Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Malaysian Standard Time

A time zone is a region of the Earth that has adopted the same standard time. We normally refer this to local time. Adjacent time zone are exactly one hour apart and hence why times are different from country to country.

Officially, Malaysia is GMT (Greenwich Meridian Time ) +8. However for many Malaysian this is not applicable as their time zone could be 30 minutes to even 1 hour behind GMT+8.

Here's a typical scenario to my point.

I got an invitation to a wedding not too long ago with this written on it.

Arrival of Guest : 7.00pm
Arrival of Bride and Groom : 7.30pm


But when you apply Malaysian Time its actually like this

Arrival of Guest : 7.40pm

Arrival of Bride and Groom : 8.30pm


I have yet to attend a Chinese wedding that starts on time. If for any odd reason a wedding did start on time, then I think we have all witnessed a miracle. We shall all dance naked and gold bars will be falling from heavens to greet us. Its not out of the ordinary to see a few groups already half drunk when the first dish is served. The only reason why I see some people coming early would be family members that are worried about parking spots.


Here's another good example of Malaysian timekeeping.

Called a friend and told her I would be picking her up at 4pm. Just to be on the safe side, I reminded her again half an hour before coming. Reached her house at 4pm but apparently she is still changing. 4.15pm and she is still putting up make-up. We ended up leaving at 4.30pm. I waiting half and hour in the car twiddling my thumb doing nothing and occasionally staring at random people that walked by my car from 4pm to 4.30pm that day.

So folks, that's Malaysian time for you.

A small country but with people living in various timezones.

Malaysia Boleh!

14 comments:

Nux V said...

i waited an hour for my fren to finish make up and dressing..
nowadays i dun go out wif her ardi.

haan said...

i'm not like this la.. if u say u come at four, i'll make sure i'm ready to go by 3:50pm.

Chee Hoe said...

Nux,
Its pretty annoying thats for sure. Nowadays I tell this sort of friend to come half an hour earlier then the intended time.

By the time they arrive, the timing is just right.

Haan,
Good to hear that. We live in the same timezone.. haha

Ken Wooi said...

this is nice!

somewhat true for the many but i'd still prefer to be punctual. =)

Chee Hoe said...

A Malaysian society where everyone is punctual is but a fiction of our imagination :P

@ddie said...

i've too, waited for a friend - for 1 hr 15 mins! A guy sumore - and he called 5 minutes before the initial meet-up time to say he'll be late. Hello~~ call la earlier... @_@
5 mins before that - surely i was already there!

Chee Hoe said...

A guy doing that?
If I were you, I would have just told him his time is up and you won't be fetching him anymore. Ask him to get a cab

Anonymous said...

i couldn't agree more...

My german boss alwiz reminds us "We have a meeting at 9am tomorrow. Please be there on time and please NOT according to the 'Malaysian Timing'!!!"

damn malu man!

s.kuan said...

hahaha true. good post!

LauraLeia said...

You said it. Chinese weddings actually starting at the time stated in the invitation would be a freaking miracle! XD

YANZ said...

on our wedding, my hub & i wanted to start dinner 7.30pm sharp... but guess what? no guests!
the hall was only quarter full, guess all the guests probly thot it'll start late anyway, so why come early... it was a 'i wait for u, u wait for me' situation... sighhhhhh...

Chee Hoe said...

Anon,
Your German boss is right. A friend of mine has a policy of not hiring people that come late to an interview. If they are late for a job interview for whatever reason, he wont see them.

slowcat,
Thanks!

lauraleia,
I am glad we are both of the same frequency :)

Yanz,
We Malaysian has the mentality that if we are early then we would only end up waiting for the others. So why come early at all?

With this kind of mindset, a perfect on time wedding would be an impossible dream.

@ddie said...

hehehe, i wasnt picking him, we were supposed to meet some where, and i actually waited there for THAT long :p

Chee Hoe said...

@ddie,
Your definitely a patient lady. I would have called up after 40 minutes and canceled the appointment.. haha