sunday afternoon lesson

My mother woke me up from my afternoon nap, singlehandedly snatching me away from and defeating the Zzz monster. She always manages to do that so effortlessly. However, this afternoon she probably had a harder time, as I was clinging onto the finger of the Zzz monster hoping it will hold on tighter. I was not planning to wake up before dinner. hmpt zzzz..

She: "Wake up boy. Dad is going to show you how to fix the leaking tap."
Me: "Of cos it is still leaking. It has been leaking for months and you will not let me call the plumber."
She: "Dad says he wants to teach you how to fix the leakage himself."
Me (thinking to myself): "He could have taught me how to do it months ago when we found out that the tap was leaking; instead of letting a few hundred liters of water be wasted like that. He must have been sitting on his job and using me an excuse."
She: "Go wash up and look for your dad in the kitchen."
Me: *Yawn*

So there I spend a full hour sitting in the kitchen wondering what is happening under the sink. The layout and furnishing of the kitchen is such that I am not able to see what his hands are doing under the sink unless I decide to curl into a ball and sit inside the cabinet under the sink. Even so I am too big to crawl into the cabinet. Maybe the lizards managed to learn a thing or two from their strategically secluded nest. All I did was to turn the main water on and off for my dad to make sure that the linkages and the pipes are not leaking.
After fixing the water works, on my way out of the kitchen, my mum asked," So next time the taps are leaking, you will know what to do right?"

Me (without missing a beat): "Yup of cos. Like dad, I have skilled hands."

I really do know how to fix a leaking tap; only that I did not learn it this afternoon. I learned it hands on many afternoons ago. Take a good look at the pipes its actually rather straightforward. I guess my mum still thinks that the choked sink in the bathroom was fixed by my dad. If you ask me what my worst plumbing experience was? Let me bring you back to 27th july 2007

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