Life has changed, especially during the last few years. Things have mellowed down rather drastically. Noticed too that this post took over a year from the last one to appear.

Excitement has taken a new meaning. It is all done that, seen that, tasted that and been there kind of feeling. Responsibility takes precedent over all things now.

I am officially settled down, I shall say.

I really believed that the Malaysian Government BN Government is gonna lower the price on the 1st of September 2008. As always, they lied. I remember some bloke in Perak even boasted that the fuel price is to be reviewed twice a month, all craps! I hate them politicians. Well, I supposed they are natural hate magnets when they go around shooting yesterday’s meal through their mouth.

Lame post this, yeah. But I felt better.

The tribe’s rain dance was so famous that other tribes invite them to do the dance for them. A wise man was curious and he wants to investigate the strangely effective phenomena. If it is true, then the tribe may be the answer to the world’s food production problem.  Drought would have been a thing of the past.  Everybody would be having enough to eat.

So as the story goes, the wise man asked the tribe to perform the rain dance, sure enough it rains. The wise man followed the tribe and make a record every time the rain dance was perform. The success rate was 100%. The wise man was very happy.

The wise man brought the tribe to drought hit places and asks them to do the rain dance, it rains.

The crops still die, people are still hungry. The wise man was puzzled.

The wise man was not so wise after all. Yes, the rain dance is effective. It is because they danced until the rain falls. It did not rain because of the dance.

So what exactly makes them or us this corrupted? “Tak Cukup Makan” (not enough to eat) is the answer that comes from most of those I asked and they are being frank. High inflation that follows the recent crazy 41% fuel hike has irked all but the most corrupted ones.

Right now almost everyone is trying to find ways to earn more, in order to live their previous living standard. Cutting cost is not an option anymore. Everything is on the rise, including basic necessities such as water and electricity tariff. The chain of reaction is somewhat devastating to the economy, with traders trying to earn more by rising prices and consumers trying to spend less to save. It is a lose-lose situation where traders will sell less and consumers will buy less.

Looking at things, I would be corrupted too if given the chance. Shitty!

So told there was this bird, *born without legs. It learned how to fly while falling from its nest up high. It was pushed down by its parents. From then on it keeps flying.

It cannot land for fear it cannot take off again. It has neither friends nor mate.

If it is sleepy, it will fly up high and sleep while falling from the sky and wakes up before hitting land. It has no choice but to keep flying to survive.

One day it will land. It is the day when the bird dies.

*note: born not hatched as was originally told.

The “Sales” culture is so embedded in the life of Malaysians. If it is not on sales, don’t buy yet, wait.

“What you do not have now is what you do not need” holds water here. Most shopping centres and complexes, huge ones, are quite deserted nowadays if there is no promotion of sort to draw em crowd in.

So I went and bought meself three pairs of trousers and two pairs of socks. All on 30% discount. Smart move eh!

Why buy so many freaking pairs for? My waistline is playing havoc on me. Sometimes big, sometimes small, really. Got some wide range of sizes, these trousers of mine. Next I ought to get a bigger wardrobe to stuff em in.

So short are my legs that all three pairs of trousers need to be altered. “We do not have alteration services during promotion sales” says the saleslady.

Very well, I will buy a pair of scissors from the stationeries dept and cut em myself. I just need you to fold em up and sew them, can? Cannot!

Ended up paying RM8 each pair for alteration at one rundown tailor shop near my place. That is 40% of the purchase price of RM19.90 a pair. So much for the 30% discount smart move purchase.

Heck!

There is this lady who came near my table asking for permission to take some empty chairs over to her table.

Lady, pointing to the empty chair: Ada orang ke? (“Is there someone?” *in Bahasa Malaysia)

Me: Lei kong mat chat? (“What are you talking about?” *in rude Cantonese)

In Malaysia, most Malays cannot understand the Chinese language. However, most other races can understand and speak fluent Bahasa Malaysia. The Malays are often very reluctant to speak in other languages than theirs. Even if they speak in the English Language, they will have accent, with their own flow and generous fare of lah’s. I am not in the mood to make her understand, not this time.

The lady was taken back slightly and looks quite surprise at my response. Somehow she summed up her courage to ask again.

Lady, pointing to the empty chair: Ada orang ke? (this time much louder)

Me: Ni Mah Ter. Ni suo seh meh? (Some vulgarities and “What are you talking about?” *in Mandarin)

She scoffs and walks off.

Moral of the story? There is none actually, just fed up.

Those who are Chinese educated will normally get married to a foreigner there or when they are back.

Those who are English/National educated who went overseas will normally come back single and then get married to locals or they don’t get married at all.

Why like that? How would I know? Hence the title.

It is boring having to eat alone. Looked around, there are couples, families, friends, all eating together and chatting happily. My mood sank lower. Well, fine, I just have to finish my meal quickly and get out of there.

Somehow someone must have noticed my new haircut that day. A nice pretty little lady walks toward me and she looks happy to see me. I am sure she is smiling at me because I have my back to the wall and there is no one behind me.

My heart beats faster as she comes closer. Uninvited and in a most gracious way she sat beside me.

She blabbered, “Hello Sir, I am from this @#$@$ foundation and I am collecting some donation. Please donate Sir, any amount will do”.

What the @#$%&^!!

Why me? Why don’t you go get some donations from some big companies or something. Like Petronas or Maybank for example, heard they make billions every year. You can go and collect a few millions from them. I am sure they can spare some millions.

Why me? Don’t you know the general public has barely enough to spend with all the inflation and rising fuel prices? The banks are not paying a lot of interest on our savings either.

Why me? I just don’t believe your foundation even existed and I don’t believe my few ringgit gonna make any difference to it.

Go get lost! And I don’t believe you are doing this voluntarily without pay.

You may drive slowly, you may even stop if you want, but make bloody sure you are not in other people’s way when you do that.

These road hoggers are selfish and oblivious to the dangers and the inconveniences they are causing other road users. I suspect they are somewhat blind and deaf. They could not care less about the flashing lights or blaring horns from the cars behind. I must add they are also bad tempered and ill mannered. The moment you overtake them, often by using the slow lane, they will give you the “I-own-the-road” glance. Some may even give you the middle finger.

It is easy to recognize them. It is either genetically built in or a universally recognized “road hogger trademark”. Most wear sunglasses. They will have their driver seat adjusted very close to the front almost hugging the steering wheel. This is also the reason why they cannot see or use the rearview mirror. They look tensed and eyes fixed and scour the road right in front of the car and have the look and concentration of a Formula One driver going at blazing 300kmph. Truth is they are driving 60kmph on the fast lane of a highway rated for 110kmph.

Generally road hoggers are uneducated and cannot read road signs. Messages are being shown on highways saying “Ikut Kiri Jika Tidak Memotong” or “Keep left unless overtaking”. Somehow these messages are not comprehended and are ignored.

When someone hog the fast lane by driving slowly, other motorists have to overtake on the slow lane. This will cause accidents to happen. Any slight alarm will trigger the right-hand side driver’s normal reflect to swerve left. So beware the road hogger to suddenly swerve into you if you do just as little as to press the horn while overtaking them.

There are many researches done and have proven that you save fuel by going more slowly. Somehow no research has been done on time wasted while driving slowly. You save some money but at the same time you are making your life shorter and riskier by spending too much time on the road and exposing yourself to unnecessary risks. I would say slow drivers has a shorter and riskier life.

Driving safe and carefully is not the same as driving slowly. This misconception is instilled in every motorist by the road safety campaign every time it is promoted. Are you so stupid as to not know how to differentiate between safe driving and slow driving?