disappointed
today i abandoned my bicycle and experimented with different ways of getting to and fro work. in the morning, i hired a cab. nobody wanted to share, so i took it alone. the 15 min ride cost 8.50GBP. ok, successful experiment. i had said that i would take it alone, even if nobody wanted to share, so i can't really complain that i had to pay the full cab fare by myself. BUT everyone was interested in knowing the results of my experiments today; how long it took for the journey, how much i paid, etc. immediately i thought of what my father said a few wks ago. i was toying with the idea of buying a cheap car for the 3 or 4 mths of winter, and selling it off before the end of my stay in uk. my housemates were very excited FOR ME and kept urging me to buy a car. when i said that it'd cost a lot, just for the insurance alone, 2 of them offered to pay a third each of the petrol. hello.....how much is petrol? how much is the insurance? how much is the ownership transfer fees and road tax? i didn't realise much at that time, just had a nagging thought that it's not fair. then when i related that to my father, he said they were trying to take advantage of me. if they want to share, got to share all the costs, not just the petrol. WHICH MADE PERFECT SENSE!
Once money is involved, i am on my own, really. I just hate the idea that they might be taking me for a fool, and trying to take advantage of me. There is a famous chinese phrase "fang2 ren2 zhi1 xin1 bu4 ke3 wu2", or, you must always be on guard agst others. i heard that advice many times over the yrs, and even more frequently when i was abt to come over. since i've touched down in Manchester, i've been trying unsuccessfully to drill that in, but i think this car incident did the trick. finally.
anyway back to today. so i took cab in the morning. and then 2 buses back. the journey back took abt 1 and half hrs, and cost 1.50GBP. Not sure if i'm gg to take another bus route tomorrow or just cycle. it IS getting darker now. when i cycle and leave the house in the morning at 7:20am, the sky is like sg at 6:35am, and it remains darker for an additional 2 min a day due to the approaching winter. it's like dawn. the sky is still quite a deep blue and the sun doesn't appear yet.
the other option of taking 3 buses sounds cumbersome, and that includes walking abt 15 min thru almost pitch darkness in a park. how appealing!
i could look for a lift from pple staying ard here. got to ask the secretary to fwd to at least the whole floor (like 200 pple?) for a start and ask if anyone is willing to give me a lift. i think the mkt rate is something like 5GBP a wk, which is really very reasonable already. hope to have some luck asking ard first. if not, then i'll have to tell the whole world via email.
WORST CASE SCENARIO: i take cab on my own every work day, to and fro. that is = 8.50 GBP * 2 (times a day) * 5 (days a wk) * 4 (wks per mth) * 3 (exchange rate into SGD) = 1020 SGD per mth.
if that happens to be the only way........so be it.
Once money is involved, i am on my own, really. I just hate the idea that they might be taking me for a fool, and trying to take advantage of me. There is a famous chinese phrase "fang2 ren2 zhi1 xin1 bu4 ke3 wu2", or, you must always be on guard agst others. i heard that advice many times over the yrs, and even more frequently when i was abt to come over. since i've touched down in Manchester, i've been trying unsuccessfully to drill that in, but i think this car incident did the trick. finally.
anyway back to today. so i took cab in the morning. and then 2 buses back. the journey back took abt 1 and half hrs, and cost 1.50GBP. Not sure if i'm gg to take another bus route tomorrow or just cycle. it IS getting darker now. when i cycle and leave the house in the morning at 7:20am, the sky is like sg at 6:35am, and it remains darker for an additional 2 min a day due to the approaching winter. it's like dawn. the sky is still quite a deep blue and the sun doesn't appear yet.
the other option of taking 3 buses sounds cumbersome, and that includes walking abt 15 min thru almost pitch darkness in a park. how appealing!
i could look for a lift from pple staying ard here. got to ask the secretary to fwd to at least the whole floor (like 200 pple?) for a start and ask if anyone is willing to give me a lift. i think the mkt rate is something like 5GBP a wk, which is really very reasonable already. hope to have some luck asking ard first. if not, then i'll have to tell the whole world via email.
WORST CASE SCENARIO: i take cab on my own every work day, to and fro. that is = 8.50 GBP * 2 (times a day) * 5 (days a wk) * 4 (wks per mth) * 3 (exchange rate into SGD) = 1020 SGD per mth.
if that happens to be the only way........so be it.
posted by who? at 4:13 AM
3 Comments:
your housemates are really cheapskates. i dun think the cars n road taxes are expensive there, but still, they're like half "free riders". So how do they get to work each day? If u guys are cycling together, then it wouldn't be so bad right?
car pooling with your colleagues sounds like a better idea..
what about car rental? how much is it?
tyne: well... we can all leave together but i got to cycle harder to keep up with them mah..very tiring.. will end up sweating.
i'm not very comfortable with cycling in the dark also, even though i have lights. =| both traffic kind and robbers kind of dangers.
jane: rental costs 10GBP a day, plus maybe abt 5GBP insurance per day?
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