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Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s off to work we go

I was going to write this blog entry as a continuation on about motorcyclists but Faisal told me that he was also writing something on motorcyclists. So to avoid a repetition of topics, I've decided to shelf my comment on bikes for now.

Our office hours are 9am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday. Of course, the reality of my life is that it is impossible to leave the office at 5.30 on any day. Indeed, I applaud anyone who can work so diligently to be done with work so exactly every day.

Besides magazine deadlines, somehow the typing in of a full-stop and clicking on “publish” never seem to come together in a timely fashion at 5.28pm to give me two convenient minutes in which to save my open files, shut down my computer and tidy up my desk to leave on the dot at 5.30. Instead something usually comes up in the course of the day, so that I still have a lot more to get done before I can even think about shutting down the computer at 6. Then the traffic has built up and it becomes pointless leaving until at least 7. For me, it means finding more things to post on Yahoo! or catching up on emails or the news online.

I tell you all this, not to give the misleading impression that I am an industrious person but rather as a lead in to the next part...

While I make my best effort to be in by 9 every morning, I am not of the mettle to kill myself, or anyone else for that matter, just to get tap my access card at 8.59am. I set aside a reasonable amount of time to get into work then take the traffic as it comes – almost – but nothing get's me madder than the inconsiderate drivers who seem to ply the rush hour.

You know the ones I mean. The ones that don't keep up the flow of the traffic: the ones that toddle along, a gap of several car lengths between them and the car in front; the ones that slow down at traffic light junctions even though the lights are green; the ones that don't hurry up through flashing green traffic lights or worse, the ones that actually stop at the flashing green light. Yes, there are half-wits like that who really are THAT stupid they don't know what a green light, albeit flashing, means and no amount of honking from the cars behind will get them to move!

Then there are those who sit resolutely on the middle lane of the highway, ambling along at their own pace without regard for the cars building up behind, leaving you unable to overtake because traffic on either side is whizzing by too fast. Usually, they're smoking or are chatting away, their phones up to their ears. There was one who had a cigarette in one hand and his phone in the other. I don't even want to ponder what he was steering his car with. Sometimes, they're chatting to their passengers or in one instance, practically asleep at the wheel, reclined so far down in the seat that it looked like the car was being steered by the headless brake horsepower man.

I realise that they're in no rush to get to their destinations (and while the adage is that it's supposed to be all about the journey), it doesn't mean that they should be so selfish. While I don't advocate maniacal driving on the roads, I'm no more agreeable to lane hogging and other self-absorbed acts that impede the safe progress of other drivers. After all, if you hate your job so much that you drag your heels to get into work, then find another job/place of work. Don't take out your antipathy on other road users.

This morning, on my way to work, I found myself on the middle lane while needing to turn left. I checked my wing mirror and seeing several car lengths between a refrigerated lorry and the car behind it, put on my left indicator then waited for the lorry to pass before making my move to get behind it. The car behind, which had been driven along at a consistent speed before, immediately accelerated forward to try and prevent me from getting into the lane. And even though I was already partially in the lane, the driver forced his way past on my left almost taking his passenger side wing mirror off in the process as he passed perilously close to railings on the left.

Now, if there is one that that makes my blood boil, it's when I have to brake so hard that I can feel the ABS judder under my toes. More so, when there was no need for it. The driver had deliberately sped up when he could have maintained his speed and my move into the lane would not have had any impact on his progress but, he just didn't want to let a car in.

What his problem was, I have no idea but he can't have been in that much of a hurry, judging by the number of cars he let build up in front of him, moments after I had passed him, on our way to the Federal Highway.