The Art of Arriving Anyway

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The morning began on the back foot. One of those nights where sleep decides it has better things to do — arriving in patches, wandering off, returning briefly as if it forgot its keys, then leaving again for good around four. By the time the alarm went off, I'd been semi-conscious long enough to resent it on principle.

A late start, then. The kind where you move through the house with slightly less precision than usual, where the coffee matters more than it normally does, and where you eye the clock with the weary suspicion of someone who's been let down before. But KL traffic, in a rare act of municipal kindness, decided to behave itself. The roads parted, the lights cooperated, and I arrived on time with the faintly smug air of someone who got away with it. Some days the city is on your side. Best not to examine why.

Rounds went smoothly — the sort of morning where everything clicks into place without fuss, each stop leading naturally to the next, nobody throwing curveballs, no last-minute complications. Finished by eleven, which is the medical equivalent of finding money in your coat pocket. Unexpected, welcome, and not to be wasted.

The paperwork that followed had been waiting patiently, as paperwork does. It neither complained nor hurried. I gave it the attention it deserved — thorough but uninspired — and by the time it was done, lunch stretched ahead without its usual sense of urgency. A meal eaten slowly, without one eye on the clock, feels fundamentally different from one inhaled between obligations. Today it was the former. I sat. I chewed. Revolutionary stuff.

The afternoon brought a VIP patient arriving early to clinic, which required the particular brand of organised calm that looks effortless from the outside but involves a fair amount of quiet recalibration behind the scenes. Everything was in place, though. The preparation held. There's a satisfaction in readiness that's hard to articulate — the knowledge that when the moment arrives, you've already done the thinking. The rest is just execution.

Home before six again, two days running now. If this becomes a pattern, I may have to reconsider my entire identity as someone who's perpetually late to his own evening. Dinner was good — the kind of meal that doesn't announce itself but leaves you properly content, the sort where you push back from the table with nothing left to want. Anita has a knack for this, making the ordinary feel considered.

The evening settled in quietly. No agenda, no obligations, just the slow unwinding of a day that started rough but found its rhythm. It's a useful reminder that a bad beginning doesn't dictate the rest. Sleep may have abandoned me last night, but the day itself held steady, and now the evening is doing its part. Tomorrow I'll aim for both. Tonight, one out of two will do nicely.

Rainy Hazard

Peak hour traffic in the heavy rain was never fun. There might be water logged road, slow traffic and slick driving surface. There is another hazard in Lembah Kelang however especially on the highways.

Motorcyclists!

They smart danger in clearest of weather but during rain, they tended to stop as a group under shades of bridges. This morning, they occupied the two left lanes along Federal Highway under a few of the bridges as I was making my way to work.

It happened on both sides of the road ...This created extra jam as the lanes were practically closed. Imagine if you were driving fast having to apply your brakes on such atrocious conditions.

Federal Highway has their own motorcycle lanes but they were not well maintained and tended to be closed at areas where constructions were going on - which in KL meant everywhere! Ten year back, motorcycles were banned on rolled inner city highways. But the ban had been lifted since. They use the highway for free and weaving in-between the fast lanes will create problem.

A few months back there we're mbps ends where a car ploughed into this crowd of cyclists causing a few deaths. I guessed the lessons were never learned ... I am not campaigning that they were banned again but a solution must be found and the way I see it, they need a dedicated lane for themselves as well as proper shade stops during rain. Good luck to that ...