Sunday, 12 August 2018

又谈新派华语电影

托国庆日之福,星河电视频道免费让家庭宽频订户观赏付费节目。
向来酷爱电影的我,当然不会错过此良机,翻阅电视节目表,选择比较有看头的电影来看;其中一部便是袁和平导演,徐克监制的“奇门遁甲”。
两年前看过广告,这部电影被捧吹为可奂美好莱坞制作的新派奇情科幻武打影片。近年来极少步入电影院的我,免不了对这部电影有些许期望。 毕竟袁和平与徐克这两位导演/制片人,各自都能独当一面。
可是观赏了整部电影后,却有点失望了。
徐克的电影,节奏向来都很快,这部也不例外。有时会快到跟不上剧情。武打场面,向来都是好莱坞电影所无法比拟的 (“卧虎藏龙”就是佼佼者)。可是这部电影运用太多特技,融合刚柔优美的武打招式,顿时变成了衬托品。所谓的电子动画科技,令人眼花缭乱,似乎与古装武打的背景有点格格不入。
也难怪当时这部电影并不是怎么轰动。
我想,回归踏踏实实的武打场面,用心去铺诉故事,才更能吸引人。

Thursday, 2 August 2018

changing head shower in bathroom

The stream of water flowing down from the head shower in our master bedroom has been very weak since the day we moved in to our apartment. The shower from other rooms was very strong.
We were told that it was perhaps due to differential pump pressure provided by the PUB (public utilities board) - i.e. those powering the master bedroom was "low pressure".
We accepted the explanation... but alas, as the months go, it dribbles little by little, barely enough to cleanse our body when bathing. As CK put it, the shower in Brunei army camp was even better than ours.


I finally wrote a letter of "complaint" to the management of our apartment, and was informed that the fault might be due to clogging inside the head shower itself.

I am a novice when it comes to plumbing services.
First I ran a check on youtube on how to change the head shower... and it was quite educational. It seemed quite easy to unscrew the head shower.
Bought a small head shower from hardware shop in Eunos, tried to unscrew the old head shower.

Hurdle #1:Discovered to my horror that pipe and its screw was too big for my old spanner. Bought a new (and bigger size) spanner two days later.

Hurdle #2: The unscrewing to release the old head shower itself was quite challenging. There are two rings to unscrew (the first one anti-clockwise, and the second (inner ring) clockwise). I managed to unscrew the first outer layer, but it took me another hour or so to realise that I had to unscrew the inner layer clockwise to remove the old head shower.

Hurdle #3: When I compared the size of screw (to that of the metal pipe hanging from the ceiling), I thought it might be too small to fit in. Hence, I had bought an adapter from the hardware shop the next day (as recommended by the shop owner). But after unscrew the old head shower from the main handle, I found that the adapter was too big for the hanging pipe. After many attempts and "trouble shooting", the problem was solved by removing the adapter --> the origninal screw fit it just nicely to the tapering tip of the hanging pipe. WHAT A DISCOVERY!

It took me almost the whole afternoon to change the head shower. And yes, it is working well with strong jet of water flowing down when I shower!

                                                       TADA... the new head shower!

The cost of this DIY work - new spanner $13, new head shower $7.50, adapter for head shower (which was never used) $2.50. Total cost $23.
 I guessed it is definitely cheaper than getting a plumber to do the work.... but the immeasurable manual work/headaches in figuring out how to get it done ... I guess it is called Life Experience!