[ 22042005 3.15pm | old cars. ]

i'm trying to stay awake all day so that i can sleep early tonight, and hopefully put my waking and sleeping times back to more earthly hours.
my first paper was disastrous. believe me, i'm not given to exaggerating. good thing jang (korean exchange student) comforted me by reminding me that our projects, which make up 60% of the final grade, was already a b+.
zalina was fretting after the paper, as we all were, about how the projects took so much out of her that now she's just too tired to do anything more. which is what i feel too. shit man, lets count the number of projects i have had to do this sem... 2+1+1. wow. 4. thats just way too many.
i better choose my modules carefully next sem. shud i take jap 3? jap takes up about 7hrs every week, which is pretty heavy, cos all other normal modules take up only 3 hrs a week. i like it, but i wont say i'm very good at it.

***

after driving shen's 20year old BMW before i got my license, i thought old cars were cool buggers. also, my 10 year old honda accord was a running dream, til we had to get rid of it cos of the silly 10 year coe thing, much to my consternation.
the merc i drove was not unfamiliar, but it was certainly more beat up than the aged BM. it was younger too. anyhow, i thought i roughly knew how to control whatever it could throw at me. until...
we were about the last car out of the xxxx carpark. after a struggle with the seat belt which gets stuck if you're too rough with it, i started the car. glad to be able to tackle the drive with seat belt on, i was thinking the journey was set. the steep slope up to the barrier was irritating, but nothing the car couldnt handle. it was a 1.9L auto merc afterall. when i got to the "insert card" machine at the top of this steep slope, i realised that the auto window was not auto. infact, it was permanently stuck in a closed position because the button was spoilt. fine. loathe to release the seat belt lest it get stuck and leave me travelling in fear for the whole journey, i slipped it over my head, pulled the handbrake and opened the door to lean out the stick the card in.
yay... barrier opens... i get back into position, slip the seat belt on, release the handbrake while stepping on the footbrake. as i release the footbrake to step on the gas, the car slides backwards. thats ok, i mean, even auto cars slide backwards a little when moving off on steep slopes. so i press harder on the gas. in fact, i floor it. but the car picks up speed... backwards! my gears are on drive, my foot is pressing on the correct pedal... so... what on earth..?
the engine had STALLED!!! an AUTO car!!
by the time i realised that, i had failed the slope test in the circuit about 25 times over.
anyway, after alot of scuffling and grabbing and panicking (from the passengers), i finally got the car started again, without injury. note : throughout this, the air con is off cos if i put it on, the car wont start cos the air con consumes too much energy. like... hello. and you remember why i had to open the door to insert the card? YEAH! the windows are spoilt. so we have a bunch of really hot and panicky people in the car.
as the car creeps back up the slope (thank goodness we were like... the last car out of the carpark, cos i woulda hit whoever was behind me...), the barrier comes down! fantastic. just when you thought i couldnt get any worse, life throws you another bucket of shit.
scared to pull the handbrake again lest the engine die (ok... no relation.. but its psychological...), i just stomped on the footbrake. good thing the guard was around. and he saw what happened, so he radioed for the key guy to stick the key into some box which released the barrier or whatever thing. basically, he called for help to get us out. we ended up waiting close to 10 minutes in a really hot car, and i had a really tired foot cos it was stuck to the footbrake. plus, i think no one's gonna get a ride from me ever again... (haha... fat hope... she who drives will have to send ppl around)

old cars are condemned. if its a merc, its doubly condemned. i shall never get a merc. pooh.