Tuesday, August 03, 2004

Perhentian #1 - being Malaysian

Tuesday, August 03, 2004
Woke up when my phone beeped with Evelyn's message. Picking you up in 10 minutes. Shucks. I'm supposed to wake up half an hour earlier! Haven't shampooed since yesterday and I'm not flying with greasy hair. I must've habitually clicked off the alarm AND the snooze button. Moronic. Oh well, at least I packed most of my stuff. Showering at 5 a.m. is coooooold... Mood brightened when I donned the sweater "rented" from James. Warm and fluffy. Smelled nice, even. Smelled like... James' detergent. Duh.

Evelyn's zombified brother drove both of us to KL Sentral. So sweet of him, although the entire journey was shrouded in silence. Perhaps we're all aware of our morning breath. Or maybe we're all quietly praying not to be disastrously late. We're supposed to catch the 5.30 a.m. KLIA-Express. Promised to meet up with Furby, Wombat and Marina at 6.15 a.m. (latest) at the airport. We're so not gonna make it. At KL Sentral, I frantically looked for the shuttle's ticket counter. I never knew the place was so huge. We have Starbucks, and A&W (or it could be an optical illusion), and lots of other outlets I never thought existed. Oooh. Aaah.

"Evelyn, I think we're definitely gonna miss the 5.30 shuttle, when's the next?"
"I dunno-lah."
"I thought you were looking at the shuttle schedule online yesterday! You dunno when's the next?!"
Snort.

One minute later... still engaged in our Spot-The-Ticket-Counter-Walkathon.
"So, Evelyn, what time is our flight?"
"I dunno-lah, you think we should take a cab to the airport instead?"
Grunt.

Mercifully, the arduous hunt ended. We saw Winnie, Evelyn's colleague standing with arms crossed at the finishing line. KLIA-Express Ticket Counter. Finally! Hurrah! As we sped joyously and anxiously (it's possible. Joyous to at last locate the counter after many confusing overhead signs. Anxious to find out if we're gonna miss the flight and be stranded in KL) towards Winnie, I heard huffing and puffing and a clamour of footsteps behind us. Air Asia chilli red uniform yanking along a roller-bag. Talking apologetically into her phone. Hair a bit dishevelled. I felt instantaneously... nice. Muahaha. So we're not the only ones being late! I wondered if she's going to be on our flight.

God is kind even to blur people who're late. Turned out that there's a shuttle at 5.45 a.m. and the journey would take 28 minutes. We're still gonna make it after all. Evelyn called Wombat to notify them this merry news, and guess what? They're gonna be late, and we should go check-in first without them...

Malaysians will be Malaysians.

post script: Saw a solitary high school boy clad in school uniform sitting forlornly on a bench at KL Sentral. Waiting to catch the first train to school? Is he always the first one at the station at this ungodly hour? I salute him.

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