Driving Incident

Oh dear. Nope, nobody crashed into my car. But people who've crashed into me were way nicer than this man who didn't. I really do wish public transport is an option for me. It is what it is & I'll try to keep as safe as I can.

I was driving to work yesterday morning & was approaching the city when it happened. There're 2 lanes in the direction I was travelling in & I was in the left like I always do as I believe in keeping left. This Hyundai on the right lane drifted past the lane divider without any signals on. I have no idea if he was trying to change lane without signalling or he wasn't paying attention & had just drifted out of his lane. Naturally, I slowed down becoz if I were to proceed & he really came into my lane, he would have crashed into me. It wasn't even a hard brake, nowhere near qualifying as e-brake. I think I lost about 10 km/hr in speed. This Hyundai probably realised that he was 1/3 into my lane & went back into his own lane.

Crisis adverted. Then I noticed this truck behind who continuously high beamed me non stop for perhaps 10 seconds. I check my mirrors rather frequently but the last time I checked, this truck wasn't behind me. I probably was also focused on slowing the car down enough to avoid the Hyundai coming from my right to be checking my rear mirror in the seconds prior to that. I ignored him. The left lane that I was on became the right lane somewhere further down. That was when I noticed the truck driver had cut into the left lane. He was held back by several slower moving cars & bus & we probably traveled another 2 km or so. About 100 m from the right turn into Vincent St on Fitzgerald, he finally caught up to me, flicked me the middle finger & drove off, cutting back into the right lane several cars down to make the right turn onto Vincent. That was a lot of trouble just so he could give me the finger considering that we were only 100 m from his turn.

I cannot say I know exactly what happened but he probably was following too closely behind me when I had to slow down for the drifting Hyundai. Maybe he thought I was braking on purpose to deter him from tailgating like some people do. I think this is probably the most possible scenario. I knew it wasn't my fault. I was just trying to avoid collision from the Hyundai. But the rest of my day, I felt absolutely shitty.

When I was safely parked at work, I texted hubs that someone gave me the finger on the way to work. He immediately texted back saying he knew it wasn't my fault becoz I always drive safe & I don't speed. That was even before I told him what had transpired. He's not siding me becoz I'm his wife. He's ever told me off very harshly when I was the 1 at fault. He told me that he meets these kind of drivers all the time on the road & not to be affected by them. But even till now, I still feel like shit. I'm not angry, just really upset & I don't even know why. Too sensitive for my own good.

What do people get out of being mean & nasty? Hubs showed me this quote he came across on FB. "There are many nice people. If you can't find one, be one." It's a great quote. It's something I'm striving towards too. Now I can only let time lift up my spirits & confidence again.

Hit Me Baby 1 More Time

Nobody will believe me. Honest. Yesterday, when I was driving home after work, I got rear ended. Again. I had come to a stop for a red light & everytime I do, I'll check my rear mirror to make sure the car behind has stopped. She did. Completely. So when she hit me few seconds later, my 1st thought was that someone crashed into her & her into me. But no other car was behind her. I turned off the main road as soon as I could to check for damages.

Just was well the repairs from the previous crash can only be done in April as the boot door had to be shipped from Japan. There were no additional damages save for 1 extra scratch on my bumper. She apologised & said she wasn't paying attention. Texting while stopping at red light & her foot came off the brakes perhaps? She's young & as she's wearing her scrubs, she must be in her early 20s. I told her that it's alright as I'm sure the repairs will cover it.

Just on Thursday, I narrowly avoided getting hit from the side too. I was on the left most lane on a 3 lanes road. The driver of the car on the right most lane must have been daydreaming coz she didn't see the car in front of her stopped. She did an emergency brake, tires screeching & all, before swerving to the left. She was coming directly at me & I had nowhere to go. At the last second, she straightened up & swerved into the middle lane.

I seriously need bars that come out to encapsulate my car when I'm driving. Then fold themselves back under the car when I need to get out. Just as well Jazz hasn't been repaired yet or I'll have to bring it in again. How do I avoid getting hit? It's impossible against other people's inattention.

都说我是 Accident Magnet 了

Sighz... Yup, I got rear ended again. This time with my brand new Jazz that's not even 2 months old. I stopped for a red light. When the light turned green, we all started moving off. The car in front stopped & so did I. But the car behind didn't. My bumper had scratches but the most damage was to my boot. It's sort of dented in a few places. The damage is not as extensive as Lancer though. Anyway, even if it is, they won't write off a brand new car that can be repaired in several thousand dollars. 3 hits in 20 months. Ain't I the accident magnet?

I've tried my best. But no amount of being careful can prevent others from hitting me, only me from hitting them. I don't speed, I don't tailgate & even when stopped, I always ensure I'm 1 car length away from the vehicle in front (just in case they roll back). I'm usually on the main road & when I approach an intersection & there's a car waiting to turn out, I never fail to take my foot off the accelerator. This is so if they do decide to turn out at the last possible second, I have a much higher chance of stopping in time. It worked coz I've prevented myself from crashing into such drivers multiple times. If the car in front has the brake lights on, my foot is off the accelerator even though I am very far away coz you just never know if they'll suddenly brake hard. I've already employed defensive driving techniques but like I said, I can only reduce the chances of me being at fault.

It's gonna be troublesome coz all these workshops operate weekdays only & I'm working everyday. It'll mean having to take a day off from work to send my car in for assessment & another day to pick it up. Oh well, maybe good fortune is awaiting me. Haha. The 1st time I was rear ended was when we were 4 weeks old in Perth. I stopped to give way to cars on the main road (I was wanting to turn left from a slip road) & the lady said her foot slipped off the brakes. That was the Lancer that got written off as the entire boot was smashed in. 1 week later, I was contacted for an interview & I started work the following week. 2nd time was in Sept 2014, when we've arrived in Perth for 4 months. I was driving on the main road, this car didn't check for oncoming traffic (which was me) & just turned out, hitting me on the left rear of Eba. She was a P plater without insurance. My manager told me that she was increasing my part time hours to 30 hours per week from 20 becoz she felt I was very good in my work. Of course, she passed my probation. 3rd time now, with Jazz. Hmm... looks like every single car I've driven since I got here has been hit.

When I sat down for dinner with hubs while watching DVD & the dogs both had their heads on my lap, I'm thankful that I get to live another day. That I get to enjoy the company I have. Even though I haven't done anything great in my life, I've been well loved. Just for this fact, my life has not been in vain. We don't know when we'll die, only that we're alive right now & there's much to be grateful for.

Thursday Night Home Alone

Not really home alone. Only that hubs will be home much later. He's gone to Crown for a buffet dinner sponsored by his company. In fact, he just called me, informing me that he could only eat 3 plates of food compared to his colleagues who were already on their 6th. He suggested going with me some day. Erm... better don't waste the money. It's $80 per pax & I'm absolutely positive I won't be able to eat much. His boss told him that the hotel is nice for a staycation & hubs wanted to do it with me some day. That, I'll be interested in. We used to do lots of staycation in Sg for anniversaries & birthdays. But WA is big & we're still in the early stages of discovering its beauty. His boss suggested walking around, exploring the hotel & casino after the dinner. So basically, he rang to tell me that he'll be home late. That's alright. It's nice to have a little me time.

Jazz went straight into the garage upon returning home with me on Sat & wasn't driven till Monday. We headed to the shelter on Sun but either the dog didn't like Ton or Ton didn't like the other dog. There was 1 dog I was really interested in. Using distant reiki, I "spoke" to him prior to the viewing. However, I got the message that he's happy where he is & isn't really interested in going home with me. On the day itself, the volunteer informed me that he was returned after being adopted, reason being that he reacted to other dogs in the park. I went to his kennel to see him but I couldn't get a response from him. He just wasn't interested. Another dog the volunteers were suggesting was in foster & wouldn't be back till Monday. So we left without having successfully adopted 1. It's alright. We need to make sure we get a perfect match. The right 1 will come.

Hubs drove Eba to work on Monday. It was also when I realised that I forgot to transfer my e-tag which will allow me into my workplace car park. I ended up getting a visitor's ticket to gain entry & swapping it for a staff ticket at the end of the day. The plan was for me to transfer it when hubs drove home with Eba. But he got home late as the mechanic had problems getting the distributor but finally got it fixed after 6 pm. He was told to drive his car home to "work the distributor" so that it doesn't die again. Eba was left at the warehouse overnight. Hubs then suggested that I follow him to work on Tuesday morning before driving Eba to work. So that was what transpired & Jazz sat in the garage for another day.

I get crazy ideas from TV shows all the time. When we were chasing Masterchef, I used their mystery box ingredients to create dishes of my own. Chasing TBL, I got the idea of doing a mini Ironman. The contestants ran 1 km, cycled 5 km, kayak unknown distance, then ran the final distance to the end point. I went online to find out more about Ironman races. Naturally, I won't be able to do a full Ironman which involves 4 km swim, 180 km cycle & 42 km run. But I can aim to do the sprint version of the Ironman which involves 750 m swim, 20 km cycle & 5 km run. I can swim but I'm not very good at it. If I have to swim in the open sea, I'll probably drown. So there's no way I can take part in the race. But I can certainly make use of the distances as a challenge to myself in the gym. Copying TBL, I swapped the swim for rowing.

So on Wed, I did a 1.5 km row (doubled it as rowing is easier than swimming), 10 km cycle & 2.5 km jog. 500 m into the cycling, my thighs were burning. But I just kept going, forcing myself to complete at least half of 20 km. I finally did after 25 mins which I later found out was terrible timing. A cyclist friend can cycle 18 km in 30 mins but of course, he's been doing it for a few years. It's definitely something to aim for. By the time I got to the treadmill, I was pretty worn. Even without the other exercises, I haven't jogged 5 km yet. I had just completed 2.5 km in 20 mins & promptly took a tumble on the treadmill. Yeah, I know, I'm so clumsy. I actually missed a step, had my right foot on the side unmoving panel & my left foot still on the moving treadmill. Yep, ended up with a big bruise on my right knee & shin but otherwise unharmed. I got back up & went to carry some weights before heading home. When I told hubs what had happened, he had the cheek to laugh at me some more. Bleah!

Here we are, Thursday night. I resumed my normal gym routine before heading home since hubs is having good food at Crown. I reckon I'll do the Ironman training once a week with remaining gym days doing my routine. Hopefully in a few month's time, I'll be able to report that I successfully completed my 1st Sprint Ironman in the gym.

Ever The Accident Magnet

This is my solution. Can't prevent accidents but can be a source of evidence if I get into 1. Haven't been blogging coz it was time of the month & I was extra achy & extra tired. So I slept at 8 pm everyday. 

2 Fridays ago, I had another near miss. Imagine a T junction & again, I was going straight. A car had stopped on the dotted give way line on the side road to my right. This time, I was on the right lane. At the last possible minute, the driver decided he (I use he but I don't know if it's a man or woman) wanted to make a dash for it. I actually shouted "Whoa whoa whoa!" while stomping on the brakes & swerving to the left at the same time. I braced myself for impact. But maybe he saw the horror on my face or suddenly realised if he proceeded a crash would be imminent & he stopped. I successfully skirted around the head of his car.

I decided enough is enough. I've had enough of all these close calls. If I hit the car in front of me, surely it'll be ruled against me. Having video recordings will work in my favour in the event that the accident isn't my fault. When I told hubs, even he asked me, "Why is it that you always meet these kind of drivers?" He was all for the idea to get a video recorder. 

Good fortune galore. When we headed to Repco last weekend, this Drive Video Recorder cum rear view mirror was on offer. The original price was $129 & it was now selling for $69. There was 1 model down with only VGA quality recording going for $59. This records HD quality videos for $10 more. Not a difficult choice isn't it? 

A class 10 high speed micro SD card is required for this device & we headed to Midland yesterday for a look. We went to Office Works 1st. They were selling the 16GB for $19.90 & the 8GB for $7.90. The Good Guys was selling the exact same thing for $28.90 & $16.90 for the 8 GB. JB Hi Fi next door was around the same price. The price difference was so huge that we went back to Office Works to make sure we didn't get the price wrong the 1st time round. We bought the 8GB card from Office Works which we were told can hold up to 4 hours of recording in HD. 

Hubs had just given my car a much needed wash & "installed" the recorder for me. It doesn't actually require installation, just attach it to the current rear mirror, plug it in & adjust the settings. We've tested it & it works. So yay! All ready to go!

Weaning Off GPS

Like, finally! It's not like I need it for some time now. But like a child who outgrew his/her security blanket but insists on keeping it, I found myself clipping the GPS to my windscreen before my journey to work & back home. I don't need it, I just like having it there. Finally, I told myself enough is enough & proceeded to wean myself off it.

I didn't go cold turkey. Instead, I muted the GPS yesterday on the drive back home so even if I didn't look at the screen, I wouldn't get verbal prompting. But in the event that I did get lost, I still can refer to it. Of course, I didn't need it. It was a hot day yesterday. (Well, hot to me at least.) As I was approaching the petrol kiosk near home for a top up, the mounting, together with the GPS fell off. I think it was the heat that caused the suction cup to fail.

This morning on the journey to work, I repeated the tactic. Nope, I still didn't need to refer to the navigation. I drove home without the GPS for the 1st time today & I'll do without for the drive to work tomorrow. So there! I finally weaned myself off the GPS for work trips.

Perils Of Driving

Yeap, another post about driving. Most days go without much drama. Some days I get 1 or 2 incidents. This morning, I was hit with a record breaking 5. Started off early into the drive, not even 10 km from home all the way to work. I was a stiffy, all tensed up with adrenaline pumping through my veins until I finally parked in the staff carpark.

P told me occasionally he sees someone overtaking 2 cars at 1 go on a dual carriage way (I'm not sure if it's called that but it's a single lane in each direction with no partition in between). Never has he seen a car overtaking 5 cars like I did several weeks ago. I saw 2 cars that did that this morning. I had this heavy vehicle in front of me & they usually pick up speed slowly but once up to speed, they do keep to the speed limit. 1st car obviously impatient, overtook 4 cars to get in front of the truck even though I was already at 86 kph just behind the truck (with some distance between us of course, I don't do tailgating).

Then we got to a round about, truck got through, I waited for a car coming on the right to pass, took up position behind this car. It was a double white line immediately after the turn which means absolutely no overtaking. But this car didn't want to wait for the truck to pick up speed, immediately drove onto the oncoming lane, only to brake hard, veered back into lane, narrowly missed crashing into the oncoming traffic. That's the reason why it was a double white line!

3rd incident, I was approaching a traffic junction when the lights turned amber. Since I was still a distance away, I chose to stop coz I know I won't clear. I saw in my rear mirror this car behind me immediately signaled right & blew past the junction. Flash, flash, flash. Red light camera went off 3 times. A total of 3 cars decided not to stop for the amber & all of them caught on camera.

4th incident had nothing to do with others. My GPS suddenly shut down on its own, giving me a shock. (No, the battery's not flat coz it's plugged in.) While I know the way to work (mostly), I make use of it to tell me how many more km I am away from my next turn so I can get into position early enough. I was still thinking if I should just find somewhere to stop & have it switched on again when it did by itself. 有惊无险。

Last incident was about 5 km to go before reaching my work place. I was in the left most lane. In the lane to my right ahead, was a heavy vehicle that's not entirely in his lane. So I made the decision not to speed up so I can get ahead, even though I was at 50 kph on a 60 kph road. Behind this heavy vehicle was a car, big 1, probably a 4WD. He was just ahead of me. As we rounded a bend, this car suddenly came into my lane, as if the driver failed to turn his steering wheel & it was a gentle bend! I stomped hard on my brakes to avoid hitting him. Thankfully, the car behind me kept a safe distance or I would have been rear ended.

I think these drivers need to go back to driving school to learn the basics of road safety. They're either going to end up killing someone, themselves or both. How many times can I get lucky? Perhaps 1 day, like everything else, crazy drivers will become a norm & avoiding accidents will become a daily routine to me.

Inconsiderations Encountered

Perils of driving. A cyclist very nearly gave me a heart attack this morning. He was in all black, his bike was black, had it not been the light glinting off his spinning wheels, I wouldn't even have noticed him. Seriously? In the dark & in a residential area with no street lights? On the way home, I was caught in a massive jam. It took me 30 mins to clear 1 traffic light. Couldn't even go beyond 2nd gear. Thankfully mine's an auto transmission car. Must be terrible to be driving manual in a jam. But once I cleared the area, I couldn't see what caused the jam at all. No accident, no car broke down, no road works. Then some people, obviously impatient from the delay started weaving in & out of lanes with very little clearance, causing cars behind them to brake sharply. I was several cars behind & saw the entire thing. How much time are you going to save anyway? 5 mins? Certainly not worth losing your life, causing someone to lose their life or having to deal with the aftermath of an accident.

When I got home, hubs told me that the rubbish truck missed our street this morning. When he wanted to collect the bin, he realised that someone had dumped their rubbish into our half full bin to the brim. He left the bin out on the bin pavement since there's no way we can throw anymore rubbish in it. Our neighbour to our left has gone somewhere with the kids (we think) as we haven't seen them nor their cars for a few days. He thinks it's the neighbour to our right but our landlord says there's only a woman living on her own there so she doesn't think it's her. I went to open our bin to have a look & wish I hadn't. The person threw rotten food into our bin & the stench was just horrible. Eeewww... Whoever it is, this person is so bad. I told hubs we'll just have to throw our trash in the park's bin for the time being.

Near Miss

In a clinical setting, nurses put up incident reports for 2 scenarios. An actual incident & a near miss. This report goes to the head of department & to the quality improvement department who then assesses what measures can be taken to prevent the incident from happening again.
I had a near miss today. Not at work but on the drive back home. Almost an accident. I must be a magnet for such things. I love my Integra & I hope it'll last long, long, long. If I crash it, it'll definitely be another write off & it'll be hard to find another quality car for so low a price.

I was almost home. Probably 200m away. I drove in from the main street & have to make a right turn, follow the curve of the road & turn into my house. It's a T junction & though this is 99% of the time a quiet road, I always stop at the stop line, check for traffic from both directions before making the turn. I don't take it for granted that it'll always be clear. Before I even reached the stop line, this car sped round the corner from the left, cutting into my lane. I jammed on the brakes (which wasn't much anyway since my speed was probably 10 or 20 kpm) & narrowly missed getting hit by inches. I was still at least a metre or 2 from the stop line. Had it not been for my overly cautious driving habits (I know I probably drove many other drivers crazy) I would definitely have been hit. The driver was young, probably under 20 & sped off as if nothing had happened. Oh my gosh! Who gave him a pass on his driving test?

At the same time, I must have such good fortune that I've never been injured & I'm just so thankful that my Integra has been kept safe (this time). It'll serve as a reinforcement that I should keep my cautious driving habits regardless of who else gets pissed off with my adherence to speed limits, maintaining safe distances when driving & when stopping & ensuring I have enough clearance to turn instead of trying to speed past oncoming traffic.

The Awkward Duckling

Me, the social misfit. My priority is to learn up my work, be the efficient & effective worker I want to be. But it's kinda awkward when I have nothing to say to my colleagues. They won't fail my probation just becoz I'm not sociable, will they?

I wonder how long it'll take me to get used to everything here. Not just the work & relationships but also my feelings about Perth. Will it 1 day start to feel like home to me? Or will it feel as foreign to me as it is now regardless of the duration that I've been here?

Now that I'm more familiar with my route, driving to work & back home is less of an agony. We only had 4 cases today so we were done by 11 am. Kind of a waste to spend 2 hours on the road just to work 3.5 hours. But I guess more hours is always better than less. I've only clocked in 26.5 hours this week compared to the 31 hours last week. Well, at least 1 hour from yesterday is on overtime rate.

Hub's home from work early today as well. Looks like it's going to be a frequent event that he gets home earlier than I do. Having to start at 7 am means he has to wake up at 5 am like I do. He actually said he'll go to bed after Masterchef, even earlier than I currently do. I make it a point not go to bed after 10 pm so I can get 7 hours of sleep. I've fallen into a daily routine & there's comfort in that. I get home around 6 pm most days, do my evening gongyo & shower. Fix dinner by 7.30 pm, just in time for Masterchef. In between commercials I'll fix up Ton's food, clean up after his mess & brush his teeth. But I can't go to bed straight after Masterchef coz I've got to wash the dishes & let Ton out.

I finally have a taste of what a working wife feels like. Her work doesn't stop when she knocks off from work. On my days off, I catch up on the rest of the chores. I can't imagine how working mothers (without maid) manage. Must be tough.