Oh ! Before I forget ....

The other day, I read in the news that the MRT was to cost some RM 36 billion. But today, it's mentioned that the MRT is to cost some RM 36.6 billion. So, in a matter of a couple of weeks, the cost has gone up by RM 600 million. I won't be at all surprised that not before long, it will be mentioned in the local news again that the MRT is to cost some RM 40 billion. Why is it that so many projects always seem to cost much more than the original estimates, never less ?

I remember the East Cost Highway that cost 30% more than the original estimate, which, old Sammyvellu claimed was only a slight increase. Then, there was the cost of the second Penang Bridge that kept going up even before construction started. Lately, the new Istana, now under construction, that was originally estimated at some RM 400 million plus has its cost gone up to a few millions shy of RM 800 million. I won't be surprised that once completed, the final cost will hover around RM 1.0 billion if not much more !

I am now waiting for the new cost estimate of the announced RM 5.0 billion Warisan Merdeka.

Resolutions ? What resolutions ! ....

It is now Teusday Jan the 11th in the year 2011 and I haven't done anything since then. The Olympics is far away and the World Cup is still farther away. I haven't made any new year resolutions because for one thing I simply don't believe in them. I have made some resolutions in the past but no sooner did I make them than I broke them the next few days. So what's the use. I still continue to smoke but to a lesser degree because I am growing older by the day, not because for health reason.

I am supposed to make visits to my eye doctor, to my body doctor and to my dentist in last December 2010; but I have postponed the visits to January 2011. I still have 20 days to make good on my "resolutions".

This is typical of me, always procrastinating, just because I still have time. I am always the "just in time", and the "last minute" person , just as I had been during school and university days. If exams were a month away, I still would have 4 weeks to do the revisions, to check on notes and so on and then, in a state of near panic, I started revising in the last week. But then, I found out that, in this state of near panic, I absorb more when I was revising.