Diaryless

Monday 26th January 2004
It is tough to find a simple diary in Malaysia. In Kuala Kangsar and Taiping I have browsed all bookshops in town. They do sell diaries but only the big, desktop types. There simply are no small, handy ones that fit into a wallet. A diary is a status symbol in Malaysia, for extremely important persons only. There is no such thing a small status symbol.

My holiday life is diaryless. Days unfold using a rubber, even unknown time.

There is no clock time. A diary is redundant.

The first business appointment for 2004 drops into my e-mail box, a request for a course in designing cyclic rosters. There is no way I can take note of this appointment, as I do not have a diary yet. What a wonderful feeling, this diarylessness. Still, being conscious of the diarylessness does flag the end of the holiday.

Taiping is the starting point for the return journey to Gouda. A taxi takes me to Kamunting, the express bus to Kuala Lumpur Puduraya, next are the LRT en monorail to KL Sentral train station.

I admire all this new infrastructure in Kuala Lumpur. The LRT, monorail and KL Sentral are all new to me. Odd, it is like KL is a unknown, new town to me. I do miss the old central station, with its white towers.

Some Malaysia Airways employees perform a dragon dance at KL Sentral. Chinese new year is approaching, the year of the monkey.

After a joyful dinner with old friends it is the KLIA express. Malaysia Airways drops me at Schiphol airport in the Netherlands. Dutch railways take me to Gouda via The Hague.

I exit the station shivering without a winter coat. Brr, this winter is cold. This country should be declared uninhabitable during winter. The journey ends like it started, in a taxi. HJ is back home again, after 8 transits.

Here in Holland the diaries are sold out at most places. In a bookstore I do find a discounted pile, as the new year is too old already. The Netherlands are already diarelessless.

Till next nut,
Nut