I couldn't stop looking

It was a perfectly fine Tuesday morning and I got to wake up a little later than usual after a hectic week of assignments. Since it was late, I decided not to have my breakfast, which was a good choice as you will soon find out why. I walked to the usual waiting area where I waited for a bus to come. It took a little longer than usual to come this time. Getting bored, I started to stare blankly at everything around me. Bikes whizzing by, students walking briskly past me, birds flying around, and huge trucks moaning their way uphill.

These trucks were a norm to us by now as many of the residential colleges were undergoing renovation/repair (renovation just makes it sound like it's getting an upgrade). I continued to observe these trucks driving by, in particular, a baidge truck caught my attention. I watched as it drove up and into one of my neighbouring colleges. I then looked away to see if a bus was coming up, I saw that there was none and turned back to watch people passing by. As I turned my head, something small on the road caught my attention. It was flipping around in circles and it took me awhile to figure out what it was and what it was doing. I saw a furry little body with 4 legs, a tail and...a big splotch of red which I guessed must have been the head. Only then could my mind enable me to make the connection between the huge truck and the little kitten on the road.

I watched as it flipped around helplessly on the ground, and I couldn't stop looking..I knew that nothing I could do could ease its pain in anyway, I'm no vet. I then found myself praying that it would die sooner so as not to have to endure the pain any longer. I had never prayed for anything to die before, and this got me thinking about life and how fragile it really is, how it could end in a matter of seconds. After 10 or more agonising seconds, the flipping around stopped, quite abruptly and the little kitty just laid there. I was relieved.

I began to think about the pain it was undergoing during those 10 cruel seconds. Then again, maybe it had died instantly and the flipping was only the effect of the nerves. This is why it was a good thing to have skipped breakfast. My entire day was filled with the graphics of the incident. I felt sick.

I then continued in my reverie to get my mind off the visual images of what happened. God granted us life, of which we should be extremely thankful. He decides when our last day should be, and in this, no one has a say. It's a harsh reality that I have yet to come to terms with especially with loved ones in mind. Why does God allow such things to happen? No one has ever been able to give a satisfying or definite answer to this, and I guess it should be left at that as, in my opinion, no one really has a correct answer. It is not for us to question Him as there are some things that are just beyond our comprehension. If we understood all things, would we then need a God?

Ladies and Gentlemen, we're going to make a detour...

Those are certainly not words you'd want to hear when you're on a flight that's headed for home. Here's an account of my little adventure on Friday the 28th of August 2009. The day begun at 4.30am where I was forced to dragged myself out of bed to catch an 8am flight. Wondering why I have to get up so early? Well, it takes me 1 and a half hours to reach the airport and I have to be there an hour before take off. This means that a taxi would have to pick me up from my college at 5am in order to catch the 5.30am bus at KL Sentral. I would then reach the airport at 6.30am and would have plenty of time to check in and have breakfast before boarding at around 7.15am. None of the above happened according to time.

I was up, ready and waiting for the taxi by the time it was 5am. at 5.05am, I thought maybe he got lost, the campus has a large compound and many colleges. At 5.10am, I started to get worried as to whether I'd make it to catch the bus on time. This is when the calling starts. The taxi man does not answer. Panic starts to seep in now and this is when a 911 call to a 24 hour mum has to be made. She then arranged for her brother to come pick my friend and I up while dad tries to call the taxi man as well (for a different reason of my calling him of course). Well at least I have an uncle who was nearby enough to get my friend and I to the bus station in time to catch the 6.00am bus.

It was raining all throughout the 1 hour journey to the bus station. And just when we could see the airport coming into the view, the bus decides to break down! We couldn't get down to walk because of the heavy downpour. I stared anxiously at my watch as every minute would count (along with the staring, I prayed of course). Finally, after a few gruelling attempts, the bus starts up again and we're dropped safely off at the entrance of LCCT.

*This is the part where we start running to the check in counter. We made it on time=) *

We then boarded the plane and waited for take off. It took awhile before we could start moving and by the time it was 8am (supposedly take off time), we were in no way ready for take off yet. The plane moved slowly to the runway and as we looked out the window, we could see about 2 other planes behind us in a line. The captain then made an announcement saying that our take off would be delayed a little longer due to traffic congestion. Have you ever heard of a traffic jam on the runway? Well now you have. It turns out, the captain was serious (of course he was!), in front of our plane were 3 or 4 other planes waiting for take off! I so wanted to take a picture of the 6-7 planes (including ours) all in a line, waiting to take off..hahah. We finally took off at 8.40am (40 minutes delay) after watching India Airlines, Tiger Airlines, MAS and another Air Asia take off.

The flight was quite smooth thoughout the journey until we realised it was taking longer than usual. My friend and I (Chiew Nyen) looked out the window and found that we were flying around in circles above what we believe was Kedah. It continued for at least half an hour. And then, just when we thought the day couldn't get any worse, the captain announces "Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm afraid we cannot land in Penang International Airport due to bad weather, we are now going to make a detour back to KLIA. We apologise for the inconvenience". My mind went blank.

An hour later, we were at KLIA AGAIN. I called my mum, hoping to find them (my mum and bro) aware of the news and waiting at home for further notice, but I was wrong. She and my brother had been waiting in the airport all the while for about 2 plus hours because they were not informed about the detour and worse, our flight was posted as 'Confirmed Arrival' for those 2 hours. She must've thought I fell off the plane! My poor mother.

Anyway, we waited another hour in KLIA before taking off again, and this time we managed to land in Penang. So basically I was in the plane for about 4 hours. But it's ok, who am I to complain, as long as I reached safely. Matt takes 22 hours to get back, not inclusive of the wait during transit. I should be thankful huh, Matt? =)