Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep ...

This is going to be a short post cos I'm not really in the best of moods.

'Yeah Nick, like as if we believe you about this being a short post!'

No really, I'm in such a terrible mood right now. This will be a short post. I don't think I have the will to write so long. It didn't start off that way though. The morning was pretty good.

It only started when I headed home for lunch. I got into my car as usual and drove home seeing as how I work very near my house and besides both wifey and me had some banking to do as well.

Somewhere along the way I start to hear sounds of birds chirping. Huh? Don't tell me there are birds in my car? I mean, I'm environmentally friendly and all that but I don't recall renting my car out as a tree for birds to nest in.

So I do what any normal (well for me it's normal anyway) person would do when they hear weird sounds coming from their car. I try to troubleshoot just where and what those sounds are.

My car has broken down on me so many times and I've changed just about every part in my car that 90% of the time I can figure out the problem myself.

I start fiddling around trying to figure out where those little birdies are hiding. Maybe it's just some loose fitting in the car or something. I whack this and push that and nope, the sound is still intermittently there.

It keeps going on and off and now sounds like some rats decided to join the little birds cos a cacophony of squeaks just joined the intermittent chirping.

And I can't seem to isolate the sound. I turn down the radio and listen more intently. Eventually I sort of pinpoint that the chirping and squeaking sounds are coming from somewhere around the front right wheel section.

Thinking that it's probably the fan belts cos I had some little minor annoyance with it about a week back, I called wifey and tell her that I'll be a little late and drove straight to my mechanic to have it checked.

As always, the moment I reach my mechanic the sound disappears completely and I'm left with having to explain to my mechanic just what exactly the sounds were by making my own sounds effects and all kinds of hand gestures.

Seeing as how he's pretty busy, he just gives the car a cursory check and tells me based on the really good sound effects I made for him, It has probably has something to do with the absorbers and not the belts as I first suspect.

Okay, now that can't be good news. But then he's too busy to really get down to checking it and tell me to leave the car and come back later.

Geez Mr. Mechanic, I got things to do, places to go, policies to implement, worlds to conquer, planets to save. I can't possibly leave my car there all day.

So I ask him if the car is safe to drive for now and he says no worries, as long as I don't go doing no Lewis Hamilton or Sebastian Loeb driving stunts, the car won't fall be falling apart on me just yet. So I head home, pick up wifey and we go do our banking stuff and grab a quick bite for lunch.

After sending wifey home, I decide that I'll take the car to the other mechanic I know. I have two of them that I use alternately. This guy is much freer and gives my car a more thorough check. His prognosis is the same as the other mechanic, that it's something to do with the absorber.

After a detail check he discovers that it's the bearing of the right absorber and the first words he said when I asked him how much it would cost was:

'Aiyoo, ini absorber bearing manyak mahal oooo ...' ('This absorber bearings are pretty expensive).

Well, after the initial shock of finding out the cost of getting it fixed has passed (and probably having to forgo buying those acne creams I need), I pick my flagging spirits off the workshop floor and tell him I'll send it in to get fixed early tomorrow morning since he says the car is safe to drive. Besides I don't think there's enough time to get it fixed right now.

Sigh, that car is probably going to make me a pauper one fine day (I'm already half way there anyway). And it can sense when I have a little extra money. I just withdrew some paypal funds only yesterday and today it acts up. It never fails to sniff out when I have cash with me.

Why oh why can't it give me a little break in life for a change. And please don't ask me to buy a new car cos for one thing, this car is fully paid up, so no worries about monthly car installments and secondly I can't afford a new car.

This car has served me well and I suppose it's the price to pay for all the driving I put the fellow through (yes, my car is a guy car) all these years. And also for all the times I've failed to take it in for service when it was way past overdue. I only have myself to blame.

But that doesn't make me feel any better. I'm still pissed that I'm going to be parting with some much needed hard cash tomorrow. I suppose I could drive around and let the car chirp and squeak away but I don't think I could stand the stares people give me when I pass them with my chirpy car.

Oh and did I say this post was going to be short? Well, I really thought it would. Honest, cross my heart and hope to die, urmm, well maybe not hope to die la, that's a bit too extreme ... LOL! Who'd have guessed that I can write such long winded posts even when I'm mad.
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