Gracebee's Diary: Retired Life (2)....with photos.

2015 December 16th

Retired Life (2)

Our main purpose to move our son to study in his father's hometown in Perak,Malaysia in the hope that he could complete at least secondary level of education. That was the minimum requirement eligible to apply for enrollment into a vocational college where he could acquire a skill to survive in the society. We would be too old to help him through his own life in the future.

We had to collect information on courses available and suitable for his character and luckily there was this Workers' Institute of Technology (W.I.T) in that town that offered automobiles course. He was a headache to the lecturer after the first semester. We went to have a talk to this kind lecturer who then understood his condition and allowed him to continue the course. He told us he was smart and restless but he was not keen in writing.He only listened to the lectures that he was interested in and could answer questions on the spot. The lecturer used a different way to help him through the course. He really got through and obtained the certificate ! It was strange too. After his course ended and the college closed down one or two years later, due to lack of students ,I guess.
After the course, he told his lecturer if not because of his kind and helpful nature, he would not be able to get through the whole course.

He worked at a workshop for a year or so. Luckily he could get along well with this workshop owner who also could tolerate his attitude . From there he had gained lots of experience on car work.
The next two years he had tried on other jobs related to car work ie towing cars that broke down on the Highways and did repair work on the spot if the problem was minor one.
It was during this time that he created more headache problems . We had two sedan cars that we had to ship them over as we needed for transport purpose. A Toyota Corolla and later Toyota Carina (of the 80's) Both these cars eventually had to be sold off to junkyard or foundry ! All because of his couldn't careless and irresponsible attitude. My car was also shipped over later. It was a Toyota Celica 1.6 ,also of the 80's. It was my husband's idea then. I had a feeling it wasn't right time yet for this sporty two-door car to be driven by my son . Really, after one month on the road ,it was involved in an accident and the damage was terrible. It took many months to get the repair work done and we had to pay for car repair expenses many times. The front screen was to be replaced too. The next headache to us was that either he was bored or being influenced by friends,he used the Celica for drifting ! Imagine how much it cost us for repair and towing fees ! The final crazy idea on the car was to do body modification work and spraying the car into dark brown color (last picture) !

We still love this car and feel sentimental. We don't feel like selling off as it is an antique car and its engine is still very good . The car seats are clean and neat. We keep the car because we can use it when we travel to my husband's hometown to visit our relatives.