it was an interesting day today. you see, i lunch with thomas almost daily. and we would meet at toa payoh at about noon. and when we meet, we would bitch bitch bitch through lunch like what any gay men would typically do. yak yak yak... but today was slightly different, thomas called and asked me to pick him up as he had send his car for servicing. and he gave me some directions to get to his office. and i got lost. and i got mad. and it was the first time he saw me got so angry. and i got lost not becos i misunderstood him. rather, i got lost becos there was a total misalignment of how we usually use words that describe junctions...
this was what happened...
thomas: ok, after you exit the highway, you turn left to safra right? ok, you don't turn left. you turn right. and after you turn right, you head straight. and after heading straight you will finally reach a "tee"-junction. turn right at the "tee"-junction and head straight. you should be able to see a carpark and i will wait for you there....
me: orh, ok... (and i repeated what he said and he said yes)
and i exited the highway, and i turned right and i drove and drove and drove and drove and after driving for sometime, it struck me - the road i was travelling on in toa payoh was a loop road. so where got "tee"-junction? i knew i was way off when i reached the other end of toa payoh. and so i turned right. and i drove, and next thing i knew, i was heading to bishan... and quickly, i did a u-turn but damned it, there was the exit to toa payoh was on the parallel road on my left. i had u-turned too early. and next thing i knew, i was on my way to cte. then i got caught in a jam before i finally did another u-turn and made my way back to toa payoh again.
by this time, i was already fuming mad... i was desperately checking my street directory and driving and trying to think very hard where in toa payoh was the god-damned "tee"-junction... i was not able to figure it out even after i arrived to pick thomas. and after he explained, i concluded that we both understood differently what was "tee"-junction. for me, i had understood "tee"-junction to be a junction in the shape of a capital/ uppercase "T". and i would be travelling from the base of this "T" upwards towards the point when the perpendicular line meets the horizontal line. to me, this was how everyone i knew in my 43 over years of life had defined a "T" junction. but not thomas. to him, his definition of "tee"-junction was a small alphabet/ lowercase "t". ok, enough said. not need to explain further. you get the idea.
wah lau!!! wah lan!!! wah piang!!! wasn't that supposed to be called a "crossroad" junction or simply a "cross" junction? wasn't this also stated in the basic highway code theory test? wasn't that the same way all crossroad junctions are referred to all over the world? there is even a phrase used to describe a person when he is in a dilemma at some specific point in his life - "at one's crossroad in life"... heard of it? sighs... well, it was a learning experience of both of us. for me, i guessed i got a new perspective of what is a "tee"-junction. and for thomas, i guessed he know now that small letters have not place in naming junctions. all junctions are referred to using capital letters.
so, the lesson is - when you communicate, don't assume everyone understand the words the way you do. the silver lining of this whole experience was this - we both got to know each other better.
:-)
this was what happened...
thomas: ok, after you exit the highway, you turn left to safra right? ok, you don't turn left. you turn right. and after you turn right, you head straight. and after heading straight you will finally reach a "tee"-junction. turn right at the "tee"-junction and head straight. you should be able to see a carpark and i will wait for you there....
me: orh, ok... (and i repeated what he said and he said yes)
and i exited the highway, and i turned right and i drove and drove and drove and drove and after driving for sometime, it struck me - the road i was travelling on in toa payoh was a loop road. so where got "tee"-junction? i knew i was way off when i reached the other end of toa payoh. and so i turned right. and i drove, and next thing i knew, i was heading to bishan... and quickly, i did a u-turn but damned it, there was the exit to toa payoh was on the parallel road on my left. i had u-turned too early. and next thing i knew, i was on my way to cte. then i got caught in a jam before i finally did another u-turn and made my way back to toa payoh again.
by this time, i was already fuming mad... i was desperately checking my street directory and driving and trying to think very hard where in toa payoh was the god-damned "tee"-junction... i was not able to figure it out even after i arrived to pick thomas. and after he explained, i concluded that we both understood differently what was "tee"-junction. for me, i had understood "tee"-junction to be a junction in the shape of a capital/ uppercase "T". and i would be travelling from the base of this "T" upwards towards the point when the perpendicular line meets the horizontal line. to me, this was how everyone i knew in my 43 over years of life had defined a "T" junction. but not thomas. to him, his definition of "tee"-junction was a small alphabet/ lowercase "t". ok, enough said. not need to explain further. you get the idea.
wah lau!!! wah lan!!! wah piang!!! wasn't that supposed to be called a "crossroad" junction or simply a "cross" junction? wasn't this also stated in the basic highway code theory test? wasn't that the same way all crossroad junctions are referred to all over the world? there is even a phrase used to describe a person when he is in a dilemma at some specific point in his life - "at one's crossroad in life"... heard of it? sighs... well, it was a learning experience of both of us. for me, i guessed i got a new perspective of what is a "tee"-junction. and for thomas, i guessed he know now that small letters have not place in naming junctions. all junctions are referred to using capital letters.
so, the lesson is - when you communicate, don't assume everyone understand the words the way you do. the silver lining of this whole experience was this - we both got to know each other better.
:-)
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