It's been over a year!

Last post as of July 2010. Today November 2011. The drive's lasted nearly 2 years now. Lordy how time flies.

Seeing that I have garnered 1 comment here and 4 likes on Facebook (4 likes, that's...so encouraging), I will try again to update this blog.

In case anyone is wondering, yes I am still traveling to and fro. Still the awesome Causeway Crusader that I am. Now at a different job though.

Maybe a post or 3 every week?

So tired

I was speaking to a fellow crusader the other day. He's been driving in and out of Singapore since the new millennial.

THAT'S.TEN.YEARS.WAH.LAU.EH.

I have to say, it's been barely 4 months since I started this life of mine, but it's been a tiring and sometimes painful 4 months.

My only motivation is coming home to my daughter and family. The rest of the day is sometimes just a huge blur to me.

Men are often pushed to their limits when it is for something they deem worth sacrificing for. Take my friend here, he's doing this for his family, his house and his Camry. For a better life.

I see hundreds and hundreds of cars on the causeway everyday. Just how many of us do this everyday? Would 10,000 drivers be an overestimate?

Flames on the causeway

In what was to be my worst jam at the Woodlands Checkpoint since my crusading days started, I was stuck for over 1 hour and 20 min before I was able to hit the causeway.

And I do believe this would have been considered a short wait, especially since the jam seemed to have extended beyond the Woodlands Avenue 3 exit.

I knew I was in trouble when I barely moved a centimeter 10 minutes into my queue which started about 50 meter after the Woodlands Avenue 3 exit.

I was to find out about 20 minutes into the jam that a vehicle caught fire on the causeway, causing traffic to come to a complete standstill on both sides of the causeway. A quick check on the traffic cam on onemotoring.com.sg confirmed this, a white vehicle was smack right in the middle of the causeway, and 2 long queues of traffic on both sides stopped a safe distance away. The picture on the traffic cam was surreal, almost zen like.

As we drove by the vehicle in question (it was actually a freight truck) on the causeway, we could see a very visible charred engine.

The CIQ on my way back, as always, was smooth as a baby's behind.

I guess there will always be days like this i.e. when the jam's totally terrible and unexpected. I just hope there isn't another one such as today's anytime soon.

Accidents in Singapore

Ever since driving in Singapore, I've been shocked at the number of vehicular accidents I see on the roads and expressways in the island nation.

Last Thursday (3rd June), there was this bus that drove through the barrier on the PIE near the Toa Payoh exit, and landed on the first lane of the PIE towards Changi. I drove by the accident site around 7.30am, by then the jam was already building up.

For those stuck on either side of the PIE during then, tough mate, tough.

I read on forums that the entire stretch of PIE towards Tuas was jammed up. Which meant, if it were true, total chaos on all the slip roads and non-expressways. Seriously, if I stayed in the east, I'll just drive home and chuck a sickie (or take MC for the uninitiated).

And I realised that I never read about any of these accidents I see on the roads, even those that involve fatality. I think it's the same in Malaysia as well (unless its extra horrific or involve half a dozen of car). Also, how most of the accidents seem to happen on the first lanes.

Berhati, berhati, di jalannnn raya.

The in-between week

Last week was a unique week, unique in the sense that Singapore has started its June holidays while Malaysia only started this week.

My fellow crusaders have mentioned to me before that the traffic on the causeway is significantly lesser during school holidays.

To be honest, I never understood why, and was a bit skeptical about it. So came Monday (that's 31st May), the causeway was pretty packed, but being Monday it was understand. But the rest of the week was really significantly less jammed. Unbelievable!

So I had 3 theories to explain this:

1. Lots of cars decided to leave earlier (very very unlikely I reckon)
2. Lots of cars decided to leave later (possible, since the roads on Singapore are less jammed now)
3. There exists a significant population of parents/drivers that ferry their children to school (again, possible, given the poor state that JB's and Malaysia's education are in now)

I believe (3) to be more plausible, but of course I have no way to prove/disprove it. It is my personal observation that the number of bus sekolahs has reduced significantly 2 decades ago, supported by how much the amazing shringgit has shrunk.

But it was a lot more jammed this Wednesday morning, right up to the CIQ exit. And now its the Singapore side that's jamming up the causeway. I swear, sometimes the inefficiency on the Singapore side can give our Malaysian kastam brothers (and sisters) a run for their money.

On a side note, today marks the first time I've seen a 0.5 (in 231.50) in the exchange rates in a while.

Monday Monday

To all my fellow crusaders who took the BKE-PIE route this morning, I hope you enjoyed the drive :).

Yep, it's the start of the month long June holidays for schools in Singapore, which means less, nay, much less cars on the roads for you and I. Cars driven by filial moms and dads ferrying their precious ones to school and back will be official off the road for the next 4 weeks.

Some of my BMW friends (that's Bus, MRT and Walking for the uninitiated), are skeptical that these schoolkid carrying cars make such differences on the road.

Let's take a garden variety primary school in Singapore. Let's say there's five classes of 30 students per primary level for a total of 600 students. If we assume that 10% of these students are driven by their doting parents to work, that's 60 cars per school. Now extrapolate that to all the primary schools in Singapore.

Keep in mind we haven't even started taking into account the sec schools and JCs yet! And we've yet to factor in teachers too (who by the way, rake in some serious dough these days ok?).

I am toying with the idea of sleeping in a bit more, given that time spent on Singapore roads is reduced now (my colleague even found the time to pump petrol this morning!). But given the unpredictability of the CIQ (does anyone know what caused the 15 minute standstill at the bridge this morning?), I think I'll observe a bit more.

Have a good week ahead fellas!

Happy long weekend

I used to joke to my friends that if I ever were to run for presidency in Singapore (let's pretend that there's no GRCs or PAP for now), my electorate campaign is for all citizens to enjoy at least one long weekend per month.

I predict a landslide victory for me.

Singapore has one of the least (if not the least) number of public holidays in the world. So such luxuries are really few and far between. And to make things worse, this weekend is the last public holiday we'll see till 9th August, which is more than 2 months away.

Enjoy the rest of the day folks, its back to the causeway and grinder for us tomorrow.