NOT APRICOT JAM

On our way out to an afternoon wedding reception, Hafiz was asking which way to take to reach the 28 km destination.

"Today is a Saturday Fiz." I made a statement, half leaving the facts behind, in my mind.

"Why? What about Saturday?" a natural question was shot by Hafiz.

"People from the private sectors are working you know?" said I.

"oooooh!" Hafiz, giving a brief respond.

"Okay, we shall take the NKVE route then" half ordering him.

Tralala, tralala LA!LA LA!!!! Osh Kosh Bigosh!

"Look Hafiz!!!! the massive jam has started"... it was only five minutes away from the first toll house. Perhaps... perhaps there might have been a major accident ahead. We were just going round a sharp bend joining the highway... so we couldn't see anything... specially when our views were shielded by huge and heavy vehicles.

I went quiet, limp with words, yet not totally disappointed because the vehicles were moving, though at a snail pace. The sun was at its hottest and brightest, a mid day hot sun yet hazy from the forest burning in our neighboring country, Indonesia. Admittedly also, from the light and heavy vehicles emitting smoke each second of our lives.

It was a boring ride... Scrounging deep into my not-so big-handbag, out came my cam. Once my phone cam started clicking, it would not stop until the battery went out. Then, something caught my attention and ideas to write came along. Honestly, could you guess what this is?

Okay, okay, now you know the answer... YES! It was an un-wraped "thingy" joining the jam and its long miserable journeyto its destination... either to the nearest toll house that tax our dough or further away that only "thingy" knew.

"Thingy" was right in front of us, un sheltered, un boxed, totally exposed, and was relaying its message to me via telepathy, it was thirsty. Yes, thirsty it was. Unfortunately, the HUGE water tank was too far away from the highway... and certainly was unreachable! A HUGE campaign was displayed on its structured tank, "JIMATKAN AIR" which means "SAFE THE WATER". "Thingy" couldn't reach out. It was on the far right side of the highway situated in an exclusive housing estate. Sorry, thingy! I am thirsty too...

mmmmmmmmm

Somehow, the wedding invitation that reached me via my hand phone had led us into several town halls... (as I learned later from one of the guests), there were altogether 32 of them in this city.

The first was an MBSA reception hall at Section 11. It was a wrong one. Confidently (as always), I walked in with a long stride because I was hungry. The groom's parents greeted us. When confirmed that it was not the one we intended to attend we left although they politely invited us to join.

It was almost half past three, the invitaion noted that it lasted until 4:00p.m. Would we be on time? So Hafiz managed a few menouverings to reach to this prestigious MBSA Banquet Hall. It was the right one. But as we entered, the hall was still crowded. The parents to the bride, was no where to be seen. We were in the middle of their guests' attention. Not long after, we located them (Haji Wan Hamid and his wife Norida) in beautiful and gorgeous blue attire and went up to greet with blessings. Worries went away! The food were still plentiful, hahahha (that mattered too). The normal half hour ride, took us more than one and a half hour's drive in the "Not Apricot JAM".