Money.

I was alone this weekend. My cousin / housemate went back to Ipoh to fetch his parents to go for my other cousin's wedding ceremony. I went to the wedding as well, but I didn't go back to Ipoh, because my mother took a train to Seremban. My father couldn't come because he had to take care of my grandmother who isn't in the state to travel long distance, and he himself isn't in the pink of health, but slowly recuperating.

The newly-weds weren't really newly-weds. They got married a few months back, if memory serves, and couldn't hold a ceremony because the wife was studying in Australia, and came back only for a short while to get married. The kenduri was ok, though there were things that my mother and my aunt spotted that could have been improved. Perhaps future family weddings will be better.

Just now, as I was playing Crysis 2, and after dying and dying at the same spot for a couple of times, I suddenly got really dizzy. Upon realizing I hadn't had dinner and it was already 9.15 pm, it must've been because I was hungry. After all, I had lunch at around 11 am, and had not eaten anything since. So I decided to go out to this restaurant where they had a carwash service nearby, so that I could get my car washed while I ate.

After eating, and seeing that my car was already clean, I paid for my food. It was RM7.10. I took out a RM10 note. The cashier asked me if I had 10 cents, I did not. So she gave me RM3 back, and said "Takpe lah".

Its only 10 cents, but I never liked owing people anything. 10 cents is still a debt, even if she did say its ok. I remembered there being some coins in my car, but I paid for my car wash first.

See, the car wash cost was RM9. So I gave the guy RM50, since my last RM10 I gave to the restaurant. And he gave me back my change.

So I took 10 cents from my car, went back to the cashier lady at the restaurant and gave her the 10 cents. She smiled, probably thinking it was silly of me to be so bothered about 10 cents. I said nothing and walked back to my car.

Walking back to my car, I passed the car wash guy. Then it hit me.

"Tadi saya bagi u RM50 kan? U bagi saya RM1 saje balik."

"Eh tak, u bagi RM10."

I open my wallet to check.

"Eh betul la, saya bagi u RM50, u bagi saya RM1 saje. Betul."

He goes back to check his cash box.

He holds up a RM50 note. The one that I just gave.

"Ini duit u ke?"

"Ye, ye tu duit saya."

He looked skeptical.

"Kalau duit tak cukup, nanti saya punya gaji kena potong."

"Betul, betul, saya bagi u RM50 tadi", I said as earnest as I could.

He took out RM40 and gave me my correct change.

If the cashier had the exact change for my RM10, I wouldn't have owed her 10 cents.

If I had not owed her 10 cents, I wouldn't have thought of grabbing the 10 cents in the car.

If I had not taken the trouble to pay the 10 cents, I wouldn't have passed the car wash guy again.

If I had not passed the car wash guy the second time, I wouldn't have remembered.

I would have paid the car wash guy RM50, took back the RM1, and obliviously went on home, and I would've lost RM40.

Because of that near-worthless 10 cents, I saved RM40.

Everything happens for a reason. Everything.

We just can't see the reason sometimes.

Maybe its because we're not really looking.

"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."

"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."

- Albert Einstein.

Hanya Engkau yang aku maksudkan, dan keredhaanMu aku tuntuti, ya Allah.

Peace.