re the batt

so i ended up getting my car battery replaced last week, and what a drama it was! firstly i wanted to confirm whether it was the car battery at fault, before pulling out my wallet. so i did two things after work on friday:

1. took the battery out of one of our other cars (it was the same model battery except the terminal polarities were reversed) to test in my car. my car started fine, lending weight to the theory that it was indeed my battery at fault.
2. went to a local toyota service centre (which thankfully opens till midnight) to get my battery tested. it turns out that it's my original battery (as i suspected), which means it's been going for almost 5 years! not that i know anything about car batteries, but that's a pretty good run. and the battery itself still seemed ok - just flat.

deciding to cut my losses there and then, i opted to buy a new one (and covered by warranty) rather than push my luck with the old one.

next morning... i'm off to the shops around 9am, hitching a ride with my mum while she did some shopping. all the fitment guides i had come across (eg from marshall batteries, the hardcopy guide at the shop, and also the exide website) told me to buy a P305D battery for a 1999 model toyota echo. so naturally that's the one i bought. lucky for me that k-mart was having a sale so i got the battery at 25% off and had change from a $50 note.

came home, started to put the new battery in my car, and lo and behold the terminals are the wrong size!!! i was not happy... surely it couldn't be that difficult?! a few phone calls later, i went back to k-mart for a refund. then one of the shop floor managers came out and called in a guy from the tyre and auto shop, and i ended up taking a P305A battery which was the same as the D but with bigger terminals that were the correct size for my car. the cashier was mildly surprised when i pulled out the exact change (which i had gotten 5 mins earlier via my refund) from my pocket...

and so 3 hours after i first left the house i had a working car again.

if you have any car troubles, don't call me - you'll be better off for my non-involvement!

oh and during my musical batteries operation on friday night, i managed to drop the spanner twice, shorting the terminals. the first time was on my dead (but not fully fully dead) battery, so i just knocked it off which i'm not so sure if it was such a smart thing to do... second time round was on a fully juiced up unit, so i thought twice about using my bare hands and looked for something else with which to knock the spanner loose. meanwhile the metal was getting nicely cooked, and so i wrapped it with a towel to continue using. but i wasn't careful enough and gave myself a bit of a burn on my left thumb when i gripped the spanner and found a non-covered area.

like i said, probably best that i stay away, well away ;)

crossfire casualty

it was the best of times, it was the worst of times... i'm back at 'bochim', and feel at a loss for words.

usually, if you think you are able to help, you should. but sometimes, you may end up causing more damage... and hurt those you are trying to help. and you yourself do not leave the gauntlet unscarred.

where is wisdom?

turnstiles

a bunch of miscellanea...

• just realised that this is/will be my 200th post!
• dates for the miyazaki showcase sessions in brisbane are up, though i've seen most of them so not sure if i'd pay for a repeat viewing
• the 13th brisbane international film festival kicks off next week! it starts the same day as my annual leave - taking a few days off for some r&r, though i'm not sure how much of the former i'll be able to have! hope to fit in an APAC movie or more during the festival's season.
• went to a newly opened restaurant last night, the malaya corner. some observations/comments:
• not long after we sat down there came the sound of dropped dishes from the kitchen
• one of the drinks we ordered wasn't actually on the menu, so the waitress came back to change it... but ended up adding a valid drink and not cancelling the invalid one
• then a drink and two or three dishes came to our table that we didn't order
• another dropped dish just next to us, with a decent chunk of a broken plate not picked up for a good 5 minutes (it took the boss to pick this up)
• one of the diners at my table works for the city council, and had a hand in approving the kitchen facilities at this joint - the boss recognised her and promptly served up 3 additional complimentary snacks for her
• one of our dishes (the place serves individual meals and snacks) still didn't come a good while after everything else was served, so we had to chase this up
• then another dropped item - waiter clearing up a table to our side dropped a drink, spilling the remaining contents and ice. he wiped the table top, but not the side where the drink had run over to the floor. then when he came back and bent over to pick up the ice from the floor, stuff fell from his pocket. he went to pick this up, and more stuff came out. and a third time... oh and he kept pulling up his pants like they were falling off!
• when we went to pay, the cashier wouldn't do a split bill. i think she said they were too busy. one of waiters came to divided up the bill for us while we waited on one side. this took ages because he couldn't get it to tally, partly because of the invalid drink that was never cancelled, and partly because he miscalculated a subtotal. after i stepped in to correct his sums, it was all good. the cashier was still arguing about some point or other, but in the end we paid our money. in all that time i think she served one other customer/table (which is not to say that the place wasn't busy - it was well patronised - but it wasn't like there was a rush of people to pay, and just about every other small-medium eatery are happy to do split bills without kicking up a fuss...)
• having said all this, the servings were huge (both food and drink), and i think everyone enjoyed their food. i'd go back again, but hope that their service lifts a notch.
• my car wouldn't start this morning... don't know what's wrong yet but probably the battery... i suddenly feel so much less independent without a car to get around. have i been too spoilt by this luxury?
• i'm getting fat. i don't like it!

又哭了

but this time, 掉的眼泪只有一滴。

i don't know which is worse.

i hate and fear what i seem to be becoming. 我不想变成一个 calloused and hardened 的人。

总之。。。 我不能怪别人 - 做错的是我。

神阿，开恩可怜我这个罪人！

turning over a new leaf

well, maybe not quite :p

but a new look for a new half-year, or a new financial year, or a new month, or just because i finally got around to it!

of course, i can take no credit for the design, having pinched a standard template from blogger's offerings and tried to do some minor customisation.

so yeah, new template and comments system is in play from hence forth. think i'll keep all past posts as is, unless i happen to have a need to republish the whole site...

anyways... feels good to be able to tick *some*thing off my to-do list cos it's been starting to feel like i've not been achieving accomplishing anything much lately. so, next on the agenda: photoblogging! and yes, i will get around to dong that. eventually! and especially now that the site i was using to host my albums is starting to charge money... :/


ps. leaf, green... geddit?? ok nevermind...