181 Refilling & Refueling

Here's a ridiculously obvious observation:

The one thing that can get every Malaysian scrambling on to the streets at any given time of the day, is a fuel price hike. That, and maybe the imminent threat of a natural disaster, but that has not proven yet, and I hope it will never ever be. Even the National Day Parade doesn't get so much attention.

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So here's what happens when the price of fuel is about to go up. Everyone gets into their motored vehicles, drive to a petrol station, and fill their tanks to the brim, and that includes forcing it to the max. Hence, the focal point of attention at this juncture is the petrol station that fulfills the following criteria, in descending priority:

1. You MUST get there by midnight
2. Hasn't run out or pretending to run out of petrol
3. Has the relatively shortest queue, but be prepared. All the queues will look frustratingly long, and will most definitely have caused the worst jam of the month, unless the town/city was struck by a flash flood within the last 30 days
4. Close to home, but that isn't an issue if the ones that are close cause a traffic jam that already clogged up the whole neighbourhood. Also, try one that you somehow know has less people and/or one that is really somewhere that no one goes to on a good day of you know any.
5. Has enough kiosks to fulfill the needs of a lot of desperate people, and/or nice attendants who help the poor men and women who already waited 30 minutes to get there

NB: Doesn't apply for foreign-registered vehicles.

We, Malaysians, have to admit that we are as kiasu as the people of the island that just acquired sovereignty of an even smaller island. I am sure if someone offers free rice at any given place in Malaysia, everyone within a 100 km radius will be there... and it also applies to any other controlled item.

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Tell me, why in the world did we build the Petronas Twin Towers? ... and admit it, is the one thing that irks you the most while driving is to have some smart Alec cut into the lane in front of you? Do you tailgate the car in front of you while waiting in a queue, be it for a tollbooth, traffic lights, or waiting at overcrowded petrol stations? And lastly, when the price of petrol is about to go up, who goes to the petrol station, and fill up the car with petrol, and when its full, we still must put in a little bit more? Yes, we are as kiasu as our neighbours, as much as we hate to admit it, so quit the name-calling. It's hypocritical.

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But then again, RM 30 is a lot of money, isn't it? But the only thing we can do is compren, just like our neighbours do, too. Hmm... the two countries do have a lot more in common than we want to believe.