BUS-tard!
If there is one thing all poly students hate, the grand prize would go to waking up early to catch a bus at rush hour to school. If you are lucky, like me, you would only have to do this treacherous journey weekly. If not, like my previous semester, you got to perform this terrible task four-times weekly. Woah.. that's like more than the times Saudi Arabian Airlines flies to Singapore or... more times than Singaporeans getting laid a week (or a fortnight for some or for others, a lifetime). haha...
Anyway, back to the Long March polytechnic students have to endure in one semester of their poly-life or another (or all if unlucky). The students, turned GI Joes and GI Janes, will have trudge their way up a transportation vehicle, fish out their EZ-link cards to tap on the dirty blue reader upon entering the hell gates, and try to find a space to breathe; all the while jostling with office ladies, salesmen, factory workers and aunties on their way to another mahjong match. And the situation doesn't get any better, every stop the bus makes, the vehicle becomes more and more like a giant red sardine can on wheels as shoals (should I say hordes) of people squeeze their ass in; adjust your book and the next person will get mutilated by paper cuts, move your foot, someone's toes will be endangered, and fart.... the end of the moving sardine can.
Anyway, what won the trophy was my trip on bus 72 to school yesturday (18 May 2006). The bus stop at Hougang Central which I took my bus was so filled with people that the human lifeforms spilled unto the pavements and the surrounding grass patch as everyone waited impatiently for the bus 72. Finally, we caught the sight of a double-decker bus 72 and alot of kiasu people scrambled for position, ready to battle their way up the bus.
Well... one thing about this bus stop is that it lies after a T junction, hence buses can come from a straight direction (like the bus 72) or they make a right turn to the bus stop (like 80, 87 etc). So his highness, bus 72 that everyone so awaits was stopped at a traffic light. Then another double-decker bus trodged towards the bus stop from the right (cant remember the bus number). So with positions ruined, people scrambled up and down the bus stop, predicting whether the bus 72 would stop behind the current bus or will the current bus leave and 72 takes its position. So when the second double-decker bus came, a number of people (including this really kiasu nurse) practically raced up the bus. Unknowingly to them.... it wasn't bus 72, it was bus 80A!!!
The bus 72 was still stuck behind at the traffic light. Well.... this does proves it doesn't always pay to be the first.
Lesson learnt: Number 1 doesn't equivalate to winning.
So when the third bus came, I checked if its 72 (can't be too sure, can you?) and got up, with a wide evil grin on my face. I wonder how long before those people will realise their mistake? Anyway... the joke's turned out to be on me. Read on.
Whilst on the bus staring into space, sitting next to an office lady, and whilst the bus hobbled its way along old Tampines Road, when it was about to depart from a bus stop, the whole bus system shut down. My heart sank. Was it going to be a bus breakdown?! Noooooo........ What's worst than fighting with a bus-stopful of strangers to go up a bus is to fight with a busful of pissed-off fellow passengers to go up another bus!
However, lady luck was with me (or the bus captain) at that moment and he managed to restart the system and the bus continued its way.
Then... as it tried to turn out of another bus stop after a passenger got off, the system crashed again. Like the previous time, TVmobile shut down, the air-con turned off and a busful of dissatisfied customers groaned. Only a few was happy that they will be late for lecture and had no qualms about showing their enthusiasm or foolishness (one can always sleep late and be happy he/she is late for class rather than to express his/her joy of missing lecture to a broke-down bus and her army of angry passengers which would surely endanger their limbs). Finally, again the bus started moving, though people could be heard considering (loudly) if they should take another bus.
Then as it went into another bus stop,
again.
and again.
and again again.
and again again again.
Altogether, it broke down six times. However the capable bus captain manage to get that old metal lady on her way each time, except for one bus stop, the bus went down twice.
I was suspecting it might be related to the exit door, as I can hear the door trying to close when the systems went down. Perhaps it was a short circuit or something.
And... I was right... when the bus finally reached the bus stop where most students get off to transfer another bus to school, the driver refused to open the exit door so everyone had to exit through the entrance instead.
Well, 6 breakdowns would suffice for some of the students to flag down the more reliable form of transporation, with the $2.40 handwave, get to school safe and sound. I preferred, like most of my fellow sheep, to await the one form of transportation that I am forced to depend on every day.
And reliable as it was, I was only about 5minutes late for my lecture. Pretty much thanks to the transport system that sure can reboot her way pass 6 crashes. Some good hardware indeed.
by the way, the lucky number was 9037, need I say more?
Anyway, back to the Long March polytechnic students have to endure in one semester of their poly-life or another (or all if unlucky). The students, turned GI Joes and GI Janes, will have trudge their way up a transportation vehicle, fish out their EZ-link cards to tap on the dirty blue reader upon entering the hell gates, and try to find a space to breathe; all the while jostling with office ladies, salesmen, factory workers and aunties on their way to another mahjong match. And the situation doesn't get any better, every stop the bus makes, the vehicle becomes more and more like a giant red sardine can on wheels as shoals (should I say hordes) of people squeeze their ass in; adjust your book and the next person will get mutilated by paper cuts, move your foot, someone's toes will be endangered, and fart.... the end of the moving sardine can.
Anyway, what won the trophy was my trip on bus 72 to school yesturday (18 May 2006). The bus stop at Hougang Central which I took my bus was so filled with people that the human lifeforms spilled unto the pavements and the surrounding grass patch as everyone waited impatiently for the bus 72. Finally, we caught the sight of a double-decker bus 72 and alot of kiasu people scrambled for position, ready to battle their way up the bus.
Well... one thing about this bus stop is that it lies after a T junction, hence buses can come from a straight direction (like the bus 72) or they make a right turn to the bus stop (like 80, 87 etc). So his highness, bus 72 that everyone so awaits was stopped at a traffic light. Then another double-decker bus trodged towards the bus stop from the right (cant remember the bus number). So with positions ruined, people scrambled up and down the bus stop, predicting whether the bus 72 would stop behind the current bus or will the current bus leave and 72 takes its position. So when the second double-decker bus came, a number of people (including this really kiasu nurse) practically raced up the bus. Unknowingly to them.... it wasn't bus 72, it was bus 80A!!!
The bus 72 was still stuck behind at the traffic light. Well.... this does proves it doesn't always pay to be the first.
Lesson learnt: Number 1 doesn't equivalate to winning.
So when the third bus came, I checked if its 72 (can't be too sure, can you?) and got up, with a wide evil grin on my face. I wonder how long before those people will realise their mistake? Anyway... the joke's turned out to be on me. Read on.
Whilst on the bus staring into space, sitting next to an office lady, and whilst the bus hobbled its way along old Tampines Road, when it was about to depart from a bus stop, the whole bus system shut down. My heart sank. Was it going to be a bus breakdown?! Noooooo........ What's worst than fighting with a bus-stopful of strangers to go up a bus is to fight with a busful of pissed-off fellow passengers to go up another bus!
However, lady luck was with me (or the bus captain) at that moment and he managed to restart the system and the bus continued its way.
Then... as it tried to turn out of another bus stop after a passenger got off, the system crashed again. Like the previous time, TVmobile shut down, the air-con turned off and a busful of dissatisfied customers groaned. Only a few was happy that they will be late for lecture and had no qualms about showing their enthusiasm or foolishness (one can always sleep late and be happy he/she is late for class rather than to express his/her joy of missing lecture to a broke-down bus and her army of angry passengers which would surely endanger their limbs). Finally, again the bus started moving, though people could be heard considering (loudly) if they should take another bus.
Then as it went into another bus stop,
again.
and again.
and again again.
and again again again.
Altogether, it broke down six times. However the capable bus captain manage to get that old metal lady on her way each time, except for one bus stop, the bus went down twice.
I was suspecting it might be related to the exit door, as I can hear the door trying to close when the systems went down. Perhaps it was a short circuit or something.
And... I was right... when the bus finally reached the bus stop where most students get off to transfer another bus to school, the driver refused to open the exit door so everyone had to exit through the entrance instead.
Well, 6 breakdowns would suffice for some of the students to flag down the more reliable form of transporation, with the $2.40 handwave, get to school safe and sound. I preferred, like most of my fellow sheep, to await the one form of transportation that I am forced to depend on every day.
And reliable as it was, I was only about 5minutes late for my lecture. Pretty much thanks to the transport system that sure can reboot her way pass 6 crashes. Some good hardware indeed.
by the way, the lucky number was 9037, need I say more?
posted by SkyCruiser at
1:10 PM
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