Kuruma (car)-less in Kochi

It'll be reminiscent of the initial days of cycling, cycling and more cycling. Albeit in chillier days.

I made Ms Mira Gino kiss the right cheek of a burly unknown MPV blackie by neglecting to stop at the tomare (stop) line. Blackie appeared from the left out of nowhere and the collision was inevitable. It was a good thing the first kiss happened at a private establishment's enormous carpark. There were few onlookers, little disruption to the usual activities happening around there, and definitely minimal loss of business to anyone having their operations there.

I was oddly calm. It was as if just another everyday issue had just erupted. I couldn't even quite remember exactly how it all happened, though I did thought at first that it wasn't my fault. I was driving straight, you see. And going STRAIGHT is usually never wrong. Unless of course, there was a tomare line that I had missed. On hindsight, I think I really missed seeing it. The cars were parked so randomly all over the carpark that I probably missed the end of a string of lots. Add to that my slightly delirious state of mind from prolonged plummeted immunity.

Anyways, the saving grace was a knight in shining armour in the form of a keisatsu (policeman) who could speak beautiful pekingnese Mandarin. Who managed to understand everything that I was talking about, and definitely brought down the nerves of Mr Blackie whose frustrations were rising exponentially by the stupid gaijin who kept repeating sumimasen and wakaranai. Nonetheless Mr Blackie is unlikely to be able to seek revenge as he probably won't be able to recognise me from the mask I had on my face the whole time due to my byouki (being sick). As of the time of writing, my voice has disappeared, which the entire afternoon of trying to make myself audible and comprehensible to nihonjin insurance companies probably contributed much to its loss.

By evening, we had a good grasp of the minimal smash-up: the damage repair for Ms Mira Gino will take 2 weeks. That means 2 weeks of cycling and train-ing to work. 2 weeks of limited places to venture. 2 weeks of inconvenience in winter.

God certainly has a sense of humour in answering my desires. He knows I've been wanting to do more jogs to trim down (which I have not been able to do so as I have been sick, and is still sick) and so He gives the perfect situation which I had always perceive to be so, to achieve what I want.

At the end of this little episode, God is gracious and merciful. Although I'm lacking in the finesse of a 'good' driver, I have not clocked a single accident in my almost 10 years of driving experience. That was His mercy. Today's display of His grace is to allow a little harmless wake up call as a reminder that I'm not impenetrable and that I should sit up and review my own driving etiquette. Praise the Lord!