Relive

I live.

We lived.

The car lived.

Stanley can breathe easy now.

Thank the merciful Buddha above for blessing us with such good fortune.

Thank the Holy Spirits for keeping us safe.

Because we could have died twice today.

I still wonder who's funky idea it was to drive out to eat lunch.

So instead of trawling the food courts, we had a little convoy during lunchtime with Kelvin and gang in the lead, and my spunky lass of a manager following behind.

She's admirable. I'd had trouble convincing myself to drive in that reckless high-traffic area with its share of crazy drivers. But not my manager. No, no, no.

She popped the key into the ignition and off we went, in Stanley's humble little Kia. In manual, no less.

"Erm, I gotta tell you something," she finally said after we were almost out of the carpark. "I'm a little scared."

Yu and I assured her that everything was fine.

"You're doing well!" and I meant it. Because if I were in her shoes, driving in THAT road, I'll probably on my hazard light and call the tow company. (Yes, the road's THAT crazy!)

But anyway, all was well until Kelvin zig zagged his way into lanes like it was the most natural thing since breastfeeding.

And our dear driver, weaved her way into lanes as well, minus the fluidity grace of Kelvin's but double the garangness. Because we were soooooo close to the vehicles behind us when we cut into their lanes. It was sooooo close you had to close your eyes and curl up instinctively because your mind is convinced you're gonna crash.

Thankfully it never happen. The drivers braked in time, swerved in time. A couple of glares and stares and a shrill horn were a vocal reminder of our near-hit and I suspect Yu and I probably stopped breathing out for a couple of seconds during the two incidents.

It was unnerving and being in Stanley's car, keeping a lookout while the driver occasionally galang gabok, made me replay the worst accident I was involved in - the entire front car crashed under a fucking mini bus.

And you know what's the most amazing thing?

No one was injured.
The car still worked fine.
The car still looked fine, save for the bonnet whic was scratched pretty bad.

But we were in Malaysia.

And engine was ok, humans were ok. We could start the car and drive home again What more can someone ask for?

But coming back to the present.

The return journey was much smoother, because we no longer had to pass through THAT road, the mini convoy was disbanded and traffic was not that bad.

Save for the handbrake which wasn't fully down even after 7 minutes of drive, I think everything went pretty well.

And once again, I salute my manager.

Looks, capabilities, kindness I knew are her attributes.

Now add pure guts into the list too.