Life down the fast lane

There I was yesterday night, chasing after Daniel’s “Black Phantom” Myvi after our usual but exceptionally late DotA (9pm-almost 12am-ish) where we played with both Alvin and Tong. I was at the junction opposite Khalifah wanting to turn in into my neighbourhood, where Daniel, who had yet to realise I was behind him, dashed across the road as a lorry blared on from the left.

Split second decision. Nope, let the lorry go. After which a circus of cars and motorcycles slowly rolled on from the left. Split second decision. Go.

What happened next was like a flash of a second but completely bizarre. I jammed hard on my accelerator and felt the car jerk forward, ready and roaring to go. Bright white light presumably from the car opposite me illuminated and blinded me but at that instant, I seemed to see a car directly in front of me, at such a close distance I thought I had smashed into it. As I blinked the light away, it dissipated as quickly as it materialised, but by then my instincts had me jumping on my brakes.

My car was in the middle of a road, stationary, with cars and motorcycles alike continuing to reach me from the left. Noticing immediately that I’m in an awkward position, I moved my car forward, and I heaved a sigh of relief. But I couldn’t shake the image of the car out – bright light, white car – and I definitely wasn’t hallucinating, nor was I on hallucinogens.

The last time I experienced something that shook me as hard as this was when I was at SS15, me driving, about to go to our cybercafe. I drove on, the roads were dark, my mind seemingly fluttering to another world altogether, when Ding who was at the passenger seat yelled. I smashed on my breaks, almost crashing into careless pedestrians because I didn’t even notice they were there.

I’ve always disliked driving around – fearing I’d end up with bloody hands in some way or another. I’m not particularly a bad driver, I’d like to think, but I’m not a very good one either.

On a sidenote, I’ve been quite busy – took me two days to figure out how to upgrade/set-up/install Windows Vista (FINALLY BABY), partly delayed due to Ding’s insistence on me installing an age-old game and a virtual drive which caused Vista to not want to upgrade, partly on hours wasted on the upgrading process, and partly on backup-ing and doing a fresh install.

Days seem to pass by at an insane pace lately – normally I don’t take notice on such trivial issues unlike my teenage years, but as of late I noticed that I’m hitting that big 2 in a few months time. It’s like driving on a fast lane, drunk on speed on the road, ignoring the enveloping sceneries and mushrooming concretes, and before you know it, you’ve hit the end.