Saturday 3 June 2006

Punctuality is a virtue, not habit

From as early as I could remember, I have been waiting for people; waiting for people to get ready so we could go to Sunday class in temple; waiting for friends to arrive at the meeting place, to go shopping, to show up at dinner; waiting for my prince.. Alright, erase that last bit :p

I don't like to be late so generally I try to be punctual or even early to avoid being late. Often, I end up waiting past the actual time. What's the point of me making the time when others don't?!

10min is very late in a shopping centre or somewhere with entertainment AND aircon. 5min is very very late under the sun! And I hate to wait especially when I'm alone; I'll usually lose all the excitement of meeting up.

What I don't understand is that, how can some people be perpetually late?? Are they late for work as well? Are they late when meeting other people? Punctuality is not a habit obviously, people don't pick it up even after 10 years of going to school on time!

Cooling down.. To be fair, I'm no saint and there were times when I was late. And I hated it, cos I don't like to make people wait for me. But most of the time when I was late, I found that I was still (among) the earliest or someone else was (ridiculously) later.

This trait runs in Mother's line. I remember how she would always wake us up early on important days such as CNY to go to Grams' place and found that no one got there yet. Or we would arrange to meet this aunt at the bus stop to go together but we were FOREVER early, even after calling to say "see you in ten minutes".

I find myself taking my time whenever we have to meet the aunt at the bus stop. Even for my friends, I'm walking slower these days, fully expecting others to be delayed somehow as well. With the weather turning real hot, no point sweating it out. In fact, no point getting pissed; I'll just take my time getting to meeting point from now on. I won't even bother with a cab!

1 comment:

  1. I truly agree with you and share your woes. I always got problems with people not keeping on time and its really frustrating to wait!! And worse, some dun even call or sms to say they are going to be late. At least show some respect to the person you are meeting, not taking anyone for granted as if we are obliged to WAIT!

    As far as i know, my siblings and myself follow the traits of my dad and are either punctual or early, while my mum always takes her own sweet time and made people wait.

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