pelf-ism is contagious

I am always amazed at those people who lament about the piling workload and the lack of time to blog BUT still find themselves blogging. Liars. Hmmph..

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Well, I have been away for two weeks, and in the two weeks:

• I landed myself in a part time job in KL
• I had to get up at 5:30am everyday, for 10 freaking days, to go to work
• I came home feeling very exhausted and wanted to do nothing but to zzzzz
• I had a taste of commuting to and from work IN THE TRAFFIC JAM except for a few Raya holidays

I have also learned a lot in the course of staying in KL for two weeks, both on and off work.

I have learned that staying in Puchong and working in KL city may not be a good idea especially when one has to pay for the car petrol, Touch n Go, LRT and parking fees. Isn’t it better to stay somewhere nearer to where one goes to work? I think so.. *smiles*

I have learned that it is quite difficult to save some money while working in KL, which explains why most of my friends almost always complain that they’re VERY poor. I used to think they were kidding me, because they earn thousands every month, which is like three-fold my monthly allowance. But to be able to save some money, one has to earn A LOT. Because believe it or not, daily petrol, toll fee, LRT fee, parking fee and lunch already take up, what, one-fourth or one-fifth of the day’s wage. As if that is not enough, what about the house instalments, car instalments, groceries, toiletries and other miscellaneous expenses?! *sigh*

I have learned that it is quite tiring (and unproductive) to work in KL. Because an average working professional spends an average of 3 hours on the road everyday. Both my cousins go to work one and a half hours before clocking in to avoid the various traffic jams. And after clocking out, one of them comes home almost immediately, and will usually be stuck in the traffic jams for one and a half hours. The other cousin will usually stay back in her office before leaving home two, or sometimes three hours after office hours. So when both of them arrived home, they are almost always very exhausted and would plonk in their beds after dinner and a quick shower. And that kind of lifestyle robs them of any spare time they might have for personal indulgences (like dating) :(( Comparatively, I can work 8 hours per day and still have time for myself, though usually I would spend my free time sleeping anyway, or reading a book *winks*

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I managed to meet my Form 5 classmates a day before I started my part time job. It was quite a short meeting, over dinner, but I guess things are always good if they are kept sweet and short.

And I have just realized that I do not like to be criticized in the open, regardless of whether or not you are my best friend. Or maybe I have realized this a long time ago but I refused to think about it because, heck, she’s one of my closest friends! But to be told in my face, any many others’, that I needed some boobs just wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear, despite the fact that she’s not very much better off. I mean, I have been in THIS shape eversince we met 15 years ago. Throughout the 15 years we were friends, I have never put on much weight and it wasn’t that she hadn’t met me in 5 years and realized that I had lost sooo much weight, you know. And, earning thousands of ringgits every month does NOT put you in a better position to criticize your friend that way, you know.

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And I also met up with my pen pal of 15 years! She “found” me in one of the educational newsletters back when we were 10 years old and we have been writing to each other since then. I remember we started corresponding in Malay for a few years, when I stopped receiving her letters. Or was it ME who never wrote her back?! We stopped writing to each other for a couple of years but when she finally tracked me down (I moved to another place), she said that her house went down in a fire, which might also explain why my letters never reached her.

We met up for the first time in 1996 when I followed Mum’s company trip to Taiping. She cycled to the zoo, where we had earlier arranged to meet. It was a short meeting, but a very memorable one.

We started emailing each other when the Internet was a bit more popular, and we are still keeping in touch today. When I met her the other day, it was our second meeting in 15 years, but I felt as though I have known her forever..

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This is what Bloglines does best. Especially when one was away for an extended period of time and had no access to the Internet whatsoever.

Impressive, heh?

By the way, yeah, I am back. And I am sick. And I am buried in work. And drowning in my own messy bedroom.

I need help.

I was too busy the other day complaining that my webhost changed servers without first informing me, and how they had quietly restored my “missing” posts and comments that I forgot that it was my blogging anniversary.

It’s NOT that I have any achievements to shout about. In fact, I am not sure if there’s anything I should be proud of since I started blogging last year, well, except for getting myself a domain and hosting my blog myself. Is this even considered an achievement? Maybe, because it was quite a big step though I am sure I wasn’t in my right mind what I paid for the webhosting package *grins*

I wouldn’t say I’ve had a jolly-good time during the past one year, but well, the fact that I am still blogging today obviously shows that I have not given up blogging completely, no? I started blogging because I thought it was an interesting way to keep my friends in the loop as to what was happening to me. I thought I could send less mass emails to everybody, and that I could just get them to read my blog instead.

But as I later realized, no, I do NOT feel comfortable talking to people who talk about MY blog. I do not feel comfortable having people walk up to me and say, “Hey, how are you feeling now? I read your blog about that so-and-so incident. Hope you’re feeling better.” Because truth is, I would have forgotten about that so-and-so incident the very next day, regardless of how I was feeling at the time of writing.

And by attending my first blogger meet in Kuching this year, I learned that I am not half as into blogging as some people were. They were talking incessantly about the act of blogging, and bloggers in person, their recent blog posts and 1001 other things that have been made public via their respective blogs. They may be behaving “correctly” otherwise it wouldn’t be coined a “bloggers’ gathering”, but no, I did not feel comfortable at all. My version of a “bloggers’ gathering” is one where we could actually get to know the person behind the blog, behind the different themes. I’d love to talk about what you do, your job, your family, places you’ve gone for vacation or for work, you get the drift? Things that bloggers would normally NOT blog about in their blogs.

But then again, a lot of people have willingly blogged about their personal lives and that, of course, is really none of my business.

As such, I have slowly transformed from a person who blogs for an audience to one who blogs because she feels like it. Gone were the days when I would blog about something just to get my measly few readers to come back. Gone were the CnP posts where the sole intention was to add another post to the growing number. And I am now blogging about things that matter to me, which may or may not ring a bell in your head, and events and milestones that are important to me. And me only.

Maybe, maybe this is my only achievement so far.