Worst Day Ever | Towed Car & Costly Mistakes

'You'll do great', I whispered. ' Just don't screw up', I told myself and for every time I did, I would do the complete opposite of what I remind myself. In some rare occasions, good things still happen unexpectedly and that would be the day you'll see my bright face with the purest smile in the entire world.

"Focus on the bright side," they said. "Be positive!"

YES THAT'S TRUE. Be positive and never talk about the bad things in your life. Pretend it never happened and never learn anything from it? OKAY!

But then where will the truth in life occur? Is it okay to showcase only the rainbow and sunshine and skittles parts of life and tell people that there's no bad things in life that you should be aware of? What if I tell you that bad days are the days you'll learn the most?

I'm not good at storytelling but this will be my first entry of the worst day ever. Bear with me while you read my story and think about how petty the issues I'm facing and how unnecessarily depressed I am over it. I don't care. You can simply browse through other interesting blogs. Come on, do it now.

Still here? What are you expecting?

Oh my God. Still here?

Okay, fine.

This Monday after my classes end, I offered some of friends a lift to the hostel (Varsity lodge) and as usual, every driver will drop passengers in front of a fence that has a small entrance at the end of it. I didn't park my car right away because I was planning to refuel my car so there I was, side-parking my car in front of the fence. After dropping them except this one friend of mine, Keba, who was nice enough to accompany me to the Petronas, I changed the gear to 1 and started pressing the accelerator.

'SCREECHHH!!!'

The sound was loud enough to make my chinese girl friend, Tati, whom I just dropped off to look back at me, with a shocked face.

As if her reaction was not enough, I continued pressing the accelerator and 'SCREEEEECHH!!!', that sound was heard once again before the car got back on the road. 'It was perhaps a scratch', I thought so I continued driving before stopping my car by the junction right before getting into the main road. I got off my car and quickly went checking the 'scratched' part.

A scratch, my ass.

The dent was quite big and inwards, causing the passenger's door not being able to open wide. It was blocked.

And here's the thing scratching my car.

I was my fault for parking very near to the yellow thing tho. It was also my kegelabahan for continuing my drive upon hearing the first screech. 

That night, I searched for all the bengkel ketuk kereta I could find in Puchong, Serdang or Cyberjaya and finally resorted to the one in Puchong. One more thing, I decided not to tell my parents and I was so bloody sure that I could handle everything on my own. My decision inflicted with my guilt towards my dad because he repainted, vacuum cleaned and washed the car so it looked brand new for me to use. As for my mother, a protective one, she was very paranoid to let me drive especially in KL. She said she can't face the consequences if I ever got into a serious accident and get injured and couldn't be able to live up my dream as a surgeon. You see, if I tell her about this, I'll never regain her trust and most probably never driving again!

Today, my biology teacher had a meeting during the afternoon so the class was rescheduled to the morning session and it ended at 12 pm. Having no friend to accompany me, I was determined to drive to Puchong guided by the mobile navigation following the location that the repair guy sent to me. Waze or Google Map would be my main options but the shop's location didn't feature in any of the system so I had no choice. My phone battery was at 35%. 

After 20 minutes, I reached the location that the repair guy sent to me and it was a furniture shop. I knew that the whatsapp location accuracy was not that good so I was able to remain calm and called the guy. I described my location and his instruction was clear, "Tunggu di Shell kat depan tu. Nanti saya datang" so off I went to the Shell, fueled up my car and waited for awhile. While waiting, I checked on my whatsapp and noticed that the guy had resent a new location. 'Probably the actual location to the workshop', I thought so i started driving, passed a toll and that's when he called.

"Dik, kat mana?" 

I replied, "kat tol, bang. Saya ikut location abang hantar ni"

"Oh ok adik u-turn, lepas jambatan dan sungai, adik tunggu kat tepi jalan"

Again, the instruction was clear but again, my brain was not functioning the way it should have so I drove straight, looked for a bridge and the river he was talking about. At that time, I was going too far from the actual place. I called him again and described my location. He told me to stay there as he would come and show me the way. 

I was at the side of the road, under the scorching sun, sweating hard and haven't realized my mistake. While waiting, I scrolled through my phone and my friend, Syah started texting me and asked about the car's progress. I turned off the engine and as I was about to reply his message, a big hot cloud of smoke came out from my car's bonnet. The smell was strong and I could not see anything from inside. I was freaking out so bad. 

I started driving again despite my car's condition and stopped at a parking space in front of 'Pusat Perdagangan IOI' building, waited for a few more minutes and a new problem went up. My phone battery was at 5%. The repair guy was having a hard time finding my car and I couldn't drive to him and not being able to call him would be such a big problem. Luckily enough, there were 2 young Indian guys were passing by and were kind enough to ask me if I needed any help. They didn't have a power bank but they told me that they can stay there until the repair guy came and I can use his phone in the meantime. A few minutes after that, my repair guy arrived. 

That was a small act of kindness but I was sooo touched by it. 10% elevated mood, but 10% of that quickly went downhill when the repair guy told me that a part of my engine coolant pecah. I was definitely scared as I looked at him with a pale face. " Berapa ringgit agak-agak kena ni, bang?"

My car was then towed to the workshop. An uncle whose name was later discovered as Pak Di was in charge to fix the coolant and he told me that my coolant cannot be fixed by part but it had to be replaced entirely as it was a 'made in China' product. He offered to use a better coolant with the same price but might cost a little bit more because he had to change to the 'tapak' for installation. We made a little more negotiation and he stated clear that he could finish the work by today so I waited there while reading my biology notes. I was tired and the place was noisy. There wasn't much thing that I could absorb at that time.

To cut things short, my car was fixed with new coolant and fan and the dented part has been 'ketuk' back to its shape but I refused to repaint the car because it might takes another day. Pak Di, Pak Cik Qahar, the young guy who had to find me and my car, and 3 other Pak Ciks have been such a great help. They were really soothing and the fact that they understood my financial status as a student was relieving. Pak Di told me that he felt moved to help me because I looked like one of his nieces (the perk of having a common face)

By the way, the towing cost me RM 100, new coolant and fan cost RM 220 and the dented part costs RM 50. Overall, it costs me RM370 when initially, I was just planning to repair the dented part and repaint it. 

(Ya Allah, if there is one reason on why this whole thing happened, please make it something that's best for me :')))

Check this place out! It's cheap and the guys are nice.

Btw here are the things I learnt as of today,

1. Park accordingly and do it slowly. Don't protude too much to the right or the left. 

2. Check the car's temperature regularly. Any slight increase might require us to stop by the road to let it cool.

3. Make sure your phone battery is full whenever you're out alone and at a new place.

4. Don't hesitate to call and ask for clearer explanation. Don't focus too much on not wanting to annoy someone. 

5. Plan an organized journey. Make sure the car is fully fueled and T&G card should have enough money especially for long journey.

6. Don't try to be a smartass. Tell your parents about your mistakes. They don't bite.

7. Listen to instructions carefully. 

Short Story | Part 3: The Night of An End

"Why isn't Aiden joining?" Lan asks, pointing his question to the two girls sitting opposite him at the dinner table. They didn't answer right away as their eyes directed to glasses and plates that have been emptied since 2 hours ago. Smokes from cigarettes and flavoured 'shisha' permeates the atmosphere at the mamak restaurant. It was getting late that night but around them, there are several circle of people still chit-chatting, laughing and all other forms of life who are enjoying their food or simply being there to get some 'fresh' air.

"She's probably doing her revision." One of the girl replies while shoving some peanuts into her mouth. She chews the contents in her mouth and before she even swallow it, she shove another round of peanuts into her mouth, and chews again.

"Eat slowly, Lina. You're such a fat-ass." The other guy called Riza mocks the girl while throwing a peanut on her face. Lina shrugs, annoyed.

"I'm not feeling well, guys. Let's head back to our hostel now, shall we?" The other girl suddenly voices out, not amused with her friends' jokes. She straight away leaves the table and walks to the cashier to pay for the bill.

"Wait up, Mel!" Lan shouts as the three of them followed along to the cashier to pay for their bills.

Back at the hostel, Lina and Mel tip-toes into the room, not wanting to wake up other housemates in the apartment. They pass by the kitchen and notice a splatter of liquid on the floor. It was really dark as the light has already been turned off so they could not see clearly but the smell was familiar and it was strong. For a while, they look at each other for awhile and try to fathom what is actually happening. As if they are telepathing their thoughts, both their eyes go completely wide as they started panicking. Lina quickly switches on the light beside her and in front of them, they are seeing a a small splatter of blood on the floor and a few footprints of it leading to a room.

"Aiden!!!" Both of them shriek hysterically.

                      ✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂

The moon was bright and the gushing of night breeze rushed on his face, giving him chill and tranquil. With his closed eyes, he inhales deeply and exhales slowly while tugging himself tighter in his white coat. The view of the entire city from the rooftop is vivid and picturesque. While enjoying the view and the breeze, he was sitting on an old sofa that he dragged from the hospital store to the rooftop in which he was surprised that no one caught him doing such business. From that moment, he becomes more assured that no one is going to come and trespass his serenity spot, his favourite place and his little escapade- the hospital rooftop.

'Fly me to the moon
Let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like
On a-Jupiter and Mars'

His favourite song, 'Fly Me to The Moon' by Frank Sinatra starts playing from his Iphone's speaker, filling the night ambience with the classical song. He has another 15 minutes before his night shift making rounds at the patients' wards. He closes his eyes for a moment and tried to doze off for a couple of minutes but before he managed to do it, he feels uneasy. The instinct of being watched suddenly creeping up his back.

He quickly opens his eyes and realize that there is a lady standing at the other side of the rooftop, behind a dark shadow as she fidgets with her shaking fingers, hesitating.

It has been 6 months since he was posted to this hospital and ever since, he never caught someone else on the rooftop with him. At that moment of time, all the stories of unhappy souls who passed away in the hospital, gallivanting around the hospital and haunting people, as told by his senior doctors fill his mind. He never believes it but as the lady behind the shadow starts taking her steps towards him, his eyeballs are at the midst of getting out of their sockets.

He starts shaking.

Decision Making | Medicine or Engineering?

Hi earthlings!

so recently, I've received a comment like this.

And in case you've read some of my posts, you would know about my dilemma in choosing whether to do these two fields. Here's something you need to know about my case because your case might differ. I've always wanted to do medicine since I was little but when I reached 16 years old and when I was in Form 4, I realized that Physics and Add maths were interesting and easy for me. On the other hand, I took a longer time to understand what we learnt in SPM Biology and even though I got A+ for that subject in SPM, I'm still doubting myself because I always get A- in other internal examinations. 

In order to make the decision, I listed down all the pros and cons for each field to make it more clearly when discussing with my family. One more thing that you need to know about my case is that I was also considering the two scholarships offered which were PETRONAS and JPA. Both of them were too precious to me, therefore please don't think that the decision that I had to make was easy. In fact, it was the toughest one I've made in my whole life :')


I made a list of pros and cons of both courses so I can see more clearly the pathway that I would be living in for another 5 years ahead, firstly, I made some research on each field. Dig up a deeper information of what mechanical engineers do, their internship, where they'll be working, the positions they have before becoming a senior mechanical engineer, their starting-off salaries. I did the same for medicine as well, graduating with Gred41 after 2 years housemanship, 4 years as MO before deciding whether to further studies for sub-specialization. Medicine field would surely take the longest time in becoming a specialist but after all it would be worth it, right? Simply said, you can't easily have a small picture of what doctors and engineers do like 'doctors have to cut and fix patients' body', 'engineers create and fix machines' only. That kind of knowledge is not even close to enough yet. You need to imagine yourself doing what they're doing for a day. Think of the journey as a student in the years of studies, can you keep up with the subjects? Anatomy and body defense mechanism or applied maths and physics?

You should count these aspects;
1. Duration of studies
2. Your interest in biology & chem subjects (if you want to do medic) and to physics, chem and add maths (if it's engineering)
3. What do doctors and engineers do. Which lifestyle do you want?
4. Assess yourself for what kind of career that suits you. You can take the tests on internet.
5. Last but the most important thing is, your passion. Which career has motivated you since the beginning and that you'd stick with it until the end bcs you know you'll be happy with it?

I'm not sure whether this post would help much but all the best in making your decision friends! Hopefully, you won't be too optimist (read: overestimate yourself) or too paranoid (read: underestimate yourself) when making the decision.

Someday, we should sit down and have coffee once all of this educational dilemma is over.
Signing off, xoxo