Transportation is against me these days

Something is not going right these days... with planes... with trains... with me.

My recent trip to Beijing was fabulous. More on this in my next blog entry.

We were expected to take the 2am flight home that night, and when we arrived at the airport, we were told this: "Sorry, the pilot is sick and this plane will be delayed till 1pm tomorrow. We shall be arranging a ferry bus to take all to the airport hotel." What?? Pilot is sick and we are all stuck? This was really something new to me. I never thought pilots are that important to Airline. No pilot = Lose time, lose money, lose confidence. We then learned on the next day that the pilot had food poisoning and the airline flew in another pilot to take us home. Lucky for me, hotel was excellent (5star hotel), breakfast was good, we got the travel voucher, free in-flight entertainment & food & we got to claim travel insurance.

And just today, after spending almost a week in a foreign country, I was happy to be back in SG. Everything seems good, until I took the train home from work. My train was stuck underground for almost 45 mins - no lights, and worse, no ventilation. I was calm at first when the train came to a halt, and my cabin's light was faulty. Even when the whole train went black out, I still did not think much about it. It was after 15mins when I could feel that air got thinner, that I could sense my fear, and others' fears as well. Lucky for me, there was this Caucasian elderly, I called him The Man, in my cabin. With other locals, they spoke through the speaker to the driver to open the door to allow ventilation. The driver refused to barge the rule. When it got really bad another 15mins later, The Man pulled the door opened with his hands, with the help of another local. I think this is a safety feature of our trains that they are easily opened when forced. (Watching the news now, people actually smashed the train 'windows' with a fire extinguisher! Silly.) With the door left half opened, we got to breathe better. But everybody was perspiring and fanning and worried. People started to call their loved ones. I called the 999. Train lights came on and off, I could only hope to get back home. The Man then took charge in my cabin and people started joking and laughing. And The Man even got a 'choir' singing the Xmas carols! It got everybody's mood up. When we finally got to the station, everybody cheered. However, when the door was still not opened when we were there, The Man again (with another man) pulled the door opened, and asked all of us to get out. I thanked him before making my way out of the door. I went straight to the control room to get help to open the door and the whole station was filled with stranded people. Luckily the door automatically opened a few minutes later. It was a pleasure meeting kind & happy people. Lucky for me, The Man was there in my cabin.

Not that any of these is bad, I experienced the crisis and enjoyed the fun bits of it. Most importantly, I am glad to have lived through them. Thanks, but no more please...!