On the completion of seven years in Malaysia, we have found that whole entire life and house to be very discontented, and every odd and end around has been displaying a dizzying case of the seven year itch.

It started last summer when our Suzuki van, which we affectionately called our refrigerator on wheels, (by the way, scratch affectionately) decided that it no longer wanted to fulfill its (trans)mission. This was after a long line of similar mishaps which gladly accepted our money with no remorse at all. Reluctant to give another penny to that greedy, gas guzzler, we decided to scrape it for a fraction of its worth and buy a 1990 Accord.

But that was only the start of our appliance, furniture, and mechanical revolution.

Our sofa sat in complete disarray, having to be propped up with a brick on the back side because the leg had broken off. So, we summarily tossed it aside and bought a new one. Great improvement, indeed.

Our clothes dryer was next. The filter, on the one that we had been nursing for years, would no longer stay in place, and so it remained off permanently, allowing the machine to spew lint and dust into our back laundry room. When a friend leaving the country asked if we wanted theirs, we jumped at the chance. We kept the old one as a back-up. And good thing. The “new” we bought worked for about a month and then died without even giving off a whimper. We went back to the new one for the next several months until more recently it suddenly gave out a rapturous thud, like someone was trying to dry a brick. That was it. We went out and purchased a brand new one – with a proper filter and ventilation hose no less. We were so happy that we cleaned the layers of dust from the room, re-painted it a vibrant blue, and hooked up the new dryer as the workers removed the two old ones.

Then came our gas range and electric oven unit. It was so scratched, worn, and utterly on its last legs that when we saw an abandoned and available second hand model at school, we swapped it out, gladly.

Next came our home computer, a Dell all in one model, touch screen, a very nice computer decided to blow out a hard-drive. Not much was lost, fortunately, and we replaced the drive, reloaded all the programs, and everything worked wonderfully for a few months until one day the screen just shut off. We took it back into the shop to discover that the mother board, a rather expensive unit about the same price as a new computer itself, was nicely fried and overdone. We did get that new hard-drive repackaged as an external model.

And if all of that wasn’t enough, we walked outside one day and noticed that our jack-fruit tree died. Cause unknown. I guess it was just its time.

I can’t decide what might be next. I’m hoping, for the sake of my wallet, it is something small like a pair of chopsticks or tea cup.

PS: That Honda Accord ended up costing more in repairs than the transmission in our old Suzuki. About three times as more. When you are on a roll, you are on a roll.