Monitoring

Early last Saturday morning, Loretta had to go to Tin Shui Wai to visit one of her friends. A thorough study of which means of transport would be the best for her was carried out the day before. A conclusion came out that taking a 269C bus would be simple and direct. Another thing I did was to choose the bus route which Loretta should take from Tin Shui Wai to Tsim Sha Tsui. It turned out that a bus 269B could fit.

Next, I had to find out and write down where to change bus (29M to 269C) and the bus stops she had to get off or get on the bus. Luckily the KMB website helps a lot. It even shows the photos of the bus-stops.

Reaching TST, Loretta had to know the way to the restaurant to meet her uncle and aunt. I wrote down the name of streets she had to walk through and told her briefly the direction she should follow.

In actual practice, Loretta phoned me at 7: 20a.m. that she was on a 269C heading for Tin Shui Wai. I told her that she would arrive at Tin Shui Wai in an hour’s time. As expected, she called me back as soon as she got off at the right bus-stop. There was no problem for her first journey. At around 10:30, I phoned Loretta to see if she was on a bus to TST. She said “yes” and that she had just boarded it not long ago. I had a big relief because she would not get lost in Tin Shui Wai. I left everything to her own when she was in TST.

Afterwards, Loretta wrote several SMS to me. In the 3 p.m. message, she told me that she had to turn off her cell-phone because the battery was low. At 8:30 p.m., she said that her friend’s wedding banquet was going to start.

No telephone came since then. After 11 p.m., we began to worry for her because banquets normally end at 11p.m. She did not call her grandparents until 11.45 p.m. She said on the other side of the phone that she had boarded a bus 26 by then. After a few moments, her dear grandparents started their way to the nearby bus-stop to escort her home. Finally Loretta was safely home.

On that day, I monitored Loretta's routes to and from Tin Shui Wai and I was ready to give any assistance to Loretta if she really lost her way. I don’t know why the wedding banquet could last so long. Perhaps the performances and games overran it.