So yesterday, I was involved in a minor fender bender.

I was trying to back my car into a parking lot at Two Square when this Myvi showed up on my left hand side and I didn’t see him so I scraped his driver’s side door. Frankly, after thinking about it, I don’t know whose fault it was but at that point, I claimed responsibility. Here’s the damage to his car :

So ok, I said I will check my mechanic and see how much it costs to fix. While doing so, he called and said he went to the Perodua workshop and they quoted him RM750 to fix. I was like “What?!” No way! (Note :  Any moron would know that if you go to the car maker’s workshop, they would charge you an arm and a leg). So I said I’ll check with my mechanic first. So went to check with 2 different mechanics, the lowest quote was RM250, including spray painting the entire door. This mechanic can fix it in a day. And he is a friend’s mechanic in Damansara Utama, not some capalang mechanic in gawd-knows-where.

So I called the fella (I’ll call him Moron. You’ll see why later.) and told him, my mechanic can do it in a day for less than RM300. THEN he started hemming and hawing… “I need to go to work. How am I going to go to work if my car is in the workshop… I want to check with my mechanic first because your mechanic might not be up to my standard.”

At this point, I was starting to get annoyed coz hallo?! First of all, shit happens so just deal with it! Even if you send your stupid car to Perodua, you still have to get to work, right? Get a cab or something! You call yourself a man?! Can’t even take public transport on your own, issit? Some more, you are 34 freaking years old! (We took down each other’s MyKad details). Secondly, I have done the work by looking around different mechanics to get different quotes. My mechanic said he’ll spray paint your freaking door! You want to change a whole entire new door, issit?! For such a small thing?? Thirdly, you are driving a Myvi, not a Porshe. What standard are you looking at?!

So anyway, he said he will check with his friend and get back to me. Later in the evening, he sms-ed and gave me a proposal : RM400 to close the whole thing. I sms-ed back : Thank you for your reply. I have checked with several mechanics and the prices they quoted was maximum RM300, some even lower. So that is the actual cost of your repair. I am willing to offer you RM350, final offer to close this. He replied “Ok, let’s do this the official way then.”

So that’s how I spent half a day today, running around making the police report. Actually, I don’t mind the reporting because what I can’t stand is the guy trying to fleece me off for more money than the repair is worth. THAT I cannot stand. So never mind, a bit of hassle for me is ok. If this Moron thinks I will get scared and just give him the money to settle it, he can bloody well think again. Now, it’s not the matter of money; it’s about principles. I already offered him 100 bucks more than what his repair is worth. If he is truly honest, then he would have accepted it. But since he wants to be unscrupulous, he can go deal with the insurance.

I really hope the insurance people give him a difficult time trying to make a claim for this tiny damage.

Note : The cops didn’t issue me a summons because the accident occurred within a building, not public area. Whee! When the cop was examining my car to take a photo of the damage to my car, he said “It saja ke? Orang tu mahu report?” (No damage to my car, just a scratch on the bumper coz I was backing in quite slowly when it happened). I was half expecting him to start laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation.

I have always found it disconcerting and hypocritical when people make such a big show of being religious but in their day-to-day behavior and actions, they portray the opposite.

In fact, I can’t stand such two-facedness.

I detest it when well-meaning people tell me this statement : “It’s your life/[insert event]. You do what you like or think is best.” And you know this person will not be happy with your decision because it will probably not be to this person’s liking.

Why do people to do this? Do they think they will make the recipient any happier by saying this? I think this is emotional blackmail, or a guilt-trap.

Even though I’ve encountered this numerous times throughout my life, it never fails to irk me.

Earlier this year, we won a lucky draw prize at one of the weddings fairs we attended, entitling us to a free pre-wedding photography service from one of the supposedly well-known photography studios in town.

I guess we should’ve seen the signs at the beginning. Which genuine free voucher have you seen that doesn’t contain a list of T&Cs and at the very least, the contact details of the vendor providing the voucher? The only thing it stated on the voucher was that we were entitled to a free pre-wedding photography session, under the artistic direction of the photographer and we would get 20 softcopies of the photos.

So anyway, fast forward to last month. First, Babe had to go around looking for the studio’s contact no. Then, he tried to contact the photog studio but no answer. Tried a few times, still no answer. Then he managed to get the mobile no. of the photog. Then followed up with an email. And then, that’s when this hotshot photog started stating the T&Cs, adding one each time we sent a reply.

First, when we gave him the dates when we were free. Naturally, they were all weekend dates since we both have day jobs. Mr. Hotshot Photog came back to say that the voucher is only valid for weekday shoots.

Fine. We were gonna check out the venue on a Monday so why not have them come and shoot at the same time? We’ll just do a casual shoot in our casual clothes. But no. Mr. Hotshot Photog replied that it was too short notice (it was about 1.5 weeks before) and that it has to be a proper shoot with wedding gown and the works.

At this point, I was like “WTF?!” If you have all these terms and conditions, then state it in black and white on the voucher, up-front, so people will know and decide if it’s worth the trouble to get your free service! Just stating “under the photographer’s artistic direction” is like saying “oh, I have a solution” to a problem. What solution to which problem, we don’t know.

This is why I prefer not to go with these so-called well-known service providers. Their product might turn out good but their service sucks big time. I don’t understand how they work. Just because they make it big, they think it gives them the right to act like morons?

Even my boss, who used Mr. Hotshot Photog’s services for his wedding doesn’t recommend him because he is too well-known, although his photos turned out fine. Boss had a friend who also booked Mr. Hotshot Photog’s services for his wedding and Mr. Hotshot Photog himself was supposed to shoot Boss’ friend’s wedding. But 2 weeks before the wedding, Mr. Hotshot Photog informed that he has another engagement and will be sending another photog instead.

OMG! Where are their principles?! Do keeping your word and integrity mean nothing these days?!

So my policy from now on is, I don’t care if you’re the grandmaster of your field. If you can’t be a decent person and treat people with respect and HONOR your promises, then you are NOT having my business. Pay me also I don’t want to use you because then I’d have to put up with your shitty attitude.

OMG. Such kind of person also got?!

What a monster!

It never fails to stun me whenever I come across stories like these. I just cannot accept that there are people who behave so outrageously!

Check this out.

I was shocked to find out today that there are some people who have a misconception that registration of marriage equates engagement!!

At the gas station, I saw a man in his late 40s to early 50s dressed in his underwear, putting gas in his car!

Pagoda singlet and boxers, and not the nice plaid type of boxers.

Yucks! Do men have any modesty/dignity at all or they just do not care?

I detest rudeness.

Some may confuse bluntness with rudeness. My two cents is if you can’t decide which is which, just don’t say anything at all till you can figure it out. And don’t expect everyone to put up with it if you decide to go ahead and open your mouth.