picture in my mind

The past Saturday, my sis, parents and I were stuck in a traffic jam in Johor till ~1.30am because of a Chingay event taking up road space; we had been warned about it during the course of the day's shopping but we had not anticipated the extent of its effect on the entire pusat bandaraya. It was nutso~~~~~!!! and hilarious to recall. We had set off for home at 8+ pm but by 9.30-ish the traffic was crawling at ant's pace, and by 10-ish, we were stationary. It felt like the entire city simply shut down and witnessed the chingay.

After some irritating squabbling and finger-pointing amongst ourselves in the car, my dad pulled over and shut down the engine and we whiled away the hours while the chingay people had their fill of the fireworks and the singing and the merry fun. The entire highway was filled with people lounging around their stationary cars and chatting each other up and fanning ourselves against the heat. I was sprawled across the backseat watching a movie on my iPhone (leftovers from my Spain trip stash, hehe, thank goodness). My sister described how further down the road at the Shell kiosk, the scene was ala end-of-the-world, with cars packed in the roads but stationary or abandoned, and dark roads (because they had switched off the lights for Chingay light effects, wooh!) and people queueing up for basic amenities -- i.e. toilet.

All-in-all, quite the adventure.

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Been listening to the Bayyinah app on the way to work for the past 2 months (oh, how time flies!), and Allah bless our tireless teachers who impart such valuable knowledge. I feel like I've learnt so much from listening to so little, and it's been helping me keep life and work in perspective, Alhamdulillah. yay. (: