fridge
I remember when I was a young kid that if it was a hot day, the only thing that came to mind was my mom's fridge at home. I can still remember it was a National (for those of you who are too young, it is the same company as Panasonic in Malaysia) in a pukey green colour that you will never see on any modern fridges for at least half a century from now.
It was a magical thing, this. Somehow there will always be ice in it for me to make my own refreshing drink, whether a cold glass of Ais Kosong or my half-arsed attempt to replicate ice-cold Milo as dispensed from the Milo vans which I usually see at school sports events held at Stadium Larkin. Why is Milo from those vans so damn delicious??! I should have brought empty bottles to bring the good stuff home.
As I achieved my pre-independence when I enrolled myself into college in Nilai after secondary school in Johor Bahru, I managed to live through those almost 3 years without my own fridge. Because in my hostel there was a cold water dispenser which served my basic needs well enough, plus there was an on-site mini mart and canteen for me to get any other flavoured drinks if I wanted.
Even when I gained my full-fledged independence when I took up my first job in Genting Highlands, I was in a twin sharing room and still didn't own a fridge. There were a number of reasons for this.
1. Genting is cold enough that regular water stored next to my bedside is good enough to drink.
2. You tend to crave for warmer drinks at night when I am in my hostel room.
3. I don't grocery shop because I don't even have a pantry area to make even a simple sandwich. Thus, no grocery shopping done. I didn't even store any chocolate bars.
All that changed as I climbed the career ladder. After about 3 years I managed to move from RSC2 to a brand spanking new hostel room in RSC8. The best part was that it was a studio...with a basic kitchen cabinet complete with a sink and even a space to place a fridge. Even then I did't buy any fridge for a couple more years.
Eventually, my boss decided to leave the company to set up some theme parks in Selangor and Johor. I would eventually follow him later on in 2012. But the best thing about his leaving was that I managed to snag his old Sharp sub 200 litre one-door fridge for RM100. That's right, a hundred ringgit. And it was a decent size for a 26 year old guy who mainly uses it to store milk for his cereal.
Eventually it became more useful when my girlfriend came into my life. Suddenly I discovered how inadequate it really became as it filled up quickly with regular grocery trips every month becoming a thing. We literally had to size up the trolley at Tesco or Giant to estimate if the things can go into the fridge before making our way to the checkout counters. Apart from size, the maintenance was quite a bitch as well because the drip tray was located all the way at the back, meaning I had to basically leave a gap small enough for my hand to grab the tray, dislodge it, spill overflow water under the fridge before getting to throw away the remaining 70% of water left in the tray into the sink. Great 90's design there. But hey, the thing still worked.
Miraculously, the damn cheap second-hand, inadequate fridge survived being transported down from Genting to my own condo in Seri Kembangan in early 2012, worked good for a while, then made another even longer journey from Seri Kembangan to our first landed property together in Johor Bahru a year later. It was like the Toyota Hilux of fridges, which was so over engineered it would probably withstand a nuclear bomb. But it didn't get the chance to be put to the test due to old age which crept up in 2015.
One day we discovered the entire fridge stopped working. It leaked water all over the floor. All our stuff inside just melted and nothing became edible. We had an idea to fix the fridge but what was the point? We yearned for a bigger one for our small families needs as we have a little daughter who needs more space for her nutritional food. So after 5 good minutes of solid decision-making we decided to get a new fridge. And I was allowed final say on the size of the fridge (yay!).
Like so many Malaysian couples tight on cash, we headed to Courts to get suckered out of our money to pay for a new fridge via over-bloated installments. Once there, just as I walked in, from the corner of my eye I spotted the glowing glow of a 600 litre Panasonic EcoNavi Fridge with the words "Inverter" proudly shining on it's magnificent stainless steel look body. It had ice-cube trays with that cool spin mechanism complete with a clear box to catch the ice-cubes underneath (wow!). The main door was above and the freezer below making it a very ergonomic piece of household electronic. It was so good looking, like looking at a brand new BMW 5 series. It was calling out my name. I had a look and saw a price so close to RM3k. It was now or never. I knew I had to have it.
Luckily my wife agreed after I did some marketing to her to convince why we need a fridge designed for a family double our size. She was arguing for a smaller version of it but it was one shelf less and shorter. I didn't like it. I wanted the biggest one there. I eventually persuaded her saying that we can fit more Bundaberg root beer in the biggest one. Somehow, she relented. But maybe she realized a big fridge would make me happy. So she agreed and signed the scammy Courts documents. I was overjoyed.
To prepare for the arrival of the latestfamily member household fridge I immediately decided to get rid of the old dead Sharp fridge. There was no nostalgia as I shoved it into her Nissan Latio Sport (amazing that it managed to fit nicely in it) and I sent it off to a nearby dumping ground. It was even accompanied by the old towel which sucked up all the juices of the old fridge. Lucky that my back stayed intact all the while.
New fridge was delivered by thescumbags delivery men of Courts the next day. To celebrate, we went grocery shopping and somehow managed to spend double our monthly grocery bill. The extra space was quite liberating and we think we moved up a sub-class in the middle-income family rungs of society. We felt the home was quite complete as the new fridge arrived and it has been fantastic up to this day and I am confident it would at least two more decades with ease.
I parted with it as I moved out from home in early 2016. I still miss it sometimes.Sometimes I look at old pictures of that magnificent fridge.
-End-
It was a magical thing, this. Somehow there will always be ice in it for me to make my own refreshing drink, whether a cold glass of Ais Kosong or my half-arsed attempt to replicate ice-cold Milo as dispensed from the Milo vans which I usually see at school sports events held at Stadium Larkin. Why is Milo from those vans so damn delicious??! I should have brought empty bottles to bring the good stuff home.
As I achieved my pre-independence when I enrolled myself into college in Nilai after secondary school in Johor Bahru, I managed to live through those almost 3 years without my own fridge. Because in my hostel there was a cold water dispenser which served my basic needs well enough, plus there was an on-site mini mart and canteen for me to get any other flavoured drinks if I wanted.
Even when I gained my full-fledged independence when I took up my first job in Genting Highlands, I was in a twin sharing room and still didn't own a fridge. There were a number of reasons for this.
1. Genting is cold enough that regular water stored next to my bedside is good enough to drink.
2. You tend to crave for warmer drinks at night when I am in my hostel room.
3. I don't grocery shop because I don't even have a pantry area to make even a simple sandwich. Thus, no grocery shopping done. I didn't even store any chocolate bars.
All that changed as I climbed the career ladder. After about 3 years I managed to move from RSC2 to a brand spanking new hostel room in RSC8. The best part was that it was a studio...with a basic kitchen cabinet complete with a sink and even a space to place a fridge. Even then I did't buy any fridge for a couple more years.
Eventually, my boss decided to leave the company to set up some theme parks in Selangor and Johor. I would eventually follow him later on in 2012. But the best thing about his leaving was that I managed to snag his old Sharp sub 200 litre one-door fridge for RM100. That's right, a hundred ringgit. And it was a decent size for a 26 year old guy who mainly uses it to store milk for his cereal.
Eventually it became more useful when my girlfriend came into my life. Suddenly I discovered how inadequate it really became as it filled up quickly with regular grocery trips every month becoming a thing. We literally had to size up the trolley at Tesco or Giant to estimate if the things can go into the fridge before making our way to the checkout counters. Apart from size, the maintenance was quite a bitch as well because the drip tray was located all the way at the back, meaning I had to basically leave a gap small enough for my hand to grab the tray, dislodge it, spill overflow water under the fridge before getting to throw away the remaining 70% of water left in the tray into the sink. Great 90's design there. But hey, the thing still worked.
Miraculously, the damn cheap second-hand, inadequate fridge survived being transported down from Genting to my own condo in Seri Kembangan in early 2012, worked good for a while, then made another even longer journey from Seri Kembangan to our first landed property together in Johor Bahru a year later. It was like the Toyota Hilux of fridges, which was so over engineered it would probably withstand a nuclear bomb. But it didn't get the chance to be put to the test due to old age which crept up in 2015.
One day we discovered the entire fridge stopped working. It leaked water all over the floor. All our stuff inside just melted and nothing became edible. We had an idea to fix the fridge but what was the point? We yearned for a bigger one for our small families needs as we have a little daughter who needs more space for her nutritional food. So after 5 good minutes of solid decision-making we decided to get a new fridge. And I was allowed final say on the size of the fridge (yay!).
Like so many Malaysian couples tight on cash, we headed to Courts to get suckered out of our money to pay for a new fridge via over-bloated installments. Once there, just as I walked in, from the corner of my eye I spotted the glowing glow of a 600 litre Panasonic EcoNavi Fridge with the words "Inverter" proudly shining on it's magnificent stainless steel look body. It had ice-cube trays with that cool spin mechanism complete with a clear box to catch the ice-cubes underneath (wow!). The main door was above and the freezer below making it a very ergonomic piece of household electronic. It was so good looking, like looking at a brand new BMW 5 series. It was calling out my name. I had a look and saw a price so close to RM3k. It was now or never. I knew I had to have it.
Luckily my wife agreed after I did some marketing to her to convince why we need a fridge designed for a family double our size. She was arguing for a smaller version of it but it was one shelf less and shorter. I didn't like it. I wanted the biggest one there. I eventually persuaded her saying that we can fit more Bundaberg root beer in the biggest one. Somehow, she relented. But maybe she realized a big fridge would make me happy. So she agreed and signed the scammy Courts documents. I was overjoyed.
To prepare for the arrival of the latest
New fridge was delivered by the
I parted with it as I moved out from home in early 2016. I still miss it sometimes.Sometimes I look at old pictures of that magnificent fridge.
-End-
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