Pos Laju

A company sent me an item by Pos Laju end of July. I only received it on Wednesday, 14 September. One and a half month later!!! Between this period of time, I received 2 sms from the sender informing me of unsuccessful delivery by Pos Laju. Twice I had to reconfirm my address.

Then on Wednesday morning I received a call from a Pos Laju staff asking me whether I was at home. I told him I was. He then asked me to come down from my apartment which is on the 4th floor, to collect my item. His vioce was loud and sounded quite rude. I also raised my voice and I asked him back why I should go down and why he could not come up. He paused for a while before answering.... "saya minta you tolong turun". Beause he said "minta tolong" so I relented. At the same time I was also curious to see this person. Just as I had guessed, he was a youngster in his early 20s.

Before I opened the usual plastic courier envelope, I checked my address. It was correct and there was even my mobile number printed on it. Inside this envelope was another plastic courier envelope. Obviously it was the 2nd delivery envelope. My address was also printed correctly but without my mobile number. Inside this 2nd envelope I found yet another plastic courier envelope. I am quite sure it was the 1st delivery envelope. My address was also correctly printed and again without my mobile number.

Now, can you guess the reason for the 2 failed deliveries? Yes, because my mobile number was not printed on the 1st and 2nd envelope, therefore he could not call me.

This is POS LAJU SERVICE !!!!

I never have problem with City-Link, SkyNet, Nationwide and GD Express.

Priority Lane

Need to go inside the bank for its counter service, so dropped in at the Pantai Jerejak Public Bank. An old guy who seemed to be in a hurry and myself reached the glass door at almost the same time. Ah hem... being a good sport, I allowed him to enter first. Almost immediately I regretted my action. The reason was that we were both heading for the same counter...the priority lane for senior citizens/expectant mothers/disabled!! He went straight to queue whereas I hesitated. Instead I turned to press for a number and then took a seat nearest to the priority counter.

There was no crowd and within 5 minutes my number came up. While waiting for the teller to attend to my transaction, I glanced down the counter and noticed that the old guy has also reached his turn and was in the process of filling in some forms. Incidentally we finished our business at the same time and left the bank at the same time as well. No loss for me!!! Hahaha.

Here is a tip to all my Warga emas friends. The next time you go to a bank, press for a number first before proceeding to queue at the priority lane. If your number comes earlier, move away, if not wait for your turn in the queue. Of course if there is nobody at the special counter then go straight up to it and do your business. That simple and fast!!

Birthday card

On my birthday, I received this beautiful card from a a very special friend, Gomathy.

I like the wordings inside. As usual, vain old ladies like to be wished "young"!! Hahaha...... Can you read them? It goes like this......

Thinking of you warmly
now your 60th is here.
and there's just no need to worry
you look younger every year.

So you must be doing something right
you're really looking great.
and on a special day like this
take time to celebrate.

HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY

I texted to thank her. Almost immediately she called me. She told me that on my birthday eve she drove all the way from BM to Downing Street Post Office in Penang to post the card so that I could receive the card on my birthday. I am so touched.

After slogging for 30 over years, first in MPPP and then in MPSP, she is now enjoying her retirement with comfort and much travelling. Her eldest daughter is in Australia and 2nd daughter in Vietnam, so most of the time she will be flying up to Ho Chi Minh City and down to Melbourne. MPSP friends...... if you want to call her, I advise you to text her first to know where she is otherwise you might end up making overseas calls!!

So right here, I want to sincerely wish her continuous good health and great happiness.

Classmates II

Recently met up with another old classmate, Gooi Bee Peng, who came up from KL. After attending a relative's wedding dinner, she suggested we celebrate our 60th birthday together. So there we were, at Haagen Dazs in Queensbay Mall the following day for the cake cutting.

The 3 of us, Gooi Bee Peng, Wong Ong Lee and myself were very very good and close friends. We studied in the same class from Standard 1 right up to Form 5. A good 11 years together!! However, we parted after leaving school to realize our separate careers. We did not contact each other until recently when we met up again.

In those days, our favourite hobby was taking photographs. Every year usually after Chinese New Year, we would wear our new clothes, set out hair and then trooped to a nearly studio to have out photographs taken. So vain!! hahaha....

This was the last photograph we took together in the studio. The year was 1968.

This is our latest photograph which was taken on 10July 2011. 43 years later!! Not bad, huh? We have aged gracefully!! hahaha....

Do these photographs look familiar to you, guys? Actually Ong Lee posted them on facebook last week. I just elaborate on it.

Takaful's Dirty Tactics

On Monday morning I received a phone call from a Takaful staff. My mobile showed the number as WITHHELD. He spoke in Malay, did not introduce himself, just mentioned that he was calling from Takaful. He went on to say that he has received an application for a policy from me. I told him that he has called the wrong person because I did not apply for policy. He then mentioned my name and address. Again I told him that I did not apply but he insisted that I did. I denied again and again he insisted.


Now comes the joke. He told me that every credit card holder must take up this policy. I countered him, saying that if that was the case then why was not I informed by the bank and also I did not remember reading such news in the papers. He did not answer my question but went on to read the terms of the policy. I asked him to stop and instead to send me a copy of the terms to read myself since he already know my address. He said he could only send provided I make a payment of RM299 first. I told him to call me back the next day because I wanted to check it out with my son first and to call up the card centre to inquire. I ended the call without waiting for his reply. Almost immediately, I received an sms from this number, 0166264315. The following is the original text :

" Pn kami nak buat penggantaran polisi. Pemotongan rm299.00 kami suda di jalankan tq pn "

My mobile started ringing again. I let it rang for a while before taking the call. It was him again. I raised my voice a little and immediately told him that when a person say "no", respect the person's decision and with his sms I was going to the police station to lodge a report. He did not call again after that.

The next day, I called HSBC card centre to inquire whether there was any payment from Takaful for the amount of rm299.00. There was no such payment. I told her that I have not consented to the payment and also I have not signed any papers. I asked her to note down that should they receive such payment from Takaful, then it is definitely a forgery. She was most helpful and gave me Takaful's number, 18800889659, in case I wanted to call them.

Such cheap and dirty tactics to do sales!!!

So guys, please do alert everybody.

Melaka

Visited Melaka last weekend. Cannot remember when the last time I was there. My memory of Melaka was a large open field, Mahkota Parade, the Stadthuys, taking chicken rice at one of a row of stalls facing the sea and a very crowded Jonker Walk.

I was indeed pleasantly surprised to see many changes in Melaka. The city is more lively with heavier traffic; many new buildings have sprouted in and around the city; apart from the famous historical places, there is a number of new tourist attractions and trishaw rides have been popularised.

Believe me, you can actually see the whole city all in one day!! I just did..........

Took the Duck for the first time. Rather a bumpy ride as the duck waddled slowly round part of the city before entering the Straits of Malacca. It went a bit further out to sea then made a U turn and headed back up to where we splashed in and ended the tour at where we started.

Next, went up Menara Taming Sari for a panoramic view of the city. The observatory cabin revolved 360 degrees as it elevated to the top of the 110 meter high tower and submerged down to the ground again in just 7 minutes.

After a quick lunch at the nearby Pahlawan Mahkota, headed straight for the Sadthuys. What attracted me most here was the bunch of flamboyantly decorated trishaws and taking a ride seem to be the in thing with tourists. Hahaha... had a go at it too. It was sort of a guided tour with the trishaw rider sharing the history of Melaka as he peddled along.

In the evening, enjoyed a leisure cruise down the Malacca River. The 45 minutes cruise was accompanied by an entertaining and informative commentary.

Of course nobody leaves Melaka without tasting its signature food.......Chicken Rice Ball. Dropped in at Hoe Kee Restaurant in Jonker Street to taste this Hainanese dish. Personally, I find the chicken and the rice a little bit too salty.

A stroll down Jonker Walk after the meal ended my day tour of Melaka.

See, I have seen the city from the air, from the sea and on land.

Choosing Numbers

Last Sunday, we had a guest pastor in our church. Like to share an interesting part of his sermon with all of you.

He touched on choosing vehicle registration numbers. He said that as Christians we are not particular with numbers but for the sake of reselling the vehicles later on, we have to avoid certain unfavourable numbers otherwise it will be very difficult to get takers for the vehicles. He recalled an incident whereby his church had decided to change his car for him. He was asked to choose the numbers. At that time the alphabetical order was almost ending of PKC. Without a second thought he answered PKD 162. The reason? PKD 162 represents Psalm of King David chapter 16 verse 2, which says....." You are my Lord, apart from you I have no good thing ".

He went on to say that Chinese people loves the number 8 and having more 8s for vehicle number, the better. But if you refer to Psalm 88:8 - " You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them. I am confined and cannot escape ". This verse is not so ideal!! On the other hand, Psalm 44:4 - " You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob ". This verse is more meaningful.

I think if I am ask to choose the numbers, then I will most certainly pick P_ _ 1506 because this verse sums up all the psalms.
Psalm 150:6 - " Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord ".

Hahaha... what is your vehicle number? Just for kicks, search through Psalm and see what it says!!!!