Somebody please scratch me out of this skin of mine. I hate me.
Such strong words, u might say but after this, I can only hope u hate me too. Now, I can ask those who don't believe in fate to stop reading.
Where do I begin is usually the sign of a lengthy story. At least I thought so but now I see that it's because the story began before the beginning and the effects have not faded. It may be difficult to grab this concept but then imagine a story that started with man's creation and before man's creation was earth's arrangement and that was even preceeded by the void of the earth. The Bible does not record all the things preceeding that because that story was not told. So to begin this story, I will have to piece in the past three weeks in a very uninteresting way and tell you about today.
Rewind to three weeks ago.... No. Rewind to six months ago... No. Okay, let's do six months ago. I started my MSc program at a University in the UK. Can't tell you which because I don't want to or maybe it'll be a story for another day. MSc programs have a dissertation or thesis attached to them as part of your work to complete the program and obtain your degree. Good. Now we can go forward from that time or go back from now 3 weeks ago.
My MSc project supervisor, a brilliant Doctor asked me to develop a system for my dissertation. It was so interesting when he said it that I didn't have time to think of how hard it will be to achieve it. I never considered the days of no-sleeps, weeks of head-aches and the constant fear of failure I would have to endure. No, SOLID just went with the flow. The system to be built would utilize a software design program called LabVIEW. I had never heard of that program till that day and I was (or am, cos at this point, though improving, not much has changed) at best a mediocre programmer. I know about the for loops and while loops and after that, I'm pretty much a dormant in that field. Mind you, I have impressed myself on occasion.
My choice to go on with the project was (and still is) fuelled by my desire and love for trying out new software. Tutorial fetching has become a hobby. So, LabVIEW was obviously a new terrain to overcome. My 4-runner brain would definitely be stronger.
Going forward from that time and we arrive at last week. National Instruments, the company who owns the program, organised a hands on seminar for newbies and one of the locations was my town. Very good. Very good. I could help myself to a bit of knowledge and learn from the owners themselves. It's like a non computer user learning from Mark Zuckerberg how to use Facebook.
Today was the day of the seminar and though I was supposed to have a lecture, I deemed the half day learning at the seminar more beneficial to me than the two hour lecture. The learning day. The enlightenment was coming. Last night, I was ready for the seminar and had Google mapped the directions. I found the best route and that happened to be a bus passing through my house. I was surely designed to go to this event. The map was transferred to my smart phone in preparation for today....
This story has so far touched the basics... Now for today.
I was ready at 7:50 am. Dressed completely, hair combed, perfume spayed and jacket on. The seminar was slated for 9:00am and the bus was passing through my way at 8:25. The thing with bus timing is that you have to give it a plus or minus 5 minute delay to get to the bus stop. I did.... mentally. I was ready at 8:10. I also decided that an empty tummy was not good for such an educational experience so I decided to have some tea and 3 slices of hovis bread. I stopped drinking at 8: 20 and got out of the house as fast as possible. Arriving at the traffic stop before the bus stop, the bus passed right in front of me and kept on moving.
Quick thinking... quick action. In a state of panic, I checked google maps for alternate arrangements. It pointed to the another bus going another route to hook up with another bus. Too many anothers and unfortunately, the one I missed was not to return through that route for the rest of the day. I started to head home to wait for the next bus and realised that the padding for my ear phones were gone, surely through all the chaos. I loved those foam padding cos they brought out more bass and protected my skin from the harsh plastics of earphones. I realised going home would only make me late even further and opted to wait at the bus stop till the first bus on the list of "another bus" came.
It did come and I got on the first bus and that then delivered me whole at the new location in plenty of time to catch the next one. I would be 15minutes late. That was very acceptable because tea was a 10 minute allowance afforded to participants.
The bus, according to Google was to arrive at 8:57. I was already there at 8:42. The stand at the stop concurred with Google and I was smiling a bit more. I waited 10 minutes and an extra 5 and yet, there was no bus. I was getting impatient but I was going to wait for 5 more minutes. I did. No show. Another 5? I did. No show. And yet another 5 minutes passed and still no show.
At this time, I was mad. I vowed to write this down and make sure someone pays for what happened to me. I started the writing and realised I was already paying for what happened to me.
I did not attend lectures, I did not attend the seminar. I did not get on the right bus and did not make it on time. When I eventually got on a bus, the connecting bus did not arrive. All this while, I had lost my wonderful earphone padding.
All this horror because I was on time and decided to have some tea.
