I woke up feeling elated. Intan & Co were here all the way from Kemaman and they were coming to my house for Iftar. Yey!!!!! I spent first half of the day mentally doing the menu. I did not plan to cook anyway, bibik was finishing out the raw material stock in the freezer in preparation for the upcoming balik kampung trip. She only prepared a simple chicken soup for the kids.
By afternoon, it was raining heavily. Hubby signed off from YM saying that he'd be going home earlier since Kelana Jaya traffic would usually became horrible after a few hours of heavy rain. I was busier than usual. My usual monthly deadlines were brought forward due to deepavali and eid holiday. If those were not enough to put me in state of panic, there was also a nasty US legal dispute to deal with. I had enough trouble understanding the lawyer who insisted in speaking in legal jargon, let alone comprehending the contents of three thick files piling on my table. Sigh.... wish I were out there, shopping with Intan or maybe just sit gossiping in her hotel room.
By 4.30pm, I packed my thick legal files and called it a day. Brian called saying that the road in front of Proton was flooded so he was stranded at Proton. Alamak! I was planning to use Elite hiway. Could see the long queue snaking to the road in front of my office. That bad! So, I turned to the other way, which was actually nearer in distance but requires a lot more daring stunts. Big mistake! I saw red once I reached past Sek Men Teknik Shah Alam. But the traffic here was always unpredictable so I braced on. Nearing the junction, I heard the news that the road in front of sugar refinery factory at batu 3 stretch was flooded. Big flood. There was no way to turn back at that point. Oh my.... I should have listened to radio from the beginning instead of blaring the CD. Called hubby and rattled off my menu for him to buy. I won't have enough time to stroll at pasar ramadhan if I ever made it home.
Feeling very gloomy, I just crawled along together with other drivers. At one point I saw Kak Rosni, my ex colleague, on the opposite side of the traffic. Waved at her and she waved back. Exchanged pained grinned at each other. She was on the way to Kak Nor's (another ex colleague) house at Section 20 for iftar invitation. Kak Nor purposedly invited her, knowing that Kak Rosni who was heavily pregnant, would never make it to her house at Damansara Damai for iftar and being in not so healthy condition, she'd need all the help she can get.
Called hubby again and heard the merry sound of our kids at the background. Plus Intan's kids, there'll be five of them. I could imagine the chaos. I so wanted to be there. I wanted to bawl my heart out.
As I inched forward, the adzan came from a nearby mosque, announcing the time for iftar. I was beyond caring about food and guests. I had another problem. The fuel indicator was flashing steadily for the past ten minutes. I was getting panicky. If my car ran out of petrol in the middle of this crazy jam, the whole of Klang Valley would cursed me to death. I inched to the left lane. Didn't want to have dead car on the right lane, do we? As I neared the left lane, I spotted a petrol pump just metres ahead. Alhamdulillah.......and blessed my aveo too for lasting all the way of nearly 45 minutes , though it was barely 2km. It was a new car and I didn't yet know how long it would last, especially during massive jam.
Sometime after 8pm, I reached the end of the queue and a few good samaritans helped to divert the traffic away from the knee deep water. Arrived home around 8.30pm, a good four hours after I left office. Adehhh.....cam nak patah pinggang den...nasib baik kereta auto.
No comments:
Post a Comment