April Fools

April fools is always a day where I would somehow, someway come up with some pretty decent pranks which I would pull on people. And I used to enjoy every single moment of it. But please bear in mind that the last time that I had actually played a prank on someone was a couple of years back and I haven't played any since and obviously, having been laid off for sometime now, I have unfortunately become a wee bit rusty. Therefore, with that in mind, I did make it a priority that I go back to the ways of my old days and try to at least play a decent prank on someone. Afterall, there really is nothing like a prank well executed. And I needed some action.

As usual, in the bygone days, the eve of April fool's served as a platform where I would try to think of a decent prank to pull on anyone. But as fate would have it, try and try as I may, I was unable to come up with anything which was close to even resembling a prank. And the closest I ever came to executing a prank was about an hour and a half too early and in my books, probably wasn't the best of pranks. But the victim, sure had her heart skipping many, many beats. But little did I know, April Fool's itself was about to play an even bigger prank on me. A prank which I did appreciate for it reminded me of certain things that I already knew. What I am about to relate to you is a story on how April Fool's played a good prank on me and of how a friend drove from quite a distance away to come and rescue us in the dead of night.

Last night, after returning from Low Yat, my father and I decided to get some dinner at restaurant near KL Sentral. We had just come back from a camera hunting trip and we still haven't had our dinner. Instead of returning home to have dinner, we decided to try something else. So, after getting the car parked, we alighted and proceeded to this restaurant by the name of B'Sentral where we subsequently bumped into a cousin of mine who is currently with the WHO. Then after we had said hello to him, we went in to have our orders taken. I chose to have a rather heavy meal while dad had something lighter. After we had eaten, the both of us felt rather tired and we needed to get back as soon as possible. Dad had a pretty long day, while I had a somewhat busy day at my dad's office editting some pictures for him. And walking around Low Yat looking for that Pentax K200 definitely was not such an enjoyable experience because nobody seemed to have it nor have any idea about it. But anyways, as we had wanted to leave, I realized that the car would;t start. It kept making a funny sound each time I turned the ignition. Having never experienced anything like that before, I asked my dad what was wrong. He said that the batteries had died. The second after he said that, I began to wonder how could the batteries have died. Afterall, it was only a year old and I hadn't left any of the lights turned on while we were away. Not knowing what to do, my first instinct was to call my cousin to see if he had a car which we could use to jump start the car. Unfortunately for us, he rode his motorcycle that night and his friends had already gone home by that time. So seeing that he couldn't do anything to help, he rode off.

A while later I went into the restaurant to ask for help or if anyone had a jumper cable which they could spare. Unfortunately, no one had any and we were back to square one. We then tried to locate the telephone number for the insurance company, but it wasn't anywhere to be seen. It was rather unusual for such a thing to happen because my mother always keeps things like these in her glove compartment. Flagging down cars did not yield any luck at all. We tried asking a lorry driver for some assistance but they were a little hesitant on lending us a hand. Knowing no other way, I decided to call for some assistance. The only person whom I could think of at that time was Jon Woo. I called him, told him of the situation that I was in and asked him if he knew of any good mechanic or anyone whom we could contact for assistance. He said he would look around. For a while there, I was beginning to wonder whether or not he saw this all as a good prank. Thankfully, he did not. Minutes later, after learning that I still hadn't any luck in finding a solution, he offered to drive all the way down to see what he could do to help us out. Obviously, I was delighted that help was on the way. I didn't expect him to come to our aid as he lived quite a distance away to where we were but I am thankful for the fact that he did indeed come out to help us at such and hour. That's what I call a friend. One who would think of nothing more but to see how we can assist one another in times of need. I told him where he could find us. About 20 minutes later, a red Myvi pulled up beside us. The first thing I did when I saw him was to give out a good laugh for I did find it a bit comical to end up in a situation such as this on April Fool's day.

He quickly got out and the three of us set out to solve the problem. After we had connected the cables, I was asked to start the car. But to our disbelief, the car wouldn't start. It was not supposed to do that. We tried again and again. But yet it wouldn't start. We were baffled by what had taken place. Afterall, why shouldn't the car start? We decided to give it some time. But we knew that perhaps, it was not going to work and we needed to find a bigger battery, perhaps one from a lorry. And just as we had said that, a lorry came from the distance. I flagged it down and my dad asked the driver for some help. Thankfully, he agreed and we set to work straight away. After a few adjustments, we got the cables to fit and we waited for a while. My dad then asked me to start the car. But to our absolute chagrin, it wouldn't start. Again, we tried, but it still wouldn't start. By now, we were completely flabbergasted. How could this be? We had everything in place. It should have worked out. Unfortunately, it didn't. Jon theorized that the started had most likely failed and we had to probably leave the car at Brickfields for the night and get some help the next morning. After some slight apprehension about the safety of the car, we agreed and Jon gave us a lift home which I thought was absolutely nice of him. I tried to offer him some petrol cash, but he resisted.

The ride home, proved to be good in some ways because I have been having some trouble explaining to my dad just why Pentax owns Nikon and Cannon and just why it was almost impossible to find K200 set for a price lower than RM3500 on the streets and therefore the RM2900 which Jon's friend quoted to us was a very good deal. Jon, in a way helped me to convince my dad and the deal may be concluded sooner than I thought. I have to ask my dad again.

But anyways, we got home, explained the situation to my mother and of course, she wasn't too happy about it at all. The next day, which is today, we went back to the scene of the problem and tried o solve the problem. It turned out that the car did indeed had a battery problem for we did manage to get it started after transferring the battery from my dad's car. Fortunately, it had not been a starter problem, for that would certainly have doomed us to a visit to the mechanic.

So, April Fool's did indeed manage to pull a rather good prank on me. An expensive one in fact, now that I have a set of batteries to change. But it did remind me of a couple of things that I already realize and I do find it refreshing that I am constantly being reminded of it.