An evening in Wangsa

Met some ex-schoolmates on Sunday at Bangi Kopitiam next to Wangsa Walk. My first time there - but I did not get lost driving there, alhamdulillah.

Some 'worthy' mentions:

- "Consultant - to con and insult..."

- "Ada maid pening. Tak ada maid pening. Tapi lagi baik pening ada maid daripada pening tak ada maid."

- "CM tu Central Market lah, bukan Chief Minister. Hisy, hang ni betui ka budak SMAP?"

- "XXX tu mestilah tak lawa sangat kan pasal tu aku tak ingat" statement "apakah?!", especially so since XXX used to be one of the prettiest girls in the class

- "Siapa ingat budak lelaki kelas 5M yang main chess,  aaar, yang baik dengan si A, aarrr dan budak A ni minat kat KA..." - after a while we found out that while the girls usually won the matches at the chess tournaments, the guys pretty much sucked, so the school team lost due to point system. 

- "Lain kali nak jumpa, kena bawak ILHAM (our school magazine). Senang sikit nak ingat balik..."
 
- "Siapa ada kawan, kerabat, cousin yang single lagi? Ni kami ni ada lagi yang single ni. Mana tau, kot-kot ada, bolehlah kenal-kenalkan" a statement which immediately reminded me of Wali's song "Cari Jodoh"

-"Anak kau memang aar - semuanya ultraman. Ultraman Cosmos. Ultraman Neo. Yang seorang lagi Ultraman apa pulak? Yelah, kena marah pun, cakap Jepun baru faham" - referring to who else? my kids of course.

- "Ada masa macam menyesal tak cari partner masa sekolah dulu. Paling-paling pun depa semua dah ada basic agama. Bila isteri yang lebih bab agama, suami bukan nak ikut kita lead. Susah!"

- "Aku nak menangis pasal kau juga macamana Y menangis pasal S bertudung balik. Dulu masa kau bukak tudung, L menangis sebab dia sedih sangat kau bukak tudung. Aku nak menangis happy sebab kau pakai tudung balik"

It was an evening filled with light moments, and later, after all three guys left, leaving just us girls, heavier points to ponder upon. Understandable - what with realizing that there are more old friends of ours who are now 'single again' - a term that no longer refer to the state of being boyfriend-less, but referring to those who used to be married but now divorced.

It was nice to catch up with old friends - some of them my best buddies at different periods of my life. These are the people who have seen me in huge plastic frame glasses, with a broken half front tooth and 'tudung tak  kelepet' and when I was in the 'making up stories' period of my life. No, I'm not particularly proud of the 'story making up' part, just admitting my weakness. And pray that my ex-classmates and Allah will forgive me for my weaknesses (Yes Zarin, that's why I had to drag you and Ira in when I shared about the 'incident' involving your ex-classmate - just for verification that it was not a made-up story)

Anyway - I had a kelam kabut moment after the meet ended. Forgot where I placed the parking ticket - maybe because I was so excited to see Ira just before I parked my car. I usually insert parking tickets in the small compartment at the back of my handbag. But that day I simply forgot to do so. It was already dark when we girls finally said good bye to each other, so it was not easy locating the missing parking ticket in the dark.

Groped under the driver's seat. Groped under the passenger's seat. Looked under all the floor mats - at the driver's seat, the front passenger's seat, the rear passengers' seats. Examined the center consoles oh-so-very-closely. Explored both dashboard pockets even though was pretty sure that I did not open them before exiting the car. Checked the drink-holders. Grabbled in the door pockets.

Found nothing. Okay, found other unimportant stuff, but not the parking ticket

Went to the the pondok pak guard, asked the boy in charge if anybody had found a lost ticket since I could not find mine.

"Tak adalah kak."

Oh, if that is the case, how much do I need to pay for a loss ticket?
"Kalau tiket hilang kena bayar RM50 kak. Kalau tak, parking hari ni, sekali masuk RM2 ja. Akak cubalah cari lagi"

Asked for permission to search for the ticket in the pondok pak guard because it was well-lit, definitely brighter than in the car. Emptied the whole handbag  quickly put all the spare 'woman items' back into the handbag and examined all the content oh-so-thoroughly, but to no avail.

Went back to the car. Repeated the whole process of looking for the parking ticket in the dark. Found more rubbish in addition to those already found earlier on - leaflets for "pinjaman mudah!" usually left on the windscreen at parking lots, postcard-sized colored pamphlets, even a plastic "Committee Member" tag usually worn during expos - but no parking tickets. Groped, grabbled and fumbled about in the dark even more - and finally my fingers came into contact with a piece of paper the size of a name card under the front passenger's seat after I rubbed the center console from the back of the seat.

Found it! Alhamdulillah!

Phew, at least I didn't have to spend RM50 on a loss ticket after spending nothing at Bangi Kopitiam and Secret Recipe since the tab was picked up by others, thank you Zarin, Topex and Ira *winks*

Note to self - always, always put the parking ticket in the compartment at the back of the handbag right away! No more spending one hour berpeluh-peluh groping for a parking ticket in the dark car!