Oh yeahhh

Ahhh, what is it about this place.  Is is the ambiance?  The people, the smell or prolly the character?  I was at home a few minutes ago, when suddenly I had the insatiable craving for my Ice Grande Caramel Machiatto from Starbucks.  With that I also suddenly had the uncanny urge to update my blog so  I grabbed my keys, my pack of puffs and headed of to Centrepoint Starbucks, where my usual hang out is.  I guess its being in the month of Ramadhan, the fasting month that prevents me from frequenting this place during the day which I normally do.  So now, I can only do this at night, after 'buka puasa'.  I was contemplating of having either Ice Blended Java Chip or my usual Ice Caramel Machiatto.  Guess the latter won.

Its been awhile since I updated my blog, was too busy with a lot of things.  I just came back from our yearly excursion to Thailand, the signature Satria GTi Getaway Experience It trip.  It was a success again, nevertheless and the participants, including myself had so much fun.  Stay tune for that too as I am in the midst of writing the travelog for that trip.

I must say that this month, is the heaviest month of expenditure for me.  I have spent close to what...RM3k on my car!?  Yup.  It started off early of the month...late last month infact when I went down to Singapore to get myself a pair of new antenna's for my mobile rig.  Yup, the one I had is already spoilt.  Guess all the knocking on the pipes and the ceiling of various basement carparks took its toll on it.  I decided to dash down to Singapore and get myself a couple of new antenna's, a quarter wave to travel daily with so that I won't have it catch any of the pipes and a full length dual band for convoy purposes.  Now lets start but how much I have spent.

Getting into Singapore was a suprise.  Not that I am somewhat a newbie to Singapore, but I have been driving down there almost every year, but this year was different.  You see, as I entered Singapore, my Autopass (which is something like a Touch n Go card) failed at the entrance at the immigration.  So when I had it checked, it seemed that I had a summon for going through the Restricted Zone without an ERP device while it was in operation in 1998!!!  WTF!!  6 years down the road and they want to penalise me for making an offence?  I asked them why all this while and they said "Oh, we have just updated the system".  Yeah RITE!.  Okay whats the damages like?  S$75.00.  Whoa..blow me down!  Thats like RM150.00.  Okay so if I need to get into Singapore, I need to settle that..ok..sure no prob.  Oh wait..suddenly they told me I have a parking summon, when I entered early last year.  Gulp..now thats another S$40.  Okay so thats S$115.00 all together.  Thats like RM300 already and I haven't even entered Singapore yet!!.  Right, pay up the fines and lets go on with it.  Got my antenna's for S$85 and S$80 respectively.  Original true blue Diamond Super Gainers.  Okay now that I got them, time to get out before I make any more offences OR spend more money in that expensive country.  I have already bought some S$10 worth of drinks and snacks at their SHELL station and not to mention another S$20.00 to update my Autopass card before I checked out of the country.  Whats the total like?  S$165.00 for antenna's, S$115 for my fines and about another S$30 for miscellenous stuff.  Okay thats like S$300.00 converted to RM is about RM700.00.  Oh yeah, thats excluding my hotel stay there.

The 3 Amigos - 2 Super Gainers and 1 NR770H

Having a jolly ride back, my 5th gear suddenly decided to unstick itself from its home.  Everytime I shifted into 5th gear, it would kick back to neutral as soon as I push the fun pedal.  "Oh-oh", I quipped.  Mo' money, mo' money as I knew that gearbox problems don't come cheap to repair.  I drove back to KL with 1 hand holding the gearstick to 5th, enduring all the vibrations that came with it (if there was a woman on top of it, I tell you, she'd be screaming in Latin).

Okay gearbox probs plus servicing my car for the trip costed : RM1.2k + 800 + 350 oh and not forgetting, I got myself a new toy for my car, the 911EP LS12 LED's for RM800.  So thats RM3.1k!!  Oh yeah plus the Singapore excursion, another RM 1k ++ so all in all thats like RM4k ++.  Well, good thing I didn't spend much going up for the Getaway as all that had been taken care of before BUT, as soon as I came back...my air cond stopped blowing cold air..and..and...the radiator fan stopped working!! GAH!!!  What more!??  Damn, I'm already broke for the month and more things happen to my car.  So off to the workshop again.  A little backtrack here.  While my car was in the workshop having its gears transplanted and such, I had a to drive my dad's nice old tank - Volvo 240GL.  Let me tell you something.  It roars like a hungry lion and it guzzles petrol like an Abrams M1-E1 tank.  I used that Volvo for 7 days, and it guzzles RM50 per day!  So there you go, another RM300 which I could usually fill up my car for 1 month if I drove the same route.

So yesterday after coming back from Phuket last week, I sent my car to check on the radiator fan not working thingy.  I had budgeted another few hundred Ringgit as radiator fan motors don't come cheap.  I was told that the problem lies in the fuse and wiring.  Phew, what a relief coz I know that wiring matters are cheap.  Fuses and wires, how much can it be right?  Problem is, those peeps at Proton Edar don't know much about it and can't solve my problem so I had to drive the car out and send it to an auto accessories shop, you know, the ones that installs car radios, tinted films and alarms.  These people know best coz they are damn good electricians.  So, I sent it there this morning and by evening problem solved.  With a trickle of sweat down my forehead, I ask "So how much does it cost?" well it actually sounded more like this "Boss, brapa semua?", and he nonchalantly replied "RM15 saja" (RM15 only) and that was the cost of the fuse.  He took almost a whole day to trace which wire was touching the car's body which short circuited my radiator fan fuse, and he only charged my that much.  I can't help it but smile while giving him the money..

So now, since I'm happy that I got my car back (though I still need to solve the air cond problem WHICH I know is going to cost me about RM200) I decided to go out and enjoy.  Splurge a little bit of whatever money I have left in my wallet for my Ice Grande Caramel Machiatto and decide to kick back and relax because, pay day is just another day away *smiles*.

Hope you had a pleasant read and don't forget, travelog Phuket is coming up next so stay tuned.