Friday, the 13th.

It was horrible. A horrendous crime that our city planners & developers did. Almost inhumane. Inexcusable. Intolerable. How long we’re going to keep on lamenting over the poor excuse for the so-called public transport? Is the Government doing anything to improve our public transportation system? (All talk2 only…ceh! Diorang sedap2 naik kereta aircond, ada drebar & siap polis iring lagi!!)

We left our car at home & brave the public transport sytem to go to work in order to help save the Mother Earth by less pollution; help by excusing ourselves from contributing towards the heavy traffic on the roads. Alas, we’re simply being punished for doing so.

I was in KL Sentral by 8am. The queues for the LRT were more than long – I don’t even know where does it starts or ends. What choice do you have other than to join the mob?
I was told that this is something like to be expected every now & then – normal occurrence it seems. The whole one-side of the platform towards KLCC was full of people, jam-packed. Earlier on, we weren’t even allow to go up the escalator to the platform –takut tumbang ke apa? So, you can just imagine the crowd anxiously waiting & wait some more…Queue cutting? tak boleh nak buat apa dah..
By the time I got into the train, like sardines in tin! I do realised that I’m still short since I cannot get hold of the monkey-thingie, but no worry coz padat sampai tak boleh bergerak or berpusing! And I did worry over protecting the front bump & the back bump..geli weii…nasib baik ada handbag & ramainya adalah pompuan!

Why was I so early in KL again? The consular office only open for business from 9am to 11:45am & the queue is long too – I was told. By the time I reached the counter, 10min to 9am, I was already #26. 5min to 9am, more than 60 people are queuing for counter 1.
I know, you would be saying – nape tak guna travel agent je? Well, I thought it would be easier if I were to do it all by myself – book the ticket online etc. & I want the experience too. Lesson learnt.

Thank Allah that I will never have to work in KL ever again.

My suggestions for now: (What say you? Will it help?)
1.Have a staggered starting office hour for the private sector too.
2.Don’t put all offices in one place like KLCC – too densely populated. Plan the roads first then only the buildings. Limit high-rise.
3.Increase the number of trains. And the frequency (now, every 4min)
4.Have another route/line - mana cukup dgn Monorail,Putra & Star LRT (I know, semua lani dah di called KL RAPID)
5.Balik kampung, tanam jagung la....(seriously)
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I’m not a good banker, never one & will never be.
How do you go about asking people to return back the money that they owe you?
I gave out the loans (zero interest, got discount meh..) on good intention, i.e. Qardhul Hassan according to my Fiqh for Economics lecture long ago. Some more, they’re family, my family members, in need and the money was just lying idle.
Too bad that I’ve told them specifically that I need the money in November.
I can give them a long list of reasons why they should have pay me now but they are going to come up with equally good reasons too to avoid paying now.

E.g.
Arguments on my side –
Raya is just around the corner. I need to spend extra on the preparations; duit raya, kuih raya et al. are just a small part of it.

Their side –
Raya is just around the corner. They also need to spend extra to prep up their kids, balik kpg and so forth. Of course, me bein’ not-married-&-no-kids apa tau? Even if they all received bonuses recently, surely it’s not enough with all the responsability & liabilities that are due to them. Not to mentioned the recent pay increase.

It embarrassed me to no end to go about asking for my money – but I do really need the money, as in NOW. I don’t have any other cash stash elsewhere.

Credit:
I’d already make car payment 3 months in advance as per normal.
I used up a lot of credits which bring the about the need for the money to pay what’s due.
I really need a digicam – ‘want’ is more like it! Seriously considering now…
Debit:
There’re a ‘minuscule’ amount of money due to me stuck somewhere – government’s bureaucracy.
I haven’t applied for the grant to cover all the money that I’d already spend for research.
The conference organizer will only reimburse me in cash much later.

Er…I’m confused about debit & credit now. Money saved in the bank is on our debit account but a credit to the bank and vice versa for loans right? My financial standing isn’t that bad – the debits do match the credits & got a nice balance too at the end. But, I simply could bear to see the card’s statement in red!