Saturday 25 February 2006

Husband for hire

Before anyone gets any funny ideas, this is a real business in New Zealand. It started from an allegedly off hand comment made by a woman envious of her friend's handy husband. "My hubby is hopeless around the house," she moaned, "I wish I could hire yours for a while!" The seed was planted and Hire a Hubby is a serious business catering to people without the time, tools, skill or inclination to tackle jobs around the home and garden.

When I was back in Malaysia, I was more handy than an average Malaysian with my "tools" that comprised at that time - an impact drill and several wrenches, screwdrivers, nuts and bolts, a high pressure water blaster and an electric grass cutter. Hardly anyone in Malaysia cuts their own grass! I remember when a friend of ours shifted to his new house, I helped him fix all his lights and hang his paintings. I wonder if his wife moaned "I wish I could hire him for a while!" Guess not!

When we moved to New Zealand, I proudly packed all my "tools" into 2 boxes. When the New Zealand Border Control checked our package, they let it pass without a fuss. Knowing they are particular about tools coming into the country with possible contamination, I wondered why they were not too concerned with mine. Then, when we started knowing people, I realised that the average handyman here has at his disposal, several varieties of power saws, welding guns and tools I can't even pronounce let alone spell! The work I undertook to rebuild the bathroom, made me realise that I am nowhere near the average New Zealand husband.

We had a leak on our roof and judging from the state of our "rebuilt" bathroom, Vera decided we should call for a real husband... oops I mean real handyman.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

do you know anyone who needs someone to to lay still in front of the telly for hours? able to balance beer can/mug and plate of food on tummy at the same time!

boo_licious said...

Hey you forgot to add another skill u have - can change tyre in the river!

Anonymous said...

I was at boo_licious' blog when I saw a link "NZ at last". Cudnt resist anything Kiwi and pop by ur blog!

I was a twinning student in Vic Uni of Wellington in year 2000 and NZ, in particular Wellington, hold many fond memories for me... Lambton Quay, Courtenay Place, Warehse are all familiar names to me!

And to see you relieving bits of memories that I hold dear makes me reminisce abt the good ol days I had there...

Perhaps hopefully some time in the near future, I will go back and visit NZ again...

Till then, I wish you and your family all the best in making NZ your new home :) Good Luck!

P/S - Do keep blogging abt places u visit in NZ to refresh my memory!