will i am's delayed diary

Been noticing something weird about my car: Musty smell Water droplets form easily on the interior glass surfaces On hot days, my glasses fog up the moment I get into the driver's seat Definitely a leak. The carpet on the driver's side was wet, so I inspected the rubber seals on the door. Couldn't detect anything wrong with it. In the end, I brought the car to a car accessories shop. The guy checked the boot instead and found signs of water seepage. He theorized that the water flowed from the boot to the front seat. That would explain why my experiments of drenching the car door didn't reveal any leaks. I asked him if he could fix it. From the way I hear it, he wants to charge me RM1,200 for cleaning the seats and carpets, removing any rust, and fix the leak ( if he can find it ). I'll take a raincheck on that. 

In just a few short weeks, I made another trip to the Nissan service center. Not for my car, thank goodness, but for SK's. Ever since her warranty ended, she had not made a trip back to Nissan. According to the DriveOn app, her last service was at the end of 2017. Might as well let them do a diagnostic, as it's much more systematic over there. Judging from what happened to my car, her car should be experiencing similar wear and tear. Worked out of their customer lounge, making good use of their Nescafe machine. From the looks of it, they upgraded the drinks options ( they have black coffee now, but tastes like dishwater ) and hacked the machine to make it 'contact-less'. Just hover your finger over the sensor, if you manage to determine where the sensor is. Many struggle because the sensors are at the top, while they have a big ass that points to the bottom. Throw the original buttons into the equation and you get puzzled customers who just can't seem to get their

As usual, mum and I went to OUG do some morning marketing. Nothing out of the ordinary, except for the fact that my car engine sputtered and threatened to stall while idling on the parking ramp. Felt normal while on the go. Every time I stopped at the traffic light, I had a little cold sweat. For peace of mind, I made a random consultation at a tyre shop in Happy Garden. The guy suspected two things: Spark plugs Ignition coils Since I had changed my spark plugs about six months ago, then the problem should be with the ignition coils. He gave me a rough quote, and assured me that since the problem just started, I still could drag it out a bit. On Monday, I made a trip to the Nissan service center to get it checked out. The diagnosis and the quote was similar. And while they were at it, they suggested that I change one part of the engine mounting.   At the end of the day, I was MYR1,500 poorer, but my car ran smooth, and was much quieter. Guess my car is at the age where a lot of major i

MCO weekdays are pretty standard for me. Mornings would be spent at home, and by lunch time, I would drive over to my sister's house. Work would continue there until after dinner. Imagine my surprise when one evening, I discovered that the rear windscreen of SK's car was fully-cracked! When I listened carefully, I could still make out faint cracking sounds. Think the only thing holding it together was the tinting. What could have caused it? Don't think that anyone was cutting the grass that afternoon. Didn't even hear any kids playing outside. First thing I did was get the motor insurance policy from SK. Luckily she bought additional windscreen coverage. I tried calling AXA Affin, her underwriter, but it was past their operating hours. A quick check on Low Yatt forum revealed that I did not need to contact the underwriter to perform a claim. The panel workshop would settle everything. Found a list of AXA Affin's authorized workshops for windscreen replacement on the

Do you know how to read the age of your tyres? Look out for the 4 digit code located at the side. The format is : WWYY. where WW is the week, and YY is the year of manufacture. So if you look the photo, "0616" means that the tyre was 'born' on the 6th week of 2016. SK's tyres were due for a change, so we sent her car in, and waited patiently at a Day 9 Kitchen . The staff wasn't happy that I smuggled in a youtiao  from I Love Yoo, and 'berated' KH for pulling a chair from another table, moaning that they would have to sanitize it later. Alamak . As expected, the tyre shop called a few times, alerting us to spend more money on the car. Haha. But it was fair. The spark plugs were due for change as well. In the end, the bill came up to MYR1,400.     By the time everything was settled, it was time for dinner. We headed over to Restoran Keng Pang at Taman Universiti for claypot fish. Been a really long time since we had that. Glad that it was still good.

Back in Kuantan, mum bought a second-hand white Iswara Aeroback. From Kuantan, the car was transferred to Kuala Lumpur where we used it for years. Although not the easiest car to drive with its manual transmission, and lack of power steering, that car was my baptism of fire in the Klang Valley's more challenging traffic. That car served us well for many years. An ex-colleague of mine even gave it a nickname-- Iswara Skyline. However, due to old age ( the make is 1996 ), the car got harder and harder to maintain. Until one point, the car could no longer withstand the city's traffic jams without overheating. And the car's rubber seals had all dried up causing it to turn into a swimming pool every time it rained! The pandemic caused the car to fall into disuse because I had stopped driving it to get to the LRT station. In a few short months, the battery died. Since the situation wasn't going to improve anytime soon, I decided not to change the battery. A few months later,

Ever since the start of the pandemic, I had stopped taking the LRT and MRT to work because Prasarana did not do any crowd control. Basically, once you're in the train, you are at risk of being crowded in. If you follow @askrapidkl on Twitter, you can see passengers Tweeting about "no social distancing?", and the official answer would be "we are running at full capacity, and it is the responsibility of the passenger to maintain social distance". I know the reality is that those inside won't get out because the train is too packed. And those outside will still board if the train is already like a can of sardines. So, it's basically ride at your own risk. Since I have the option of driving, I started doing that. And the good thing is, I could share the parking because I have a colleague who stays nearby, and we are actually on alternating teams. At the end of every week, we would pass each other the parking disc. But driving definitely comes its own set of

Paid off the last of my hire purchase loan in July. The end of the term was in July, so obviously I didn't take the moratorium. I decided to collect the vehicle ownership certificate by myself since it wasn't that far away. First time ever, I visited the Public Bank building at Jalan Sultan Sulaiman. It was a landmark for me during my early days in KL because I would pass by it on my way to Holy Rosary Church. FYI, it served as the Public Bank headquarters before the completion of the current building at Jalan Yap Kwan Seng. Another interesting point is the plaza outside the building called Taman Wawasan that houses various public art installations. It was also the home of "Puncak Purnama", a sculpture by National Laureate Datuk Syed Ahmad Jamal. It was defaced by DBKL in 1996, and demolished in 2016. Caused quite a stir in the arts scene. Really could feel and smell the building's age. The elevator's control panel was so retro. When I entered the hire purcha

Been using AXA motor insurance since the day I got my Almera. Recently, AXA launched something called FlexiDrive , a telematics based insurance policy. Basically one needs to install a device in the car that monitors the driving pattern. Discounts are earned based on the driver's behaviour : Harsh Driving Overspeeding Mileage The quantum of the discount is viewable from a mobile app, and can be used to offset next year's premium. A good way to instill customer loyalty. And beneficial for me because my mum doesn't speed, and my car has really low mileage.  The installation of the device was performed at one of their registered dealers for free. I just needed to pay a refundable MYR50 MYR70 deposit. The black box was hooked up to my car battery in just five minutes. The package can actually be upgraded for anti-theft features, but that requires a monthly subscription.  Note : After three months, I've earned MYR21 in discounts. :D

Called in late on Friday because I had to patch a punctured tyre. Took me less than ten minutes, and MYR5, which is cheap by usual standards. Decided pack a box of keria gula melaka for my colleagues before heading to work. I had to wait around half an hour for them to whip up the first batch. Towards the end of my wait, I observed a peculiar scene at the stall. A lady filled a wok with a bunch of palm sugar. Then she fished out a packet of rock sugar and proceeded to wash it with water. Once that was done, she slashed the top with a pair of scissors, and the contents joined the gula melaka in the wok. I squinted my eyes, and then it dawned on me why she washed the packet earlier~ the rock sugar in the wok was crawling with ants. Lol. I wonder if the batch the lady was packing for me at the moment had a similar secret ingredient. Haha. Later that evening, I had a dinner date with SimonLover, Boon, and KH. Boon wanted to eat at Grub by Ah Hong . SimonLover and I were able to g

On Saturday, I went to the wet market as usual. It wasn't too late, so I had the time to fix up the tyres on my Iswara Skyline. Definitely did not want a repeat of the scary skidding incident a few years back. Drove to Equine Park to visit my regular tyre shop. Moi : I want to change my tyres. Lady : Let me see. Hmm. Front tyres 2010. Back tyres 2012. The sides all cracked lo. Moi : Change all lo... Haha. Has it been that long? She suggested Goodyear which was RM138 a piece. Told her to proceed, and I went searching for a place to wait. Ended up at an Indian coffee shop for teh ais , but I didn't stay long because there was too many mosquitos! Went a bit further to LT Fang Cafe which provided both air conditioning and WiFi. A much better choice. Ordered some soft boiled eggs as I was a bit hungry. Before I finished the eggs, I received a few calls from the tyre shop informing me about several other more parts that were in dire condition : absorber, satay bush ( Mal

When I first got my Almera, I scratched it at church against a pillar. That was the right side. So like a good Christian, I turned the other cheek, and scratched the left side as well. That happened against a wall at the wet market's multi-level car park. My heart sank when I heard the groaning of metal against concrete. Ugh. The damage was worse than the right side. Oh well. The body and paint work would cost a bomb so... I'll just let it be for now. As much as I tried to forget about the whole incident with the car, it still managed to make my Mee Kolok and  Laksa Sarawak lunch at Rumah Asap Tan 16 a little less fantastic. By dinner time, I was feeling much better and enjoying my Japanese meal at Uroko . It was SK's first time there and she was quite impressed by their Salmon Ball Salad and kushiyaki . Since Happy Mansion was nearby, we went there for some coffee and cake before calling it a night. Tried Good Blue Men and we weren't disappointed by

While driving to work one morning, I noticed a loud clunk when turning a bend. I looked up to the rear-view mirror but couldn't see anything on the road that might have caused the noise. The car just ran normally. Thought nothing of it since my Iswara Skyline was already 16 years old! When I was driving home however, I finally noticed something weird-- the battery indicator light was on. Hmmm.... I reached home with no untoward incident, but I did check with my mechanic to make sure if its something I should worry about. He told me that it was probably a serpentine belt problem, so I went to take a look under the hood. Did look like something was missing, so I took a picture for my mechanic. He confirmed that I was missing the serpentine belt. Mystery solved. So the clunk was the sound of my serpentine belt falling off. The serpentine belt's purpose is to drive the alternator and water pump. Without the belt, my battery wasn't charging, hence the battery indicator

It was the day after Chap Goh Mei that Seputeh DAP organized their CNY function. Sent mum to the Teresa Kok's Kuchai Lama office to help with the preparations. I left the car for her since she wasn't sure what time the thing would end and went home with SK instead. Normally we would have curry noodles nearby, but with her raging sore throat we chose to eat at Meng Kee instead. They now have some mission statement displayed prominently in their shop. I didn't bother to finish reading the contents after finding the wantans to be icky. Customer satisfaction my ass. Was supposed to head home after that, but KH suddenly told me that he wanted to test drive the Volvo V40 ( before you start thinking that I can actually be a tai-tai already, you're wrong ), so SK and I joined him instead. Wasn't easy getting to Federal Motors. Missed it the first time round and suffered crawling traffic at Jalan Syed Putra and Jalan Tun Sambanthan. Turns out, one had to turn into Midval

Note: With me being stationed at PJ City, I had been driving instead of taking the LRT. So it was some time since I accompanied KH on the train home... On Tuesday ( please apply the will.i.am. time zone here :P ), KH and I got off work at the same time. I braved the PJ roundabouts while he joined the sardine brigade at the LRT. Waze guided me to the Seri Petaling LRT station by the way of least resistance. The timing was quite impeccable. I just needed to delay for five minutes and I managed to catch him at the station as he just exited. Fetched him home. Though the distance wasn't far, I was happy enough to be able to see him briefly and ask him about his day. Of course it did turn into a grope fest at some traffic light stops and I would certainly like to drive slower to prolong the session. LOL. Dropped him off at his condo and he would give me a peck on my cheek. During the drive home, I would have a smile plastered on my face. Ah, the simple pleasures of life.

Avacado Roll , swiped from williamnyk on Flickr. With just 857KM mileage and three days shy of a month on my Almera, I sent it in to the Nissan Service Centre at Puchong Jaya. They actually had ushers and a giant white board with all the appointments marked on it. Service with a smile. Dropped my car off a tad earlier as I had a 10:30am appointment at Imperial Pot , Solaris Dutamas. SK picked me up from the service centre. Used the Groupon voucher that KH bought earlier as he wasn't in town to use it. Hehe. It was a dim sum set for two. Nothing much actually-- white porridge ( very basic, but very smooth ), siew mai ( small-ish ), unagi puff ( quite different ), piggy custard buns, stir-fried lotus root, char siew and tau fu fa . That was about it. Since there were four of us, we made additional orders of organic red CCF ( an interesting variation ), century egg porridge, avocado roll ( yummy, but I think the filling was made with more sweet potato than anything else ) and

Almera , swiped from williamnyk on Flickr. Saturday was D-Day for me to collect my brand new Almera. Had a simple meal of pork ball noodles and killed some time at the newly-opened Super Save nearby. Very much like Daiso, only cheaper and more Tiong Kok . Some good deals there. SK and I drove out in separate cars to Edaran Tan Chong cause she traded-in her Viva. Some hiccups. They nearly couldn't locate SK's car and my car had a slight scratch that wouldn't quite go away even with several polishings. Just a little fine line. I'm not that particular. These things happen sooner or later. Took the customary photo in front of the car as proof of collection and went off with the tint guy to his shop at 1Puchong. Decided on this shop after comparing TSER, VLTR and most-importantly $$$$. Plus CCC strongly-recommended it. The guy drove us back to the Nissan showroom after that and we drove home in my Iswara. Made a short detour to Giant before going home. By that time, I wasn&