Banged Again!

Okay, I'll admit it. On a scale of 0 to 10, I probably score -1 when it comes to my driving skill. Yes, you've guessed it. I had a little accident with the car again recently (21 Nov 2008). It wasn't as bad as driving through the garage door last year. This time, I reversed the car into a little pillar outside the clinic. So there is big dent on the right bumper and broken real light cover.

I could blame being sick (that's why I was at the clinic!) and therefore not being able to concentrate while backing the car. I was also pretty sure the rear sensor didn't pick up any signal as the tiang was too thin (which could be it since it was at an odd angle with the rear sensors and I really didn't hear any beeping, I swear). But the fact was, I was careless. My blood pressure shot up, literally. The doctor was perplexed to find my blood pressure so much higher than usual during my visit with him. When he asked if I was under a lot of stress lately, I told him I just had a minor accident outside his clinic!

He was sympathetic. Apparently, he backed into their bloody tiang before too!

I was worried that Alex would really chew my head off for real this time. I SMSed my good friend Lina and she immediately offered to take me home, thinking I had really CRASHED the car.

Then, Lina and another friend, Sze Nam, decided to cheer me up (they know how much Alex treasures his car). They bought lunch and came over my house with their kids. They don't live next door to me but something like 10 minutes away and they would have to come out of the way to get to my house during morning school rush hours but they quickly offered to send my kids to school and fetch them home if the car needed to be fixed at the workshop. So thoughtful of them!

Yes, I was distressed but at least, this time around I had moral support from friends. They even shared with me their own spouses' weird behaviours just to make me feel better. And then, two other friends - Aunty Lilian and Aunty Stella - called and came along with more food! They too consoled me, assuring me my husband wouldn't have my head.

Time passed quicky with those four ladies in the house. I was mad with worry about Alex's reaction but for that 2 hours or so, I had friends to keep me company. Gosh, I never thought it would be so great to have such comfort. When I crashed the car the first time, I was all alone. So sad and pathetic.

And you know what? The next day, Aunty Lilian actually offered me the use of her husband's car! Uncle Alvin is another wonderful person. I was so touched I nearly cried!

I must have made Alex sound like a real monster! My friends were so concerned. Come to think of it, they probably thought Alex is an abusive spouse! Well, let's set the record straight. My husband is not a monster, just overly obsessed with his car.

Thankfully, he was calmer this time. Yes, he was upset, but only for a short while. He didn't shout and rave. He's probably resigned to the fact that his wife is a hopeless driver. Maybe he won't buy big and flasy cars for me to drive anymore. Not that I'm ungrateful for having that very nice Mazda CX-7. It's a fabulous car. It's just a tad stressful for me to drive sometimes. I'll be happy with any car, as long as it comes with automatic gears!

Lessons

I survived the crash. The optimist in me would like to think that it happened for a good reason. Maybe I'm not meant to drive the car the next few weeks. Who knows? Something much worse might happen if I drove around.

Alex, of course, insists that there's a lesson to be learnt here. He's right, of course. I have no excuse for what happened. I was careless and a little absent-minded when the car slid down and crashed through the garage door. Here's what we've learnt following the accident.

Lesson 1: Always check the gear status! I obviously forgot to put the gear in reverse when I wanted to back the car up a bit. It was still in drive mode. So the minute I released the brake, it went forward.

Lesson 2: Ask the right questions when dealing with tradesmen. We made some calls to garage door specialists to come to the house and give us a quote to fix the garage. We forgot to ask if the measure and quote was done free and was charged AUD110 just for one guy to come and have a look! If possible, call up the guys who provide free quotes.

Lesson 3: Check with the insurance agent what really is covered. Apparently we can claim for the damage done to the garage door too. It's now considered a third party claim. Luckily Alex had the good sense to bombard his insurance agents with all kinds of questions.

Lesson 4: Don't buy a big powerful car for the wife who can't drive properly! I doubt Alex will see the sense of this, though. He insists I should be grateful for having such a nice car. Indeed it is a nice car, probably too nice for a clueless driver like me. An old bomb with automatic gear will do just fine. At least I won't be under such pressure driving it. You listening, Alex??

Meantime, it's back to the buses ...

What A Day

Hooray! Crash! Sob ...

That about summed up my day yesterday. It was supposed to be a happy day for Joanne. It was her first Prep Orientation Day at Greythorn Primary School and she had looked forward to it for days. She even willed herself to recover from her tummy upset (bouts of diarrhoea the night before) so that she wouldn't miss her "big day". I was so glad because she was so much easier compared to Joshua.

It was a good day for her. I picked her up from the school and everything was fine until I, for some inexplicable reason, engaged the wrong gear and crashed out car through our garage door when we got home. I had moved the car too close to the door and tried to reverse it back further. Instead I put the gear into "drive" and literally went through the door.

The windscreen cracked but thankfully didn't shatter. I panicked and frantically searched the phone to call Alex at work, knowing that he would be furious. Oh boy, he was beyond furious and immedately headed home.

Joanne was so cool. She nonchalantly said, "Oh no. How are we going to pick up Joshua later?" Trust the kid to be so unconcerned. She wasn't even shaken, unlike me.

I was both relieved and terrified when Alex got home. He took one look at the damage - the car was halfway through the garage entrance with the door on top of the hood and roof of his precious Mazda CX-7 - and a torrent of very angry words came out of his mouth. I suppose I deserved it, for not being careful enough. But he pissed me off too. He never even asked if Joanne was okay. Blast him! (He probably didn't find that important since I already told him no one was hurt.)

After making several calls to his car dealer, the insurance company and some of his friends, Alex drove the badly dented car to the workshop. I had to drag Joanne along to catch a bus to pick up Joshua later. Well, looks like we will be doing that for a couple of weeks.

And the damage was BIG. AUD10K just to fix the car. And the garage door, of course. That was really bad.

And to complete a really bad day, Joanne's stomach ache came back later in the day. She made so many trips to the toilet in the middle of the night and kept whimpering in pain that we both didn't get much sleep. She seems better today. Thank God for small mercies.

What a day! I hope I won't have any of its equivalent any time in the future.