my first tow truck ride

It was like every other Saturday morning for me yesterday. Woke up early to get breakfast, get ready for my weekly rock climbing sessions. I felt pretty good yesterday since I managed to sleep the night before so I was feeling very energized and upbeat about my climb session. I might have spoke too soon though because my car decided to pull a fast one on me.

I found it surprising because I always went on preventive maintenance for my car so I really wasn't expecting any breakdowns especially I didn't hear any sound symptoms, neither did I saw any signs of an impending breakdown. After all, it is only logical that mechanical parts would give out some form of symptoms to let you know it's about to go.

I was actually driving myself to rock climbing, feeling all geared up and gung-ho about it. As I approached an uphill climb and right bend, I realised I was losing compression and the car was starting not respond to my pedal work on the accelerator. To make matters worse because I was driving pretty quickly on the fast lane with a car following me quite closely, the danger of being rear ended was really flagging itself when I suddenly lost compression.

As I limped the car to the slow lane carefully trying not confuse traffic coming from behind me, I barely managed to get the car to the side of the main road and then my car just shuddered thereafter the engine just went quiet. I could only think one immediate possibility at that point in time, I thought the car overheated especially the weather was so hot yesterday. No point in panicking since the car wasn't going anywhere it is current state and I knew I had to keep calm if I was going to get the car back on its feet.

Checked the radiator water, was alright; checked the ground for any engine oil leakages, no leaks; check all related cables, all good; checked vacuum hoses, all good. Couldn't figure out what could have gone wrong. I was standing in front of the open bonnet scratching my head, wondering what on earth just happened. I made weekly routine checks on my car so I knew what was about to give way and would make the necessary replacements of parts. I was really, really perplexed.

Nothing much I could do by staring at an open bonnet under the rain, so I called my dad so I could get a ride and at the same time gave a call to a tow truck buddy to get haul my car back to my mate's workshop for further inspection. By the time my dad arrived, he shot me questions on my troubleshooting steps and concurred I covered everything but one - "any fuel going to the carb?". That's when I went, "sh*t! I missed that one out!". Sure enough, there was no petrol getting from the fuel pump to the carburetor and hence, the inability to get the car started despite the engine cranking.

With the problem identified, all it took was to get the spare part and for the tow truck to get me and the car back to the workshop.

The tow truck eventually arrived, and it took surprisingly quick to get the car on the tow. Thereafter, I had my very first two truck ride. It was pretty interesting to say the very least. There was no air conditioning, not even seatbelt. On the entire way back, I heard the wind blowing in my ears from the open windows, the roaring tow truck engine and the rough sounds coming out from the walkie talkie of the driver. Not to mention, you can even smell the typical grease smell you'd get in workshops! The entire ride probably took 20 minutes or so, with me sitting in the truck taking occasional glimpse at my car paralysed on the back of a tow truck. It was painful for me to see my car in that state leaving the back of mind putting some blame on myself for not noticing the fuel pump was about to give way.

By the time I reached the workshop, I was awed by how the tow truck driver skillfully maneuvered the truck in reverse to get my car in a good position in the workshop. I was amazed and how flawless he did it! Seriously!

Once the car was down, I worked very quickly with my mechanic to replace the fuel pump and in under the 30 minutes the car was good to go........ tiring and frustrating as it was, I learned a bit more about troubleshooting car problems and I got a pretty good experience in a tow truck!

taking a break

I am currently taking a few weeks off to regain my thoughts....... simply too busy with work.....................................

be the best!

I was definitely taken aback. It was a reaction I never saw for such a long time, the entire time I have played squash. Sachin was the fattest amongst all of us in the training team but he still wanted to play squash very badly. I can't blame considering both his elder brothers are very good squash players playing for the state. I was only natural a kid like him at the age of 11 would look up to two elder brothers who were up there in the high rankings.

He wanted to be like them, be strong, be fast in the court, to hit hard, to hit accurately, and most importantly to be a winner in the arena of squash! Just like his brothers!

If I recalled rightly, it was about 5 weeks before the PJ Open squash tournament in the last year I was planning to play competitively, we had a grueling training session to prep our minds and bodies for the tough tournament ahead. It was one of the biggest local tournaments with players from other countries joining in. We had been training for 6 days in a week, court drills followed by court runs, then match play to get us in the right state of mind.

It was one of the training session when we were all literally pushed to the limit to up our fitness levels dramatically, I literally went flat like a punctured tyre, while Sachin literally rushed out of the squash court and found himself emptying his stomach by the drain outside the courts from severe dehydration and from pushing himself physically too hard.

I think he was bent over by the drain for a good 10 minutes just puking himself "happy" before he came back in looking pale. To my surprise, Sachin continued with the court runs while one by one, each of us just gave in to the fatigue and exhaustion. None of us completed the 100 court runs with the exception of Sachin.

It was a forced time out for all of us. Picking myself up from the ground was literally a pain in the arse! Looking at our miserable faces, the coach called it a day but not without some pep talk. Judging by the look on his face I figured he wasn't too satisfied with our progress considering the tournament date drew closer and we were not as polished as he hoped for.

"Look here guys! The tournament is in 5 weeks and you guys need to work a lot harder if you guys want to do well. The guys from India and Pakistan have it much tougher and they sure as hell don't plan on flying all the way here to lose to you guys! 100 court runs and you guys are as good as soft beans. You guys are going to have to give in more to beat the foreigners."

We all looked down with embarrassment.

"Sachin, our fattest player completed the 100 runs although he had to unload some weight unwillingly but we came back in to make sure he finished it. You all could learn a thing or two from him. I am not asking amazing fitness or massive power plays, what I want from you guys is determination. When it comes to the high level squash play, the difference isn't always about skill or fitness because at your level, the skill set and fitness are quite similar. It's the determination between opponents that sets the winner aside."

We all still looked down reflecting on ourselves.

"Sachin, tell me what is it that'd make you work so damn hard while the rest of these guys here are falling down one by one?"

"My brothers always told me one thing, 'be the best!'"

I couldn't believe my ears and my eyes. All of us were beaten by the fattest guy simply because he wanted to do better more badly than any of us. It was good lesson for me, winning sometimes isn't about who'e better or who's fitter, but about who wants it more badly.......... Like Sachin put it, "TO BE THE BEST!".