Something Random Always Makes Me Happy

Today, something random made my day and it came in the form of a "poslaju" receipt.

I went to our house that we rarely live in. My mother was set on cleaning the house. She had planned to do a lot and listed my chores during the drive there. Unfortunately (but fortunately to me, shh...don't tell my mother i said this), we forgot the house key (no, I didn't hide the key). So the least we could do was to check the mail.

When I lifted the mailbox flap, I only saw a piece of paper. I was a bit disappointed because I was thinking if there were a lot of letters in the mailbox, our trip there would not be all that useless.

I picked the paper thinking that it's just another unimportant flyer but when I turned it around and read it...I smiled. I stood there thinking for a while. The "poslaju" receipt was left there because the poslaju people came earlier with a parcel for me but nobody's home. I was thinking.."What could this parcel be?" "Who sent it to me?" "Why would I receive a parcel since I didn't order anything?" And "Ehh?! the poslaju people work on Saturday? Pity them." And one more "So if they work on Saturday, if I send anything by poslaju on Friday, it will arrive on Saturday not on Monday as I had always thought. Hmm.."

So, although the last two thoughts of mine are not related to this story, the receipt made me so curious that I had to go to the post office immediately even though it was already 4pm when I looked at my watch. The post office is in town, 9kms away from my home and I had just came from the town. It's just that I don't mind going back 9kms because I like driving anyway but I felt a little guilty to mother Earth for wasting fuel. But, wutevs, I was really curious I could die.

When I reached the poslaju counter, I handed the receipt to the lady at the counter and she went to the back to find my parcel. While waiting for the parcel I learned some more about our country's postal service (seriously, the main idea of this entry is moving away from the surprise parcel to Malaysia's postal service). Poslaju opens on Mondays till Saturdays and closes at 6pm. "Wow, that's late" I thought it closes at 4.30pm. Then, I flipped through something that looks like a calendar. It's actually an information on Malaysia's Postal Taarif. It's saying that the last time Malaysia's postal fee increased was in 1992. That's a long time ago compared to other countries like New Zealand, Brunei, Japan etc. Although the domestic postal fee has increased this year, it is way cheaper compared to other countries. For instance in Japan, you will need RM2 over for a single letter weighing less than 20g while we only need a few cents. This brought me to think about subsidies in the country.

But, the lady saved me from worrying about the country's economy by bringing me my parcel. Well, I'll think about it later and I doubt it will be very soon since I have the capability to be superignorant when it comes to serious matters. The minute I saw the parcel in her hands I knew it is from Reader's Digest. I could feel a big heavy question mark hitting my head. Why? would RD send me something like that since I do not subscribe to it and have been ignoring its bulky letters asking me to join in its competitions that required the contestant to buy its expensive books (genius marketing tactics).

When I saw the content of the parcel all thoughts were lost..Genius marketing wuteva. I m happy and I m smiling. Because there is a book inside (and some letters offering me to join a contest). I was very happy because it is a book, it is free, it came out of nowhere, I didn't ask for it...it's a book and it's random. Well, so the trip to our house was not all that useless, I got a book and learned new things about the post office and saved my butt from cleaning...hehe...what a random day.