Getting settled in

We’re back in the matrix (ok, BT exchange), and things are slowly falling into place. We’ve had the new house for two months now, and been properly living here for a month. Sometimes it feels like time’s whizzed past so quickly, and other times it feels like we’ve been taking ages to get things done and unpack properly (usually when the DIY isn’t going to plan). We’ve been getting quite a bit of redecorating done; destroying the old and creating anew – like the cycle of life but with paint and screwdrivers, and MANY trips to B&Q and Homebase!

The first room we finished was our bedroom. We stripped off all the woodchip wallpaper from everywhere,

got some paint, (and also a new bed, units, and carpet)

and came out on the other side with this. Can I just say, at no point did I insist on the lovely plum colour – Gareth suggested it all by himself and I was willing to comply

For some time the only places we could sit down were on the bed and the barstools at the little kitchen breakfast bar. Those bar stools are fine for a cup of tea and toast, but aren’t really made for relaxing in – after 15 minutes you realise just how big your (my) bum is and no longer wish to utilise this particular seating device or have that piece of chocolate after all (perhaps not such a bad thing then).
So we were very very pleased to have finally finished the living room.

We took off the dado rail, the peachy/salmony wallpaper, and the interesting carpet.

We then got plasterers in to fill in the hole that used to be a fireplace, and skim over all the walls and ceiling. And then we had to wait for it all to dry during a week of miserably wet weather. Well worth it though. After the first coat of diluted paint onto the plaster, it was a lovely surface to paint on.

So we painted and painted, and sanded, and painted (reminding ourselves often that this is the largest room in the house); got carpet put in yesterday, and hey presto!

Today some friends brought round a little dining table and chairs for us (good old fashioned hand-me-downs they received, which we’ll eventually pass on as well), and I am just loving being able to eat at a dining table instead of a coffee table or off your lap. Other things one can do properly at a table: write, use the computer, sew, survey one’s living room with pleasure.

I think we’ve been doing fairly ok for new DIYers. Especially for me anyway; in Malaysia DIY means changing a lightbulb, or assembling flatpack furniture. Ok I exaggerate, but it’s just different, as labour (and therefore tradesmen) is much cheaper. On the flip side you can’t just go and buy window sealant and a saw from Asda, and B&Q type places aren’t as common. Gareth is much more familiar with what needs doing, but there’s still a difference between knowing what needs done and how exactly to do it. So we’re learning lots of weird and wonderful things about houses: central heating, sockets, light circuits, etc. etc. (ask Gareth about wiring a 2-gang 2-way switch. Oh yes). Sometimes it’s been pretty frustrating. They don’t tell you about this side of things when they give you a mortgage. To be honest, instead of asking you useless things like what your salary is and how long you’ve lived in the country, the bank should really ask you things like “Do you know how to repressurise a boiler?” (I do now) and “What are your thoughts on quick drying vs regular polyfiller?” (regular – quick drying gets dry and crumbly almost as soon as you squeeze it out; just too quick for us slow rookie DIYers!). But there were always going to be bumps along the way, and usually after some griping / banging / frantic flipping through the DIY book / keywords in Google, things work out eventually and we’re all smiles again.

The good bits definitely outweigh the annoying or scary bits though, and things are a little less frantic now, and much more homey with the living room done as well. The kitchen’s sort of finished-but-not-finished, and the spare room has still a bit left to do, but we’re getting there. We’re also slowly getting to know the area, and we’ve met our next door and two-doors-down neighbours, who seem very nice. We even got given cake this morning. So far so good in suburbia.

Bersih 3.0

I don’t usually wear yellow, but I bought a yellow hoodie this morning, and wore it with pride. I, like many other Malaysians, wanted to be a part of the historic events shaping my country’s future.

The Bersih (clean) coalition calls for clean elections and true democracy, which, despite what our ministers may say, is not what we have had in Malaysia for a loooong time. In 2007 the first Bersih rally was held in Kuala Lumpur. Last year the Bersih 2.0 rally brought together thousands of Malaysians at home and around the world.

Things just haven’t changed, so today Bersih 3.0 brought us all together once again, to stand up for ourselves and for our country. “Duduk Bantah” (sit-in protest) events were held across the globe, and I was so pleased when I saw an event for Aberdeen, so I went along and got involved.

It was a small but determined group of us on King’s Lawn at Aberdeen University. We chatted, ate, played frisbee, and even got a photo with a piper who’d just been at a wedding. We had a pleasant afternoon, made some new friends, and went home feeling proud to have played our part.

Meanwhile, back at the main event in Kuala Lumpur, things weren’t quite so rosy. Once again the authorities behaved ridiculously, closing numerous roads and public transport stations, and basically causing more chaos. Sadly the violence was repeated also, on both sides, although the authorities were again unnecessarily heavy handed.

Instead of closing down the individual troublemakers that are always present at any rally, they take out entire crowds of peaceful protestors with water cannons and multiple canisters of tear gas shot directly at them. In this particular video, the people and the police face off, then by 4:14 the crowd moves forward and starts sitting down right in front of the police line. Then the police attack. Even the press (and freedom of) suffered along with the protestors.

Edit: This video is well edited, and beautifully sums up what it was all about, and what happened in Kuala Lumpur.

Why the need for police barriers at all? Why all this chaos? Simply because a government refuses to let citizens gather peacefully in their own public spaces. The public venue that the organisers requested for this gathering was denied to them on the grounds that the nature of the event was not appropriate for this venue. Not health and safety, not that the event itself was banned. No, citizens just can’t gather to discuss government corruption and electoral reform in the nation’s Independence Square. Since our independence in 1957 the same government has been in power, and they really don’t like this idea that they serve the people and not the other way round.

Thankfully the gatherings in other Malaysian and international venues seemed to have carried on quite peacefully. We hope there won’t have to be a Bersih 4.0, but if things don’t change we will persevere. We will keep turning out in the thousands, everywhere. We will show the government that they can’t keep fooling us, that we know all about their scandals, what they’ve done to our country and what they haven’t done for our country. All we want is a government, any government, that is fair, and does right by its people. We will keep doing what we’re doing until change happens. It will happen.

Making a house a home

It’s all finally come together and we’re now proud new homeowners. We collected our keys on Friday, bought our first Power Tool on Saturday (a sander), and have spent the weekend toiling away with DIY – I too can now speak with the weathered air of one who has stripped woodchip wallpaper.

We don’t move in for a while yet, so we’re hoping to get a fair bit done before then. My knitting’s already been taking a bit of a rest, and with all this intensive home improving on the go, my wee blog will probably be updated far less frequently than usual too. Once all the initial stuff is done though, it’ll really be ours. Then there’ll be all the non-labour-intensive decorating to look forward to, and a whole new world of craft projects for the home. I can’t wait

Activism

Happy International Women’s Day! Today we celebrate the successes of half the population in their efforts to achieve equality. In the UK and Europe women have come a long way, but there’s still far to go, particularly in ending violence against women and closing the pay gap. In other parts of the world women face discrimination and violence on varying levels, and in my own Malaysia I’ve been at the receiving end of this in various ways; thankfully nowhere near as terrible as what some others have experienced, but upsetting nonetheless, and very telling of prevailing attitudes. I believe the way to achieve change is from everyday activism – standing up for ourselves, respecting ourselves and each other, educating future generations as well as those around us, and above all refusing to believe that anyone can tell us what we should do,how we should look, or what we deserve, just because we are women.

This week there’s been another campaign that’s exploded on the internet, particularly across social media. There’s been a lot going on about Kony2012 and the non-profit group Invisible Children. I’m one of those that agrees with the idea of raising awareness of Joseph Kony and his atrocities, bearing in mind that many, many children across the world have suffered as child soldiers in various conflicts. However, I don’t agree with the methods and other aims of the Invisible Children organisation itself. There has been criticism of the organisation, such as here and here, however it is best summed up on the blog Visible Children. Main points include:

The way it spends its funds; last year spending 32% on direct services and a much larger amount on salaries, travel, and film making.
To be fair, their aim is to raise awareness of the situation, so film and merchandise production is going to be a bulk of the expenses, however they also claim to stop Kony, whatever it takes. How’s that being funded then? And on that note, what exactly does “whatever it takes” mean?

Its support of direct military action, namely of the Ugandan government army and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, both of which have been accused of rape and plundering resources
I guess this is what it takes, in Invisible Children’s opinion. What concerns me though, is that this bit doesn’t get much mention in the video, their main awareness tool at the moment.

Its lack of transparency, and exaggeration and manipulation of facts in raising awareness of the campaign issues
All charities play the emotion card and guilt you into supporting their cause, but transparency is a different issue. As above, I feel if you don’t inform your supporters that part of their funding goes towards supporting military action, then I can’t really take anything else at face value.

The blog also links to Invisible Children’s responses to the criticism.

The information for and against Invisible Children and its methods are equally compelling to me. I don’t doubt that Invisible Children’s founders have sincere intentions, nor do I wish to criticise those who want to help, but I do believe in finding out more about what you’re putting your name against, especially when you contribute funds to them. Having considered the various points raised, I’m still not sure where I stand on this. I agree with the cause, but not with the methods, so for now I hope to do my part in raising awareness of the information available before one decides whether or not to support this cause.

Making Monday: Fun with lining

We have a couple of wooden chests (good old fashioned flatpack jobs), which we decided to line with fabric. They used to be full of books and random other stuff, but having cleared those out we decided they’d be good for keeping sheets and duvets.

We used an old bedsheet, and decided to go down the route of sewing up an open ‘bag’ to fit in the chest, and then attaching the top edges to the chest. There were some issues with measuring and drawing out the pattern to be sewn up…partly because it was difficult to keep the sheet flat, partly because the carpeted floor probably isn’t the best surface to be stretching out fabric to draw on, but mostly because we didn’t have a proper yardstick or long ruler, and were using a combination of tape measure, short ruler, and lid from a plastic box (they’re Really Useful).

We got there in the end, somehow, and I hand sewed up the sides and hems. I don’t do much sewing so it took me a wee while, but I’m quite proud of my somewhat uneven running stitches (the photos is of the neatest bit!)

Then the fun bit – using our weapon of choice, the specially bought mini glue gun (always wanted one!). Add drawing pins for extra support, and there we are, one lined chest.

Of course, about ten minutes after finishing sewing up the fabric, I remembered that I do have a yardstick after all…it came with my set of blocking wires. It’ll be handy for the second chest!

Head over to the Yarn Yard to see what everyone else has been making.