I should be home by now. By I am not. Stopped to fill up petrol on the way home, went in to the counter to pay and came back to an ‘unstartable’ car.
Everything seems dead. The central locking doesn’t work. Even the hazard lights doesn’t come on. Still waiting for RACV roadside assist to get here and it’s been almost 40 minutes. They said within 20 to 40 minutes. I am hungry and cold. And I have to keep an eye out for cars that pull up at the pump behind me to tell them that they need to reverse to get out. And i have an extremely early day tomorrow. At least I have my iPhone with me. Oh…the RACV guy is here…
(Note the change from present tense to past tense as I am now back home)
The worst was yet to come…
The RACV guy managed to jump-start my car but he did say that the battery might go flat again. So my plan was to get it home and then get a replacement battery. I drove a worrisome 15 minutes before it happened. Right at a junction when i stopped at the traffic light turning red. The car went dead. Again. This time right on the road, at the lights, on the left lane. I couldn’t believe this is happening to me. It was pouring rain. I tried to put on the hazard lights but there was nothing. So I got down and opened up the boot so the cars can see that there is a broken down car ahend of them, while calling RACV again at the same time. It was rather dangerous as it was dark and pouring rain. And i was standing there behind my car on the side of the road, indicating to cars that turn into the left lane, to pull back into the other lane. I was kind of worried that a car would run into my car. For some unknown reason which i couldn’t even bother to find out, RACV couldn’t get someone to change the battery on the spot. So it was decided that a tow truck would be sent out to tow it back home for me. Better still. It cost a lot more for batteries supplied by them. With RACV, the first 20 kms of towing is free and then it cost $3.85 per km. The problem is that the wait might take up to another hour. I was freezing standing on the side of the road. It isn’t a good idea to sit in a broken down car on the road. And standing beside the car, i have a better view of the cars coming my way and am able to indicate to them what is ahead of them. A stationary car.
A tow truck got to the scene about half an hour later. The tow truck driver told me to hop onto the truck while he loaded the car onto the truck since it was cold and raining. Imagine what your car can do to you. A 2 1/2 hour wet and freezing ordeal.
Almost 2 1/2 hours and 18 kms later, I arrived home. It’s 9.30pm now. Dinner before a quick shower and then heading off to bed. Couldn’t even wash my hair since it wouldn’t dry in time before bed. I am only going to get a maximum of 6 1/2 hours of sleep tonight. Sigh.
What an evening. Do you know what day it is today? It is Merdeka Day. This was what happened exactly 4 years ago today, on Merdeka Day. I should probably just stay at home in the future on Merdeka Days. Take a day off work if it is a working day.
