Delayed Reaction
This morning began like every other morning, with me running late.
Like usual, I started my car and started rummaging for change to pay for the. On the off chance that I'm actually early, I take a longer but completely FOC route. But today is not one of those days.
However, time and time again as predicted by Murphy's Law, whatever that can go wrong, will go wrong. At the worst possible time.
Having only one RM50 note and absolutely no spare change at all, I decided to use my Touch N Go card. The catch was (there's always a catch) for the life of me, I couldn't remember how much I had in it. Or if I had any at all.
Deciding that I wasn't in much of a condition to be on the receiving end of the death stare, I chose to avoid the tollbooth operator's wrath. Instead, gambled on my luck.
Remember our dear friend Murphy? Boy, I was in deep shit. I just didn't know it yet.
As I (not so) slowly approached the toll, I noticed that the SmartTag lane was closed, leaving the cars no choice but to use the TnG lane. For a split second, I contemplated going cash instead but it was too late.
Somewhere along the way, I had managed to convince myself that I probably had a few bucks left in it.
"No worries," I tried to convince myself. Then my turn came.
I extended my wallet and pressed it onto the reader. No response. I waited for the beep but it just wasn't coming.
Getting worried, I tried again. This time, making sure my wallet and the reader made contact. For added measure, I pushed hard just in case it wasn't close enough.
No response, again.
I could feel a bead of sweat sliding down past my temples. This is BAD.
I looked at the electronic board and tried the card again. The elusive beep didn't come. And the electronic board still showed over RM50 of credit, belonging to the last user.
Then I looked in front, blinked and looked again. The damn gate was OPEN!
I hesitated but knowing I didn't have any other option, my foot jammed on the accelerator. The car dashed forward. I prayed that the bar wouldn't close on me.
A second later, I was out and speeding towards uni. And not a single cent poorer.
Like usual, I started my car and started rummaging for change to pay for the. On the off chance that I'm actually early, I take a longer but completely FOC route. But today is not one of those days.
However, time and time again as predicted by Murphy's Law, whatever that can go wrong, will go wrong. At the worst possible time.
Having only one RM50 note and absolutely no spare change at all, I decided to use my Touch N Go card. The catch was (there's always a catch) for the life of me, I couldn't remember how much I had in it. Or if I had any at all.
Deciding that I wasn't in much of a condition to be on the receiving end of the death stare, I chose to avoid the tollbooth operator's wrath. Instead, gambled on my luck.
Remember our dear friend Murphy? Boy, I was in deep shit. I just didn't know it yet.
As I (not so) slowly approached the toll, I noticed that the SmartTag lane was closed, leaving the cars no choice but to use the TnG lane. For a split second, I contemplated going cash instead but it was too late.
Somewhere along the way, I had managed to convince myself that I probably had a few bucks left in it.
"No worries," I tried to convince myself. Then my turn came.
I extended my wallet and pressed it onto the reader. No response. I waited for the beep but it just wasn't coming.
Getting worried, I tried again. This time, making sure my wallet and the reader made contact. For added measure, I pushed hard just in case it wasn't close enough.
No response, again.
I could feel a bead of sweat sliding down past my temples. This is BAD.
I looked at the electronic board and tried the card again. The elusive beep didn't come. And the electronic board still showed over RM50 of credit, belonging to the last user.
Then I looked in front, blinked and looked again. The damn gate was OPEN!
I hesitated but knowing I didn't have any other option, my foot jammed on the accelerator. The car dashed forward. I prayed that the bar wouldn't close on me.
A second later, I was out and speeding towards uni. And not a single cent poorer.
You're lucky the bar didn't come crashing on your car. I think if you have too little credit, it will still beep and show your insufficient credit. The reason it didn't have any response is most likely you have another card in your ward that interferes with it. The TnG card is quite uh 'weak'? I have to remove the card from my wallet before I use it as my house smart card interferes with it. But I have no problems using my house card even with both cards in my wallet.
Posted by
junhoe |
Friday, March 16, 2007 11:25:00 am
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