Don'ts 101

I don't know what happened today but I haven't lost my temper like that in a long, long time.

Can you imagine the times when your irritation, annoyance and anger rolls into one white-hot entity that is just begging to reach its filthy hands up through your uesophagus (is that correct), UP again through your throat before tearing your mouth open sideways.

The anger I felt was so intense that I literally wanted to ram the car I was driving into a store window. Any store window.

What happened was... I made a lunch appointment with my friends and girlfriend at 12.30pm. Since I was at Wisma Merdeka, manning our company's booth promo, I needed one of my colleagues to relief me while I go for my one-hour lunch break.

It was raining, and half the population of Sabah seemed to wanna do their Christmas shopping in this very mall so parking was nowhere to be found.

So, what did my colleague do? She went ahead and drove on her own. Because it was raining, sure, but I told her 12.30! I know I run the risk of sounding childish and petty about this but it's not just about me.

My friends were waiting for me for lunch by my invitation.

By the time the brainiac got to the mall, it was nearly 1.00pm. And guess where she parked? Illegally, on a traffic island.

Let me repeat: There is NO parking to be found anywhere.

AND she had the gall to ask me to help her move the damn vehicle so she could replace me. Gee, if that's the case, why didn't she moved it to a better spot before getting down?

Fine, fine. So I moved it for her.

Yes, that was the car I was driving and the very same one that I wanted to ram through a store window.

But you know what? Through all this, even after I drove around looking for an empty parking lot, even after I got to join my girlfriend Mel and my friend Wilson for lunch at nearly 1.20pm...

I didn't see the point in telling my colleague off about this whole cock-up.

I guess she wouldn't have realised it anyway. It's partially my fault cuz I never told her about my lunch appointment. If I wasn't in such a hurry to join my friends, I'd be cool about the whole thing. Totally cool. But here, people were waiting for me, see?

The point is, I know usually these things are no one's fault. That's why my flaring temper surprised me so much. I think usually, we just need the time to simmer down and see these from other angles.

If I had talked to her about it in my angry mood, she'd have felt like shit too. And it wasn't her fault.

And, it was pretty embarrassing to have people stare when you nearly broke a table in the food court.

Then again, I didn't have breakfast bah.... :(