chasing buses.

move over, snow patrol. the sbs patrol is here.

i don't know why i have this very weird.. fetish (?) for chasing buses. somehow the satisfaction i get when i hop on board (panting like mad) after banging away on my slippers is more than archimedes when he discovered e=mc².

oh wait, that was einstein.. but i digress.

today i left house around 6.45 to catch the 153 to give tuition at 7.30. i figured braddell road would be jammed badly so i thought it prudent to leave early. and indeed i was right, because when i arrived at the bus stop, i already saw the queue of cars forming at the flyover.

to be more precise, it was a queue of cars.. and a double-decker bus. no prizes for guessing what the bus was.

now i have an absolute love-hate relationship with the 153. it's the first bus service i got acquainted with, for i've been taking it since i was 4 years old to get to my grandma's. that bus service really has a lot of sentimental value to me. i've taken it from the non-aircon years up till this very day.

and while it gets me to my favourite place, it has a super erratic schedule and NEVER arrives on time. i used to text iris before rushing down to catch 153, but it either comes very early or very late - hence wasting my finger movement and 5 cents. trust me, jz knows about the 153.

anyway back to the story. lol.

what i suspected was the 153 was inching away, so i boarded the next best alternative, the 28. (i also have a love-hate relationship with the 28, but that's another story for another time.) the bus driver of this particular 28 was a maniac; so he CUT like 5 cars, and pulled up next to the other double-decker.

i proceeded to the top deck and peered over. and i confirmed my suspicion that the elusive 153 had played punk with me again.

nonplussed, i formulated a plan. i decided that i was going to wait till 28 and 153 arrived at the next bus stop, and then alight to change buses. as this was the first day of my bus pass, i felt fully qualified and inclined to deal some serious abuse to my new NUS ezlink card.

oh plus there's this thing about distance fares. no worries about transfers anyway.

the trip at the flyover took forever, but my trusty 28 was hot on the wheels of my sentimental 153. when 153 pulled over at the bus stop in front of 28, i was all ready to make my move.

unfortunately, it was drizzling slightly and 28 stopped in front of a huge mud patch. that wasn't so much of a problem - the problem was the prim and proper lady in front of me. she took ages to get her dainty heels out, and to tread carefully by the side.

by which time the 153 had already let off and taken in her share of passengers, and was ready to move off. when i took off on my slippers by the pavement, 153 swerved out of the bus stop. i don't know if reckless driving was contagious, but the way he moved suggested that he wasn't intending to play bumper buses with 28.

for some really ridiculous reason, the traffic along braddell eased.

nonetheless, i bloody ran.

watching a little of youth olympics earlier definitely helped my cause. i was watching the women's (more like girls') 400m races and this felt like one. my heart surged with adrenaline and hope each time an additional car went into the bus lane.

and each time the bus picked up speed, i pushed even harder.

although the bus had a head start and i was consistently a couple of tens of metres away from it, its disadvantage was that it had to pick up passengers. my army training ensured that i didn't have to pick up anything that dropped from my sling bag.

at bca academy, i arrived at the front door just when the back door shut. i was panting real hard, and my ankles went soft.

the aircon never felt better.

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