When I arrived in kl, the bus passed by the old building where I used to work. I remembered the first year when I worked there, there was a flooding to the lowest car park. My car was parked there as well, along with other colleagues'. We had to roll up our jeans and pants to muddy through the mid-thigh-high sludge of rainwater mixed with dirt. Then we drove out to the second parking lots and continued working with our feet drying in the cold air-cond. It was a brief but fun distraction.
I was reminded of the lonely after office night snacks at a dimsum shop nearby which only opens at nite. It was still there. My previous company's now shifted to Bukit Jalil.
I used to pass by the shop and take away some of the buns for my sis if I'm going home late and she's still awake. I used to drive by the same road back home, after midnight work where everyone's gone home and I'm still around cracking some issues or just using the net services. My brain works best at night when it was real quiet.
During my uni, I code best from 1am to 7am, thus I slept during the day and work during the dawn. It took a while to get my bearing back.
I miss the night driving; the tranquility, the steady sound of time ticking by and my steady heart beat.
Then the bus passed by the pudu jail, and I see how sad that there's nobody maintaining the murals. I wondered what happened to the original artists, the ex-prisoners who used over 2,000 litres of paint to accomplish the task.But it still looks spooky.
Puduraya is still same as usual; busy, dirty street and congested with travellers coming in and out of the city. It makes great reality backdrop for a movie, a slumside to Shinjuku eclecticism, except one would have to hire couple of body guards to guard the equipments cos thievery is an issue.
The bus passed by it's office near Timesquare and dropped off some passengers. I guessed most singaporeans would reserve rooms at the hotels nearby due to the convenience of the shopping malls, food and heart beat of the city, though personally I wouldnt cos I hate waking up to the sound of honks and smog in the early morning. KL city dun have mist.
Then the bus stopped by Swiss Hotel before stopping by Pudu bus station.
I was using my sis's luggage and I kinda forgotten luggage's handler was broken, which I only realised when I left the house in sg. So I had to drag the luggage all the way from Pudu to Pasar Seni lrt station, which is almost 15 min away.
Wanted to stop by the bulk selling shops just behind Petaling Street which sell some of the cheapest stones, the cloth shops which I stumbled long ago and sell some gorgeous lace where some design students used to drop by for their portfolios, the old kopitiam restaurant at the corner of the street's crossroad traffic which sells great egg tart and early breakfast with ambience to boot and nagoya for some cheap good quality cloth. But didnt due to the luggage I was carrying and afraid I'd just get mugged along the way cos some streets are real quiet at that time of the day.
I just managed to stop by an old shop selling ribbons and lace with it's dusty shelves and some pretty old laces, but didnt find anything I was looking for plus the pricing aint as cheap as I'd thought.
Then I used the Pasar Seni lrt and saw the Menard second floor shop as it passed by.
I won a Menard foundation kit long ago; the fine dusting and liquid foundation makes it easy to apply for my skintone, and hides away all the scars and blemishes without clogging my pores. Considering I have pretty sensitive oily skin, it was awfully good by my standard of a makeup foundation cos the other commercial ones which I tried gives me acnes and more oil discharge. So I went to asked once and the pricing threw me off; a simple powder foundation cost RM300+ the last I asked. And in Singapore, the pricing's like SGD180++. *phew..I guess I'll get it only when my skin's in jeopardy.
When I reached the lrt near my hs, I used the taxi. Once reached, I placed the bags in the empty room, which was dusty and went to bath and check out the hs for signs of bad maintenance. The handle for the kitchen pipe was broken, but it's usable and the roof of the shared bathroom still suffers leakage from above, I could see the mold forming. I guess I will redo the whole stuff after I've moved back to KL.
After catching up with the current tenants, I left for my friend's pre-wedding dinner.
The taxi at my place sux real bad. The taxi drivers been conning the students there for like ages, and the residents used to file a complaint but I guess it didnt take. And they have an attitude.
"Eh, do you guys go to One Utama?" I asked.
"No." one taxi driver said. Others just shook their head.
Malaysia's taxi services is going to the drain. The services bad, the attitude's bad and sometimes, their meter tripped! So, anybody using taxis in Malaysia, always sneak a peep at the meter once a while to make sure it didnt trip from 1.00 to 2.00 in a blink.
So there I was, hailing a taxi and half way to the lrt, I saw the taxi's meter was off.
"Err, how come the meter's not running?" I said.
"Oh, I thought you knew. One person aboard the taxi cost RM3." he said.
"But I took the taxi back from the lrt to the taman and it costed only RM2.40" I argued.
"Oh, then I'll charge you only RM2.50. Sorry the meter in the taxi's broken bla bla bla.." he gave excuses.
Yes, the taxi drivers near Taman Melati sux so bad, I had to buy a car to avoid being conned. Assholes and screwballs.
Then I used the lrt and reached Kelana Jaya lrt and tried hailing another taxi.
The fucking taxi driver was giving me excuses that the road's blocked bla bla bla..and dropped the bomb.
"It'll be RM15." he said.
There's no meter running, just a price.
I've lived in KL long enuff to know when I'm being conned, so as I saw the shuttle bus coming along, I waved him off and said no deal.
And waited at the bus stand like everybody else.
Public transport in Malaysia has been one of the biggest hoot ever.
Everybody knows it's bad, reason ppl used it is when it's the last resort. Why you think there's so many ppl buying cars in Malaysia? *Sheesh..biggest joke ever. And the toll, another joker.
After yrs of using the toll and paying for the roads built using some foreign talent but with the ppl's money, supposedly the pricing for the toll should decrease when it nears the expiry date. But in Malaysia, the toll increases in some places to 200% of the current fare. Biggest joke..ever.
Not knowing which bus to use, I looked around before asking. And chatted up a girl.
She worked at One Utama's Paris Hilton shop.
Didnt know Paris Hilton's selling bags nowadays. If you'd like large bags with pastel colored bags and blings of somebody else's name on it, that's the shop to go.
I asked her how's the shopping environment like in One Utama. Midvalley sux due to the parking and jam and tix cost (by hr), Pavillion sux cos it's in the middle of the city which is also jam and the shops are pretty high end, Garden is like another KLCC where the many high end shops are only good for window shopping. Not to say there aint any good shops around, but my preference has always been ez and affordable parking, lotsa things to see and purchase, clean mall and not much crowd. Which makes Curve and One Utama my top list.
She said the ppl who shop there has decreases after Chinese New Year, and the sales had dropped as well.
Then she handed me the shuttle bus tix which she didnt use cos she was planning to go Sunway Pyramid. I wanted to pay her for the bus fare but she declined. The tix doesnt cost much, and I thanked her profusely cos kind ppl is hard to come by. As her bus arrived, I kept on thinking why rush in life when I can meet some nice ppl along the way, and that day, I met a nice soul. Too bad didnt catch her name cos she sprinted off after her bus came.It seems many times in my life, when I'm not rushing towards some place and take time to slow down and chat, I meet some of the nicest ppl ever. And they love telling stories..especially to non-threathening strangers.
Then when I arrived at One Utama around 6pm, I took my time remembering and visiting all the old shops which I love to drop in; Forever 21, La Senza, Xixili, Nine West, Rest and Relax and many more. All my favourites are located near the bridge between the new and old wing. How I love love it..*sigh..
Since I had only half hr to shop cos my friend's supposedly coming around that time, I breezed in and out of the shops.
That's one of the quickest shopping I've ever done, 2 dresses in less than 15 minutes.
When my friend almost arrived, I was changing my slippers for my heels cos shopping on heels is a killer. Plus the only spare shoes I've got in KL is a 3-incher.
When my friend arrived, I asked if he usually left his office this time. And he said he usually left early and actually stayed back late that day so I'd shop longer. Speechless, I thanked him.
Then we had a time of our life as we searched for the friend's house for the dinner. Haha..
That friend of mine is just too adorable to be left alone. He was kinda sexist cos he wouldnt stop to ask for directions though I volunteered to ask, and he kept on comforting me saying that we'll get there soon and stuff, though I seriously think he was also talking to himself..*sheesh..
And when he took out his map book and looking at it so intently, I was laughing to myself. I was thinking, big deal if we missed her dinner tonight, we can still go for supper somewhere else. Tho I seriously think he was merely trying to sniff what kinda perfume I was wearing on my wrist, me and my narcissm..
Eventually, we arrived at the location and he gave me a high five for the teamwork in finding the place, where he mostly did all the work while I just drag along. I rather enjoyed the little adventure cos I dun get driven around much.
I think he enjoyed walking ahead of ppl a lot, as much as I love walking behind ppl while checking out their butt, I took photos of him, above the waist of course.
Initially he resisted, which I suspected he thought I was being cheeky, then after some coaxing, he gave me that signature pretend shy look of his.*sigh..Weak kneed a little, we arrived in time to shove in a couple of plates. The hostess was busy entertaining relatives and friends, so we entertained ourselves.
We caught up a bit. I've not met him for quite a while, previously he was involved and in my book, attached ppl can only come out when the gf's not in town, well..my friends do that. I knew a while back he'd just split up, and now he's taking up gym and marathon. The latter activities I dunno if he used to do that for health improvement or it's the kind of things ppl do after they broke up. It reminds me of the movie "Run, fat boy, run".
He's got 3 sisters, not 2. And he always tot I have 2 sisters, not 3. After 6 yrs, at least we cleared up that misunderstanding. I remembered last I asked, his youngest sister was still studying and he said he wun recommend IT for her, haha..And all the dogs he used to mentioned in his old blog is no longer around. I'm not sure if he's still a social smoker or not. I went back to reading my previous testimonials for him, and reminded of how we met long ago. How time flies..
The only difference I can see from my perspective are; his radiant grin has diminished along the time. His dressing choice had improved or somebody bought those for him. He's a lot more quiet than before, or mayb it's just the crowd that night.
Anyway, we had fun debating and just talking, then he went back and I stayed overnight at my friend's sister's plc, which they just bought couple of years ago cos it was really new, meaning the kitchen's rarely been used and the furniture doesnt look lived in. Haha..
But it was real comfy and I slept like a baby.
