Gulp, gulup, gelap!

We were waiting for our order of McDonald's to arrive - dang, sometimes their delivery service can cause so much anxiety among hungry writers. As we waited we bitched about the orange drink that goes with the Prosperity Burger - some like it, some don't, and I said if my tongue's on chilli fire, I'd gulp it down anyway.

And suddenly the lights blinked, twice, then it died off altogether. "Yeah! Blackout!"

If you still can't guess it, we love blackouts. Alright, alright, us who have filed their story, or waiting for some PR lady to feed us with the information we need, or simply do not have anything much to do was enjoying the blackout.

We looked around to find if anyone's in distress, and, erm, nope. No one was! So the only legittimate grumble would still be on the late delivery of our respective McDonald's order.

And then the lights came back on! And the PCs rebooted themselves. Darn, it was the bloody generator! Aw man, that means no half-day would be issued. And where the heck is the McDonald's guy anyway?


Just as we were about to shout "We hate McDonalds!" the lights went off again. Moments after that someone called out to say the guy has just arrived. What? No Prosperity Twister fries to go with the burger? Insane!

Oh, apparently their fryer's down - no electricity maa.. OK, long, straight, cokkeng* fries will do then.

Then one by one reporters came back in to announce:

"Oh, JB's having a blackout as well!"

"Heard it started from Batu Pahat or something like that?"

"Maybe the whole central-southern block of the Peninsula is affected..."

"Traffic lights semua not on lah. And the traffic outside's gone haywire!"

"Ooh, we nearly got caught in the lift twice, once just now in Mutiara, second time just down there in the office lobby."

"Just now Ken's mom called and she said Seremban is already into its second hour of blackoutlah."

"Eh got a call from a PR from the 3 o'clock's assignment - she said KLCC's guards not allowing people to enter the building nor cars into the carpark."

"Baguslah tu, cause C who was on her way there just called to say cabs would not take passengers anyway and they've closed the LRT stations."

"There's already reports of jammed phone lines... Hey, my hubby hasn't replied my SMSla."

"I just got an SMS from Z, he said he'd love to come to work but his car ran out of gas, and since the petrol station's having a blackout as well, he's stuck with a bunch of bored sweaty angry hungry motorists somewhere before the Kajang toll. Now he can't even go back!"

On and on they report and compared input. And I asked, "Will my Equatorial assignment at 5.30 this eve be cancelled as well?"

When I didn't get any positive feedback from those present at the Editorial area, I went on with vengeance - "Habislah TNB esok..."

"Yeah, they'd be fried by the newshounds!"

"Well, we need some answers, right?"

Yeah, what was the reason of the blackout? Who and which areas were affected? How much loss suffered? So how now?


*cokkeng means erect, protruding or tersembul keluar in Terengganu dialect. Right Yana? And I still want my happy curly fries!