Traffic Accidents and being 'Kaypoh'...

I have been stuck in traffic jams, especially those caused by traffic accidents.

And the usual complaints are always "People slow down to gawk", causing the traffic to be slow even AFTER the vehicles were moved away.

Though I would usually grumble when I am stuck in such jams, I know sometimes, things just happen in this manner. With everyone thinking for themselves and reacting to situations which will feed itself.. Self-organized events, I think..

http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200404/backpage.cfm

Sometimes, even without and accident, one person in a dense traffic flow, not paying attention to the road will cause a jam too..

Just imagine.. all around, everyone is travelling at 90km/h. One guy decides to jam brake, for 2 seconds.. Either not paying attention to a slowing vehicle in front, or a piece of debris falling in front of his path.. And then accelerated back to 90km/h after that brief 2 seconds..

The guy behind him hits the brakes hard too, but this time, he will take more than 2 seconds.. maybe 3 or 4 seconds.. cos of shock.. and he has to make sure that the first guy did accelerate before he will press his accelerator again..

Imagine the guy behind THIS guy, will take another 1 or 2 seconds longer than HIM. And it goes on.. and about 10 minutes later.. that stretch of road has slowed to a crawl to 30km/h...


Oh, and how about accident vehicles ? Is it that bad to take a look ? Why not ? Let those who drive recklessly take a close look and hope they do not do that.. Let the kids who just got their license know how their cars will look like should they decide to test the laws of physics..

But then those who will heed such "warnings" will not need to SEE these accidents.. looking at newspaper photos will be sufficient.. Those die-hard racers and people who think they are immortal, no amount of gore is going to scare them.

So perhaps being kaypoh is good, perhaps it is useless too.. I will never know..

Another step in becoming a seasoned traveller...

I have been travelling, for work and for holiday, for the past 10 years.

Yesterday, I have another point to clock into my season traveller mileage - I missed my first flight.

I arrived at Taoyuan International Airport on time. I checked in with almost 2 hours to spare. I proceeded past immigration, where I had to consume all my drinks.

(I couldn't remember whether they had another layer of security check at the gate and have taken the decision to go in rather than stay outside. I tried to finish my can of coke, a bottle of H2O and a bottle of mineral water. I can't and had to dump whatever I couldn't finish.)

In I went, then up to the next level and settled for a cup of latte and a croissant for lunch. Light, since I will be having another round of late lunch on the flight.

Then I took out my laptop to play my game (no points for guessing what game I was playing, ha ha.)

I didn't double check my flight time. I kept on thinking it was 2.40pm. So I played until about 2.25, turned it off, and proceeded to the gate. I know SQ closed the gate 10 min before departure. I could make it on time.

As I was walking into the gate, I looked at the signboard and it said the flight time was 2.20pm! I ran down. Nobody was sitting at any of the chairs. One of the staff saw me walking down and apparently know my name. Wow ! How did he know ?

So the plane had just left the gate, and my luggage was in it.

Anyway, to cut the long story short, they arranged me to get on the next flight. Gave me my boarding pass and I have another 4 hours to kill. This time, I found a comfy sofa, sat down and read my novel.

When I arrived in Singapore, my luggage was sitting on a trolley waiting for me already. Nice SQ service.

*~*~*~*~*

So, I have had close-call connections where I had ran from one end of the airport to the other. I have had flight delayed for hours due to weather (though it wasn't snow nor typhoon). I have had stand-by for 4 days at the airport waiting for empty seats on full flight season. I have had incredible flood that didn't stop me from getting back home on time.

Now I missed my flight trying conquer the world in a chair... :)

Only experiences left that I haven't had are lost luggages, missed connections, air accidents and hijacks. I really hope I will never have to live through any of it. Missing a flight is enough excitement. Excitement that did no harm except my kill my time and my mood.

*yawn*... tired... had a whole week of work and late night partying. Going to sleep early so that I can enjoy my weekend.

Conquer the World !

Ok. All done with Theme Hospital.

Just bought Command & Conquer : The First Decade.

Remembering the good old times of Win 95, Win 98, playing games with loud-speaker in hostel room...

So far, all seems to load and run well in Vista.

Starting from the very first episode too.. Weird, playing 640x480 on my 15.4" Wide screen laptop. Not to mention the window size havoc it makes whenever it changes resolution with open windows in the background.

Also, when my screen-saver kicks in it screws up the video colours... But nothing I can't deal with.. hahahaha

Ok, I guess my $60 of C&C:TFD is going to keep me occupied for the rest of the year.

One down.. another to go...

Clearing out my stash.. No point keeping them...

So this is one down :


And dealing with this now :

My Books are in hot demand...

For those who already know, I have given out a list via email to my close friends.

This morning, I sent out the remaining list to my whole office (about 65).
Lo and behold, 20 out of 26 books were taken up within an hour ! Some books even had multiple bookings.

Haha. Was joking with one of my colleagues that if only my work-related emails get such fast and good response. He mentioned that it was my title "Knowledge to be shared" and the list of good books that attracted such reactions.

Of course, things like A-Level physics had no takers.

So good, I don't have to make a trip to sell at 2nd hand bookstores..