Seriously… the whole convenience thingy went down the drain (a.k.a. Sungai Gombak/Klang) in a blink of an eye the moment I saw the queues at the gates of Masjid Jamek STAR lrt station increased from the previous mile to 2.

Frankly speaking, when RapidKL announced in April 2010 that they were going to stop the use of the manual monthly pass and replace it with the Rapid Pass Touch ‘n Go (TNG), I immediately thought, “This is going to be hell.” And voilla! Right on the bull’s eye, I was.

How many people commute on a daily basis using the lrt, either PUTRA or STAR? Hundreds of thousands. 

How many TNG gates are there at each of the lrt station? PUTRA line, no problem. The stations even have dedicated gates for TNG. STAR line? I can only shake my head.

Take for example the Masjid Jamek STAR station. There are 10 gates on each platform (to Ampang/Sri Petaling and to Sentul Timur). Half of them are for entry and the other half for exit. Out of this half, 4 have TNG card readers. And out of these 4, not all of them are working. Sometimes only 2. To top it off, there’s no dedicated TNG gates like the ones they have at PUTRA line. It’s really very very annoying when you were in front of the gate, ready to get out, when you discovered that the card reader was faulty and you had to join the next queue right at the back.

So where does that leave you for convenience?

Right down the Sungai Gombak/Klang, as I said earlier. You waste so much time queueing at the gates waiting to get out or in when using the manual pass, you would’ve walked through the gate in a jiffy.

In short, here are what I think of this Rapid Pass TNG thingy (and other related matters):

1. It’s very obvious that whoever came up with this idea is not a commuter. Which, of course, is not really a surprise in Malaysia where the decision-makers are usually not the users. They probably never use public transport in their whole lives.
2. The whole idea was not thought of thoroughly. Convenience? Yeah, my ass. Somebodies’ bank accounts probably went up a few millions, with no real thought whatsoever on the impact to the commuters.
3. Are there 2 separate management teams under RapidKL for the STAR and PUTRA lines? It seems to me that more improvements were made to PUTRA while STAR remains like… that. Putting roofs over the stations does not count since it has no impact whatsoever to the services.
4. The frequency of the STAR line, particularly in the evening, between 6 – 8 pm, really really sucks. Surely you, the staff of RapidKL, can see that the platforms are jam packed with people, with hardly any space for them to queue up? Enlarging the platforms will not help. Ask anyone and I can guarantee you that the common answer would be “MORE TRAINS !!”
5. I applaud the effort of RapidKL to improve their services, even though some glitches still happen especially in the morning when people are on their ways to work. My advice is… the improvements should be planned for now AND the future. Installing 4-coach trains within 2 years will not help much since the problem is NOW and that within 2 years, the number of people using the lrts would probably double.
6. Please please please do NOT stop the use of manual lrt pass. It is much much much more preferable than the Rapid Pass TNG. A survey should have been done before the implementation. You would’ve known then what the people really want.

Those are all I can think of now. I’m sure a lot of lrt users out there agree with me. If you have other items to add, feel free to include them here. I’m just thankful that I was able to buy the manual pass for June yesterday.

Here goes…

For the past few months, Bahrinshah’s son, 8 years old, has been diagnosed with leukemia (blood cancer) and is currently being hospitalised at the Sime Darby Medical Centre (used to be known as Subang Jaya Medical Centre). About 2 weeks ago, his son’s condition improved but for the past few days, there were relapses and the poor kid has used up at least 18 pints of blood for transfusion processes.

Due to the high usage of blood, the management of SDMC has asked Bahrinshah to find blood donors who can help to replenish their blood bank regardless of the blood group.

Apparently the hospital has a silent policy: those who have used up more than 10 pints of blood must find replacements on a one-to-one basis. Meaning, each pint of blood used must be replaced with the same amount. 

For Bahrinshah, failure to do this may result in his son not being able to continue the treatment at SDMC or be denied of future admission.

So… news to you? Yeah, to me too. Who would’ve thought a hospital would have this rule and not made known to the public. I guess one would only know about it when one is experiencing it. But still…

Anyway, a blood donation drive was immediately conducted and the response from other staff was tremendous.

So when I got an email from AirAsia about this Pick A Seat, I thought… finally! About time they implement this.

But when I got to the part about the charges, I thought… bloody hell!! They keep coming up with ways to bleed people dry. I mean, c’mon… Surely service like this can be made free? Malaysia Airlines does.

RM5 for a standard seat and RM25 for a hot seat are just too much. Especially when the seats are extremely uncomfortable.

After twice depositing my breakfast into the toilet bowl, I went to the clinic with the hope that I would get medical leave from the doctor. Alas, the doctor did not believe I was sick. He checked my blood pressure, my body temperature and my stomach.. and everything was normal. The fact that I looked completely okay did not help one bit, of course.

But then, what was I supposed to do? Puke right on his lap just to prove that I was sick?

Then with this sceptical look on his face, probably irritation as well, he gave me 5 packets of oral rehydration salts, some pills for diarrhea and vomiting, and no medical leave. Damn! He probably thought I was faking the whole thing.

Maybe I should’ve puked right then and there.

Anyway, I got back to the office, had lunch (or tried to) and got sick all over again. My friend gave me a packet of the local cure for diarrhea and vomiting – the Chi Kit Teck Aun pills. They definitely worked wonders because right after that, I puked my guts out again. Arrggghhhhh!!!

But hey, wonder of wonders.. I immediately felt better.

Not having the energy to wait until 6 pm, I applied for a half-day emergency leave (even though it was already 3 something pm), took the lrt home and promptly collapsed on my bed.

So, if something like this happens to you, my advice.. unload your breakfast/lunch/dinner right on the doctor’s lap. He’ll send you home in a blink of an eye.

But thank you, guys.. I really really appreciate it.

As for birthday wishes, the first one I received was from Nor Syam – like 6 hours before midnight. Very advanced, this woman. Hehehe…

Thank you to everybody for the wishes. I’m going to list all of them here. It’s tacky.. but who cares 

SMS

1. Safuan 15/12 11:51 pm – “Selamat hari jadi semoga hari2 yg mendatang memberikan seribu kebahgiaan, dipanjangkan umur, dimurahkan rezeki & sentiasa bahagia disamping yg tersayang ”
2. Zue 16/12 12:00 am – “Happy birthday lelaki”
3. Nai 12:15 am – “Hapy bday. May Allah bles u”
4. Sayang 12:29 am – “Epi bday.. Tua da.. Haha.. Rndu kat abg ni. Sayang pun da makin syg”
5. Syed Mufadzal 12:35 am – “Happy Birthday Yus… ”
6. Aziz 12:56 am – “See? I almost forgot. Happy birthday handsome. Love ya lots ”
7. Syaril 2:46 am – “Happy birthday!”
8. Shakderaman 8:59 am – “Hepy Besdey Sayangku.. Muahkss.. Dah tua ye ye hehe..”
9. Fid 9:18 am – “Hepi besday nok! Semoga lg pjg umur, dmurahkn rezeki & dpjgkn jodoh.. Amin.. Hehe”
10. Eina 9:22 am – “Hepi besday u olls! Aku doakan semoga d limpahkan rahmat, kesihatan dan murah rezki slalu. Syg u olls! Take cre n teruskn muhasabah diri ye.. Hehe”
11. Zamri 10:39 am – “Happy Birthday”
12. Zai 10:42 am – “Awang darling. HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Luv, Zai”
13. Amy 2:23 pm – “Salam.. eppy beday.. sweet 36.. hope pjg umo n dmurahkn rezeki..”
14. Eva 8:30 pm – “Happiest bday to u wahai Awangku! B-)”
15. Calvin 11:09 am – “Hey awang, many happy returns n may u have joyous bdays to come! ”

Facebook

1. Nor Syam 15/12 6:08 pm – “epi besday.. epi birday.. hepi buffday.. and happy birthday to you.. wish u all the best..”
2. Rizal Hamdan 16/12 1:29 am – “happy birthday !!!!”
3. Syed Mufadzal 7:57 am – “Happy Birthday Yus… (“,)”
4. Azmiena Najibah 9:14 am – “happy bufdaaaaaaaaaay tooooo uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu !!”
5. Muhamad Pitrah 9:21 am – “eppy bday 2u.. eppy bday 2u.. eppy bday 2 awg… eppy bday 2u… (sambil nyanyi…)”
6. Azlina Hashim 9:34 am – “awang, happy birthday. Lunch nanti naik tingkat 4, i belanja hahahaha”
7. Taikoh Ong 9:39 am – “Happy Birthday… Webman… hahaha”
8. Muhammad Tabrizi 9:43 am – “Happy Birthday Bro…!!!”
9. Hasrina Ismail 9:58 am – “Happy birthday awang..”
10. Shahamir Fariz 10:04 am – “Happy Birthday!!”
11. Khairul Nizam 10:46 am – “awangg!!! selamat hari lahirrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!! semoga panjang tgn lagi nak spike… hahahahahha….”
12. Encik Alangz 10:52 am – “Salam bro… slamat hari lahir.. moga success slalu..”
13. Aznee Othman 12:01 pm – “happy birthday…..”
14. Na’dhir ‘Arzd Fahmy’ Radzi 2:21 pm – “Happy birthday….”
15. Nor Haidawati Ab Malek 2:29 pm – “Apy Besday awang….. May Allah Bless U Forever….”
16. Faidz Othman 3:41 am – “happy birthday!! ”
17. Amir Azhar Jamaluddin 4:07 pm – “Happy Bday n best wishes…. nanti aku langgar ko…. muahahaha”
18. Gyna Zakaria 4:27 pm – “eppy besday eppy besday to uuuuu… lallallalalalla”
19. Aziz Draim 4:47 pm – “MUUUUUUAAAH!! Tak leh lebih2, pasal orang tu dah ‘in a relationship’ katanyer.. Happy birthday, Yus. Hugs, A.”
20. Teoh Pei Hsia 6:07 pm – “happy birthday….”
21. Andre Amir 11:45 pm – “hey babe! Happy birthday! Hope you have a good one! Enjoy! ”

To top everything else, my volleyball mates bought me a cake. Thank you guys… really appreciate the whole thing.