Cheap Thrills

Sia loves cheap thrills. Baby I don’t need dollar bills to have fun tonight (I love cheap thrills).

Excuse me for a second while I sound like an old codger, ‘you younger generation don’t know how to have good ol’ fun, get off those phones and do something thrilling’. We miss too many opportunities to inject fun into our everyday lives. There are so many chances to do something that lights you up, that is thrilling: on the way to work, on the way to the dentist, on the way to a three hour physics lecture. Now, you may think I’m going to badger on about how to have fun, go for a walk, go play tennis, go look at the sky... blah blah blah. All good things for sure! But I’m here to talk about a different kind of thrill. A thrill where my heart rate rises and I feel on edge, but ultimately ends with me punching the air in excitement.

I haven’t had this sort of excitement ever, it’s a different sort of fun from New Plymouth, this is a new discovery since moving to Christchurch.

This. Is. Living.

Whoever is in charge of traffic lights, is a bloody genius. They know how to keep people on edge, they know how to give people thrills. It’s not by the addition of anything, but instead by the simple omission of one simple thing. A green arrow. Seemingly innocent. But that is where you are wrong. That is where you are missing out on thrills. Cheap thrills. On your way to work, on your way to the dentist, on your way to a three hour physics lecture. Summed up in a simple equation.

Busy intersections + rush hour traffic + trying to make a right turn = thrills.

It’s as simple as that. Trying to shoot the non-existent gaps between straight-flowing traffic to make a right hand turn. Cars sit in the middle of the intersection in anticipation. Waiting waiting waiting, go, wait no, wait maybe yes, no, ahhh now the light is red and I’m in the middle of the intersection. Ahhhhh managed to make the turn before the cars coming from beside you start to go straight through. But wait. What’s that in my rear-view mirror. Farrkkk. It’s another car turning right. Surely it’ll get hit by the cars coming from beside us. But no. Every time it works out. Cars turn right and stay in one piece.

And that, my friend, is how to have cheap thrills in Christchurch.