22 Oct should be a happy day, 3 of my friends shared the same birth date. Serena Tan (Sarina), Karen Go, and our beloved Jane Lee Yen Ling.  But it turned out to be a day filled with uneventful encounters for me. 

First, it was at the coaching session with my climbing students. They usually climb in small groups of 3-4 and have been taught how to ensure safe climbing, the measures to take to avoid any possible mishaps that may caused bodily injury to the climbers. The three boys were making plans to climb, and one of them went ahead to climb even when his belayer weren’t ready to belay him. I spotted a long slack of ropes between the climber, who was already climbing up to the 3rd meter, and the belayer, who was still in the process of clipping the belay device to his belay loop. It was obviously an act of complacency. I punished the boys after giving them a piece of my mind. The punishment was not severe, they just had to stand on one leg (facing the wall) till we end our climbing session. They stood that way for about 30mins, that also means that they have lost 30mins of climbing.

I am not exactly proud of myself, I am not proud to the fact that the boys accepted my punishment, I am not proud that I could command that authority to punish them. I am very disappointed in fact. Disappointed that I have not taught them well, I have not instill in them the importance of safe climbing. I have failed in some ways. Or else, the boys would not have been complacent with their climbing protocols. I may have to approach this teaching in a different way.

I had that kind of not-very-fruitful coaching session feeling after I left the school, but not to the call of total distress. What I am going to share next will likely to set you thinking about the coincidences we have in life. I met with a minor vehicle collision 30mins later. The fault mainly lies in the other driver (Renault Kangoo) who was a little too impatient and was driving faster than he should have. Oh well, it takes two hands to clap, I am definitely guilty to some extend (IMO). I was in an open car park, had reduced my speed to prepare for a full stop, and had planned to reverse park into the loading bay lots. I had activated my hazard lights earlier as I have spotted the Kangoo coming from a distance. I stopped my vehicle and when I was preparing to reverse he tried to overtake and that was when his bumper hit my right mud guard, my side mirror was hit too. A little traumatized by it as I had expected him to slow down and move on only after I have reversed the vehicle into the loading bay. Well, next was some exchanges of words trying to defend each others’ rights. Not the best time to negotiate for sure. We managed a win-win closure and in a amicable & non-violent way. Anyway, it was not a serious serious accident, but what freak me now is that , my first road accident happened in 2004 on 22 Oct, also a Friday! Today was my 2nd *shake head* sigh …

22 Oct — 2210 — 2+2+1+0 = 5 … freak!