Monday, November 22, 2021
Finally, we bought our first car. And for me, this is the first car I've officially ever owned in my life, despite having driven like a crazy number of my friends' cars in my life, 'cause they all trust my driving. Pretty late to the car ownership game, but hey! It's mine (ours). We ended up with a 2016 Toyota Camry from the Yorkdale Toyota dealership for about $17k.
We had initially planned to lease a new Toyota Corolla after debating whether to get a new, used, leased or financed car for months. We generally trust the Toyota brand so we went to the Yorkdale outlet since that seemed the most reasonable, distance-wise. Once we got there we spoke to a salesman who tried to sell us a new Corolla, but noted that due to the current microchip shortage, we'd have to wait 3-6 months. We were like, uh no, lol. Mostly because we wanted to get the car before winter, and also because we just didn't want to wait. We had been delaying getting a car for so long because of the pandemic, and then the driving school lessons and researching cars and insurance. So they brought us to Slav, the guy handling used vehicles, and he showed us 3 cars around our price range after explaining our budget and what we wanted, a 2017 Corolla (30,000km mileage. Wait, is it still "mileage" if it's in kilometres? It's not kilometrage?), a 2016 Camry (100,000km mileage), and a Yaris, who's mileage I've forgotten. I test drove the Camry and Corolla, but not the Yaris because the battery was dead and couldn't be jump started, despite Slav's efforts. Also it was red and Onion said due to family-borne superstition, she'd prefer we avoid that. Well, well, I guess someone up there listened. Anyway, between the Corolla and Camry, it was clear that the Camry was just so much nicer to drive, despite having 3 times the distance on the odometer. It's not that the Corolla was bad, it just didn't feel as smooth. The Camry was smooth, sleek and it was a joy to drive. The extra leg-space was nice too. Slav spoke to us about the details and after discussing our budget, probable insurance rates and stuff they sold it to us on a conditional sale, on the condition that we could get insurance under $350 a month, as that was the biggest obstacle for us as newer drivers in Ontario. We signed a few papers and they gave us the weekend to get our insurance settled.
I had already done some insurance shopping, but did it full force over the weekend. Nothing was close to the price of TD insurance (like, at all) so we stuck with it and I ended up in several long phone calls to get it done, and went to Service Ontario twice to get the necessary documents and stuff set up, lining up for over an hour each time in the cold. Zzz. Called the dealership many times over the week to clarify things, and got shit loads of stuff printed, and we packaged it all in the Toyota folio they gave us, to make sure we had every bloody document so nothing would be screwed up and we had everything accounted for, considering this was our first car and we were unsure about a lot of the finer details. And over the weekend, we traveled down to Yorkdale Toyota again. We paid the stuff remaining, signed a shit load of documents and got the car keys! License plate and registration sticker all done for us. Very appreciated and we were pleased with the whole process. They paid for a full tank of gas for us and we drove off.
The next day I drove to church for the first time and afterwards, we surprised my aunt Elkie and grandma with the car by driving to their home! Haha, they were shocked but happy at the same time. I drove my aunt around to get some food 'cause we were staying for dinner after chatting throughout the day. It's been a month since we got the car and I've been driving to work since. It's so much more comfortable than taking the bus. The comfort of your own car, driving the speed you want, and no need to wait for buses that left just a few seconds ago so you gotta wait for the next one. Like, we did some errands, groceries and another time getting some board games and winter tires. Driving around everywhere once we were done a certain chore was so bloody convenient, heading to our next stop and the next, compared to checking our phones to see the next bus arrival, waiting at interchanges and terminals, and needing to take several long trips to get somewhere. I mean, yeah I drove for most of my life in Malaysia, but after going car-less in Toronto for 3 years, it's solidifed how car-centric this city is outside of Downtown.
Like I mentioned last time, I reconnected with my childhood friend Jimmy. Due to some of his health issues, we couldn't do gaming together online anymore (permanently), so we ended up meeting in person twice, having Jollibee at my place. First time we just chilled and had a great, long conversation and second time, we played Horrified, a board game where we were one turn away from winning but lost because we ran out of monster cards! Aye! Toshi easily warmed up to him and we had a good time chilling with the waifu and Toshi. I ended up driving him home, from our place to Downtown, because I had the car by then, lol.
Driving also let us conveniently watch Eddie Izzard! The last time I watched Eddie Izzard, she was still using male pronouns! But now she prefers female pronouns, so it's still hard to switch sometimes, considering I was calling her, he for almost 15 years after discovering her material online. Anyway, Onion and I watched her Wunderbar show, and it was great stuff as always! I couldn't help but notice she made a lot of throwback jokes, self-referential stuff, and a lot of talk on politics. It seemed almost like a self-reflective show, amidst all the humour. Like there was a certain finality to all she was saying. Later on we found out it was to be her last show before going into politics, which explained all the feelings I felt watching Wunderbar. Quite sad too, considering she's had so many great programs and only now, after being able to watch her live recently, she'll be stopping soon. Aye! The waifu and I very much enjoyed our drive there and going home, as it was so much more comfortable than taking public transport back home. Oh, right before the show, we had dinner across the street at La Fenice, a fantastic Italian restaurant. The place was completely packed and yet we were lucky to find a table right before the show. Sweet!
Somehow I forgot to mention this last time, but the Canadian federal election happened 2 months back. What a stupid, wasteful power grab in the middle of a pandemic.
Oh, and for Halloween, I bought some ivy vines for Onion, because.
Chronicled
4:59 PM