It's all thanks to Victor.
I just blew more than 45 grands on a brand new Mitsubishi Lancer. What was I thinking? For the longest time, I've been toying with the idea of giving up driving altogether. The cost of car-ownership is anything but cheap in Singapore. In fact, Singapore is widely known as a place where the cost of having a car is the highest in the world. No other place on earth comes a close second. It's crazy. A car is basically made of tin, is it not? Just like a can of coke? Why should it cost an arm and a leg?
Having said that, I do feel that owning a car is a matter of personal choice. It all boils down to the kind of life-style one is pursuing, and it has nothing to do with being materialistic.
Take the example of my family. It takes me about 1.5 hours to travel to work with public transport but only 30 minutes if I drive. If we were to measure the time wasted in terms of man-hours, can you image how much that would be? It does not matter that we have a near world-class transport system. It just does not make sense to waste so much time travelling. I've considered moving to a place near my office. But dropped the idea when I realised that that was going to cost me the other arm and the leg (then I'm left with just the torso. How to drive or do anything? LOL)
Having a car also means that I can drive my kids to school, not that I mind being a chauffeur. What better ways to bond with your kids communicating with them in the car as you drive, never mind that most of the time they are half-asleep at the back, responding to my questions in a monosyllabic fashion.
And yes, I also chauffeur my elderly parents around, sometimes to visit relatives, other time for their monthly check-up at the hospitals, and bringing my mum to do her marketing during festive seasons.
Isn't it crystal clear that a car to me is ABSOLUTELY necessary? It's definitely not a luxury as some of my colleagues put it.
Ok, I do realise I've been trying to justify my car purchase. A colleague of mine says a Libra has tons of reasons for doing the things he wants to do. Don't we all? Besides, everyone agrees that the time is right for me to replace my 8-year-old trusty (but not rusty) Nissan March since the COE has nosedive to almost "pit bottom". I sure am gonna miss my Nissan. She's been good and has served me well. Sniff.
Thanks Victor, for your time and your sound advice. And for Gilbert.
Category: Personal
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2 comments:
You're welcome Chris. It was a small favour (举手之劳). (Phew, at first I thought you were going to take yet another swipe at me. It feels really good for you to be nice to me sometimes.)
I read this post several times, trying hard to find one of the reasons which you mentioned to me the other day about wanting to buy the car, i.e. you wanted the convenience a car for going back to office to clear your work on weekends! Why didn't mention that? Afraid your boss would read about it ah? If so, this concern is definitely unfounded. If the boss comes to know about your conscientiousness, he would surely have a very good impression of you, give you a raise or maybe even subsidise your car.
Oh pleaazzzz Victor, if our boss knew I've been working OT, he would think I'm being inefficient. If you're my boss, maybe it'll be different. You may even promote me hor?
Besides, have you forgotten one of my 2006 NY resolutions? No OT but spend more time with my family.
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