Australian ambulances

I used to live next to a main road and traffic can get quite heavy during the peak hours. Strangely, I heard sirens almost every day. It's either the police chasing someone, or an ambulance rushing the sickly to hospital. Got so many robbers and sick people meh?

Speaking of ambulances...

When I first arrived, I've often seen and wondered about the deep grooves in the grass lining the roads, especially that along the middle of roads on the dividers. Illegal racing? Illegal U-turns?

Well, I soon found out. I was out one evening buying dinner and waiting at the lights to cross the road. Then I heard the distant, by now ubiquitous sirens and an ambulance soon appeared. Unfortunately for it, the road leading to the city was packed. Some cars tried to give way but there just wasn't any space for them to turn into. The opposite direction's lanes were however near empty.

I wondered how the ambulance was going to make it to the hospital in time, unless it... then it suddenly occurred to me how those grooves came about. Sure enough, the ambulance lumbered across the middle curbs, onto the grass, to the other side and towards the onrushing cars! Being a suah ku, my jaw dropped.

I silently hoped the driver was skillful enough to handle this as I crossed to the middle of the road. That was when a second ambulance came along and I was treated to an encore performance of the stunt!

It got little hair-raising this time as from my new focal position, i) it looked like the ambulance might just continue moving forward and hit me, and ii) as it struggled over the curbs, it tottered a little on its centre of gravity and looked like it might just overturn.

This time, I was hoping that the patient hadn't been suffering from any broken bones before the stunt and didn't get any "extras" after.

Akan Datang: a "kiss" from my niece

233 days to go.