Hello MPV

We received the delivery of the new Starex earlier this month, and since then Anita had been doing plenty of her own driving with it. In fact, she even drove all the way to Port Dickson last weekend!

It was an 11-seater "people carrier" with a diesel engine, spacious and hopefully also a fuel saver. And it was huge and took a bit of manoeuvring to get around tight spots and parking. I was also worry about blind spots during driving, but so far it had been handling very well. Much more nimble than the size suggested.

It did not have all the trimmings of the old Estima. The boot were manually controlled, and the power doors had to be installed as an extra. The alarm system was also pretty basic but it had the standard audio unit and a couple of screens, GPS - which was actually a Papa-Go unit - and nice seats. No sunroof though, something that I missed!

It had to be done however after counting the amount of money I had been spending on the old Estima doing repairs. The Estima was bought with limited warranty and it was not a brand new unit - one could not get one in Malaysia due to the good Government policy of protecting the local car manufacturers! So, even though it felt like a bit of a down grade, I was pretty happy with it! The main thing was the children and Anita loved it.

Good Bye MPV

Our Estima had been a loyal servant for the last 5 years. Unfortunately in the last year, it had been causing plenty of issues, and I had spent a lot of money fixing it. After much deliberation, we decided to let it go.

It was quite a spur of the moment thing, after Anita got fed up during one of the breakdowns. She went around looking for good offers and found that Hyundai offered the Starex as brand new units and it came with very good warranty package. Her mind was set ....

Night Train

To meet up with Anita and the boys in Gombak, I decided against driving there. I knew that Anita would be tired to drive on her own, and so I decided to take the LRT there.

It wasn't bad at the stations but getting to the station and walking away once I got off to my in-law's place was rather intimidating. For some reason, the stations were not blessed with ample lighting. Maybe to save on the cost.

One good thing about the trip was the good cellular coverage throughout the journey. And it was good to see that there were plenty of people using public transport late on a Sunday night as I did. It was definitely not that bad.

Too Many Smokers

After missing out on yesterday, I decided that I would drive my car into town straight after the ward round, enjoy a nice lunch and just chill for the afternoon. Anita and the boys would only be back later this evening, so I got some time for myself.

After a nice lunch, I took a walk across town wary of what looked like impending rain coming a bit later. I had to strategise. I picked a small space at a cafe, ordered my drinks and ten everybody around me started lighting up. It looked like I was at the smoking section. And they occupy the best seats. Those who prefer smoke-free environment would have to cope with the seats indoors with poor view, blasted with industrial strength air conditioning.

I thought on the whole, we non-smokers were given the worse deal. We had to put up with the worse seats, and huddled near screaming infants who normally occupy these areas. I didn't see any vapers around there though. Because that would be a other story to be told ....

The weather when I set off for the rounds earlierSo, I had to be content with the smoking. I was sure that my shirt would be smelling of tobacco for the rest of the day. At least I had a couple hours of down time. But not for long. I already had an admission waiting at the Emergency Room. Happy Sunday all.

Working too Hard

It looked like I may need to make a trip to UMMC sometime next week. I would need to get myself a new pair of stethoscope. I quite literally fractured my old one yesterday, and it was not something the Orthopods could fix!

Well, this one was quite old already and it definitely needed replacing. Here we go ....