Almost Perfect

my sibling's holiday here would have been perfect if not for something really stupid i did while they were here.

one lovely sunny afternoon, my sister and i went out to do some grocery shopping. it was her first time to go with me (it's usually my brother who goes with me). it was also the first time that she sat beside me in front. whenever we travel, she sits at the back between her son and my youngest, kian.  my brother always sits in front (my alalay: hands me this and that lol)

driving here is different from the philippines as it's right-hand drive. she would often comment how more difficult it is to drive on the left side of the road bec of some blind spot thingy with our left eye (she drives in the phils). i would contradict her saying the principle's just the same, whether you drive on the left or right.

anyways, i parked my car beside a pedestrian walkway. there is a post at the very end. as i was pulling out, my sister suddenly said "ate, babangga ka" (on the post). i dont know what i was thinking then (well it's more like i wasnt thinking at all!), i looked at my side mirror (left side) but instead of reversing (lessening the damage), i still went on. i heard the sound of metal on metal. it's depressing and scary!!! i parked again and i asked my sister to look at the damage first. i had to force myself to get out of the car to look at the damage myself. it was bad!!! i phoned tantan and told him what i did. fortunately, he's a very calm and understanding person (if he was the one who did it, he would never hear the end of it! lol). he just said "it's ok, nothing we can do now". of course we're not gonna claim on our insurance. it will only increase our premium. and looking at the damage, it's not that sore looking. i can put up with it (say 1000 times to psyche oneself lol)

of course my sister went on again saying that i've just proven her point (blind spot - left side). i tease her that she's the bad luck lol. anyways, everytime i remember what happened, i just shake my head thinking how daft and thick i was.

parang ni-rolling pin lang!

Kiki - Flawless No More

i've had kiki for over a week now. i was a bit nervous driving a bigger car but it proved to be easy (well, with parking sensors, it should really be easy, right? =D). anyways, just two days after having her, im already used to her as if im driving my previous (3dr-hatchback) car. so far, it's been running smoothly and our gamble (of buying something we didnt view) has proven to be a success. we've been very lucky!

...until today. i was walking to the parking lot, going home after work, when i noticed that she has a brand new scratch on her front right bumper. it was almost dark and i've got bad vision and to see it from that distance, it has to be bad! when we bought her, she's got some very light scratches on the black bumper but not on the main silver bumper. and this is what i saw:

ok, i know im over reacting. this is just a car. it's not even brand new (imagine if it's brand new, i would have killed someone! lol). worse could have happened. but it still pisses me knowing i've been very careful with all my belongings and then some idiot will do the damage that easily! anyways, big bro saw what he/she did. karma will catch up on him/her in no time!

Kiki

im probably one of those crazy people who name their stuff/belongings just because. from our house (unayuki), to our cars (there was golpi - for golpi sarado, stuwart - for stupid wart, chloe - clio, ice - police, baxi - vauxhall, tere - the race).

i wanted to use "kiki" as a petname for our supposedly daughter (bec we're naming her kirsten). but since im pregnant with another boy and this is probably it, i decided to just use the name for my new car.

what... new car?! well, it's not actually brand new. it's second hand (we've never bought a brand new one bec we just think it's a rip off with the very expensive price tags when you can buy used at a more reasonable price - and they still look/work just as fine).

i have baxi, a 3d hatchback. she's been with me for 2.5 years, never had major problems whatsoever. but i have to let go of her bec my family is expanding and 3-door isnt really ideal if you have kids. if i didnt get pregnant, i wouldnt need to change cars since i managed with cayden. but with 2 kids, it's definitely a stretch. we have tere (a 7seater), which is supposedly tantan's car (but he's now cycling to work so we might consider selling her in the future) but it has manual transmission and i can only drive automatics.

Baxi

Tere

anyways, we're in no hurry to replace baxi. but just the same, tantan was on the lookout for possible replacements (ebay, autotrader). when i saw the features of the renault scenic, i told tantan, i dont want any other car but this - without even looking at how much the road tax and insurance cost are. come to think of it, my first car was a renault (clio) and it drove wonderfully until it had to be written off bec a stupid old man bumped me from behind. and then tere is also renault - so fingers crossed, kiki wont give us any major headaches.

this is the crazy bit. they say never ever buy a car you havent test-driven beforehand. kiki was being auctioned off on ebay. it was to end on a sunday (last sunday actually). the car is in surrey, about an hour from us. we wanted to see it on the saturday, but the seller was not available. the description was pretty ok (hpi clear, drives well, well maintained, etc). but of course, you couldnt be sure unless you see it for yourself. anyways, long story short, we decided to bid without even viewing it, but set a limit so that if there's any work needed to be done we'll still have extra money for the repairs. this car doesnt come with any warranty, at all! so we got lucky and won the auction! tantan said the poorest version of this car is still selling at around 800 more than what we bought it for. so not bad.

tantan collected the car earlier. based on the previous mot's, no major repairs were done. the engine sounds/drives good/well (based from our limited knowledge), the body is still in mint condition apart from some scratches on the bumper, it has all the space we need plus the features i wanted it for in the first place. it's a bit wider and a lot longer than my hatchback but i need not worry bec it has parking sensors! and tantan likes her bec it also has cruise control! it's quite loaded with features, it's driving me mad =D

Kiki

huge sunroof!

yup, that's the key!

you need to press the start/stop to turn on/off the ignition

i drove her when we went grocery shopping. im still a bit nervous driving her, im sure it will take some time to get used to. we're still keeping our fingers crossed that no major problem will come up anytime soon!

im going to miss baxi! but it's time to let her go.. selling her off in a week and im feeling really sad. hope we find her a good new owner!