weekend reflection: Cars

I was 6 when Dad retired his BSA motorbike because it wasn't suitable to the tropical torrential rain. He took me to school and I was embarrassed. and I hated it when it rained. I wanted to go with my sister and brother by bus. The bike was hard to start and the joke in the family was Dad ruined so many pairs of shoes trying to start it.

The crunch came when he took Mum to the Sibu Teacher's college graduation ceremony 5 miles away. Mum had gone to the hairdresser that afternoon, wore a feminine Cheong Sum. At that time, they didn't wear helmets, Mum had a scarf and sat side ways. When they got there, Mum was like a wet duck.

Not long after, Dad bought a second hand Fiat 1100. Everyone was happy. There were not many cars in Sibu. We cleaned the car every Saturday. We polished and for  rewards, Dad took us out to the country for picnics. Dad had studied in England and learnt some of the English ways. Some of the neighbours tsk tsk that he was trying to be an English man. Mum soon learn to drive. Not many women drove then.

The water engineer complains I don't clean our cars. You can see the spider webs at the side mirrors. I told him, I cleaned one and only car. the car we got when I was 6.

I tried to look for that car, The licence plate was S899. This meant it was the 899 car in Sibu. The fong shui practitioners say it is a good number. 8 sounds Fa or prosperous, 9 forever. S could be taken as $. I don't know about being rich, but with the 9 kids who rode in that car, we are rich in our relationship and we have good education and good careers.

This car is not our S899. I looked far and wide, Often looking into mirror. I found this on the internet. It even has the same 2 tone colours.  I wrote to Tony if I could use it, He said yes. What a lovely man. Thanks for fulfilling my pangs of nostalgia.

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