almost the pre-eve of Merdeka...

...and i heard on the radio this morning that pretty soon, we will be hosting a human rights convention right here in Kuala Lumpur. wowie (and please sing this next line out - makes me want to shout.. stamp my feet now and shout)! ahem, BUT, i am of the firm opinion that we should be hosting a t.r.a.f.f.i.c. convention instead. forget the bloody human rights living in this city man! i mean what is really "THE" priority here? 50 years of independence and we close down all the major roads leading into the city for a full week of dress rehearsals??! come on mr. prime minister. what about our traffic rights?

yes, yes, to check myself first... i am loyal. faithful. i even get goose bumps when i hear Negara Ku being played and oooi, when i see the jalur stand on foreign land, i get that special spine tingling thing-y happening, big time. but i am sooooo tired from just crawling and inching my way to work all week this week (and it's only Wednesday people!). i sincerely doubt i am going to be singing and celebrating come Friday. i will instead, be sitting zombified, nursing a double shot of my favorite single malt, on the rocks, watching my Max and all the pre-recorded flicks, and so NOT the national parade. so i can completely put out of my mind and my soul, all the stress of having an almost developed nation, put its rakyat through hours of torturous struggling through snail paced traffic, just so we can do dress rehearsals for a week from 6:30 am - 1:30 pm and then again from 6:30 pm to 1:30 am!!! and why freaking close the SMART tunnel to "alleviate" traffic congestion for Christsake?? how does that make any sense? (are you sure you didn't mean "elevate"??) you already have the hundreds of cars in queue waiting to enter the tunnel, backed up for miles, with no bloody way of U-Turning or deviating from their inner lanes. and you get this radio chick coolly telling you to "be patient out there. this is expected to last at least the next 2 hours or so."

(author's note to self: breathe!) okay, why don't we just do a China and declare the whole flipping week off (i think they do this for labor week?? whatever) and maturely recognize that productivity is already shite this week, as loyal citizens are getting to work either extra smelly from the overly packed LRTs and are just sitting there in their cramped cubicles thinking all day about clock-out time, and counting down the hours to when they can finally hurry on home to shower all over again... and the rest of us i.e these car-wrought-stress-wreaks that have just shakily made our ways into our offices, we are just wanting to sit on down now, take these phones of their hooks, and try to forget the 2 h.o.u.r.s. we have just spent, making like a tortoise... and oh yarrrr! what ever happened to Putrajaya??! aren't we like supposed to be hosting ALL national governmental functions out there? oh oh oh. idea: or can't we just rehearse out there?? and let the rakyat go about earning their daily wages, status quo, until it is THE public holiday and you get to have all the streets all to yourselves, and thus can just parade on in peace?

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!!!