Thoughts on Giving to the Needy

When I was at the hospital a couple of days ago, an Indian lady stopped me in the corridor while I was on my way to the clinic where I had the appointment. She told me that she needed to buy her prescription pills  but the pills cost RM80 and she didn't have the money. 

I was in a mad rush. I did think of taking her to the pharmacy and purchasing the meds for her but I was already late for my 11 am appointment, as it was (finding a parking space was hell at around 10:30 am at the hospital, so I discovered. Note to self: got to get to the hospital by 9 am even though the appointment is at 11 am just so that I can get a parking space!), and so, I just gave her RM10 instead to help her out.

In the next hour or so, I wondered if I had been duped. What if the money was not for meds but for something else? Why hadn't I taken a picture of her? Had I been taken for a ride by her story?

In the end, this is how I reconciled it all: If the money was indeed not used for meds, I hope she used it for something that she needed and it improved her life, if only by a minute bit.  

I can't go second guessing what she is going to really do with the money that I gave her as it would make me more suspicious of others who might come along my way in life and who might really need my help. I hope I helped her in some way. I hope to be able to help others freely and without second guessing their intentions.

Besides, she would have to convince other people to give her some funds in order to get the RM80. If she manages to convince enough people to raise the funds, then, she deserves it as she worked to raise the funds. I just hope that whatever she used the money for, it was spent in a wise manner and it improved her life. 

aarrrgggghhhh!!!!!!!

It's raining outside and I just washed my car over the weekend....yes, as you can tell, I don't wash my car often and on the rare occasion that I do get around to doing it, I try to keep it out of the rain as best as I can!

oohhhh....

I was in Sephora a few days ago (on Tuesday, to be exact) just to browse.... The holiday sets are out and ooohhhh.... so many nice stuff! I don't need anything but everything looked soooo pretty!!!

Renewing Your Malaysian Passport

Here's what you need to know if you're about to renew your Malaysian passport:

1. Mugshots are no longer required. Mugshots are taken on the spot at the counter together with your scans of your thumbprints.

2. Wear a dark colored top as the background for the photograph is now white.

3. You need to have:
a. Your existing passport
b. Your My Kad
c. RM200

4. There are no forms to fill out for the renewal of passports.

5. The Immigration Dept in KL is situated in the Kementerian Dalam Negeri (KDN) and is bigger and is a more comfortable environment than the Immigration Dept in Kelana Jaya as the whole complex is air-conditioned.

6. Whichever location you decide to go to, get there early.

7. External parking is free in KDN.

8. Getting your passport in an hour's time? Yup, that's true but it's one hour from the point of payment and not from the point of you arriving at the Immigration Dept itself.

9. The whole process could take HOURS. Be prepared to wait. Bring something to read or do to kill time.

10. Avoid school holidays if you can. FYI, the whole process took me approximately four hours and twenty five minutes from start to finish today as it's the school holidays (lucky me...NOT!!!).

You can read more about my experience by clicking on the following links:
Passport Renewal Adventure Episode 2
Passport Renewal Adventure Episode 1

Passport Renewal Adventure Episode 2

Trying to renew your passport during the school holidays is to be avoided at all costs unless you're like me and you haven't the slightest clue as to when the school holidays are. I did consider having my passport renewed in December but I didn't want to leave it too late in case there were any "technical issues" going on at the Immigration Dept.

After the Immigration Office Adventure Episode 1 (read about it here), I decided to try another location and surprise, surprise, it's much closer to home!

I got there around 8:15 AM and luckily, was able to park in one of the last few parking spaces available (outdoor and FREE!!!).

The external carpark is free of charge!

Once again, the officer tasked with giving out the number was a PITA (Pain-In-The-Ass and oh, by the way, it was a female officer this time).

I got a number at 8:20 AM. I was number 1199 which means that 198 people got there ahead of me.

Number 1199 at 8:20 AM

I went to breakfast at Kayu Nasi Kandar. Nasi Lemak Biasa and a bottle of mineral water cost RM4.75. Nothing great, but at least I wasn't going to go hungry for the next few hours.

 Nasi Lemak Biasa and Mineral Water Brekkie

Kayu Nasi Kandar on the Ground Floor

At around 9:00 AM, there was an announcement over the PA system. Surprise, surprise, they were experiencing "technical difficulties" and people who were urgently in need of passports renewed were advised to go to the other branches. Many people left, I persevered. I figured that if many left, than it would work out in my favour as there would be less than 198 people ahead of me now. I'm not complaining!

At least there are ample number of seats here

My number was called only at around 11:00 AM. The procedure itself was quite quick. No pictures are required now (those are the old days folks).

Mugshots are taken on the spot now. Just make sure that you wear a dark colored top or else they might make you wear a jacket as the background for the passport pic is now white. The mugshots are in black and white now.

I then had to wait to be called again at another counter in order to pay RM200 for a five year renewal (technically only 4 and a half years since you can't do any travelling with the last 6 months on your passport).

Payment was made at 11:33 AM. The officer was nice and pleasant. He informed me that my passport would be ready for collection after 2 PM and I was thinking --- WHAT??? Still, I smiled, the guy was nice and was only doing his job.

Payment Time: 11:33:46

Waiting...waiting...waiting...

Still, I decided to wait till 12:30 just to see if I might be lucky and that my passport would be ready by then. Otherwise, I just might have to come back another day as I had spent already half a day there (and therefore, away from the office).

Luckily for me, my passport was ready at 12:40 PM. The officer at the pick up zone was female and polite too. I can't imagine how long I would have to have waited had all those folks not left after the announcement earlier in the morning.

I'm just glad that I managed to get it done today.

Shoes!!!

This was how I spent Diwali :)

Passport Renewal Adventure Episode 1

Immigration Office Kelana Jaya: Standing Room Only

So, it's that time again --- time to renew my passport. Having had a great passport renewal experience five years ago when the Immigration Office in Damansara was still in service and when I could literally get my passport renewed in one hour from the point of putting all of my documents and payment into the machine, I was sad to learn that the Damansara office is no longer in service :(

And so, off to the Internet I went, in search of another Immigration Dept to go to. I finally settled on going to the Kelana Jaya branch since I figured that it would be convenient since it was near my office.

As Monday was the eve of Diwali, I thought that nobody would be renewing their passports. Boy, was I in for a surprise!

As it turned out, it took me TWO HOURS to get to the Kelana Jaya office as I just could not figure out how to get from one side of Kelana Jaya to the other and I kept going around in circles and burning fuel! Frustrating as it was, I decided to persevere and finally stopped at the police station in Kelana Jaya to get some directions.

It was around noon when I finally got there and guess what --- the WHOLE WORLD was there too! It was a mad house with standing room only and there was some pushing going on, I kid you not.

Many people were irritable and the male officer who was tasked with giving out the numbers had an attitude, wasn't very polite or helpful. It was hot in there (what do you expect, small space, loads of people, go figure!).

About half an hour later, there was a announcement over the PA system about them facing "technical difficulties" and that they were only going to give out numbers to applicants under 12 years of age.

Although I had already got a number by then, I decided to forget about it since it seemed like a long ordeal. I figured that I would come back (or not, as the case may be) and give it a try another day.

I went back to the office, looked up for the location of the KL office and on the way home from work, I decided to check out the location of the Immigration Dept in KL and guess what I discovered --- it's pretty near my home!!!

Well, at least, I learned how to get to the the Kelana Jaya Immigration Office today!

The Technologically Challenged

A colleague who is in her 60's sits at the computer and starts hammering on the keyboard. She then turns to me and sighs that the computer is not working. I looked at her and switched on the electricity source. She then looks at the computer screen and says "Look, it's so slow...". I assumed that when I switched on the electricity supply to the computer that she would know how to turn it on. Well, I assumed wrong. I turned on the computer for her when she wasn't looking.

I hate to be mean, but if they are so technologically challenged, shouldn't they just stay home?

Thankful

I'm thankful for the kid who came down immediately when I called her to move her car (as she was blocking mine) and for the one empty parking space available when I got back from my errands today :)

Thankful

I woke up late this morning and got ready in a mad dash. I was out of the door in half an hour and am grateful that there wasn't heavy traffic on the way to work thanks to the closure of schools due to the haze.

I got to work just in time to get my preferred parking spot before it was snapped up by someone else --- Phew!!! About a minute after I parked, the covered car park was full! I'm thankful that I got to work just in time!

Note to self: (a) Must not fall asleep while surfing the net and (b) must remember to set the alarm on phone before going to the land of nods.

The Odds...

Went to 1-Utama today to drop off a package at the post office after work last night and while I was there, I saw a TRAVEL PROMOTION starting this Wednesday.

What are the odds that exactly ONE DAY after I make my flight bookings I see promotions to the same place that I want to go to??? To think that I waited so long to make my decision and then THIS happens!!!

Think I should check out the promos just to torment myself???

The e-Ticket Adventure

I've been looking around at flight deals for my upcoming December holidays for a past couple of weeks or so. As is normally the case, I take a mighty long time to come up with a decision as I like to do loads of research to know that I have looked at all the possible options out there.

So I finally got my act together and decided to purchase my flight tickets online. After weeks of careful planning, making sure that I selected the right flights, I finally clicked on the purchase button and then, I got a big, fat, NOTHING!!!

Okay, so that wasn't really true --- Sure, the booking number appeared on the screen but I figured that there was no need to copy it down since I would get an confirmation email anyway that would contain my booking number, right? Wrong!!! I received NO confirmation email!!! Opps... maybe I should have had a pencil and paper on hand and copied down the booking number.... Too late now as the screen had changed and I no longer could access that page --- RATS!!!

Hmmm......maybe it was a little slow in the tube getting from wherever it was supposed to be generated to me. A few minutes came and went.... and then half an hour went by...still nothing in my email inbox.

I decided to drop an email with the air carrier's help desk. Let me tell you that it is an unnerving feeling especially when you have paid a lot of $$$ and the almost immediate text message from your bank confirms that the $$$ has already been billed to your credit card but you have yet to receive a confirmation email of your booking! Now what?????

As it turned out, the confirmation email containing the e-ticket was a late as I received it a few hours later (close to FOUR HOURS later, to be exact), but hey, it finally came in..... and all was well and I could finally go to bed (it was a quarter past 12 midnite by then).

My Regular Brekkie Joint

This is the place that I go to for a few minutes of sanity before I start my work day.

Brekkie!

I have an appointment with the doc and this is my brekkie.... yeah, I know, it's ironic, isn't it?

Brekkie at The Gardens Mall

Brekkie was good :) Yum!

Names

The baby is unfortunately named Andrea. Now, while that may sound pretty normal and even mundane within the western context, this particular Andrea exists not in the western world. There is nothing western about Andrea. Neither of her parents are westerners. In fact, they are as Malay as you can get.

So what were her parents thinking of??? They have obviously not taken into account the context of the surroundings that they exist in when they were selecting a name for her

Ha, be prepared to have your child complain later on that people are ask her if she is Muslim or not...and when she says that she is, they would want to know why she has a non-Muslim name (oh yes, there are going to be people who would want to know that). They might even want to know if she is Malay (pigeon holing people into their respective race categories seems to be a very big thing around here).

Andrea's mother comes from a kampung. She married a city boy. I guess she married up. She doesn't feel comfortable speaking English around more fluent speakers. Perhaps this name choice is more about  Andrea's mother's aspirations to white wash her child in the literal sense?

I think it is important to name your child with a name that would reflect her belonging within the context of the immediate society that she will be raised in. It is important that the name of your child reflects her cultural background as well. After all, shouldn't we all be proud of our respective heritages?

Enter Half Naked and Leave Fully Dressed

As much as I simply love clothes and shopping for them, I'm not this is something I'd ever do ...

The Desigual stores in London, Stockholm and Berlin offered the first 100 customers today who arrived at their store half naked in their underwear free outfits of their choice to walk out with. The same promo is going to take place in Madrid on June 21st and Prague on June 24th. Would you dare to bare for fashion?