What a morning!

I guess this morning was the WORST morning I have. This morning, as usual, I took my boy to his play group. After settling him in his class, I drove back to my in-law's place. That was around 9.10am in the morning. As usual, I would stop near the parking lot and signal to park my car. Just as I was about to reverse into the parking lot, this taxi from behind horned and flashed at me. I took nothing about it. The taxi made way and I reversed my car into the lot.

I got out of my car and walked towards the lift lobby. I saw this not-so-old lady getting out of the taxi and walked towards the lift lobby as well. She was looking fuming mad as though a lightning bolt had struck her! She saw me and instantly shouted at me in her perfect English, "Don't you know how to park your car?!" Then, she started pointing to her chin and said that she had knocked her chin against the seat in front while she was in the taxi. I looked at her and said that I was sorry to hear that. She continued to say that she would have flung out of the taxi if not for the seat belt she was wearing. She went on and questioned me if anything should happen to her, how I would answer to her parents. I told her that was a carpark and cars and taxis are not supposed to be moving a high speed. She rebuked and blamed me for reversing "out of nowhere". I told her I did not reverse "out of nowhere" and I did signal before I reversed my vehicle. She admonished me for trying to argue my way. I was stating the facts and was told off!!! She continued to point at her chiny chin chin and repeated her "pain and suffering". She insisted that I appeared "out of nowhere" and reversed, almost knocking the taxi and caused the taxi to brake suddenly that made her chin to hit the seat in front. She went on to tell me that she had been living in that block since she was young, and that she had not seen me before. She kept asking," Where do you stay?" and "Which level do you stay?" I did not reply her as I did not know what she would do. So, I told her I did not live there (which is true). She started to "interrogate" me,"You don't stay here? Then why are you here?!!" (Notice the double-exclamation marks? It is to show the volume of her voice - super loud!) I kept quiet for a while as I did not want to answer her questions.

Suddenly, she yelled, "WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?" I was caught by surprise as I did not really know how to answer her. So, I just looked away from her direction. I did not argue with her, so I asked her what she wanted me to do. She repeated her "sorrows" AGAIN, pointing to her chin AGAIN and said I did not even want to apologise to her!!! No choice. Such a fierce woman standing in front, so I apologised for "causing" her "pain". But she said I did not even apologise in the first place. Anyway, I wanted to get away from her. So, I pretended to go away to the next block, she followed and shouted,"Are you going away just like that?" I turned back and asked her what she wanted me to do in order to stop that "argument". I suggested that she could make a complaint or something. She took my "heed" and asked for my number. Number? I said that if she wanted me car licence plate number, she could go and see it in the carpark. So, when she went to check out my car plate number, I got into the lift and went off. I got a bit scared as I did not know what she would do to my car. She looked so "educated" as she spoke a strong accent of "good" English. I wonder why she came back early in the morning. I think she might have a bad night the night before and she was probably asleep when the taxi stopped suddenly.

I was HIT!

Ya, right! As you can see in the photographs, the rear of my vehicle was knocked by a lady driver yesterday afternoon about 2 plus. I was just driving out of Sim Lim Square, waiting for the traffic along Bencoolen Street to clear, when the vehicle behind hit my car. So today I was busy going to the Borneo Body Care Service Centre to get it assessed. The initial figure came up to be in the range of $2200 to $2500 at least. Initially she agreed to claiming from the insurance, but after she went to make a report at the insurance company, she was persuaded by one of the agents to settle the case privately. If not, she would have lost her no-claim bonues for her car insurance. She called me after I reached the carpark at the void deck. I agreed to have it assessed at an authorised (so-called) workshop, and the bill came up to be slightly more than $800 which she willingly paid for it. She was going overseas tomorrow. I learnt that she was working in a company selling vitamin ingredients for all sorts of things, like beverages, milk powder and even animal feeds. Wow!

Happy Birthday, Singapore!

Thanks Clarice for sending me her scanned copy of the National Day Parade's ticket. I managed to make two copies of the ticket and sneaked into the parade. :p

What a day!

Just yesterday afternoon, I found my front wind shield or screen cracked! The crack line was about 15 cm long the day before, but today it was like almost twice the length (see if you can spot the crack line in the picture above). So, no choice, I had to send the car for repair at the Body Care Centre in Leng Kee. Luckily, I called up the service centre to check about the repair. Otherwise, I might have sent the car to the wrong service centre for repair. The usual service centre I go for my routine servicing does only the mechanical repair work while the body care service centre does the windshield and other accident-related repairs. I had to make a wind shield claim from my insurance. This was my first time I encountered a cracked wind shield since I started driving more than 13 years ago!

I have quite a few problems with this 2006 model of Vios. There were problems related to the power windows, the alarm system, the rubber gasket of the window, etc. Maybe I was a bit "unlucky". Both rear tyres had punctured once. :(

Saint Pat's

These were five of the boys in my enrichment class in St Pat's School. It is a boys' school. They were the fun-loving boys who never failed to amuse themselves in the two days I had with them. They would call me "sir" and not "cher".