离开

《郭静 - 离开》

This song is on loop now

And it's so good to lose myself in it

Last Friday was a bad day

I went home from school

Seeing the sky was so damn dark

But there was nothing I could do

Either go home or just wait until Saturaday

So I took the choice to went home

And just out of NTU

I pulled up and changed into my raincoat

Everything was still a-okay

Then it started raining

And the rain soon turned into a thunderstorm

Visibility was reduced to a mere 50-100m

All the cars slowed to a crawl

I was still good

Cruising along

Reaching Mandai soon

And there's a positive news in itself

But just 1 exit before Mandai

The bike lost power

Engine was cut out

First thought was to restart in 1st gear

Because I just pumped petrol over the weekends

It's mathematically not possible to be low on fuel

But I turned on the spare fuel just as a precaution

Still, the engine failed to restart

And BAM!

I'm stuck in the middle lane of the expressway

Right around 100-200m before Woodlands/Upper Bukit Timah exit

There were lots and lots of heavy vehicles

Cement mixer, trailers, lorries and whatever

Peak hour

Freakish thunderstorm

Dead engine

Adds up to a formula for disaster

I put up my hand

Signal to the lorry behind

And I swear he was minding his own business

Yes it's not his fault and I dont blame

And I never expect him to help

But I created a traffic jam

And hell yeah

I'm still stuck in the middle lane

Failing to restart the engine after multiple attempts

I had to push my bike off to the road shoulder

And guess what?

Peak hour, heavy rain

Nobody would actually give a damn where you are

And the visibility

So poor

I actually was like a primary school kid

Putting up my hand

And took the chance to dash across the lanes

One by one

Until I reach the road shoulder

The rain means I cant take out my phone to call

No way out it seems

Still failed to restart the engine

I started to push the bike down

All the way down to the end of the expressway exit

Until the road shoulder ran out

And all the while in my mind

Images of vehicles knocking into poor motorcyclist clouded my head

Too many Traffic Police videos I watched after getting all my licenese

All different level of gore and accident

As I proceed higher to Class 2

The videos got worse

And yes, the images were crystal clear

And they just kept running in my head

So every 5 seconds or so I had to turn my head

To check my blind spot

The one thing that was bothering me was this article published

About a motorcyclist trapped in the rain

Standing at the road shoulder at TPE

He was knocked down and died immediately

Yup, that was so eerily haunting

At the end when the road shoulder ran out

I lost all clues on what to do

So I left the bike there

Ran to under the flyover

And called back

Best thing my parents always do

Not helping the situation

It's like me calling back to ask for a scolding

And I definitely knew it

But still called back and control myself

Dripping wet from inside my full-face helmet

It's not a good combination

I knew calling my brother was the right decision

He always said the more logical thing as a human

As a family member

But all those things I also knew

So after both phone calls

It's kinda back to square one

So I went back to the bike

And miraculously it managed to start!

However the happiness was short-lived

The bike died despite my very best effort to hold the throttle

But this time it was at the traffic light

Getting off the expressway exit was the most important thing

So I called back once again

And my dad managed to get my uncle to came down with a lorry

After waiting for 1 hour

The lorry came in the heavy traffic

In spite of my dad's so many years of riding experience

Even he couldn't start the bike

Shows that it's not just me hur?

With a combine 3-person effort

We managed to push the bike up the lorry

And home sweet home we went

Putting the bike down at bike shop

It was almost 9-ish

Reached back and only had dinner at 10-ish

So yeah, 5 hours hur?

Kinda suck right?

Not just wasting money and time

Dangerous and all too

Sucky sucky feeling

And this kind of thing

I am surprised I didnt tell any of my friends through message or what

I only mentioned something to 1 friend the next day

And yup, I'm surprised by my own actions

Times have changed

I have changed

In a way or so

Surely isn't it?