Sign of the times

The traffic was kind to me today so I arrived at my workplace with 10 minutes to spare.  Time to get breakfast I said cheerfully, steering toward McDonalds Uptown instead of the parking area nearby.
Unfortunately there was no available space for me to park my car for a quick five minutes breakfast run.  I didn't want to double park so I made another circle around the block for the nearest space only to spot a nasi lemak stall by the road side.

The image of Sausage McMuffin was instantly replaced by a fragrant pack of nasi lemak complete with ass kicking sambal. I ordered 'biasa' with a fried egg and took out one ringgit from my wallet and dug a few sen from my pocket.

My breakfast was swiftly handed to me in exchange for RM2.20

"That's quite pricey..." I told myself but paid the woman anyway. 

I walked back to my car with a few questions clouding my mind.  So that's how it is now eh... A decent nasi lemak is already RM2.20.  This reminded me of another stall nearer to my office which charged me RM4 for a nasi lemak with sotong.

Don't get me wrong, I have no qualms about having a four ringgit breakfast. In fact, my sausage mc muffin would have cost RM4.50, with good coffee, that is.

It's the short duration that bugs me.  Is this inflation accelerated? Something that goes in parallel with global warming?

It was only last year, or two, that a pack of nasi lemak with a fried egg would cost RM1.50
And we're not talking about the donkey years, the years our parents and grandparents love to describe how cheap things were back then.

I wonder how things fare in the more suburban areas.  Are there still one ringgit nasi lemak biasa around?

The rice portion was generous though. And that's my cranky coffee mill by the way, fully functional and absolutely reliable to the last crank.  Nothing beats the combo of nasi lemak and good coffee, freshly ground and brewed.