PT is not that bad

One good thing has come out of my car incident. I've realised that travelling to work by Public Transport is not so bad after all. I grew up relatively close to the city but in the burbs and a suburb that didn't have a train station or trams and only relied on buses. Horrible buses that ran every 20-30 minutes so if you missed one you were in trouble.

I learnt really quickly to be car dependent.

I have since moved to Brunswick and and rely on my car much less. I can walk to the shops, I can ride everywhere. 2 trams and a train station are all within walking distance. On the weekend I rarely drive except for winter which is another story. Mr T doesn't drive at all and exists very easily but he works in the city. I work in the outer suburbs and a suburb which nearest train station doesn't line up with my closest train station so I looked into once a while ago and discovered that I need to catch a bus (ahhh how I hated buses) and a tram to get to work so I figured it was too much work and would take way too much time.

But with me being forced to use it while my car was getting fixed I discovered it only take an extra 10 minutes and the pros outweigh the one cons. On the pros list, it:

* saves me money
* is better for the environment
* I can read, half sleep and just gaze at the window and daydream on PT
* no having to deal with road rage or drivers cutting me off
* I feel more relaxed as the result of the above two
* I also have a great bus driver who not only waits when I am running from the tram but also tells me 'you don't have to run, I saw you' and has started calling me 'mate'.

So it's PT for me from now on.

While we are on the topic, I should probably mention a great experience with a tram driver I had recently. I was on a tram and quietly complaining to Mr T about how my left side really really really hurt over and over again. I was seated a few rows back from the tram driver and he poked out his head looked at me and said 'you don't look too good, this tram is going to the hospital and I will get there as soon as I can, it will take about 5 minutes'. I thanked him and as we neared the hospital we stood up ready to get off and he asked Mr T where he is from. Mr T replied Hong Kong and then he said that his wife is Chinese and he told Mr T to look after me because I am pretty. The pretty part he said in Cantonese. He also said his wife is 'chi sin' which means crazy. I turned out to be fine, but it was nice that he was so concerned and cute that this Anglo-Saxon tram driver was trying to talk to Mr T in his language. I wish I could put in a compliment about him but I don't know his name, the tram number or even the exact time we got on the tram.