public transport...

Tengo que cambiar? = Do I have to change (trains)?

so, we all know how i feel about that :(

but, Jalan Sultan Ismail may have defeated this highly spirited driver. another 1 hour and 20 minutes in traffic tonight (although the skies were dry), to come home to one sleepy and mildly irritated IggySingh. i forced myself to be upbeat, and didn't say "sorry" too many times this time, and so she gave me some sleepy "where have you been" head-bobs, and then came to me to be cuddled briefly before she promptly fell asleep. almost broke my heart until i remembered that IggySingh is better off with late me than anywhere else :)

so all the way home i was contemplating everything from renting a small room in downtown KL to an apartment in Bangsar to getting a job in Menara TM and just working with a GLC, to have a shorter commute from home to work and vice versa. regardless to say, sensibility prevailed, and i realized of course, that i simply cannot uproot my green baby from her home, her babysitter, and all that she has grown familiar with these past 4 years.

and i can't uproot my parents from their routines and Jalan Cantek tosai and their morning walks and their car-pool lifts to Subang to golf. and i never want them to have to stay with anyone else (selfish me!) most critically though are IggySingh's needs when i travel on work should i move. i will no longer then have the luxury of her babysitter walking from Block B to Block A to watch over IggySingh. and she will be defenceless, unable to care for herself. and no MAMA, i don't love IggySingh more than YOU.
AND sigh... i love my job too. i really do. i love the work i win, the teams i work with, my bosses. arrrgh, hence...

PUBLIC TRANSPORT.

what is that in the Malaysian context? how will i work it? where do i drive to to catch it? where will i park? will my little yellow bullet be safe all day out in an open car park exposed to the raw elements? man, will i start smelling from all that sweaty walking around and being thrust up against fellow sweaty rakyat? how shallow are these questions? (i sound like that new extremely irritating DiGi advert...) okay. i think i will just have to embrace being one with the LRT masses. and i will have to start getting some un-sexy T-shirts and sensible shoes, so i can walk without killing my back and getting ogled for having a "Punjabi" bosom...

working class... that's me :)
i like that much better than "stupid idiot" that takes a job on the dreaded Sultan Ismail!!!

vomit blood ;p

en el samaforo = at the traffic light

so much for "welcome back Senor Sun". nyah nya-nyah nya-nyah. needless to say it rained in monsoon sheets mid-afternoon yesterday, and whilst the rain had submitted to a measly drizzle by the time 6 o'clock rolled on by, the traffic on Jalan Sultan Ismail had grown into sheer epic "vomit blood" proportions!

nasty. took 1 whole hour to crawl myself down Sultan Ismail, and again the cops had their heads stuck up their back-sides. twice in two consecutive days, the U-Turn near the Shang was again unmanned (read as in: no cops!) and so cars, buses, and motorbikes battled from all 4 sides to beat their individual lights. thinking i was really doing well, i maneuvered myself lane to lane to frantically make that U. only to find myself sitting outside the Shang then for almost 30 minutes.
it was then that i knew, without a shadow of a doubt that i would again miss another IggySingh bedtime :(

ahuh, and then we had two cops happily chatting with each other near the sime darby lights as the fast lane stacked itself almost silly and backwards towards the Concorde, with unsuspecting folk in the first 2 lanes not realizing the bulk of the fast and middle lanes were actually in stand-still lines to eventually make that right turn at the sime junction. now, versus checking each other's uniforms out, wouldn't it have made more sense to ride your little motorbikes a little down the road to start pushing people into the other lanes? or at the very least to man the U-Turn lights??!

needless to say people, my entire 1 hour and 40 minutes home was literally spent sitting in the exact same spots, and just sitting some more, wondering why our cops n.e.v.e.r. get it right. why can't we keep Sultan Ismail clear??? it is still unequivocally the worst black-hole in our KL traffic horror stories, what with its propensity to flood, and the sheer volume of cars it supports. our infamous jalan is enough to make even the Pope curse and rant and rave! (No offense to my Catholic relatives and friends!)

sigh. needless to say, i am back to grinding my teeth and woke up this morning to find myself brushing very painful teeth. so i have decided that i am taxing home tonight. i still have my head-ache from last night, and really just want to sink into the back seat of a nondescript taxi, and be like the vegetable i am feeling... hmmm, belacan brinjals anyone?

hanging out with the Saturday afternoon...

Buenas tardes = Good afternoon.
Un churro, por favor = A finger-sized fritter, please.

blisss. the start of a week-end = making it through that Friday night crawl on Jalan Sultan Ismail and coming home to blue skies and white fluffy cloud weather. you know just then that the week-end is going to be sweet.

see, i believe in signs. from God. from nature. from the powers that be. unfortunately, most times i have had to mitigate these "signs" in my head so that i am practical. job requirements :) but come Friday night and getting home within just the ONE hour, you know, that's the 1st "sign".

so my happiest week-end is when i get to do NOTHING. that's right.. N.O.T.H.I.N.G.
sigh, my most content moment is knowing i have nothing to do. no grocery shopping. no bills to pay. no hair appointments. no facials (i know, real hardships these last 2, hehehe!).
no hanging out with friends (no offence g-friends!). no packing for the work week ahead and wondering which business suits to take along this time, and which working shoes.
knowing that i can just sleep and watch TV and call McD's (or maybe some PizzaHut today??) and sleep some more and wow! watch more TV. as i am not traveling on work. and i can spread the adult activities completely to Day 2.
yes, truth be told, work travel has made me selfish of preserving my time alone. but most importantly my time at home. staying put at 505. i am now unflinchingly proud to be a couch potato!

hanging out with the Saturday afternoon is my best time, personally. as i know i still have the Saturday evening, and then the Saturday night and then i get to wake-up to a whole SUNDAY and another day of doing nothing unless i want to.

of course, the best reason for having a week-end is hanging out with my green baby - IggySingh. 4.5 feet, all teeth and claws, with a manja seeking personality, week-ends are when i can do all her chores and her routines myself, and i get to wake her up and put her to bed, and give her her showers, and cut her sawi, and i get to just hang out, watching TV from a semi-paralyzed position on the couch. hmm... that is the true essence of bliss. watching TV to iguana kisses!

and so we are hanging out with Harry Potter this afternoon, as he wonders why the Goblet Of Fire picked out his name...