It is that feeling that you have after you come back from a long holiday and then have to rush to work thereafter. It is not a good feeling indeed.
Slowly everyone is picking up the pace after the long holidays.
I managed to get the car serviced before its scheduled date – the overwhelming free time that I had was too good to be wasted on TV and lazing around at home and as it is a holiday season, my usual mechanics having more free time to properly check the car. I had a problem with the car’s brakes and the gear was a bit tough – I got both fixed.
After I drove the car back home, I realised my wife was still at work and there was no one around at home. It was almost noon and the sun was high over my head and crazy it may sound, I decided to wash the car – only then discovered rust like patches on the roof. There are also patches on the front. I wondered how I could have missed it.
The roof of the car had many rusts spots and I think I know why – ever since, my wife got her car, my car has been parked in the open and under the trees and on the weekends, we usually take her car instead of mine.
It is to save fuel (due to Viva’s better fuel mileage) and also to run in additional mileage before the next service. When that happens, my car will remain at its place for days under the hot sun and unforgiving rain. Over time, I guess my car’s paint surface must have given up, hence the start of rust.
But I realised the rust-like patches was not like the rust that I have seen before – this one seems to be on the surface and without any rough areas. So before I start to panic – I decided to try to wipe off the ‘rust’ with car polish first (several rubs with the normal car shampoo did nothing to clear the rust-like patches).
At first, nothing happened but after several rubs, the rust-like patch started to disappear and the original paint started to shine again. Major ‘disaster’ has been avoided and given me an excuse to alternate the shaded parking spot between mine and my wife’s car.
I realised that I cannot afford to leave the car under the sun and rain during the holidays on a regular basis – the rust patches may not go away the next time. I also need to start back my usual 6 months once polish & wax session if I still want to preserve the car paint quality – it is expensive, at least RM100 per session and that is what has put me off for the last 6 months.
On a quieter front, we had plenty of time during the holidays for shopping items looking for the cheapest price tag and those under promotion, we also managed to find some ‘gems’. I also had some personal shopping to be done – I had plenty to stock up for the long overseas deployment next month.
There is a long list for this holidays shopping and I may even need to buy another suitcase just to carry extra foodstuff – the highest on the list are the usual suspects like instant noodles, instant oatmeals, vacuum-packed nuts and titbits, tea bags, medical tablets, etc.
The long holiday was good but as many good things out there; it has to come to an end. The usual office work and the traffic jam will recommence from today and my departure date is looming closer.