Travelling Hiccups 7

Travelling Hiccups 7

Calder and I ate lunch together and then I walked him to Hougang mrt. I told him he could board at Cabin 18 (nearer to escalator) and was glad to see him following the instruction. Having seen him safely in, I did some grocery shopping. Checked his location: Dhoby Ghaut. Good. I reached home and checked his location again: Outram Park. It's been a while and he's only at Outram? I checked his visual tracker. He's at Outram Park mrt alright, but at the green platform, not the brown one. I sent pictures via WhatsApp reminding him he should take a certain escalator from purple to brown line and the door he would see if he's at Cabin 12 of the right platform. Unfortunately, the next time I checked his location, he's clearly travelling on the green line. Sigh. I texted him to get out and cross the platform to make his way back to Outram Park. He's still travelling in the same direction. I decided to go to Outram Park to find him in case he didn't know how to get from green line to brown line. By the time I reached Outram Park's green line, Calder was at Boon Lay. I saw on the visual tracker that he had alighted. But he didn't turn back. He lingered. Was he unsure which side to take? Should I ask SMRT to have a staff put him on the right train? But I had sought such help before and both times Calder got on the train before they could find him. I didn't want to trouble them again (otherwise it might  become something like Cry Wolf where they start to take lightly autistic disappearance) so I decided to make my way to Boon Lay. He was at Boon Lay for 50 min (according to the footage that I reviewed later at night). Unfortunately, he hopped on the return train before I could reach him and I found myself one station behind him. I sent another text asking him to wait for me at Cabin 12 of the green line of Outram Park. Location showed him to be at Tiong Bahru so I quickly alighted at Tiong Bahru station but it was a mistake. Now I'm 2 stations behind him. I checked the visual tracker and saw that he was walking around the station. The visual tracker tends to be blurry when he's in movement so I couldn't tell if he was at the green line. Finally, I reached Outram Park. But I didn't see him at the green line. Afraid that he would hop on another wrong train, I went in search at the other lines. Not at the brown line. Not at the purple line. Did he exit the station? Check location: still at Outram Park. Check visual tracker: oh, green strip - he's at the green line. Found him at 2.51pm. He was apparently looking for Mommy. But he didn't want to answer any of my questions. Not when I asked whether he wanted to go home or go to work. Or whether he wanted Mommy to take brown line with him. I had told the job coach I would send Calder to the brown line. Would he do funny things again, like taking a train in the opposite direction when he arrived at Siglap (it happened once)? Would I have to return to find him again? Shouldn't we just go home? After all, by the time he reached St Andrew's Autism Centre, he would be left with the most one and half hours of work. But then, I remember a parent telling me how thankful she was that she could get 2+ hours of respite when her son went to work. And if I want Calder to travel independently, I cannot behave like I don't trust him anymore, right? So I reminded Calder to  use the escalator (not the lift which could distract him) when he arrived at Siglap mrt, and sent him into the brown line of Outram Park mrt. And made my way home to enjoy what respite I could get. Fortunately he reached his workplace smoothly from there. 

At night, when I reviewed his footage, I saw that at Outram Park station, Calder went correctly from purple to the brown line. But then there was loud sound of a child crying, and he followed the sound to the green line! If this is a case of Pipe Piper effect, I don't know what I can do to prevent it from happening again. And I still don't know why he lingered so long at Boon Lay.

In the evening, instead of alighting at Hougang, Calder went all the way to Punggol Coast again. But remembering what my friend said about Punggol Coast being a nice place, I decided to trust Calder to make his way back from there when he's ready. I kept myself busy (watching Bible Study Fellowship lecture video) instead of constantly tracking him. Fortunately he didn't linger at Punggol Coast this time. My daughter returned home slightly earlier than him and told me it was terribly crowded at the MRT. So maybe he couldn't alight at Hougang the first time. 

No stars for him today, but I thanked him for returning home safely.

The next day (today), I decided to train Calder to go to work by bus. Less distractions like lifts and train watching. There's a straight bus but it's more than 40 stops from home. Would the bus driver be able to remind Calder to alight? (It means Calder cannot sit at the upper deck.) Should I print a card showing a picture of Calder, his name, my number and his destination, to give to the bus driver? How do we get this card back so I don't have to print again for the next trip? What happens if Calder misses his stop? I began searching for apps that can sound alarm when nearing a location. When I dropped Calder off at Siglap mrt bus stop, I took another bus of the same number all the way to the end of the line (Upper East Coast terminal) to see where Calder would end up if he didn't alight. There's noisy roadwork right beside this terminal. Would that make Calder walk out to the main road? If Calder really winds up at this terminal, would I be able to ask the terminal staff to help me put him on a return bus, and to ask the bus driver to remind Calder to alight at Siglap mrt? Might this be abusing the service of public servants, more babysitting than emergency help? 

And would there be an end to this Travelling Hiccups series?