When it rains, it pours

So it rained yesterday. Actually, it POURED. For about 4 hours or more. I was gonna pick up the kids from kindy when it started. Got them in the car dry and buckled up in their car seats. Drove carefully cos of the rain. Visibility was poor. Everything was ok till about 3km from the kindy. I stopped at a traffic light and the cars in front of me started reversing and making u-turns. One of them almost hit me while reversing. I looked down the road - the rain had caused a flood of sorts - the road was almost submerged in water and one or two cars were stalled. I reversed and u-turned too and had to think of another route home fast.

It was harrowing because almost every stretch of road had huge catchments of water (Melaka boleh! Sorry, I just have to be cynical here) and I had to slow down and prayed that the car wouldn't stall and that no one would hit me from behind. The kids however were having a blast. Aidan would shriek, "Flood! Flood!" every time we went through the water and it parted in rather high "waves" on either side of the car. At one particularly bad patch, there was a thunk when the car hit the water and Sean screamed, "the wheel came off!" All these was not helping my frayed nerves one bit, thank you very much.

At one point we were coming down a slope towards a traffic light and I braked and....the brakes didn't work! My heart was in my mouth as I "buang gear" and tried to brake again. Thankfully, I didn't hit the car in front. I was near panic; what with trying to keep the car from stalling, trying to see through the heavy rain and concentrate through the excited squeals of the kids, now the brakes don't work?!

At the next traffic light, I remembered what my hubby told me once in another heavy downpour. "The force be with you!" Oh. Errr...that's not it. (I feel tense just blogging this so a bit of humour's good, eh?) He told me to pump the brakes to get it working again. And to rev the engine a bit to keep it from stalling. So I did and, wahla, the brakes worked. Phew! Praise God!

We made it home safe and sound with my legs a bit stiff from handling a manual car in such conditions and my arms stiff from gripping the steering wheel. Hooboy! Was I tense! I wish I was driving a 4WD instead of a compact car!

On a brighter note, the rain washed away the haze and it was wonderfully cool the whole day.


It sure ain't this boring in the car yesterday!