31 August 2008

Still feeling a little bit light-headed from yesterday's cold. I swallowed 6 paracetamols and 2 cold tablets yesterday. I think that had worked. My nose is not runny anymore and I felt less miserable today. Despite all that, I brought my family to KL to do a little bit of shopping for Hari Raya. First we thought we'd buy some new clothes for Linda and the kids at Mid Valley but when we got there, the parking lots are all but full. Yup all 10000 of them. Crazy people this Klang Valley folks. So I rerouted our journey to Masjid India instead. We parked the car on the 5th floor of Semua House and stroll along Jalan Masjid India and Jalan TAR looking for a baju melayu for me and Adam.
This year, our baju raya theme is all white. Actually I meant to wear that last year but I just couldn't find a single white baju melayu then. This time we started much earlier and I was really lucky cause I found one right away at Kamdar. I also bought a black and silver samping to match it. Now that I have my baju melayu ready, Linda and Adam can start looking for their own baju raya or else we won't be wearing matching colours for Hari Raya (what a horrible thought). But so far we've been wearing the same colour for the past 4 consecutive years.

Later in the afternoon I went to a friend's house to fix his PC. He works at one of our associate company in Subang and I've known him for 2 years now. Actually I didn't like this guy very much. He sends one log form for one problem but when we got there he asks us to check every single PC (and server) there. I know it's my job but usually I also have other places to go to and work to finish too in a day. Besides that he always ask for a reduction on this bill, a discount on that invoice, free stuff with every delivery bla bla bla etc. Err hello mister, we're not HP or Cisco or Santa Claus and we rarely hand out free gifts and stuff. Unless of course you're really-really important client.

Having said that, I got a real surprise when I visited his home today. He treated me with so much warmth and hospitality that I totally regretted thinking all those nasty thing about him above. He lives in a small terrace house somewhere in Cheras with his wife and 3 girls. During the 2 hours I stayed there, his wife served me a delicious cempedak goreng, banana fritters and some kuih pau fresh from the steamer. And although I don't drink coffee much, I had two cups of coffee at his house today. Some more when I was about to leave, they give me a box of dates. I don't eat dates too but I'm still touched by their thoughtfulness. Some nice people. That's the proper way to treat your guest. And they don't even have any titles to their names. So moral of the story here: don't judge the book by its cover.

What independence celebration? Celebrate what? The fuel price? inflation? rising crime rate? I have no reason to celebrate this year. I'm postponing mine until September 16th (if you know what I mean).