The importance of being ON TIME

Have you ever walked out on an appointment or meeting with friends because you were made to wait? I have.

He was already 45 minutes late when I called to check in. He said he was on the way from Selayang, picking up his friend. I just left and went home, I felt it was better to let off my anger by listening to the radio rather than shout at people.

One time, the same friend made me wait for almost three hours. And Coy and her baby had to wait too, as we had planned to go on a road trip just to chill. I was backing up the car, determined to just go anywhere, when he showed up.

Then yesterday, another road trip. The plan was to leave KL by 10, and be in Melaka by midday. Of course, one member of the group woke up at 10. This, coming from a person who even made the Maxis CEO wait, is just so her. I should have expected it, right. But no, I was being my normal punctual self, hoping that maybe she would be less than 15 minutes late this time.

Not to say that I spent the whole day brooding on that matter, I had fun with the crazy company I kept yesterday. Just that it spoiled my morning, for a bit.

I just don’t understand how people can just NOT be on time. 5 to 15 minutes is fine, finding parking, waiting for the lift, etc can hold you up. But don’t you think it’s in bad taste to keep people waiting just because you were engrossed in writing your news report and lost track of time? Or that you didn’t hear your mum banging on the door, waking you up in the morning?

Call me anal, but I feel really bad when I’m tardy, and I hate it when people do the same to me. To some people, a half hour delay can be bad for business. I know many who would get impatient if their browsers are slow in downloading a page. And that’s just a few seconds.

I know, it’s not good to stress out over little things but a half hour wait is not a minor detail I can just forget about. Taking things easy does not mean I should allocate an extra hour for you to make an appearance. Or show up at all.