Friday, April 23, 2010

Ruby Ruby Ruby Ruby

Joe Cole with baby Ruby Tatiana, born March 2010. Congrats!
Ruby Ruby Ruby Ruby
And do ya do ya do ya
Know what ya doing, doing to me?
Ruby Ruby Ruby Ruby
-Kaiser Chiefs-

Friday, April 16, 2010

Terkenyus

Definition of terkenyus: disappointment accompanied by a pain in at the edge of your heart due to the inability to put blame on others or lashed out anger.

Sadness, nausea and headache may also surface as sympthoms if prolonged. Normally, those who suffered this will rendered speechless. Only sleep and god's will can assist those who suffered from it.

Example of usage: Kereta saya sudah terbarai dan kena bayar RM8000 untuk dibaiki. Saya terkenyus apabila mendengarnya.

Orang N9 kata - Tak dapek la acik nak nolong do.

Orang Johor kata - Terkenyus dah.

Blerrghhhhhhhhhhhhh. Where do I begin?

Maybe it started of the week before when I start to notice that my fan did not stop after the engine was switched off. The car was this way when I first got

it 4 and half years ago. It slowly went away and I just don't give a tiny rats ass about it. A few people notice it. To quote them:

"Eii freakyy"

"Ehh scarry la.."

My reply was: "Oh it's ok... it's like that". Kepala hotak aku berjambul.

Then a few days before it happened, I drove the poor thing to F1. Suddenly the aircond became warm. It's obviously not acceptable as tempreature was soaring high. But the situation fixed itself almost immediately. So biar lagi.

Came the fateful day. I was driving in Rempit mode as usual along MEX highway. Half way, the aircond is acting up again..... I pulled over when it became unbearable. That's when I notice the indicators were going crazy. What the F is this indicator for. Hmmm... ok I just want to make it to the office so that I will not die from heat stroke by the roadside. So after puji-pujian kepada Allah SWT, I started the car. Shit tak boleh.. tried again after a few time....accompanied with the usual movie cliche line "comeee onnnn"... ahhh it did start up. still lagi nak put on the aircond, never mind that it's now a heater rather than an aircond. Nevermind that the sweat that is now poring from every pores imaginable on my body. Then I notice that the tempreture gauge had hit maximum. And the indicators are still blinking. Nak sampai office... nak sampai office....

I made it to the U turn to my office, but dropping the gear down caused the car to stall and die again. malu ni toksah cerita la sebab kereta-kereta lain yang nak U turn semau tengok aku. Come onnnnn..... ha boleh start. Drive further... almost made it to the boom gate of the office... mati lagi. Arghhhhh.....manage to start the car again. Just park it outside the office. And walked in.

While waiting the PC to boot up, told my officemate that the car is acting up. Everyone, bless them, were sharing their expert view. I smsed my friend at Protong, who told me to call their 24 hours helpline. I made a frantic call to them. Their advice was don't drive the car. It seems that your car had overheat. Tow it to the nearest service center. I asked them about the weird indicator. Ok it's not weird.. just that I want to know what it is. I tried to describe it as analog looking line.. (now that I looked at it.. it looks like intersecting hills). The guy was asking me if it looks like a tree. Ha? Tak la.. rasa kelakar pulak.

Back to the car, am I going to tow it? Of course not. Didn't he know that I had majored in Automotive Engineering, minor aeronautical engineering. Am now writing a paper in micro combustion system powered by human spit for small vehicle for my PHD. Towing my car? Never.

So, I decided that I would drive my car home and tmmorrow, check it with the workshop nearby my house. But in the meantime, let's do a field trip and poke around under the hood. After the weather cool down a bit, a throng of us trotted outside the office. Oh before that, everyone joining please bring a bottle of water. The idea was to hose down the car.

Right, let's open the hood. The radiator as expected was bone dry. Pour in water. Fire up the engine. It started up, but soon we notice that the water level in the radiator soon decreases... and we ran out of water to top it up. Hahahahhahahahahah... Ok la. give up. Let's wait tonight, and just drive the car home
after my shift. My colleagues said, why don't you check out the towing service just in case. If it's free, why not. So called up my insurance and of course not surprising towing service is not covered. La dee daa. Protong gave me a number to call. I called up the guy and he quote me a reasonable price. I told him, I'll call again if I need his service. That's my plan B.

Plan A is to drive the car home but accompanied by a safety. Safety car being my sis or brother following me home tonight.

Came nightfall and end of my shift. Bro and sis came with load of water bottle. Fire the car up again. It started... and bro suggested... Jgn tunggu lagi... drive je la cecepat. So kick in Extreme Rempit mode... and drove it away. This is of course not a fool's proof plan. It crumbled within the first 5 minutes... we came to a junction, which I need to turn right.. and since I was a few minutes in front... I suddenly saw my safety car turn left at the junction. Oh bugger... now my safety car it heading in opposite direction. To make it more interesting my sis who's now in my car said, " Kau tau tak phone dia tak boleh call out? ... and dia sebenarnya dah tak nampak malam-malam ni" Ya rabbiiiiiiii. Apa ke maknanya. Kot mati lagi kereta ni kat tempat gelap.. tak nak aku. Right, so now let's double back.. and call him ASAP.. the route his on has only 1 U turn and if he missed it... It will take him another 20
minutes to find a way back. So remember that my car can't slow down.... but I had to come to a traffic light. The car as expected... slowly cugging off and died. Nicely at the traffic light.

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA bloody hahahah.

Try to start it again, but failed. In the meantime, Bro had of course missed the u turn and now driving in the night, blind and slightly lost. so what's left but plan B. The tow guy sounded decent and he knows how to get here. Nasib baik. So both of us got out of the car and try to maintain cool status. The college kids kept on whizzing by and looking at us. Since there's nothing else to do, I snap a few pics of my car. If anyone can guess where exactly this is will win a mystery gift from me.

Eventually the Bro showed up. And when we were just about to go to a mamak stall, the tow guy called and said that this within the area. He's tow truck was kinda cool. It's a flatbed. It has a small winch that could pull up my car. Really easy peasy. He even brought his wife and kid to accompany him. We told him where to send the car, and he knows the place as well. We drove back in Bro's car and waited at the workshop. Soon, ketibaan tetamu terhormat, keretaku sayang. Winch the car down again. But since it can't start, we had to push it while bro sit in and manuvered the car. Hilanglah cool. But at least it's already at the workshop. Tomorrow have to walk to the workshop and wait for it to open.

The next day

I thot the shop will open at 9. Rupanya 8.30am. Hahahah sempat lagi tgk Friends satu round. Sampai kedai itu apek dah bagi pandangan maut sebab kereta aku sudah block kedai dia. Anyhoo, explained to him about my plight. He's said this could be many splendoured things. My radioator, my water pump, my hu, my ha.

So I said, open it up and let me know the worst. He spent the next 3 hours taking the whole thing out. The verdict?

I HAVE FRIED MY CAR.

Brilliant. Now, I have to replace a few of other stuff because the car can't even start. And the star of the show is this part call Cylinder Head which is going to cost me one of my kidney. %$#@!!!())^%%$#@@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I asked the guy if can get 2nd hand part. He made a few calls. No. How about Enjin potong. Call around again. No.

Apek: "So macam mana kak"

Akak: " Saya nak balik rumah dulu, nangis. Nanti petang saya datang".

At home, I googled whatever that I could googled. The diagnose seems to match up with what the Apek told me. But still, I called a friend who is a car buff and he told me...yes it's very hard to get 2nd hand parts. But see if you don't need to change the part. "Ni macam kau nak kena kencing aje ni" Yeah I know... but now my engine is on the floor. ON THE FLOOR. Either I asked them to put everything again and tow it to another place. Or just asked them to proceed. Bro and me went to the shop again in the evening and it's the same story. Hmm, dengan berat hati, I asked them to proceed. There goes my saving(yang kononnya nak bayar hutang credit card).

SAYA SUDAH TERKENYUS.

So, the next day they proceed with the what nots. I estimated that I'll be without a car for at least another week. It was wednesday. On Thursday, I took the train to work. The waiting really sucks and the heat... OMGG. But I survived. I reckon a few more days of this, I could at least shred a pound or two.

Well that was Thursday. Nasib la Friday cuti. Over the weekend, aku pun pergi la melawat kereta tu di wad kecemasan. Eh, apek tu kata petang maybe dah boleh siap. Yipeee... celaka dah bayar cepat la pulak siap. True enough at 4pm the shop called. I can picked up my car. Seems that the car is now able to start but then it's jerking like a a bronco horse especially when dropped to low gear. The apek said, the ignition coil needs to be changed which means money money. Hek ele... tak kuasa aku... takpe la.. asal boleh jalan.

So come Monday, I drove the car to office. Tak sampai 10 minit, mati lagi enjin. Ni sudah tak boleh jadi. I decided to take the day off and send the car to the actual service center. Dah la kakak reception tu buat peleceh plak. Dia kata kita akan buat yang booking aje. Aku dah fed up aku pun cakap kat dia.. "Ye lah kak... Nak buat macam mana. Mana la saya nak tahu kereta ni nak rosak hari ni. Kalau tak dah dari minggu lepas lagi saya buat booking". Dengan muka tapai akak tu pun isi la segala mak nenek form utk aku. Sighhh...The story is the same. Please change your ignition coil. Ye la .. tukar la. It cost another RM700.

After that, baru la ok kereta tu. But yeah, it's not the same. Aku sudah takut nak merempit. Maybe the engine will still need some reconditioning (whatever that means). Aku sesungguhnya tak tau nak kata apa. Semua orang suruh beli kereta baru. As much as I want to, I still owe a lot on this car. So nak tak nak akan aku pakai la... sehingga ke titisan terakhir.

Akhir kata, terima kasih la kepada semua yang telah memberikan nasihat, kata-kata semangat, sokongan dan juga yang tolong menghantar dan mengambil saya di mana-mana. Yang tolong gelak pun ada, but appreciate it all for making me laugh in times of frustration.





I think this song will always remind me of this episode.

Smile - Charlie Chaplin

Smile
tho'
your heart is aching,
Smile
Even though it's breaking,
When there are clouds in the sky- You'll get by,
If you
Smile through your fear and sorrow,
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You'll see the sun come shining through- For you.
Light up your face with gladness,
Hide ev'ry trace of sadness,
Altho' a tear may be ever so near,
That's the time you must keep on trying,
Smile- What's the use of crying,
You'll find that life is still worthwhile,
If you just smile.