I drew a diagram to help the explanation:

http://i32.tinypic.com/dhbu6d.jpg

So i was at position A and i looked right and there was nothing coming so i crossed to the (traffic) island (to position B) and i assumed that after the island all the traffic would be coming from the other direction and so I looked LEFT and there was nothing coming so i crossed and then for some reason i looked RIGHT and i was in the path of a bus(!) but luckily the bus had slowed down because i probably looked like i didn't know how to cross roads and then i ran to the relatively safety of the pavement. phew.

What have you almost been killed by recently?