Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Asian woman driver fulfills stereotype

That's me, though it only happened once - today (normally I drive as well as everyone thinks they drive). Every Wednesday afternoon around 3pm, I take the library bus to the parking lot of the New World supermarket. There are four car parks there which are designated for the library bus, and this is marked by a small, high sign posted on an adjacent pole.

Usually the designated space is occupied, and usually by only one car; this is obviously enough to make it impossible for me to park the bus there, and I end up stopping alongside a fence at the far end of the parking lot. (This is when I get out the pink slip advising the driver that he should just leave the damn space for the community service which his rates have paid for, and put it on his windscreen).

A couple of weeks ago, I thought I would get my second-ever opportunity to park in the proper place. But just as I swerved around to get there, a shopper swooped in and took one of those four parks. I decided it was too much trouble to stop the bus right where I was (and maybe hold up traffic) to tell the driver to leave; so I simply parked at the usual back-up place.

Well, this afternoon I was really excited to discover another one of those opportunities. The whole four spaces where completely vacant. And in the excitement, I didn't quite swerve around enough to allow me to position the bus in the right place. I ended up backing up, driving forward onto the kerb, backing out again, driving forward onto the kerb, etc. I must've beeen shifting backwards and forwards for five or six minutes. I found it funny, but only because I could laugh about it with the workmate doing the shift with me. If I'd been on my own I would've been really embarrassed, especially because a bunch of supermarket boys were having their coffee break and watching, just a few feet away.

Just so you know, I got the bus there in the end.

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