Cruisin' down the freeway

Statically speaking

For some I've been discharging a lot of static in the past five months. Today was like the sixth time I can remember when I could feel a zap after putting my finger close to a metal surface. The first I time I noticed it was when Alicia tapped my shoulder and a noticeable  'snap' could be heard before a bit static of a stung her finger. Back then I remember wearing a rather thick twirled cotton polo-shirt which might probably have caught static as I moved around on the leather seat of the car.

Me in my past life.

Many of the answers on the Internet point towards the dryness of the air around me, which probably explained why I have rather dry lips at the same time - the prickly feeling when I stretch them seem to have developed of late - applying lip balm only soothed it a little and leaving them pretty oily.

The last time I remember deliberately 'oiling' my lips not from moisture lost was during the 66th secondary school anniversary. I was one of the several stage actors for the compulsory memory lane performance. Because the stage was so brightly lit by spotlights, all of us boys had to put on lipstick to prevent our faces from looking like extras from the mortician office.

Conclusion - that was the last time I had ever fish scale applied to myself willingly.

Suffice to say none of us looked this sexy back then.

Brake-breaking braking

If there's anything that is hard to predict is the traffic on the Federal Highway. There are times when you expect it to be so damn $%&!@ jam, the 20km or so home was a breeze. And then there are times when you expect it to be smoother, people decide to head out in droves.

You can almost expect it to get congested when it rains but there are times - surprisingly frequent - when the road was actually pretty clear when it poured. Most times they just pop out of everywhere as if everybody telepathically decided to go home at the same time.

Car park : Full

Often it was caused by stalled or broken down cars that you can see with flashing hazard lights from a mile away and tow trucks appearing out of nowhere like they have 'Tow Me' sonar somewhere. You have to wonder why cars seem to stall more frequently when it rains compared to when it doesn't?

More frequently than not its due to accidents because the impatient ones drove faster than their worn brakes or tyres could handle in the rain, reckless drivers with hands and eyes on the phone or the pretty girl in the car next to them or whatever shenanigans in the car, even with two people looking ahead on the road.

"Good news honey - the radio is working now".

The whole journey from Mid Valley to PJ8 took an hour and the rest of the trip another thirty minutes. Good thing I have the radio on and some music on the phone to entertain myself. Ah Mei sounded great in the cool of the car interior, the music video of 解脫 reminding me of this drive back home, minus the actual relief of a moving car. At least it wasn't as bad as the experience some six years ago when I had to hold in a full bladder for two hours.

That's one and half hours of my life I'm not getting back.