Once every year, I seek peace and quiet at...

.... the Borneo Motors Service Centre lounge.

I am there for their 1-hour express car servicing. I love this service! You just need to book a slot online, drive down to their service centre during lunchtime, sit around their lounge and drink free coffee for an hour, collect your car and go back to work. It is double the price of what you would pay Ah Huat or Ah Seng down at Ubi for the same thing , but I can't be arsed to sit around sweating in a hot car workshop and get wolf whistled at so Borneo Motors it is.

So, I am now seated in their comfy air-conditioned lounge and munching noisily on McNuggets while reading the papers. I do this every year - stink up their lounge with my Mcdonald takeaway. (The Ah Lian next table is throwing my dirty looks.) After my junk food lunch, I usually curl up in that red sofa over at the corner to take a snooze until one of the staff wakes me up (gently) when my car is ready. Sigh. What an oasis. My blissful short escape from the office.

Anyway, this year round, something is added to the waiting lounge. They installed a new alibaba "waterfall" feature which, I suppose, is meant for customers to enjoy listening to the sound of trickling water while waiting, but it is really making me wanna go pee. Also, now they will send a friendly Borneo Motors staff to sporadically pop in to update you on the progress of your car servicing. For example, mine just came in to announce that my brake pedal and car battery have DIED and they need to be replaced for an EXORBITANT fee. URGH! I tried negotiating for a lower price but the dude is giving me funny looks. I had to accept the quote, damn it, because I am not at Ah Huat's workshop. (Now I know why the zen waterfall in the lounge!)

Anyway, instead of taking a snooze this year, I've decided to bring a laptop so I am now blogging and chatting with Toe online. We are discussing what we are going to wear and what picnic food to bring to "Retrolicious", an outdoor concert we are going to this coming Saturday at Fort Canning featuring Debbie Gibson, Rick Astley and Johnny Hates Jazz. Pardon the bad pun, but we can't wait to "Turn Back The Clock" and relive our "Electric Youth". Woot! So if you happen to be there, watch out for us, Frou and Toe. We will be wearing big polka dotted bows in our frizzy big hair (ala Debbie Gibson circa 1995), stuffing our faces with a sushi from a platter and guzzling champagne from cheap plastic flutes. (This cannot be more embaressing than our Air Supply experience!)

Oh cool, they are calling my name now. Car's ready. Ka-ching....$$.... :(