ATM Hijinks

Someone once told me that the first few things a person says in the early seconds of a crisis tells a lot about his/her character. If that's the case, by the end of this entry my readers may have an idea of what kind of a person I am, although I for one will insist on second or possibly third experiments.

After dinner, as I joined the sad queue at the ss15 Maybank ATM (I include this information for the benefit of any potential stalkers, and sad refers to the fact that almost everyone is broke at this point in time) and half of my brain was engaged in an extended vacation involving broadband access, video games and scantily clad women, the other half managed to notice the guy in front of me hurrying off from the machine without his money, leaving about a hundred ringgit flapping cheerily in the early evening breeze. Somewhere in the confined recesses of my cranium I could hear a teeny voice yelling at me to stop the bloke, but for some reason the flow of conflicting neurons everywhere made a mess out of everything and I entered that special cognitive state called Ash-Bullet Time, resulting in myself blurting out a very cheery (and loud):

"Dd-duit!"

Yes. So much for the dignified "I say there, hold up!" I knew I wanted to say. Of course, this being in a bank, nobody took heed of my feeble attempt at vocalisation and the man was still walking away. Luckily for him, some minor part of my brain was still functioning and coaxed an "Excuse me, please!" from my vocal chords, in addition to some frantic hand waving on my part.

Thus alerted, the man looked back, saw me pointing at the ATM where the cash was still flapping happily and the half-frown I saw on his face after being hailed in such an undignified manner quickly melted away. By this time I managed to say "You left your money, here," and also added some pointing gestures to the mix. He bounded over to the machine, got his money (after slapping his head) and said a quick thank you before bounding off to wherever it is busy men like him go.

Now during the drive home, I pondered the many different ways I could have alerted the owner of the money, instead of stating the obvious (ie duit!!). Still, the deed was done, the guy didn't lose his hundred bucks, and I have something to mull about, and blog.

So remember kids, when faced with an encounter like this, always remember to have the presence of mind to actually do something constructive when faced with a similar situation, and that "Dd-duit!" hardly ever solves anything.

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Coming tomorrow: Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Korei reviewed!