  The freak accident which happened at around 10am was attributed to change of wind direction and speed.

The reported wind speed at the day of the freak accident appeared to be much lower than the wind speed of a hurricane. Category 1 hurricane is declared if a sustained wind speed of 119 Km/hour or 33.1 m/s is reached. By coincidence, building structures in KK are designed to a maximum wind speed of 33.1 m/s!

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The most tragic news I read about an individual who was struck and killed by a gas tank lifted by strong wind was reported in Australian Associated Press on 18 February 2020. That unfortunate man happened to be the son-in-law of the Fifians Christian Fellowship's mentor, David Tow.