Thursday, May 12, 2011

A car & a woman driver's drama.

Our car has recently returned to us, thank you ALLAH!!! 
I'm like a bird without wings without my car. 
Yes, it's MY car!
Hehe.

I had to go a whole month without a car and I was miserable the whole time. :(
Back in March, we couldn't afford to renew our road-tax and insurance coverage 
(RM548 for both!) so I've had to ride the motorcycle instead.
I sent Shahrin to pre-school, went shopping, went to writing class, took out the trash etc.
all on the motorcycle. So undignified, hehe. 

The undignified part is when I always have to bring Nazrin along,
wherever I go and the only 'safe' place to put him was in the motorcycle's basket.
Poor kid. Luckily, he's on the smallish size, so sitting in that basket was no big deal for him.
There was one time I had to bring him along on a trip to Parit Buntar and
on the way home, after a busy day, he fell asleep! that's right, he slept! in the basket 
while I had to drive slowly & avoid all the bumps and potholes along the way. *sigh*

Anyway, in early April, we finally had enough to get the road-tax and insurance for our car.
The day we got the road-tax, I took the car out for an all-out car-washing experience. 
For the car, not me, I waited at the nearest Mamak stall with Nazrin.
The car looked so shiny and smelled so nice, I almost didn't want to take it out anywhere after that. LOL.

Unfortunately, a week after that, while we were driving home from a Doctor's appointment for the boys,
the car began making screeching sounds and letting out smoke.
Ahmad was driving that day, so I was off the hook. If I had been in the driver's seat that day,
I wouldn't hear the end of it.

Just as Ahmad pulled into our driveway, the car's engine went dead, 
as if finally giving up after trying so hard to get us safely home. 
Aaaaa...thanks Car, I love you!

When Ahmad popped the hood, we saw that the pipe linking the water tank to the engine (or something, I don't know, I don't do mechanical talks :p) has burst open an steam was coming out of it.
Ahmad checked the water but it was in the safe level, so we don't really know 
how and why that pipe burst like that.
It looked like someone had taken a knife and tore a long gash along the pipe.
Ahmad knew a mechanics and we were informed that the repair would cost around RM300 - RM500.
Again, the car had to be put to rest and I was back to riding the motorcycle.
We even had to travel back to Alor Setar for Shahrin's hypospadias correcting operation by bus, 
as I had posted here.

So, I had to stay miserable for a few more weeks, but thanks to my excellent teacher who had recommended me to do proofreading for a couple of Masters students, we were able to send the car to car-hospital.
As of Sunday (8th May 2011), I am the proud driver of my little old car again
and the repair only cost us RM370.   

So, today, I am back zooming on the streets of Bagan Serai, going from one bank to another.
This is the case of robbing Paul to pay off Peter for a new project I'm looking forward to. More on this later.
Anyway, as I was approaching a Maybank branch here, I got stuck at the parking lot
due to another driver's stupidity. The parking lot allocated slanted parking spaces and there is a tight spot between the main area and the curve leading to the bank and to more parking spaces.
A moron had parked a Mercedes at exactly that tight spot where cars were supposed
to be able to pass through to the bank easily.
I honked and honked because I didn't want to risk ruining the car's perfect paint-job and I waited for the owner to come but to no avail. I got a little panicked because there were more cars lined up behind me
and I honestly thought that my car can't pass through. Luckily, an older man at the bank saw me (actually everybody outside the bank saw me, heh) and came over to help me.
He gave out directions while I very, very slowly and carefully drove my car past the Merc.
Thank GOD for good Samaritans!
He was as angry as I was over the stupidity of the Merc's owner for parking there.

After I got through and managed to find a spot to park my car, I got out to witness the cars behind me
breezily past through the tight spot, without the hoolabaloo I had gone through.
*ugghh*
I was pretty sure all the eyewitness at the bank had this going through their head:
Noisy woman driver!   

Oh the shame!!

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