what a day!

yesterday was one of the most interesting day for me.

visited my mum at the hospital and left at about 3.30pm as i had to look after my brother's children at the car park while he visited my mum. and as it was a little late considering the next visiting window was 5.30pm, i decided to park my car at the fort road car park and took a nap. i left the car park at 5pm and as i drove into the feeder road into the mce, i saw a foreign object in the middle of the road. it looked small and harmless from afar but as i approached it, it became clear that it was a metallic object - not something one would want to drive head on into. but it was too late for me to respond. if i were to react, and at a speed of 60-70km/hr, my car would swerve off the road. i had no choice but just hoped for the best... that split second between the realization of danger and impact seemed forever. 

and then a loud thud rang as the object hit the bottom of my car. next thing i knew, my engine started to emit a weeeee-weeeee-weeeee sound and my car became unresponsive to me despite my continued pressing onto the accelerator. i knew my car was a goner and i could not risk my car stalling in the middle of the expressway tunnel. i will inherit the infamous reputation as the first car to break down in the newly opened expressway if that happened. i took a quick scan around and thankfully, there was a lay by not far ahead just before the feeder road enters the expressway proper. 

i quickly pulled my car off and took at look at the damage. the was a trail of engine oil along my path.  i tried starting the car but it wouldn't and i called my tow truck. as i waited, i took a walk along the feeder road and found the metallic object by the road side. it was a metallic clamp. as i did so, i called bee to pick me up. soon enough bee arrived and he parked behind my car as we waited for the tow truck to arrive. that was when i noted my handphone had only 4% battery power left. i quickly called mum and explain to her that i would be late. what happened next could be described as extremely stressful or extremely funny, depending on how you look at it.

here's what happened. the land transport authority (lta) auxiliary police arrived within 5min. he took a look at the scene and asked me what happened. i told him i had an accident. he took a look at my car and saw the damaged boot and he started taking photos. he did not know the damaged boot was due to a previous accident and assumed bee had banged into my rear. and he reported "the accident" to his command center. it took me a while to explain the incident to him as he could not comprehend how a metallic object could be lying in the middle of the road. i told him my tow truck was on the way. and as i explained these details to him, the auxiliary police himself struggled with the control center that kept asking him for details and insisting that he clear the scene soonest possible. in addition, the control center also told the auxiliary police that they had summoned the lta tow truck to move my car away. i called my tow truck and asked him to hurry up. he insisted that he would arrive soon. the poor auxiliary police struggled between my input and the command center's order. and as for me, i struggled with the fact that my phone was dying. in the end, everyone agreed that whichever tow truck arrive first would remove my car.

and given the highly efficient lta, their tow truck arrived within minutes. oh dear, i had to react fast. it would be such a mess if i had to co-ord for my tow truck to go to a place that i myself had no control over. i called my tow truck driver as the lta guys started positioning their tow truck in front of my car. i am within 5 min of your location. stop them and tell them to let me do it, my tow truck driver requested. but before i could respond further, my phone died. the lta tow truck told me they would tow my car to a public car park out of the expressway, and that i should tell my tow truck to take over from there. errrr… just then, my tow truck arrived. whew! after some negotiation, the lta guys agreed to let my tow truck driver take over the task of towing. then murphy struck again. the lta tow truck driver locked my car from inside by mistake… aiyoh! thankfully, my boot's lock had been tampered with and i could open it using bee's car key. i had to climb into my car from the boot to open my car door. after all these fiasco, my car eventually got towed away.

it was then that i realized i had a new set of problems… i had agreed for my car to be repaired by the agent this monday. and now, i am not able to produce my car! also, i had asked my tow truck to tow my car to my usual service center and it occurred to me then that my service center might proceed to repair the crashed boot and not the engine! and to make it worst… my phone had died and i couldn't contact the service center… 

stressful right? 

lol!