blessed with good friends

(story about my car battery & air con)

i am so thankful that i have been blessed with good friends. a fortnight ago, i was stranded at woodlands road because my battery went flat. i had parked my car by the roadside. when i was about to drive off, the engine just refused to come to life. i suspected right away that the battery was the cause. my first thought was to contact victor, my former monk's hill colleague, who lives at marsiling.

he told me that he would get help and asked me to contact him again ten minutes later. before the ten minutes was up, the mechanic called me to ascertain my location. i forgot about calling victor, so he called me instead. he told me he would be taking bus service 178 to my location. the mechanic came and jump-started the car. when victor showed up, the engine was already well and running. i drove victor home and declined his invitation for tea.

i then drove to dairy farm road - where i had originally planned to do my nature walk - and parked the car outside the moe adventure camp while i took to the trail. when i returned and tried to start the car, i got this sickening feeling - i would be stranded again. there was no point in calling the mechanic because the solution he could provide would be a temporary one only. i called victor again. he would get the aa man to come with a new battery. i waited nearly an hour because victor had to travel by bus to upper bukit timah road. when the aa man finally got the battery replaced, it was way past 7.00 p.m.

i have been plagued with another car problem. the car air-conditioning system had not been working properly. when the engine was idling at low speed, the air-conditioner would give way or give up. i had to get a car air-conditioner specialist to fix it because my regular mechanic could not rectify the fault.

i mentioned the problem to my friend kok weng, my ex-colleague from balestier hill secondary. he took me to sin ming avenue, to a workshop called king's auto. alex, the owner, checked and told me that the problem was with the water pump. he gave me an option: i could have it replaced - which would cost me $500 plus - or i could settle for a repair job and hope for the best. i decided on the cheaper option.

we left the car at the workshop and went for lunch at jalan pemimpin. after lunch, we browsed at pan west, a speciality shop selling golf equipment. i got a lift from him to junction 8, where i intended to take the mrt home. i ended up browsing at the shopping complex. when alex called me, i was supposed to call kok weng so that he could come and pick me and send me to king's auto. i decided not to trouble him and took a feeder service bus from bishan to sin ming avenue.