Monday 2 August 2010

The speechless left me speechless

“Honestly speaking, it is not easy to reach this level of damage. In order to get this, you must have heavy objects, piled on top of each other and moved around consistently in a circular motion within the same area. I just can't seem to picture how it ended up like this.

<…pause…>

Seriously, this is beyond my comprehension; which is why I am really thinking hard on how to fix this. I am speechless looking at this…”


He was a contractor, whom I called to look at the damage on the floor in my apartment. He came with dirty boots… un-tucked polo t-shirt… with paint stains on his trousers… he looked like a typical contractor…

But…

He gave the above assessment, in perfect English spoken in perfect pronunciation…

He is an epitome of “don’t judge a book by its cover”. I supposed you would never encounter such a contractor in Malaysia…

He was left speechless by the damage on the floor… I was left speechless by him…


3 years ago…
From the spoon to a cat

22 comments:

house-tai said...

that's normal for singaporean wut. maybe the contractor got diploma from NTU oso.

day-dreamer said...

Uhh... I'm speechless also. =X

TG said...

LOL! But the biggest problem is your damaged floor. Zewt, what did you do? Did you pile up so many books? hehe

Anonymous said...

floor got damaged ah ? ....aiyah, do it on mattress lah :).

eiling lim said...

hahha and hawkers can speak English too ok?!! Don't play play

Anonymous said...

contact phua chu kang.

Pinknpurplelizard said...

Mayhap that the previous person that stayed there was a hefty guy who liked to roll around the same spot whilst sitting on a office chair (the one with wheels)?

sinlady said...

haha. i love this post :)

ngy said...

Haha..get used to it, zewt.

InjusticeSistem said...

1st he use his powderful england to impress u n mk u speechless....den came da bill/quotation to get u breathless.....hahahahahhaha
blardy sporean really noe how to do bisnis....RESPECT!

isawah said...

How r u coping with ISA in singapore?
Guess you get more freedom there in singapore yeah...

Well we Malaysians really envy you bro..

KC said...

wow. sounds like everything is better in Sg huh Zewt?

How about the taste of the pee-water aka new water?

i bet it taste better than char-siu, bak ku teh, char kuey teoh in malaysian huh

ZACL said...

Apart from sharing your speechlessness, what was done to rectify what ever it was that was wrong?

Yup, never judge a book by its cover, read a bit first.

Anonymous said...

Singapore so strong BUT the floors so soft , why ? me thinks the workers
cheated by using m'sian flours lah !!

Anonymous said...

There must be something is the newwater. Everyone who goes to soulless land of LKY and family spew things like ...you wont get this in Malaysia, i am glad i left etc. maybe you should have left the cpuntry earlier. word of advice..stay there and nevr come back. we dont need ppl like you in Malaysia

ZACL said...

I sincerely trust that the way anonymous' response reads, is not what it seems. if it is offensive, and it does read that way, it is a disgrace.

zewt said...

house-tai - why alter your nice long nick?

day-dreamer - precisely.

MKL - till today, still dont know how it got that bad sigh.

anon @ 3/8 6.20am - hahahaha...

eiling lim - yeah, astonishing!

anon @ 3/8 9.55am - he retired already lor.

pinknpurplelizard - my wife said he didnt see it before the movers came... sigh...

sinlady - :)

zewt said...

ngy - but i wanna practise my mandarin! :)

InjusticeSistem - hehe... the movers paying for it :P

isawah - i dunno if you are trying to be sarcastic or not bro.

KC - pee water or water from the unchanged old rusted pipes in malaysia, same taste lah. but you're right, the food here sucks.

ZACL - well, another contractor fixed it, paid by the movers. as for those anon comments... typical malaysians... wants to voice their mind, they only do it anonymously... once they show their face, they will say nothing.

anon @ 4/8 5.22pm - hahaha... i think so too.

anon @ 7/8 10.09am - oh man, you're right... i actually DO want to leave earlier, no opportunity only. and yes, i actually have no intention of going back. malaysia certainly dont need people like me, hope ppl like you who comment anonymously will make malaysia a much better country.

Anonymous said...

wow , the floor-shows must have been
terrrror lah !!

zewt said...

anon @ 11/8 9.37am - haha!

narrowband said...

I can relate to that... As someone who was 100% born and bred in Malaysia, I was quite pleasantly surprised to find that most, if not all Singaporeans speak decent English.

zewt said...

narrowband - and generally, the population is more educated... they are more hygenic when in toilets.