无奈

这一天终于来了，虽然之前已经听到这个消息，但是还是觉得很震撼，有一点无奈，有一点无助。。。我们终于踏进了高价石油时代 --〉 一公升RM2.70。。。新一轮的涨价又要开始了！米价一再涨价，虽然各方面都说我们有足够的米，但是为什么一直涨呢？上个月买RM33 （十公斤），上个周末买RM47 （同样的米），可能下个月要买六十多了。

昨晚，听到消息后，匆匆忙忙去添油，大排长龙。。。等了半个钟头左右。在等待的过程中，思考着这个问题。。。为什么会涨价呢 （涨40%）？我们可是石油输出国，照理说我们应该从国际原油的飚涨中受惠才对，现时又没有战争，也没有经济风暴。。。就算1997年的经济风暴时，汽油也没有这么贵。减少汽油津贴，然后再给于RM625的津贴，真的比较合算吗？？通货膨胀的压力下，省下的津贴也会缩水吧！感觉上好像是补了一个洞，可是同时也挖了另一个洞。。。

无可奈何。。。*~*

Calligraphy

好久没有写书法了。。。有十多年了吧！前些日子，堂姑叫我指点堂弟们的书法。。。我这只菜鸟只好硬着头皮答应了。前两天，去了他们的家。。。其实只是去玩玩而已。拿起毛笔，开始写。。。咦，好像蝌蚪字，好丑。。。哈哈！写着写着，渐入佳境。。。比较像样一点。就这样，大家一起认真写书法，消耗了一个下午。

怎样的书法才算美呢？其实，蛮抽象的。。。规矩的写法有它的美，潦草的写法也有它的美。不一样的形态都有它的美。。。各有千秋吧！书法是一种艺术，也是一种文化；可以修身养性，也可以抒发情感。

我看有时间的话，可以好好地练习写书法。。。中国文化，源远流长，汉字为本，意深形方。

18A

Is this my lucky number? Hmm...definitely not....actually a bit frustrated by this number. The story of 18A began like this...

Last night we had family dinner. After the dinner, my auntie asked me to help her to check the airlines website since she can't access it. When I checked the website, still got plenty seats and even got zero fare. So I informed her about that and then she asked me to book the air ticket for my cousin. Ok...so I booked the ticket, need to book two trips (X to Y and Y to Z). The first booking was successfully done. However the second booking encountered some problems....I managed to get the zero fare and I even pre-selected the seat -> 18A. The payment procedure failed and some error messages displayed..."similar booking done before...please call our customer service centre to resolve the problem in order to avoid duplicate booking". Similar booking?? maybe the passenger's name is the same, but with different destination. So I called the customer service centre....engaged....wait for a few minutes....still engaged. I decided to call back after half an hour.

I called again...this time successfully contact the customer service staff...and she told me that the first booking was confirmed; the second booking not yet confirmed, need to book again. When I access the website again, no more zero fare...I need to pay RM109 for the flight. My goodness, within half an hour, I need to pay more...and the funny thing was that 18A (the seat that I chose before) was booked by other. Why I think it was funny...because there were more than 90 empty seats available and coincidentally someone booked the same seat. I called the customer service centre again to double confirm about the availability of zero fare...and the reply was "no more". I even asked the staff whether I can change the date of first trip...the reply was "No changes are allowed because the fare type is Super Saver. You can only forfeit your air ticket". No choice...I booked another seat with extra payment of RM109.

This morning I checked the airlines website again...quite free since today was holiday. To my astonishment, the zero fare is available again. ??? what's wrong??? Zero fare was sold out last night but available again this morning... am I dreaming?? I called the customer service centre again :D ...the staff told me that there was one more seat left for zero fare because customer that booked 18A had cancelled the booking. Hmm...18A again?? I told her about my booking...I doubt I am the one that booked 18A last night and the seat is not reallocate for booking after my payment failed...and I paid extra in fact I should be able to get the zero fare. But the staff told me that the seat was already reallocate for booking after my initial booking failed and the seat was booked by other.

When I think about the booking again, I just felt something wrong...Why the customer that booked 18A can cancel the booking? I was told that we cant cancel or change the itinerary if we buy Super Saver fare. Last night was not office hour, thus booking can be done through Internet or phone only. Normally if we make phone booking, we will not pre-select the seat since payment is not done yet. Another thing is that there are so many empty seats....the probability that 18A being booked and cancelled was quite low actually. So many coincidences happened at the same time...possible?

What is the truth? I dont know...I just felt that I'd been tricked by the reservation system...there are some loopholes in the system design. Although I am not the one that pay the air ticket, I felt sorry for my auntie *_*.

KungFu Panda