Rat-a-tat-tat

I ran a stop at a traffic circle today in the late evening  when I was 3 minutes from reaching home, and very narrowly missed being hit by a car that was going as fast as mine. I managed a hard break in the nick of time, although I hadn't seen the car heading towards me from my right at all (right hand drive here in Singapore). A voice told me to STOP, and I did, and watched in utter horror as a car sped past mine, which had come to a halt mere inches from contact. It took me a while to realize that had I not stopped, I would have been killed on impact given the speed we were travelling at.

It all started 3 days ago when I took the car out for a spin for the first time since I saw D off. I was trying to get to the hotel where my friends who were vising from HK were staying. It was the part of the city I have always been most terrified of driving into - our central business district. As usual, I was completely lost even with a GPS, and ended up at the basement parking of the hotel that was directly opposite to the one I was trying to get to. It was one of the most horrible, if not THE most horrible, car parks that I've ventured into. At one point, I was completely trapped in a space that I desperately needed to get out of. All the sensors - front, back and sides - were activated and I felt like I was going to burst into tears anytime. It took me 5 minutes to manoeuvre out of the narrow passage, and by the time I was parked, my friends had made their way from their hotel to the one I was parked at (they watched me turn into the wrong hotel...). 

So, all hopped on, and I started the car. But instead of backing out of the lot, I put the gear on "D", and stepped on the accelerator. Fortunately for everyone aboard, I kinda anticipated I would do a stupid thing like that, and had left some buffer in front when I parked. In any case, I told my friends that they should really buckle their kid up at the back for the rest of the journey and for the rest of their stay here. 

Other than a few other close calls, I had forgotten to lock the car 3 times, was fined once for leaving my car at the court for too long while visiting my ex colleagues, and couldn't remember the route home after that (the one I took everyday when I was working there from Mar to Sept last year, and it was such a short route I could have gone on foot).  All on the same day. The only thing I did really well was I got the car washed without incident. 

Danny and Rebecca ask why always big cars. I said I NEED size to feel safe. But after the near miss, I'm beginning to wonder if Audi A5 is big enough for T-bone collisions..

All my trades have gone VERY, VERY wrong, and I feel like I need to just do absolutely nothing while waiting for D to return, other than feeding my cats and myself, and taking a shower at least once everyday. I won't be joining D - cancelled my flight at the last minute. 

If I still can't get that near accident out of my head by mid-day today, I'll have no choice but to try out bungee jumping for distraction and diversion.

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