Of prawns, fish and automobiles.

I was supposed to go with the gang for crabbing this weekend but it turned out that Lyn and Poh went prawning at Pasir Ris and Hasli went fishing at Sembawang Park. Lyn caught...*ahem*...a grand catch of.....4 prawns....live ones at that!
So anyway after work,after I had heard of the 'change in plans' I went over to my bro's office for some R & R. It is funny that the place that I go to to relax and chill out is an office. Go figure played with Camou,the hyperactive mutt cum Kangaroo spawn. After that we all settled down for a good ,wholesome game of Black Hawk Down. I played a few games until I got messages from Lyn that they were going down to Sembawang.

I noticed as I was driving to Sembawang to meet them up that there were white smoke emissions from my exhaust. I figured it had probably something to do with the engine oil I had topped up earlier. When I got to Sembawang Park I went about looking for Poh,Lyn and May. Lyn had said that they were at 'the pavilion' waiting for me.So there I was walking from pavilion to pavilion looking for familiar faces. I was almost tempted to join in one of the BBQ's I saw there. Mind you all this was going on whilst it had been raining all afternoon.

I finally got sight of the threesome on the beach.(far away from any pavilion-like structure).Like they say a rolling stone gathers no moss. We all came to a mutual agreement to go look for Hasli who was in some other part of the beach that was inaccessible from Sembawang Park itself.So the awesome foursome proceeded to the carpark with me in the lead since I was the only one that knew where Hasli was (that is if he was still there).

I remembered my white-smoke-emission-problem-thingy as I was walking to the car. I got in and started the engine.(cue:rattling sounds...thick white smoke......smelling real bad).This went on for a few minutes during which I managed to move my car out of the parking lot and onto the carriageway.Eureka! Now here I was with a broken down car with a problem I could not fix on the spot in the middle of a carriageway of the carpark. Fortunately it was a rainy day and it was getting late so my obstrusiveness was not very obstrusive in the end. I had to move the car out of the road into one of the parking lots but it would not start. So we came up with the almost brilliant idea to push the car and have Lyn steer and brake. Poh and I pushed it...Lyn steered (without power steering somemore as she did not turn on the engine!),May..errrm...instructed.So we managed to get the car into the lot(s) as the steering left a little to be desired.

As is the norm where little boys get into trouble is to call their momma. So mummy dearest arranged for the AA guys to come down to take a look. The guy in the yellow van came about half an hour later. After 5 minutes of questioning and attempts to start the engine he deduced in his brilliant mind that the car would not start and called for a tow truck.

Soon after mummy dearest and papa(could not think of any suitable adjective to put here) arrived and mummy's little boy was mighty relieved. May made some comments about how my parents were not really my parents which she apologised profusely for after that.I told her later that it was perfectly alright and that my parents had not even heard what she had said.

So Poh and his ladies left me presumably for dinner and looking for Hasli. Really appreciate all their help. So if you guys are reading this Thanks!. We (daddy,mummy and Leon) all sat in their car awaiting the tow truck guy.

The tow guy finally came and we had good fun (at least I did) talking on the way to Tony's Service Station. Apparently it was the changing of the shift and it being a wet day (where accidents abound) was the reason for the interminable wait. When we got there I generously tipped the tow truck guy....get this....$5.00. The workshop guys checked my car and found that the engine oil had been topped up to almost the top when it should be topped up between the 2 markings on the dip stick. So they drained out the excess oil and changed the spark plugs. And Sunny was resurrected from the dead! Sunny purred contentedly and in a final burst of noxious fumes Sunny filled the workshop with white smoke (not unlike those special car launches with laser lights and dry ice effects).For accompanying music we had chinese opera on the Radio instead of some thumping bass driven tune as is the norm at car launches). Funny how the opera reached a crescendo just as Sunny was reversing out of the workshop.

We/I then went back to Noel's place to fetch the wretched survivors of the afternoon storm. Paula and I (with Camou in his box) loaded the pooch into the Matrix. It should be noted here that the life of a pooch is worth 4 human lives. Noel and Leonard have to walk in the rain to the car, me and Paula got wet ourselves only not as badly but..alas Camou is home and dry!