Kelentong

So this morning I woke up late.

Set the alarm at 7.45 am, must've shut the alarm down when it rang and then I dreamt that my cat was slapping me in the face and when I woke up it was 9.40 am.

9.40!!!

My first thought was holy crap Carpool Buddy must be waiting down there for me. The thing is that Carpool Buddy does not have credit on her phone - why she didn't top up at any chance she could is beyond me. So Carpool Buddy cannot call out.

So I called (let's call Carpool Buddy CB) CB's phone. She didn't pick up. Then I called her home phone. The maid picked up and said that CB is asleep. Pwhoah! Lucky break for me. So I smsed her (I can sms or call her but she cannot call out, get the pattern here?) and said I'll get ready asap, just let me know (via house phone ke apa) when I should get downstairs to meet her.

So tunggu punya tunggu, around 11 I called CB's phone.

"Where were you???!!" was her first line.

"I'm here at my apartment. Where ARE you??" I said.

"I was there the whole time but I didn't see you!" she wailed.

"Well I'll come down now. You're still there right?"

"I'm on way to work already. I waited then I came up to your apartment and rang the doorbell but no one's there so I thought you went off without me!!" she said

I was stunned. How on earth do moi, with no car and no visible option of transportation be able to go off to work, and most of all without informing her?? I'm the one still stuck at the apartment, so who's ditching who to get to work?? Plus ..'rang' the doorbell? The doorbell's pretty damn loud that my cat will scamper off to hide every time it went off so why is it that I am not able to hear it at all? She could even knock on my door but nooo.. she 'went up' and 'rang' the doorbell and then went off without me.

After much "I was there" and "I'm sorry didn't hear the doorbell (roll eyes)" CB agreed to turn back though I can tell she was quite disgruntled. Went downstair, got to the car and went to work. All is good again till she complained about an event being held at the office compound which caused us having to park across the street for 2 days.

"Well I paid for my parking space I don't want to park any anywhere else!" she said.

Oh honey, it's only two days! And we were given notice preceeding the event for a whole week already so if you are so mad about it you can always talk to the event manager. But there's always something to complain isn't it?

On that note, gonna check with my apartment security if CB DID actually enter the apartment compound to go up and 'ring' the bell. Still tak boleh percaya lah that she did actually do that. Nak kata bell rosak, dah check - masih kuat memekak bagai nak rak. My theory is that CB did not ring the bell nor wait for me - or she waited and just zoomed off and later blamed me for not hearing the doorbell so that our reason for being late to work is me not hearing the doorbell instead of her waking up late (later than me, even!)

The Aching Vestibule

My stomach is hurting now and it is not from lack of food.

It is signaling the onset of the female malady of the monthly period.

O cramping stomach how I hate thee! It makes me cranky and angry and dissatisfied for all sorts of reasons; it also sought to magnify little peeves that I have encountered to make them significantly and criminally bigger. One instance is the example given below:

On the way to work today a colleague told me there was a Malay wedding at the community hall at her apartment complex.

I said, 'Wow how cool! Did you crash the wedding? Wedding crashings are fun."

She said, "No, I didn't like it. There're cars parked all on the side of the roads when there's a proper allocated parking area nearby."

I said, "Is THERE really a proper allocated parking spot nearby your area?" Because I've been to her apartment complex before and if you're not a resident it's not easy to find a parking spot around the area.

She said, "I'm sure there must be." And pulled a sour face.

'I'm sure there is.' 'I'm sure there must be.' Words of assumptions, which can also be so dangerous. Do people want to purposely congest up the roads because they want to? If there an actual allocated parking lot nearby, I'm sure they'd taken it up already. In my old neighbourhood sometimes certain lorong/ roads are blocked when there're a wedding, or funeral, be it Chinese, Malay or Indian event - people just try to find an alternative route to get around it. It's annoying to hear people who just make assumptions and draw to a conclusion just because they're temporarily inconvenienced by something. Is it so hard to just be tolerant for a period of time?

Then again the tolerance level is at such an all time low in this country, at this time and place. And the sad thing is that people who cry out intolerance against certain elements in the country are often the perpetrator of intolerance themselves.

Agh. Such a depressing issue. Must be the hormones acting up. Must seek out chamomile tea, even though it tastes vile. Maybe it'll cheer me up.