What a day Monday...

Well, there I was...stuck in KESAS, KM21.7E. The car overheated, and I had to stop to let the engine cool and call for help. Actually it's half of the story, for others it didn't seem that serious when I talked about it. I'll just let you know some of the things that happened:

I was coming off from midnight shift, which ended at 0800hrs, it was a tiring night actually. I attended a meeting at 0830hrs, which lasted till 1000hrs, and it was tough enough keeping myself awake in the meeting and focused on the matters discussed. As I reached the parking lot at 1030hrs, I called my wife to say that I'm going back. She asked me to have some breakfast first, to which I replied a resounding "no", thinking that it might be better to eat after I reach home. My reasoning is that on a full stomach, I might been even more sleepier than I was at the moment and it'll be even more dangerous to drive.

Off I went at about 1040hrs, hoping to find some grub before I hit the bed. During the 1st few minutes of the drive I noticed that the aircond wasn't cool, it got hotter by the minute, to which I thought to myself: "must send to the workshop again since they did ask me to check if the aircond is working properly or not"...

By the time I realize that it wasn't the aircond, the temperature gauge was showing the needle had reached the red-mark - cue squeezing in between 2 lorries to get to the road shoulders (!). Thank God the driver of the lorry behind me was driving slow and gave me enough room to squeeze in front of him.

Phew! Made it, switched off the engine just in time, and a quick check before I popped the hood ensured that there was no smoke coming out from the engine. In between calls to my wife and checking the engine, I noticed that the coolant had dried, there's a lot of coolant outside the bottle and on the engine, and worse shock of all was the hose that connects the radiator to the engine had came off - cue horror gasp (!)

I poured whatever water that I have in the car into the radiator and drove off, with the hope that I can reach the next gas station to top up the coolant. I barely made it before the temperature started rising again. By this time it was so hot I can feel my skin burning and I wished that I had something to eat before I drove. Anyways, upon reaching the car back I realized that I didn't remember to grab something off the shelf at the gas station to eat. Arrrgghh, to cross back to the station would be suicidal I thought, as the number of lorries and cars are rising by the minute. I decided to top up the coolant and water, re-check the hose again and drove off.

It wasn't that far when the temperature rose again, when I checked some of the coolant is leaking out of the hose, the hose is either defective or is not properly tighten. I think there was a couple more stop-start to my journey before I finally reached the KESAS SOS phone. After calling them, I decided to take a rest while waiting for the peronda to arrive. It didn't take long for them to arrive, about 15 minutes but the advise they gave was the same thing I did before: top up your water, stop if the temperature goes up and get to the nearest workshop. They helped with the hose, they tried to tighten the screws, but none of the tools in the car fit, and I wonder why they don't have tools of their own.

By this time I think the combination of the heat, the tiredness and the dehydration really got to me, I don't think I have the energy to ask for anymore advise or ask stupid annoying questions. Off I drove for a few more stop-start drives until I reached my house and just collapsed in exhaustion.

It'll take another week for the car to be repaired; after this I think I must do some mandi bunga for the car lah...aiyo, so many problems (and I do believe it's because of that stupid monkey!)

Dugaan...

It hasn't been the best of times these past few weeks. Bad news keep cropping up every now and then. Let me just list some of it, so that I can at least lessen the burden in my head and heart by writing it down.

No.1 - My mum & cancer
FYI, my mum has been battling cancer for the past 6 years plus, going in and out of the hospital for as long as that time. Surgeries, biopsies, radiotherapy, chemotherapy etc...I've lost count of how many of these treatments she's gone through for all those years, there were so many (!). And don't start with the amount of medication that she's taking - every time she comes back from the hospital it seems as if she had just gone grocery shopping with the amount of plastic bags she brought back.

The 1st week of March, I brought her to the eye hospital after she complained that she can't see certain things at certain angle. The doctor said there's nothing wrong with the eye, and must have been something wrong with the nerves in her brain. I fear for the worse. She was scheduled to see the oncologist 2 weeks after that and she brought the eye doctor's report with her. They did a brain scan on her, and found some cancer cells at the base of her brain. Cue emergency radiotherapy on the brain.

After 5 rounds of the emergency treatment, she's now back home, to return for another scan in about 3 weeks time. She came back with bags of medication, of which there was some confusion as to what was to be taken when, because there were too many. On top of all that, for the past few months she lost most of her weight since she has little to no appetite. She weighs about 35kg now. That's less than half of my weight (!)

No.2 My wife & chicken pox
Yeps...you read that right. My wife contracted chicken pox a few days before my mum was admitted to hospital. She never had it before when she was a child, so it was only a matter of time that she's gonna get it. It just happened to be on the week my mum was hospitalized. My in laws who happened to be in Putrajaya that weekend decided to bring my wife back for treatment and recovery, which I am thankful. If she had stayed with me in Shah Alam, no one would be able to take care of her if I go to work. It's been almost 2 weeks that she's away from me.

I miss her. A whole lot.

No. 3 The Neo & the suicidal monkey
Okay...here's where it gets very frustrating...on my way to a photography assignment (my very first one)...I hit a monkey. With my wife's Neo. Adehs.

Here's the summary: I was on my way back from Melaka, after visiting my wife (there, up there...I told you kan she got chicken pox) and heading towards Cyberjaya. I took the Elite highway since it's the safest route I know. Safest meaning that's the junction I know I won't get lost. Heh. Anyways, after the Cyberjaya toll gate, as I was celebrating the fact that I'm still keeping a good time schedule that day, I saw a monkey jumping on the divider. As soon as I thought "hey, monkey!"...he jumped in front of the car. In a split second I swerved, narrowly missing the divider (I was driving on the right lane) and heard a loud thump in front of the car. As I looked in the rear view mirror, I saw the lifeless body of the monkey rolling along the road.

When I came down to check the car, the bumper was badly damaged (yes, Proton engineers take note: them bumpers ain't that strong - buck up your ideas). I can hear something leaking, but as I checked it was not the radiator and I suspected that it was the A/C. Figuring that I couldn't do anything about it until later in the day, I continued on my journey to my assignment, shaken but still managed to get a few shots.

And for those wondering how much the repair costs...let's just say I won't be adding to my camera gears' collection anytime soon.

Summary
Despite all that, I've managed to keep myself busy. Work is a pain in the ass, though. But photography is what's keeping me sane these days. At least I've got the chance to go to one of my first photography workshop. Short but fun. I hope I can go to more of these, it's not just the facilitator that's good, the other participants are not that bad too.

I've been shuttling myself between going to work and the workshop; visiting my mum in hospital and my wife in Melaka; house in Shah Alam and parents' house in PJ for the last week or so. It has been a busy week but a lonely one at that since I'm used to having my wife around with me. And I need her with me, now than ever.

My mum has always been strong. She's the strongest person I know, the strongest amongst us. The doctors are still amazed at how she is able to stave off the cancer for this long despite it's mutations and spread throughout her body. It has been a long and courageous battle, and only God knows how painful it is for her. It may have weaken her body, but not her spirit. At least, until now... As I was having dinner with her on Tuesday night, she turned to me, looked me in the eyes and said " I don't think I have 3 weeks..."

My heart sank.