My baby!

Introducing my purchase of the month...DRUMROLL!

A Mazda Carol! After 3 weeks of car-hunting, I finally found a car within my budget with all the features I want. This is an 11-year old automatic car, with a 2-year shaken (every car in Japan has to be certified to be road-worthy every 2 years, this is pronounced SHA-can, not like the English word shaken), power steering, aircon/heater, power windows, CD player, 4WD and snow tyres. All for a grand total of S$1,950!

I'm really pleased with the deal. I like the cute, rounded shape of the car. Even the door handles (both interior and exterior) are rounded. Check out the bug-eyed speedometer and whatever the other meter is called:

Obviously for a car that cheap, it's not perfect. For one, dark green would not have been my preferred choice of colour, but beggars can't be choosers. Also, the cloth upholstery is not as clean as I would like it to be. But I suppose I can buy some nice covers for the seats, so that it'll look better.

And yes, I have another funny story. After collecting the car this evening, I stopped by the petrol kiosk coz the car only had half a tank of petrol. I pulled up at an empty stand, turned off the engine and got out of the car. Then a kiosk attendent starts shouting and comes running towards me. Turns out that I stopped at a diesel-only stand. And because it is evident by this time that I was a gaijin, all 3 attendents start directing me towards another stand, waving their arms and all. I got out of the car again and told the guy full-tank. He walked to my oil tank door and told me something in Japanese which I didn't understand. Ah, I need to open the door for him! I looked around the interior but can't find the lever to pull! Turns out that you need to use the car key to open the oil tank door...how silly is that!!

Just so that he wouldn't think I was an idiot, I told him that I just bought the car and it was my first time driving it. And after I paid, he gave me a pack of beansprouts to congratulate me on getting the car! How cool is that? Pump petrol, make a fool of yourself and get a packet of beansprouts in return! So now, I have not one, not two, but THREE packets of beansprouts in my fridge because I bought a 2-pack offer earlier this week...looks like I'll be eating a lot of beansprouts for the next few meals I cook!