Collected Statistics

Was saying in my previous blog entry that I am going to collect data on the gender and age of people who travels on the lane markings itself. Because these are the people who obstruct my smooth flow of riding, so they get me a little on my edge sometimes. These are what I managed to collect:

Number 1

Car Model: Sonata
Colour: Goldenish
Driver: Male
Age: Late fifties to early sixties

Number 2

Car Model: Kelisa
Colour: Greyish
Driver: Male
Age: Late Forties to early fifties

Comments: For such a mini car as Kelisa, I am utterly amazed at how he can travel on the lane markings for such long distances. My Bike will probably be as wide as his car if I put two side boxes. So how, how in the world did the amazing driver not keep to lane when his car is so small compared to the lane.

Number 3

Car Model: Old Civic Model, SDL plate possibly vti version
Driver: Male
Age: Early twenties

Comments: Very young chap. Looks younger than me.

Number 4

Car Model: Jazz
Driver: Female
Age: Early Thirties

Comments: Followed her for about 5 minutes in her blindspot, hoping she will get out of the lane markings so that I can squeeze through (5 mins is a long time for vehicles on expressway, considering I take 25mins to travel from Simei to Boon Lay). But all this while she just happily travelled on the lane makings. After some time she decided she wants to change lane and she just changed without checking her blind spot and without signalling. However, I am attuned to cars like that on the road, changing lanes without knowing I am there, so I had been trained to spot drivers that demonstrate behaviours or intention of lane changing. Hence, I manage to know that she wanted to change lane before she actually did, and I pressed my horn to warn her I am there.

I spotted two other cars that had half their right side wheels into the other lane already. Note, they are not just travelling on the lane markings, they had their half of their right side wheels totally out into the other lane already. Therefore, I gave them the benefit of the doubt that they wanted to change lane, which could possibly explain why they are so totally off. However, after I past them and though there were no cars behind me, they did not change lanes. They were so off simply because they were that lousy. No other reasons. I wonder how they got their licence... Anyway having zoom past them, I am too lazy to slow down and check who is the idiot controlling the machine, so I just left my specimens alone.

Data collection had been going on really slow, because at night or very early morning, it is too dark, so I can't see the driver hidden inside. Other times I am just riding too fast to capture details of the drivers.

Next, the lane markings over paya lebar road had not been widen. They had placed a few layers over since I last updated my blog and they corrected the markings. I think they made a mistake in the width in the first layer, but subsequently they corrected it.

If I have the chance I should really drive a weekend car out illegally on a rainy day, cause never in my 5 years of riding experience have I ever met a TP on a rainy day. It is like TP and rains are mutually exclusive and thus they cannot coexist. A simple metaphor to illustrate this would be driving and sleeping. You don't fall asleep and still expect to drive like normal right? Sleeping and driving cannot occur together, well so does TP and rain. So one day, if I ever had the chance to owe a weekend car, I shall execute to prove my theory :p

Road Observations

When is the best day to bring your weekend car out illegally?

When it is raining. TPs vanishes at the first sight of a rain cloud.

PIE lane markings between Paya Lebar exit and Eunos Exit is being repainted with the lane width changed. Lane width had been made wider. This means bikers can squeeze between cars with more space between them. Terms and conditions applied.

T & C: Assuming drivers have lane sense. Some drivers, not all, travels on the dotted line! Wish there was a law written that dotted lines are meant for bikers :p But seriously, which drivers with the right sense of mind travels on dotted lines... Maybe next time I shall do data collection and plot statistical graph, see whether it has got anything to do with gender or age etc.

The increase in lane width is a sensible move because bikers will always squeeze no matter what you tell them, so why not make it safer for them to do so. Besides it prevents drivers' mirrors from being scratched too haha.

Bikers exercise high self-discipline: Everytime I travel at 60km/h on days with heavy rain, I felt this nagging feeling as though I am short changing myself. And there is this horrible inner voice telling me to speed up, speed UP, SPEED UP. So I am always having to fight this inner voice during rainy days to be safe, BE safe, BE SAFE & SHUT UP!

Though I am well-covered by insurance, I am sure my parents rather me alive than the money, my friends too right? RIGHT? *keeps fingers cross* (afterall friends don't get a single cent if I am dead, but u all will get presents, TLC, companionship etc from me if I stay alive. But you all don't want me alive because of these reasons right? I mean I like you all so much, nice to you all too, surely you all hope nothing bad happens to me cause you all like me too right? :p Ok this part is a joke, back on track --->) So ya, bikers exercise high self-discipline as I am always having to struggle with the impulsive side of me. And most of the times (maybe 80% of the time), my good side wins. Other times, well, the desire to be naughty is too strong to resist :p

Ride and Rain

On this day, I just finished gym and was waiting for my friends to finish bathing. While waiting, I listened to my mp3, and when I looked at the sky, I saw this lump of dark clouds blowing towards my direction.

This scenic spells bad news, afterall I will be riding home in a while, after lunch that is. And sign such as this is not good for any riders. Well, I do love to ride in the drizzle, it feels cooling because the wind is cold and wet, I just love it. But heavy rain is horrible. I don't have a screen wiper, and the rain just keep splattering onto the visor so visibility is almost nil. It is also pointless to wipe off the water from the visor because it just keeps coming. And traffic is horrendous during heavy rain. So with heavy traffic, poor visibility and poor road conditions, I need a lot of concentration to ride, so riding no longer becomes enjoyable.... That is why heavy rain = no good.

Another pic of the weather, see its becoming darker and it had only been a time span of two minutes.

Just as expected, it rained heavily when I go home.

There was a traffic jam all the way from Bukit Batok to Eunos! And because its raining heavily and with all this jam, I had to go at a crawling speed of 60km/hr all the way from NTU to home! It was a horrifying and tiring experience. All the energy was spent in concentrating and trying to get home in one piece. Besides it is a whooping distance of 40km from NTU to home and I was only travelling at 60km/h and sometimes less... It had been agonising. Rainy days wouldnt have been so bad if it wasn't for the two accidents that happened. I think it is because of them that traffic is so bad. I never experience bad traffic before at 4pm, not even on rainy days, the accidents were the cause of my agony!

The first accident at Bukit Batok exit involved a cab and and a car. No time to check out what cab and what model of car, and it occured on Lane two. Further down, maybe near the exit to Lornie, another accident involving another cab and another car occured on Lane one.

Because of these 4 idiots, cars had to weave in and out between lanes to avoid the obstacles. And as I was squeezing in between cars, I had to be really careful, cause you never know when a car is gona weave out into my lane.

But finally, I made it home, in one piece, drained but still its over. At the end of the day, I still love riding. I suppose these sort of things add spice to my life. Maybe I can boost of an interesting life to my kids in future *wink*

Nana Darling

Hmm Nana is a very common bike, it had been labelled as a taxi bike by my friend because it is so common. But everytime I look at it, I just love it so much, its like my pride and joy I think.

It is too tall and too heavy for me I suppose, but I still love it very much anyway. Hmm don't everyone feels the same way about their bikes or cars? Love it a lot?


Ricky took this pic for me, its one of my favourite photo, cause its the sole photo I had with Nana my darling. Haven't found anyone else to take couple photos with my darling and I. So I have to be satisfied with this single one alone.

I really like the jacket I am wearing too, it costs about 300+ and its a gift from my friend. Thank you, it fits great, and it looks great. I really like it a lot.

Goals

Well, a few things happened, and I felt like I have been given a new life. I have set a list of goals to be completed before the end of this year.

I am going to be a changed person by the end of this year! (I think ;p) I shall look forward to accomplishing them!

Hmm changed as in change in things that needed to be changed. But basically I will still be the person I am, its difficult to overhaul my character completely. Though I am flawed, as in not perfect, at least I am wise enough to know its impossible to completely change what I basically am. So I will do whatever I can.

First of all, I need to stop being so lazy! So I am going to follow the schedule I have set out really strictly. I realise its really bad being lazy, a lot of time gets wasted!.Now I must move move move!

Haha I can imagine how happy I will be when I completed what I set out to do! So to achieve that happiness, I will move on!

Ahh I miss hanging out with my frds too. I miss the days when all of us game together in GW (grok, dave, lala, mao, wk, hang, and er the missing guild members hahaha)! I miss hanging out with liying, serene, meiqing, qi, edith, xuefen, meiyan, sharry, mary, xiuwen, bian, ks, jim, yingwei. I miss hanging out with my biker frds! People like weirong also seldom meet :p

Arrgh I miss all my frds! No worries. This coming Nov I gona org outings and meet up with them all! I cant be lazy anymore! And I gona gw like mad! Hopefully I can get the whole guild to play again, excluding lala.

See what the article has done to me (refer to previous post)? Suddenly I am so motivated. All Thx to that article (and the author and the introducer). So if you need motivation too! Read it! Somehow it helps for me, I don't guarantee its gona help every1 of you though.

This article is good

Ok I have been experiencing a few downs lately (who doesn't). Anyway I came across this article from Grok's website, so I am just copying his. But wow this article is good.

http://www.iwillchangeyourlife.com/2007/09/24/30-fundamentals-of-a-wonderful-life/

I just felt motivated after I read it. I just feel like I know what I want to do next in my life. Before this, I was feeling kinda lost like, hmm, whats after this? I can't get over this, I can't get over that. I am upset by this, I am upset by that. But well I could relate to whatever was written in this article and I have something to move on from here. I feel like I have mature a little after reading this article, in terms of handling things and seeing things from another point of view. So if you have anything bothering you, please read this article. Who knows you might find something to push you too!

Who knows I might go mental once in a while again, but then I might come across something nice in Grok's blog again.

Thanks Grok for sharing this article in your blog.