Stranded in the snow~

You know how you watch movies and sometimes they have this scene of two people being stranded in a broken down car on a highway with close to NO cars passing by in a snow storm? Well, as dramatic as it sounds, surprisingly, recently I found out that if it does happen to you in real life, it is just as dramatic as they are in the movies...

So what happened?

Well, this week I was on placement in Merthyr, the famous hospital to give snow days off to students because of the heavy snow they tend to get and the dangerous road conditions heading up to the hospital. On Tuesday, by about 3.30pm Rich (my partner) and I got a text from the Undergrad office telling us to leave before a snow storm hits and we'd be stranded up there. Happily, we rushed off back (we were in a painfully dull clinic anyways). Obviously, when there's a bad weather warning, everyone rushes back, the two-lane highway quickly piled traffic and we were stuck in d midst of it all. But thankfully, traffic was moving, so it wasn't so bad..

Or so I thought...

Suddenly, without any notice the car just died. And it won't restart. Again and again. In the middle of a highway. In d midst of a snow storm! Finally succumbing to the situation, we decided to push the car to the roadside. Well, Rich and two other guys (very nice of them to stop and help us) pushed with me in the car, trying to be helpful with the steering wheel while they pushed as I was instructed to stay in the car.

Well, obviously both our handphones had to run very low of battery. Mine had already died hours before all this even started. His was on whatever remnant there was. After an unseccuessful attempt at trying to figure out what the problem was (well, Rich did. Again, I stayed in the car), he resorted to call his dad who called a mechanic for us. The mechanic person called Rich and tried to talk him through some things dat cud be wrong. but since nothing worked, the conclusion was that the car needed to be towed back to be looked at.

Great. About an hour after the whole thing started, his dad called to say the tow person is coming from Cardiff and will take abt 1 and half hours to get to us. By then we were already freezing our butts off~ don't forget the below -ve°C temperature going on at the same time. And oh, right after the call, his phone died completely.

Suddenly I realised, I needed to perform my Maghrib prayers before Isya' starts. And I had to do my wudhu. Pastu teringat, Ustaz Erfino cakap boleh tayamum pkai debu on surfaces. Tapi, kat luar keta banyak air mutlak kot.. so macam terpaksa la guna snow, sbb mmg takde alasan nk tayamum. Have u ever washed your face, hands, head, ears and feet with snow? Well, I can proudly say I have! Rich looked horrified at the idea but just gave a "i-do-not-want-to-be-you" look while he said, "have fun!" as I stepped out of the car with my sleeves rolled up and socks-less to do my wudhu. As soon as I stepped back into the car, I was shivering like mad. Luckily, he always carry in his car a sleeping bag and a thick blanket with spare pair of gloves. So I bundled up then prayed.

Then there was a matter of passing the time until help arrived. We read a book together. Him in his sleeping bag and me in my coat, scarf and blanket. It was quite a good book abt autism. But by about 30mins of it, we got bored. Then we decided to quiz each other about ENT. That lasted about 40mins, before we got bored of that too. Then we decided to sleep the time away.

I couldn't ignore the cold to sleep. I mean, by then I couldn't feel anything below my ankles except that it was really COLD. Rich slept for like 5mins before suddenly waking up. Then he went like

R: Shit, I have to pee!
Me: urm... I don't have a bottle or anything for u to pee in..
R: Ili, dats disgusting!
Me: hahaha well, there are loads of bushes out there if u want to brave the cold..
R: ummmm.... ummmmm....

5 mins passes..

R: Ah sod it! I really need to go..
So he finally left the car and got it over with..

After waiting 3 and a half hours, Rich decided he had to go find a phone to find out what was going on and whether help was indeed coming or not. So left me in the car and locked the car from outside and took the keys with him. "Just incase some nut gets funny ideas about a girl being alone in a car by the highway," he said.

I was still trying to sleep while imagining what I would have for dinner once I got home later. I was starving. We only had a bar of chocolate between us to sustain until help arrived (his, which he very kindly shared with me) Obviously I couldn't sleep what with all the cold and hunger I was subjecting myself to, sleep was the last thing my body wanted. Suddenly came a knock on my window. It was the man who came to help us! He finally got to us, at about an 1 and a half hours later than promised. He said the traffic out of Cardiff was horrible. It took him 2+hours to do a journey that would've taken normally 30mins.

But in his truck, I was warm. And the idea of home didn't seem too distant. So I was happy, whatever his reasons for being late were. At least he didn't abandon us. I got home at about 9.30pm, probably the latest I've ever come back from placement ever.

How do I feel about all this? Well... at the time, I felt like... aside from the men in my family, I've never felt more like a girl than I felt in that car with Rich. All my guy friends always assume I can fend for myself, and so they never bother. Not like how they'd treat other girls. But that night, I felt taken care of. He really took charge of the situation. He found us warm covers, gloves. He walked 800m in the snow storm to find a phone. He never asked me to get out of the car unless he really needed me to, not even to help push the car. I thought to myself, "So this is how other girls must feel. Must be good to be them." hahahaha

well, I'm glad we're both safe. And it all ended pretty well. So there you go, my very LONG and dramatic story this winter...