Friday, July 22, 2011

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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4 comments:

Soullfire said...

Happy to hear you weren't hurt, M'lady. =)

Did you just miss the stop, or intentionally ran it, thinking you were all clear?

Makes you think how sometimes tragedies are averted my mere inches...

Your parking experience reminds me of one time I got lost and wound up on an traffic island surrounded by heavy traffic with no idea how I was going to be able to drive off the island into the traffic hordes...wondering how I wound up in such a predicament!

MBAGearhead said...

I just saw this video this morning and now realize it may have been you! LOL - :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ4Nong4saQ

Other than driving and trading poorly, I hope you are doing well!

Jules said...

It wasn't intentional, Soulfire. I totally forgot the stop. It's mind-boggling, coz it's been the route I've been using to get home. Yes, a stark reminder of how fragile life is, and how each and every one of our decisions and actions can change our life and that of others forever. I could have gotten someone killed!

You live in the US. It's so huge I always wonder how most of you manage to find your way around most of the time :-)

Jules said...

LOL!!! MBA!!!

I might be rash and reckless, but definitely not retarded like that when it comes to driving. LOL! I'm skilled even at parallel parking, albeit not as good as this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-t5HmFMb4A&feature=related

:-)

Besides trading and driving terribly, not hearing back from head hunters, sucking at my exams, and increasingly needing reading glasses, life has been good. :-)