Rush Hour Fever Kicks In

When Sunday emerged, I was already in blues, thinking about Monday traffic crawl after a long Raya break. My heart skipped a beat wishing for a smooth traffic so that I can shun unwarranted anxiety daily. The thought of Monday itself can fling us into mood swings, what more with the returning city dwellers post-raya holidays. The hitch of living in big cities is evident in this scenario. A choice we made and we have to live with it. I did and I am coping with it. But most of us (including me) need to vent out the frustrations from time to time, to make us feel better.

Much to my surprise, yesterday’s traffic was not so bad after all (with the all around famous Monday blues). I manage to reach home 6.30pm (I left off on the dot, 5.30pm) even by using the trunk road to avoid toll. Ha,ha,ha…I and my colleagues found a slip road which helps us to ease on our pockets. Ever since our office relocated from Conti-PJ to MTDC, we have been living on high expenses. The distance of travelling to and from office-to-home, made us suffer in silence. Money seems to be slipping off our hands to petrol, toll and maintenance of car almost every month. Relocation allowance was given for the first 6 months only! My parents quizzed me, “Sime Darby is a multinational corporation (a GLC with diverse businesses & huge profit right...) and how come they don’t have an own office tower? I can’t believe they relocate all of you’ll from a prime town to somewhere further for most of you all without allowance or transportation!” In fact to a certain extent, I agree from where they are coming from. My sis works in HP which was based in KL and later relocated to Damansara. What is more considerate of the HP management is to provide a bus and van for their employees to and from office to a central transportation hub, KL Sentral at two different intervals! Isn’t that very considerate for their own employees’ welfare? It is!

So, I have to live with it which is why instead of opting for public transport (KTM service sucks btw), I decided to drive even though the distance is far and the amount of stress incurred is unbearable. This is life after all. I didn’t make much fuss when I got to know that some of my colleagues drive from Klang which is 15km more than my distance and toll costs exceeded mine! Pheww..I am grateful when I hear some are not as fortunate as me. Yet, Sime Darby should take into consideration of their employees’ plight and work out a minimum monthly allowance (instead of implementing corporate social responsibility programme, which is meaningless).

It has been 9 months since I’m adapted to such after-work experience and still fighting with my patience to endure the traffic congestion which comes unpredictably(Ohh, I forgot to point out that my direction to work is opposite traffic flow but at times, I’m jammed for more than 3 hrs! Madness right?). A typical dilemma of every city dwellers! Therefore, a week of basking in the joy of traffic-less city, I am hit by harsh reality. Rush hour kicks in and so here I am today, setting out to battle the jammed up roads. Its 4.55pm already and I am glancing at the clock across me, every now and then just to catch a glimpse of 5.30pm. So near yet so far away! Tick tock, tick tock, chimes the clock faintly…