From bad breadth to smelly hair, to PDAs and body rubs, these are the daily doses I get on the MRT each morning. Couples who cannot stand to be apart for 30minutes, women who force their hair on you, aunties who rush in to get seats, ignorant plugged-in commuters who stand in the way of everyone wanting to enter or exit the train, ah peks who holds the highest point of the pole exposing their armpits for a whiff of dreadful 'perfume', people who like to poke others with their extra large bags and couples who cannot stop touching each other on the train completely spoils my morning each day. Mornings are meant to be treated with respect for the soul, starting with the waking, breakfast to feed the mind and soul, a process of waking; preparation of the mind to start the day, and then proceed on to the place of work. The disruption in-between spoils the whole process, disturbing the balance of the soul.

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Anyway, I did some grocery shopping today, wanting to buy a can of baked beans that was on offer for $1 and a can of tuna. When the cashier scanned the item, it was not at the offer price. There and then, I could have paid for the few cents I would have lost, or end up losing more time. Since I had time, I decided to ask the cashier to check out the price I saw on the shelf. She, took quite a while to recce the place and came back only 6 minutes later to say that there was no offer price. She looked at the wrong place, and I was beginning to wonder if I saw it correctly. So she asked if I still wanted to go ahead with the purchase, and I decided not to. To do so was daylight robbery and I was not in dire need of a can of beans. It took another 5 minutes to get the item void from the register and I ended up paying only for a can of tuna.

What would you have done if you were in my place? Pay the additional few cents from the start to avoid the mess? Or pay it later on to avoid the additional time spent to erase the item? Or refuse to pay for the item that was suppose to be on sale?I guess one could argue that time is precious and for that few cents, the time wasted was not worth it. However, the few cents can snowball into a few dollars, and a few hundred dollars. I suppose the matter is not so much on whether it's just a few cents saved, but more on one's take on life. It can be liken to a promise made by others, and you, in good faith, accept the promise, but soon, you realize that it was just an empty promise, probably covered up by some excuses for not abiding to it. Would you forgive that person once, twice, thrice? Maybe yes, but if you keep bending for the others, soon, you will bend so much that you'll begin to topple over. The whole issue isn't about saving a few cents, but setting out what should be right to begin with.

--> lessons learnt
1. In moments of doubt, trust is the only thing you can hang on to, and learn to trust oneself more.
2. Learn to be firm in your actions, decide once and for all a stand to take
3. Be flexible, do not insist on always having something. Sometimes, it may not be necessary
4. Always deal with the other person with a smile, if he/she knows his/her mistake. It can be quite painful to deal with bitchy customers who demands so much for so little.
5. Life is not always about time over money, because sometimes, money is time and time is money. Always thinking that time is money may result in unnecessary waste of money to buy time, but with proper planning, the money saved may be worth the time. Confusing? I think so too.
6. Always fight for the right cause, and not for the sake of fighting. Also show that you have a backbone and shall not be taken for a dummy.
7. For those who are rich and rather pay the few cents, that would be a good deed done to the supermarket, nothing more.
8. I rather save that few cents and give it to a hungry homeless person. This is my idea of money spent wisely.