March is an amazing month. I had a new mission of driving all the way to Ipoh for a company event. It was my first long distance drive. I wasn't sure of what to prepare.
On the night before the long drive, I knocked my phone off the table. It somersaulted on its way down. As it hits the floor, the charging cable popped out. Oh no! I plugged it back in and it wasn't charging! I was distressed because I really need it tomorrow. It was night time and it's impossible to find a shop that can perform a quick repair now. I'm thinking of getting a new phone but they're kinda pricy and I wasn't ready. There's too much things in my phone.
Thousands of thoughts streamed my mind like a huge tsunami. I don't have a backup of my contacts and there's also some pictures in the phone that carries certain memories. I kinda need them back. So, the lesson here by far is to always backup your phone!
I sat in my room staring into space. I contacted my travel buddy about the damaged phone and communicated the necessary details for meetup tomorrow. After pondering for a while, I remembered that there's an old phone stashed somewhere in my room. I managed to find it but it wasn't exactly in a tip top condition. It was still working the last time I checked. Right beneath the pile of dust and stuffs, lies an old windows phone. It was my first smartphone. I kinda pick windows phone because I don't want to conform to the mainstream which is the Android phone. It was a regrettable decision. There's so much lacking in windows phone. They should just stick with making computer software.
Then, something appeared on the screen. It's asking for pincode to unlock the phone. Oh gosh! I don't remember that! Some how, I manage to unlock it because I know myself and manage to guess it right. I slotted the simcard into the phone. It wasn't detecting anything. Okay. That's it! I've done enough. Time for nap.
Next morning arrived. I came early and parked at a nearby housing area. I waited for my travel buddy but he was late. It was a long wait. I was anxious and went on to check on my car. Like lady Luck just decided to go on a vacay, someone slipped a note on my car and also locked my front tire. Oh boy. It's a trap zone! I have to pay 50 bucks to get my baby car released. At that point, I was thinking that I should have learnt on how to pick a lock. I walked back to my work place and stumbled upon my friend. He called the number on that note to get the guy to release my baby car.
It's like a curse. First, the phone and now my baby car. 50 bucks flew away just like that. That zone is like a gold mine to these people. It wasn't obvious that it's a clamping zone. The note says that they implement such thing because of the limited parking in that area. But, from what I can see, they always have empty parking slots there. What's worse is that it felt like a scam. There's no official stamp on the note. Just something that you can do in a Word document. Then, get a tire clamp from somewhere and wham! You're up for business. Tax-free cash! Things people do to get through life.
We decided to head to the busy city area to fix my phone. My travel buddy knows a place. But, it wasn't to my liking. I dislike the city because it's always jam. The people drive aggressively there. The parking too is always expensive. Avoid the city is my mantra. We manage to find a parking nearby and there's these care-takers of the place. They're quite aggressive in selling their car wax sprays. Quite uncomfy.
The drive was a torture. It took like 4 hours. Public holiday and semester break is the recipe to torturing long drive. We manage to arrive at night and as I got off the car, my butt felt stiff. I sat for too long and almost solidified into a statue. I wiggle around to get the blood flowing. The parking in that particular hotel is quite tight. The room has a see-through window in the bathroom just in case if there's some tenant wanting to give off some performance. They do have a blind though but it wasn't perfect. There's gap for peeping tom to see something exciting that's going on inside.
Anyway, we headed out to look for food. Nothing special in particular. The event went on smoothly and we went to explore around the area after the event. We had this smooth sweet tofu with brown sugar. It was hot. I prefer it cold. Something about this place is that you get to see a lot of shop closed around 4 pm. So, we didn't know where to find food. My friend asked the tofu lady on where to find nourishment for our body and on that day, our soul as well. She pointed to a eatery nearby. It rained when we got there and there was not choice but to eat there I guess. We stumbled to one of our colleague who happens to be there with her family. What a coincidence! We chatted a bit. One thing I have to highlight is that that place don't serve cheap food. For the quality that they can give, it's quite pricy.
We roam around after that under the rain. My friend was crazy enough to ask me to take a picture of him crossing the road. It was almost sunset and the rain just made the sky looked amazing. So there you go, two crazy guys standing in the middle of the road and taking pictures under the drizzle. Bromantic.
Since we came so far, it wouldn't be reasonable if we don't buy anything back. Coincidentally, the place where I parked the car happens to be a hotspot for food souvenir shops. We visited several of these and hunting for something to bring back. After goofing around for a while, it's time to head on back!
I had to go through a long drive of 6 hours. It was a torture. I wiggle my toes around to avoid getting stiff butt. It's gonna be a long drive. We got through it. Dropped over at my friend's house to put something in his toilet. He showed me around his house too. The drive back was incredibly smooth. Despite the hiccups earlier, it ended good.
One of the items in my bucket list of the year is to get something good to pamper myself. So, I got a new money container or you call it wallet. It was thicker than my old one and kinda uncomfy to walk around with it in some trousers. It felt nice to the touch though and I really liked it.
Sometimes, life can be a bit tough. There's challenges to overcome, rain to walk under, mountain to jump over, problems to solves and all-you-can-eat steamboat buffet to eat. Having my buddy Comob is a really awesome. We both can eat an elephant each. This time, we headed to a all-you-can-eat Japanese buffet restaurant. We had tons of sashimi until I felt sick of it. The grilled fish is an absolute delight. I had my soft-shell crab for the first time and it just tasted salty. The duck salad is Comob's favorite. I guess we have a special place for Japanese buffet now.
It's a good month. Good food and joy. Learnt some lessons.
CONVERSATION