Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Yay! M2's back from hospital and he's looking fine again. Got the morning off to return the "courtesy" Soluna to the NTUC Co-op at Tampines Mall then collect M2 from IDAC Braddell where I had left him last week.

I first went to the Esso station near my place to get the Soluna washed at the Wash 'n Go. It's a fun experience -- a foam party for cars. First the entire car is splashed with buckets of water, then sprayed with loads of soapy foam, then sponged down by hand, then rinsed with a pressure hose, then finally, towel dried by hand. It took about 20 minutes as there was a bit of a queue there already even early in the morning.

By contract, I had to return a clean car, both inside and out so I extracted the car mats to beat them free of dirt and grime. The Wash 'n Go operator kindly allowed me to have the mats sprayed with the pressure hose too, so that took care of that problem. I also had to top up the fuel tank which I did.

I arrived at the co-op at about 0900 (I might have arrived earlier if I didn't get lost on the TPE) but was told the uncle would only be in at 1000 to take the car back. So I went to the nearby McDs for a leisurely breakfast to pass the time. The Soluna was clean enough to pass the uncle's standards so there was no need to apply the $10 cleaning fine. The car wash cost me $6 so I saved $4, though it wasn't quite enough to pay for breakfast.

Caught a cab to IDAC Braddell where I finally took back possession of M2, one week after his mishap. It was a minor accident, with relatively minor damage, so the whole process was largely painless. Still, it helps to have good friends who will see you through the difficult times (thanks, guys) and the attentive, amiable service provided by the IDAC staff, Eileen in particular. Without them liasing between the insurance company and the repair shops on my behalf, I would have been pretty much at a loss as to how to proceed to get M2 fixed. Bouquets and roses to y'all!

M2 is home now, where he belongs.

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