The move

When we got back last week we were all racked with sore throat & coughs, each in varying degrees of severity. we were probably not used to the cold as well as the dryness of a heated indoor environment... and our bodies reacted accordingly.

Before school reopened, Cikgu was to vacate his teacher's housing and move into his new digs within the school compound. he's now some sort of a warden's apprentice. i'm pretty happy with the new arrangement bcos thinking of him travelling back & forth along the gua musang highway fills me with a certain trepidation. that route is frequented by lorries & express buses going faster than a ferrari (an old one la lol).

Bcos none of us was really feeling on top of the weather, we decided to pull our collective resources together and help the Cikgu out. late wednesday afternoon, we left for kuala lipis in a 2 car convoy (the man was still home & i was still on leave). we actually started out more worried about the Cikgu than anything else (he was purging badly at that time) so AI took over the wheels and was leading the way. but fate would have it, it wasnt the boys who needed help but us!!!

Everything was hunky dory to start with but just as we were climbing up the hill towards the tunnel of genting sempah, golfman suddenly noticed the slight rise in the car's temperature indicator and just as he was commenting on it, within that split second, it immediately hit the red mark!! we were completely blindsided.. it happened without any warning. immediately, we pulled over by the side of the road, just a couple of metres from the entrance of the tunnel. believe me, it wasnt the safest of positions to be in, with the almost non-existent road shoulder and the cars & lorries whizzing by.


Having to stop right at the tunnel entrance.

We were driving my car and it had never, ever, done this before. completely nonplussed we did the only thing we could - call in the breakdown professionals, AAM. so while golfman sorted it all out, the boys who had gotten to the other side of the tunnel, were asked to wait.


The Ronda people to the rescue.. they were on the scene pretty quick.


The first tow was up to the gombak toll.

After a lot of initial confusion (one minute golfman wanted the boys to continue, the next they were to take AH along, then maybe both AH & me), it was finally decided that the 'overheated' car would be towed to our mechanic in glenmarie while AH & me were to continue the journey with the boys. after settling everything, golfman would then get his car from home and try to catch up with us.


Riding in the backseat of a scary 'driverless' car.

I wasnt too keen with the idea of him driving all by himself but after seeing both AH & me ride the towed car up to the gombak toll, he thought it best to handle it alone (it was kinda complicated.. the ronda truck towed us to the toll & from there the AAM truck towed the car back to APD).

We made our way to Lipis without further mishap (the boys had me drive, the lazy bums lol) and we were joined by golfman as we were having dinner at the Lipis club.

But little did we know that waiting for us was a house full of dust and... eewww, mildew!! tsk tsk tsk, Cikgu must've been in quite a hurry to leave.

Cleaning up and helping him move proved to be quite a task, what with all the dust, the clutter and having to carry all his stuff from the 5th floor.. adik2 pun sampai naik semput. you owe us BIG boy!!

We came back with flu much aggravated by all the dusting & cleaning but beyond all that, i was actually quite esctatic. no, the dust didnt go straight to my head lol (although theres a high possibility that some sort of spora is now residing in my lungs). we found out that currently, his group of cikgu friends were into biking and doing the jungle trails of lipis!! its been forever that i've been pushing Cikgu to work out (he's been putting on quite a bit of weight) but to no avail.. now probably we'll be seeing some change, insyallah :)

As of yesterday, i received an sms telling me he'd just come back from a biking session with the boys and was basking in the adrenaline rush. and he's also excited about getting a second hand bike.. one of the teacher's wanted to upgrade to a better one.

Hah at last. you've made me a very happy mama.. tapi jangan setakat hot2 chicken shit ya Cikgu ;)

Oh btw, would you believe that the mechanics didnt find anything at all wrong with the car? no leaky or busted radiator, or compressor or nothing.. everything's working fine & dandy. the most they could offer by way of explanation was maybe a quirky indicating sytem. which actually isnt much of a comfort to me bcos what they cant find, they cant fix and i'm left with a car that i cant totally depend on.

Well just another thing to worry about.