Goodbye 2012~ The Downs

I have just finished reading Taipi's Kisulog entry, which is the last one for this year. It's great that he wrote the last one and I got to read about his feelings towards the things that he has experienced this year. Omedetou~ that Shinikare finally got a slot on normal TV. I can't wait to watch it again in HD too.

Well, there's only 3 more days left for 2012. I can't wait for the new year actually because I have the feeling that things are going to get a lot better in the new year. Not to say that 2012 is sooo horrible that I want it to end quickly, but a lot has happened this year and there were a lot of tear shedding moments. At some point it feels like no matter how hard I work, nothing seems to work well for me. It's like I was binded by some invisible strings and I was struggling to get out of them.

1. First I got into 2 car accidents and I never had any before. One time I was driving my parents and the second when I was alone. 

For the first, the guy was a student driving his friend's car and insisted that he will not go to the police station.!! I was driving on the fast lane and he was on the middle lane (I guess)...as I was passing his car and the car in front of him, he suddenly swerved his car into my lane...guess he was trying to overtake the car in front. So naturally he knocked onto my car which I lost control of, but luckily Dad quickly held onto my steering wheel to prevent my car from hitting the divider. 

I admit I was angry when I got out of my car as the first thing I said was, "How did you drive your car?". I must've been shouting because he replied, "How do you like it if you hit someone's car and the person shouted at you". In my heart, I was thinking that he deserved more from me for the reckless way he was driving, but I kept quiet. When I went  to check on the damage, he told me that it was not his fault and that there was a car on the other side that caused him to swerve. I asked him, "Where is the car now?" and he answered, "I don't know". Right.....

Since he can't go to the police station, we settled on some cash instead which he too did not have and we had to go to the bank to wait for his friend to bank it into his account and it was not the full amount that we had initially agreed upon on.

The second was near my place when I was making a u-turn, a girl driving her sister's car came from the left lane into the right lane which I am turning into at high speed. I think it was a bad night for the both of us because her phone just got cut because she forgot to pay her phone bills. So I borrowed her my phone to make some calls and we moved our cars to pyramid so that she can make her phone payment.

We both agreed to go to the police station but as my car could not move, I called AAM for assistance which sent me this stupid tow-truck guy who kept telling the other party how to make her report so that her damages will be paid by my insurance. This happened because she was a student nearby and she called for help from a friend nearby who is of the same skin-colour as my tow-truck guy.  

Malaysia has this stupid system where only certain police station accepts accident report and those involved have to actually go there themselves. How am I supposed to get there when my car couldn't even start? That's why I called AAM which provided a horrible service and I'm not talking about the tow truck guy. At the police station, we were supposed to type in the reports ourselves. Since the form was in BM, we requested if it could be done in English. After that we were called for questioning in some small back room where the police officer was trying to tell me that it's my fault. Suddenly the tow-truck guy walked in through the side-door.......... I'm surprised that a normal citizen can have that much access in a police station. They must know each other well as he must've delivered many cars to the station and know the policemen well enough to have made some pact among themselves. Soon after, we left to the accident scene. 

In the meantime when all this was happening, the tow-truck guy was trying to tow my car back into his workshop when my family members back in the station tried to stop him. He insisted that I had signed the documents but I did not, my cousin who's a lawyer read it before I signed anything. It was only for him to tow my car to the police station and that I will have my own service workshop to fix my car. My family members asked the police to stop him but they just ignored.

When I got back to the station, my car was already gone. This was already almost 3 hours after the accident.  Soon after we were called for another round of questioning. This time the guy was much nicer to me than the first round and he even printed the police report for me which he refused to during the first round of questioning. He told me that I had to come back the next morning to have it printed. He even asked me for the tow-truck's number and called the guy to send my car back to the station. So I was wondering what is with the sudden change of attitude.....

Turns out that the change was all thanks to a special phone call. hmph~this made me lost some faith and respect in the system that this country has.

As we no longer trust the policemen, we tried to move my car but since the engine was damaged, we only managed it to a nearby petrol station before the tow-truck from my service workshop could pick it up the next day.

What happened next made me lost all the hope that I have for a better country!!! When we went to pay my fines at the police station, the lady at the counter was giving suggestive signs for a special service. It's the first time I ever had to queue in a police station to pay an accident fine, so I was shocked that there was such a thing. I knew you could bribe a policemen right after you made an offend before they give you a fine but I didn't know that they provide services like these sooo openly in a police station. So much for all the campaign for a corruption free country. All the respect and hope I had were completely lost. I dare not imagine how things will be in the future. We are seriously in need of a change for the better.

2. The other big blow for me this year was the downs in my research journey. There were so many downs that I sorta lost count at some point. First, my project was left hanging for months because of some problems from the other side and then after more than half a year, I have been told to change project. It feels like being pushed off a tall building, to let go of everything you've worked hard for. 

3. Then there were friendship problems too. I was going through a pretty rough year and had shared a lot with a close friend. However at some point when she was mentioning how she pitied a guy she had just met who made his ex-gf pregnant and how life was so unfair for him. I just sort of exploded at her at that moment as I did not feel the same way for a guy. Things have been awkward ever since.

I guess those were the downs for me this year. But when I think about it, I have a lot more things to be grateful for~

Moreover, I've learnt from these downs too. Must learn not make the same mistakes again and to not take things for granted.