Going to work by car is probably by far one of the most dangerous and unnatural activities you can engage in at this early hour in the morning. One of the reasons for this is that human hormonal behavior seems to be a mess in the morning: everybody is angry, everybody is impatient and almost everybody has a distinct urge to take out any iron, pointy, hard object and slam it in another participants’ car, face or body. Another reason is that, for some unexplainable reason, people seem to have all other preoccupations, except driving. They smoke, search for a radio station, put on some music, push up the volume, swear at someone in traffic, take out the phone, put a call through, talk to the mistress and so on. What about driving?! Well, nobody really seems to think about that.

Under these circumstances, you are not actually expecting anybody to stop at the lights. Certainly, if you were to ask any of the participants why this happens, plausible explanations can always be found: “I am obviously hurrying to work”, “I have to pick up my kids” and so on and so forth…What about me?! You might justly ask, Well, what about you? In any case, you are not actually expecting your business to be even slightly comparative to any of the other people’s problems. Nobody else does anyhow.

With no signs of misogyny, but have you actually noticed the women in action in traffic? I am not going to say anything about the fact that they are slow (and by slow, I mean about 20 km/h), but they always seem to live with the conviction that there is absolutely nobody else but them on the road. They will never signal when making a turn and will run you over if they have the chance.

If you are in luck, you might be stopped by a policeman on your way to work, this will be something to smooth the rest of your day, if it isn’t sufficiently gloomy already. You will watch him in your rear mirror as he ever so slowly gets off the motorcycle, makes his way towards your car and asks for your papers. By this time, you are no doubt already late on your way to work, but who cares if your boss might fire you? Clearly, the alleged mistake you have made is definitely more important. Watch him slowly take out his pen (in case he is able to find it) and his notebook: you can, by this time, make bets on how long it could take him to write the ticket – the options are 1, 3 and  hours.

If you reach work under these circumstances, you are already a hero. No, no need to grow so excited: there’s no prize and no reward, in it, just about 12 hours of hard work, plus a bonus: the boss will surely make a scene because you were late. Your tenacity will never be remembered, but you are a hero for all of us other participants to traffic.

Next week, the first activities of a day at work and the 3 magic Cs: coffee, chatting, computers.