CATH-LESS DAYS

The saying “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” doesn’t apply to me when it concerns my Cath. I never take her for granted. She is an old whiny girl, always craves for my attention, but I’m grateful to have her for these last ten (!!) years. Living in a middle of nowhere in Jakarta, I’ve become so reliant on her.

Last Friday, she was sent to a garage and the repair was estimated to take 1 week. Hence started my days without her. It means leaving the house at 5:30 AM like usual, but instead of driving, I walk my ass off for 20 minutes to the shuttle-bus stand.

The shuttle bus leaves the stand at 6:00 AM, which is of course a big joke. If you dare to drive out of the 7th Sector of Bintaro at 6:00 AM, then you’re asking for trouble. The traffic jam resembles Evil Hell (a.k.a Neraka Jahanam, nope I’ve never been there, thank you very much. But if God wants to torture us good, then the Evil Hell should feature Bintaro-type killer traffic jam.)

Actually the bus has a TV set, and the idea of watching the morning news before work kinda appeals to me, but I always end up not watching it. Most of the time I’d watch my own version of morning news inside my head.

The shuttle-bus takes the route of Bintaro – Pondok Indah – Sudirman – Senayan and back. I get off the bus at Ratu Plaza, and climb that weird-looking staircase to cross the road and get to the TransJakarta bus stand. The whole process of getting to the office takes about 1.5 hours, and I wonder how on earth am I to make the 7:00 AM classes without my Cathy. Impossible, really.

Going back home is an even bigger challenge. It takes about 2.5 hours, sometimes 3. The traffic resembles, again, the Evil Hell. While getting off the bus one night, I heard the bus driver sighed quietly, slowly: “Forgive me, forgive me God.”

Forgive us all indeed.

Oh and it just occurs to me that I don’t have a single picture of Cath.


PS: It’s confirmed: I can take Cath home this afternoon. I sure miss the old girl.