near-death experience

I'm happy to be alive.

Ok, so I was driving a colleague home after work this evening. Sitting stationary at a red light, I took a swig from my water bottle to quench my thirst. Second in the queue. The light eventually turns green. Car in front moves off, and I follow.

Another car decides to come flying past from the right, somehow getting between me and the car in front of me. No idea why. Couldn't justify it in any way. It wasn't like he just scraped in when the lights turned red for him, the lights would've been red for a good 5-10 seconds. I managed to slam the brakes. If I hadn't, I think they would've ploughed straight into my driver's side door (ie. me) at whatever ridiculously fast speed they were going at. That would've hurt.

I must say though, I am kinda annoyed I didn't get to beep the horn at them because I had the drink bottle in one hand and the steering wheel in the other. Oh well, just gotta wait for karma to strut its stuff...

attempted robbery

Filling my car up at the petrol station last night (cheap Tuesday) was a bit more, er, exciting than usual. When I got out of my car and picked up the nozzle, I glanced into the shop to see a bit of action inside, involving two youngish males who appeared to be threatening the two petrol station attendants behind the counter. So I kept filling up, avoiding eye contact while still watching what was going on, and eventually one of the guys decides to get out of there, and drag his mate with him (who didn't seem the slightest bit fazed) when the female attendant picked up the phone and started to dial.

Anyway, it turns out that the two guys were threatening to rob the petrol station. I think they were high on something, they both seemed really twitchy - in fact, when I first saw what was going on it looked like one of the guys was in a rap video by the way he was throwing his arms about... On the way out, they kicked a few things outside before sprinting off across the street.

During the discussion with the attendants, I offered to run them down if I saw then on the way out - it was the least I could do. I have no idea what I would've done if the guys were still in there when I finished pumping, or they actually made progress with their threat... Maybe I should go get some capsicum spray or something.

Nah, too girly. I'll just bring a cricket bat with me wherever I go.

late for work?

Woke up this morning at about 8:15am and totally freaked out - I'm late for work!!! Scrambling, I leap out of bed, pull apart the curtains and make towards the bedroom door when it hits me - today is Saturday. So it was back into bed until the afternoon.

What puzzles me about this is the fact that if I had woken up at 8:15am on a weekday, I wouldn't panic like that - I would've cursed, and just gotten out of bed as per usual. I wouldn't rush around in a frenzy. Maybe I was just really tired or something.

pretending to run

Early this morning saw the running of the 2008 Bridge to Brisbane. If you look at the 10km race results when they come out in the paper, you'll find me in there as a finisher. I also have a finisher's shirt (not on me at the moment though). The truth is that I was actually sleeping while everyone was running/walking. Yes, that's right, I'm lazy.

I decided I really didn't feel like waking up early on a Sunday morning to run. I hadn't really gone for a proper run since the Gold Coast Marathon. And the final straw was when I found myself at a party on Saturday night. So, rather than paying to post my timing chip back, I gave it to Paul at the party, who was going to be walking the 10km (I usually carry my timing chips in my pockets when I go out). That way he could return it after the race and it wouldn't cost me. So I should have the exact time as him. Apparently Sara also got my a finisher's shirt, so it's like I was actually there.

Oh well, my $30 got me a finisher's shirt. At least I contributed to charity.