Church Break-in & When Mod Con Fails....

1. Break-in at Church.On Monday afternoon, Carol & I were doing some grocery shopping in Boxhill central. I usualy have my mobile phone with me when i go out, but of all the days, I left my mobile phone at home....

The Uniting Church premise at East Ivanhoe had a break-in, all internal doors that had a lock fitted were kicked in or pried open. Amazingly, none of our sound and music equipment was stolen. We had the Data Projector, electric guitars and wireless mike etc which can be easily stolen and sold for cash.

Some people must be so desperate to steal from churches.....

Praise God for the Protection anyway. Though we had insurance, the hassle and lost will be quite inconvenient.


2. Proud to be Mr Fix it
The past week has been cold. Chilling morning temperature are hovering at 0 degrees with wide spread fog or frost on the roof tiles and lawns in the park.

Our noisy central ducted heating has become nosier of late. Then on Friday night, the sound became a loud clanging noise plus some violent vibration. I have to turn of the heater and endure the freezing cool. To dark and cold to fix it anyway. I'ce decided to wait till the next day.

So this morning, I had to crawl under the house to check out the ducted heating unit. The space was very tight and confining and there are cobwebs and dirt everywhere. I disconnected the power, got and search lamp, opened and checked for the fan unit. After a few minutes of fumbling around, I located the fault. It is the fan belt pulley that had came loose. I tried with every tool that I had to try to tighten it to no avail.

There was no room to unscrewed or tighten the jam nut. I laboured for more than half an hour.

Should I call in the professional or should I persevere still? It is a long weekend with Queen"s Birthday on Monday. If we cannot get a service man, we will have to endure freezing cold for the next few nights! As I sat there in the dirt, I recalled something that a car mechanic normally have - a wrench-cum-screw driver kind of tool where you can tightened a hex nut from the top.

So I went to Autoban and lo and behold, there was a multi-purpose screw driver for sale for $34.99. bought it , took it home, crawled under the house again, after much jiggling, twisting and in the end the nuts was tightened and the pulley no longer wobbles and threatened to fly off the spindle. Wa lah ! Fixed.

I am quite please with myself for being able to fix some gadgets quite complex as this....

Well, very often, people are no afraid of hard or strenous work, as long as there is meaning and purpose to it. There is a sense of fulfilment when a job is done which make all the tiredness and hassle seem small.....