Tag Archives: connex

Psychic Moment For The Day #3

Oh I nearly forgot. Today as we were about to take the train to the exams Connex said that all trains are delayed by half an hour, with no shuttle bus.

Panicking a little, Eliza and Fel said they’d give me a ride. I ended up going with Fel. I was desperately calling Carmaine trying to make sure she knows that trains aren’t running. But she wasn’t picking up.

Just as I was about to give up I turned around and saw Carmaine walking behind me. I called out and all was good.

Not exactly psychic but just lucky. Anyway.

Alex

Because Of You

To lighten the mood I’d joked that I’d blog about it but in a mock-serious manner, making it worse than it actually was.

But the truth was it was nonetheless one of the scariest moments in my life.

Here is a dramatic recount:

7:19 am. Carmaine has embarked onto the 3rd carriage of one of Connex’s oldest models of trains at Syndal station. She rejected the offer for a seat and stood by herself to the side. Her back was facing the rest of the group.

7: 19 am – 7:45 am. Onboard the train. The train ride passes as per usual, with light hearted conversation being thrown around. Other passengers of the morning train embarked upon the locomotive, partially blocking Carmaine from the rest of the group.

7:42 am. Passing Kooyong station. Carmaine has remained noticeably quiet throughout the train ride. Sudden thump sounded. At first it was mistaken that the train, in its age, had a mechanical problem. But as I turned around to look, I noticed that Carmaine was no longer visible.

7:43 am. Stood up briskly, shouting, “Carmaine!” Rest of the group noticed that something had gone awry. Pushed aside man partially blocking Carmaine. Carmaine was on floor, having collapsed. Her eyes were closed and her face pale. Asked someone to press the emergency button only to find none on board. Dialled 911. Yes. In my state of utter shock I’d dialled the American emergency number. Fortunately it reconnected to 000.

7:44 am. Train arrived at Heyington Station. Was on phone with Ambulance. She asked for the nearest suburb. Wasn’t sure, so said, “Heyington Station on the Glen Waverley line! St Kevin’s College!” Woman repeatedly told me to calm down and tell her the nearest suburb. Disembarked train, helped Carmaine to nearest bench. Caitlin was on phone with Ambulance, having more success than I. The train driver, being notified by a kind lady who had ran from 3rd carriage to inform him, made sure all was under control, and promptly left.

7:45 am. Called Carmaine’s mother, received no answer.

7:46 am. Called Carmaine’s dad. Explained situation to him. Carmaine was feeling better and color had returned to her cheeks.

7:48 am. The next train arrived on platform. We had been standing around trying to keep ourselves warm and make small talk. I was not cold, I was running on adrenaline.

7:49 am. Embarked upon the crowded carriage, and asked that Carmaine have a seat as she had been ill. A kind woman and man gave up their seats and Annie sat with Carmaine, who was still rather weak.

8:10 am. Arrived at Melbourne Central station, where we disembarked so to allow Carmaine to sit down and eat. Sat down at food court. Got Carmaine cinnamon pretzels and the others had McDonalds.

8:12 am. Made numerous phone calls to the school to ensure their awareness of our circumstances. Joked lightheartedly – away from the phone – that Carmaine had given us all an excuse to skip Period 1 and have McDonalds for breakfast.

8:40am. Having spent enough time at Melbourne Central, departed to take tram to school.

9:00 am. Arrival at school. Promptly took Carmaine to Sick Bay. The lady behind the desk looked at Carmaine meaningfully and said, ‘I’ve been talking to your mom.”

9:01 am. Bid farewell to Carmaine, and proceeded to do the necessary paperwork. I.e. Seeing Mr Rus-, filling out late book etc.

9:05 am. Put bag back in locker. Walked Carmaine to her next class, which she insisted on attending.

All times were rough estimations.

The preceding story was based on a true story.

Alex.

P.S. Take care of yourself, Carmaine.

Squish & Ko cont’d

Sorry about the sudden cut off last night. I was getting rather tired, and beside my parents were telling me to go to sleep.

So, I do believe that I left off at the point where I left the school at the end of Period 5.

Emily needed to get home on time for a certain formal she had to attend, and since she forgot her umbrella she went with me – I’d brought another jacket and an umbrella, feeling ever so smart. It was unfortunate for her that, at the stop lights near Domain Interchange, the ground seemed to love collecting large pools of water, and through which Emily waded in her flats. She was soaked to her ankles and complaining every 3 seconds, which I would’ve found amusing but I was rather worried about my schoolbag getting wet.

We got to Flinders, and realized our train hasn’t left yet. Thundered down the escalator, and I had my finger 3 cms from the button when the light around it blinked off, and the train left the platform. Being the Connex veterans that we are, Emily and I with perhaps 3 utterances of complaints powered back up the escalator to take the Cragieburn reverse loop. Made the Glen Waverley with plenty of time to spare, except there was an old lady in a wheelchair who tried to run Emily over and swore at her when she didn’t manage.

Emily’s dad gave me a ride home, which saved me perhaps half an hour of trudging home in the wet. Dad had taken the day off and he was home – which I had no idea, so it was a surprise to see someone home – and I put my bag down, so glad that school can be out of my mind for at least 2 days.

I had a dinner plan with BRuCE at 6:30, so I went online, tried to beat my previous Tetris time, and at around 5:50 went to dress and do my hair. Yes, I did my hair. Bee said it looked good so I suppose it’s all worth it. I arrived at Coco Lounge early, and took our booth – we’d wanted that booth because we’d originally had 8 people invited. In the end 3 showed up. Eunice joined me, and we had a look at the menu, then Bianca joined us. Both of them looked smashing.

Carmaine, as I had mentioned yesterday, was sick, so she’d said she’d drop in later. At around 7:50 Carmaine came in – just as I was about to say something about her – and we had dessert; Tiramisu.

I think the point of interest was that Eunice and I had ordered Bitters, and at some point, the conversation came to this (paraphrasing may have occured):

Eunice: [imitating Kath and Kim] “It’s noice…it’s un-yooh-shle…Oy loike – IS THERE ALCOHOL IN THIS THING?”

We subsequently had a long laugh at what would happen if Eunice  was to finish the entire Bitters, and what would happen for her 18th. We had a small chat about Staff Politics and Relos, and Bianca had several mini orgasms over her prawns. And over the male waiter. Which promptly led me to mention Matt, and also for me to voice that Bianca had, by technicality, lost the bet from last July, and she owes us all a drink.

So, at 7:50 Carmaine joined us for dessert, and we had a few cheap laughs and whatnot. It felt, on the surface, that BRuCE was back to its original power again. But don’t we know otherwise, Carmaine? But, hey, it’s 11:50 in the morning and I’d had a long breakfast (mustard and salami cold, don’t do it), I don’t want to delve into that.

After taking ages to pay, we went to Strike near Village to play pool. But, and this was much to Carmaine’s distain, we needed IDs to play pool, because it is in the bar section. So we didn’t play pool, and promptly went home.

Now, Squish & Ko.

On Thursday, I’m sure I’ve mentioned about the mini cartoons that I’d done that went along the lines of “My Friends Don’t Give A Shit About Me”. My memory fails me, so I’ll repeat it in case I am wrong.

On Thursday, I had an idea to do small comics (similar to Non Sequitur) that went along the lines of…what I’d say before. They’re just small ditties that have happened to me, or that I’ve noticed. On Thursday night I put down 2, and yesterday while waiting for dinner I put down 2. Scanned them up this morning. Have a look:

squish-and-koI am aware that it’s not straight, and I am very aware that it’s rather small so you’d have to click on it, and it’s simply screaming at me obvious that it’s a bit of a rip-off of Pon and Zi, of which I am a big fan.

It will get better, and hopefully less emo.

Well, I’ve uploaded NCIS and am just waiting to watch it. Have a good holidays, and Happy Easter (I mean, I’m still coming back, I’m just saying this now).

Alex.