On Monday, I had a really bad headache during the 3rd Meeting. After finishing up the lesson, we first drove to Mum's as per usual to drop her off. Because my headache had worsened terribly by then, and I wasn't feeling fit to drive home by myself, I went up to Mum's to have a rest (and some Panadol). I had a nap while Mum and DB had dinner. When I woke up at about 7+pm, JH happened to call, and offered to pick me up from Mum's, so I had some soup while waiting for him (and some Mooncake - the snowskin mini-mooncake from Raffles Hotel that Auntie Grace gave Mum was super yummy. Very fragrant, and had a white chocolate heart instead of egg yolk. The only snowskin that I've actually enjoyed reading.)
Anyway, back to the story. By the time JH arrived, my headache, which had subsided due to the medication and nap was starting to return. So instead of leaving to have dinner out, we took up Mum's offer of the fried rice she had in her fridge. And since she has a microwave and we don't, heated it and ate it there instead of bringing it back home for JH to eat.
After he had completed his dinner, JH went to the kitchen to wash up, and that's when all the excitement happened. When he was done with the dishes, he discovered that he was locked in the kitchen! (Not a bad place to be imprisoned - lots of food and drink, running water, and even fresh air from the balcony. And he can even wash and dry clothes too! lol) We had closed/shut the kitchen door as the aircon was on, but JH was unable to open the door from inside the kitchen. Thinking that he was accidentally locked in, I went to let him out, only to find that something was wrong with the knob. It was not locked, would turn, but the latch simply would not turn!
That led to a hunt for the exterior kitchen door key, so that JH could be released from his prison. But none of the keys worked! And we tried a whole lot. Finally, DB remembered that the lockset was spoilt, and that the door could only be unlocked from inside the kitchen. So after JH was released from his kitchen prison, we set about unlocking and opening the door between the kitchen and the dining room.
We tried the trick of releasing the knob from the shaft (my terms. no clue what the proper ones are) my depressing the release mechanism. Either we were doing it wrong, or the mechanism was spoilt , because the knob refused to cooperate and remained stubbornly where it was. So we had to resort to the trade secret of locksmiths which I will not reveal here because Mum paid $150 for that lesson. (If you really want to know, I'll tell you for a discounted price of $125)
Anway, that was a bust too, because the locking mechanism refused to respond to the mechanical manipulation it normally would have responded to.
And so, we had to figure out another way to open the darn door. Since the problem wasn't that the mechanism was locked, but simply could not be pulled back, we figured out another way to pull it back. One that required tools used in unorthodox ways and a lot of perseverence.
Finally, we were able to access the kitchen again! Why did we not simply call a lock-smith in as DB suggested? Well, other than being loathe to part with that kind of money unnecessarily, (especially since) Mum and I were convinced that we would be able to do it.
I enjoyed the fact that although a potentially stressful situation, no one was really stressed (someone tried to be), but we all (I think) had great fun, after releasing JH, trying to get the blasted door open. (That's one thing I notice about Mum and I - when in potentially stressful situations together, we tend to (not always, but often enough) see the funny side of it and just have fun looking for the solution and getting out of the mess we find ourselves in. Somehow we're able to help each other see lighter side, and prevent each other from going to the stress-filled place.
Oh, and by the time everything was over, my headache was gone.
Anyway, back to the story. By the time JH arrived, my headache, which had subsided due to the medication and nap was starting to return. So instead of leaving to have dinner out, we took up Mum's offer of the fried rice she had in her fridge. And since she has a microwave and we don't, heated it and ate it there instead of bringing it back home for JH to eat.
After he had completed his dinner, JH went to the kitchen to wash up, and that's when all the excitement happened. When he was done with the dishes, he discovered that he was locked in the kitchen! (Not a bad place to be imprisoned - lots of food and drink, running water, and even fresh air from the balcony. And he can even wash and dry clothes too! lol) We had closed/shut the kitchen door as the aircon was on, but JH was unable to open the door from inside the kitchen. Thinking that he was accidentally locked in, I went to let him out, only to find that something was wrong with the knob. It was not locked, would turn, but the latch simply would not turn!
That led to a hunt for the exterior kitchen door key, so that JH could be released from his prison. But none of the keys worked! And we tried a whole lot. Finally, DB remembered that the lockset was spoilt, and that the door could only be unlocked from inside the kitchen. So after JH was released from his kitchen prison, we set about unlocking and opening the door between the kitchen and the dining room.
We tried the trick of releasing the knob from the shaft (my terms. no clue what the proper ones are) my depressing the release mechanism. Either we were doing it wrong, or the mechanism was spoilt , because the knob refused to cooperate and remained stubbornly where it was. So we had to resort to the trade secret of locksmiths which I will not reveal here because Mum paid $150 for that lesson. (If you really want to know, I'll tell you for a discounted price of $125)
Anway, that was a bust too, because the locking mechanism refused to respond to the mechanical manipulation it normally would have responded to.
And so, we had to figure out another way to open the darn door. Since the problem wasn't that the mechanism was locked, but simply could not be pulled back, we figured out another way to pull it back. One that required tools used in unorthodox ways and a lot of perseverence.
Finally, we were able to access the kitchen again! Why did we not simply call a lock-smith in as DB suggested? Well, other than being loathe to part with that kind of money unnecessarily, (especially since) Mum and I were convinced that we would be able to do it.
I enjoyed the fact that although a potentially stressful situation, no one was really stressed (someone tried to be), but we all (I think) had great fun, after releasing JH, trying to get the blasted door open. (That's one thing I notice about Mum and I - when in potentially stressful situations together, we tend to (not always, but often enough) see the funny side of it and just have fun looking for the solution and getting out of the mess we find ourselves in. Somehow we're able to help each other see lighter side, and prevent each other from going to the stress-filled place.
Oh, and by the time everything was over, my headache was gone.
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