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Maroon Kancil

En Route to my aunt's condo for a swim with the kids, the car collapsed for the second time. By saying 'collapsed', I meant that it overheated. When it overheated for the first time, a nice, elderly Malay man came to my rescue. He went off and came back to check on me (he asked me to wait until the car's temperature dropped (which take a bloody long time!!!) before adding water to whatever place that was - some tank) and helped me top up water into the thing. Lo and behold, 3 days later, as said, en route to my aunt's house armed with floats, goggles, towel, half-dressed in swimming costume and trunks, the car called it quits again. Lucky for me, it stopped right opposite a cluster of mechanics! The mechanic checked the car and solemnly announced that there's near-fatal wounds to the vehicle. There is no way the car is going to make it and I would be risking an overhaul if I decided to continue to drive the thing. Shite. Bad news is they just loaned their last car out. Good news is that one of the mechanics, seeing how panicky and 'poor thing' I looked with swimming apparatus and two over-heated kids, decided to loan me his car. A maroon Kancil. Manual. Smells of a man. Maybe a few men. All mechanics. Anyway, I took the car gladly. It's better than walking or taking a cab for the next few days. It's awful that it clashed with a three-day weekend over here, Monday being a holiday for Selangor folks. My first car was a white Kancil so....(smile)...it brings back memories driving that little tanker around having to shift gear. Here's what I remember about a Kancil:-
  1. It's small....I mean, tiny!
  2. Everything rattles in there
  3. Parking is a walk in the park
  4. Bigger cars don't give you respect! Bloody hell, a Kancil is not even regarded as a car on the road. It's a moving can of tuna with mayonnaise for all they care!
  5. My left leg gets some exercise
  6. Rolling down the window manually requires more skill than I remember
  7. Traveling at 60kmph feels like traveling at 130kmph
  8. The space between the driver and passenger seat should be covered - it's HIDEOUS!
  9. The signal is to the right, to the right....my Waja's signal indicator lever is to the left, to the left....so I ended up using the wiper on hot sunny days a lot.
  10. You have absolutely no excuse to use your cell phone in there - not when both hands are consistently occupied. So, risk of earning yourself a ticket is reduced significantly
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