With the implementation of the 24-hour gated and guarded community security scheme on July 27 residents of PUJ 7 are turning out in droves to register their house addresses and vehicles and pay the monthly fees at the makeshift booths set up on the road shoulder beside the playground and opposite the Petronas petrol station. The pengurusi of Persatuan Penduduk PUJ 7 and his volunteer committee members are on hand helping the residents to register, collect the monthly fees and also to distribute car stickers. Looking at the good response it appears that most of the residents of PUJ 7 are supportive of this security arrangement.
There is a lot of history and old memories of my life gathering dust in all those old books and magazines. However as I have no use of them now, I am selling them for a song to the surat khabar lama man for recycling.
In response to frequent incidences of snatch thefts and house break-ins, recently residents in the area where I am living got together to set up a residents' association.
A community meeting was held on July 14 by the organisers to discuss and formalise the setting up of a protem committee and also a residents' association. During the meeting all the participants unanimously agreed to implement a gated and guarded security system for the residents.
Following the inaugural meeting the protem committee has taken the following actions:
1) Approached MPSJ for approval to register and set up the residents' association
2) Set up a monthly newsletter
3) Set up a Facebook page for the benefit of the residents
4) Distributed flyers to inform the residents of the activities of the association
5) Finalised the design of the association's official logo
6) Engaged a security company to manage a gated and guarded security system to be implemented with effect from Julai 26
Although the check-points of a 24-hour gated and guarded security system will restrict some freedom of movements to visitors and residents alike it is a necessary evil to combat increasing incidences of house break-ins and other criminal activities. Although no security system is not 100% crime-proof, nevertheless it will go a long way to address the security concerns of the residents here.
It will definite be a big improvement to the present system where the residents pay a monthly fee of RM30 to an unauthorised person to patrol all the 630 houses in the area. We don't see the security man going on daily patrols and the only time when we see him his when he comes to collect the monthly fee. In contrast in the new system the residents don't mind paying out RM50 per month for the 24-hour gated and guarded security arrangement.
Thank you for your profound teaching of how to attain freedom by leaving bitterness and hatred behind.
Happy 95th birthday Mr Mandela
The sign board says this government run 1-Malaysia Clinic (Klinik 1-Malaysia) opens seven days a week, from Monday to Sunday. Must be a very busy and public service oriented clinic, or so I thought, operating every day of the week.
However, what I saw behind the tinted glass panels was not what I had expected of a normal operating clinic. Inside the comfortable and air-conditioned clinic the rows of blue colour fibre-glass seats and the electronic ticket counter board does give an appearance of a regular clinic. However appearance aside, on the morning of I and my wife's visit the clinic was practically empty of people except for one male visitor, the two of us and the three nursing staff that we saw. Perhaps more people would come in after noon time, I found myself rationalising the cause of the empty clinic.
Although the only visitor at that time there was leaving the premises the staff insisted my wife to punch a number. So she went through the motion of punching a ticket and sitting down to wait for someone to usher her into the consultation room for taking her blood pressure measurement.
Although there is a tag at the counter reminding the visitor to ask for an official receipt, the clinic didn't charge my wife for the consultation.
The name 1-Malaysia Clinic is a misnomer. Except for the male and female nurses the clinic has no doctor in attendance. It doesn't provide basic medical diagnosis and treatment nor prescribe medicine. It seems the only service the clinic provides is to take your blood pressure readings. Now I recall how a government doctor told me that 1-Malaysia Clinic doesn't even provide the service to measure your blood sugar level.
I could be wrong, but that was what the staff in this particular clinic told me. Maybe other similar 1-Malaysia clinics elsewhere do provide some basic medical services. As I have never visited another 1-Malaysia Clinic other than this one before I couldn't verify the medical services available in other similar clinics.
As we push open the glass door to exit I waved and said bye-bye to the staff at the counter. As the counter staff was busy chatting among themselves, with no visitors to attend to I didn't expect an acknowledgement of my friendly greetings. Looking at the image of the empty clinic in the rear mirror as I drove away from the parking lot I then understood why this clinic is so underutilised; the absence of even the most basic of medical diagnosis, treatment and medicine prescription services are discouraging the public from visiting the clinic.
In contrast at the bigger and better equipped government community clinics (Klinik Kesihatan Kerajaan) scenes of huge numbers of patients overcrowding the waiting area and enduring long waiting times to get medical treatment and prescription are the norm every day and at all hours of the day.
 |
| Lining up to get in |
|
A line of patients had just formed when I and my wife walked into the compound of the Seri Kembangan government clinic at 7.30am for my medical appointment.
At 7.30am the clinic staff had already opened its door for patients to take their numbers though officially the clinic is supposed to open only at 8.00 am. I reckon some people were already standing in the line from as early as 7.00 am.
My number was 6006 and my wife's 1034. Like everyone else we sat down on a row of fibre-glass seats in the waiting area to wait for our numbers to flash on the LED screen counter. Unlike private sector institutions eg banks the numbers are not flashed in accordance to sequence, but in a random fashion. Thus if your number is 6006 and you see the number 6005 being announced in the electronic board don't assume that the next number will be yours. Likewise don't assume that the clinic has called your number when you see the number 6210 in the electronic counter. I suspect this situation is because the person responsible for collecting the numbers delivers the numbers to the registration clerk in random batches.
Although my wife took her number a few persons after me hers was electronically called ahead of mine. In contrast I finished my blood tests before she was summoned into the doctor's examination room.
By the time both of us finished our business two hours have lapsed. Considering that the clinic has to attend to hundreds of patients a day, the two hours that we had to spend inside the clinic in relative comfort is acceptable. Some times in the more established private clinics where there are many patients you may have to wait up to one hour to see the doctor and get a medical prescription.
For a nominal fee of RM2 per person for medical consultation and medication(senior citizens 60 years and above get free treatment) you get all the basic medical treatment that you need for a steal. Even the medicines are prescribed in large quantities, at least a month's supply I guess. In my case during the previous visit the clinic prescribed me two months supply of medicine. I guess they do this to space out the frequency of repeat visits for each patient.
In contrast, in a private clinic the general practitioner will charge you at least RM40 for treatment of simple ailments like sore throat and give you at the most 1 week's supply of medicine only. If you see a medical specialist be prepare to cough out at least RM100 for consultation, and extra for medicine.
Athough the family had sold our old Kajang house, I and my wife occasionally still think about our former home of 30 years.
Never mind about its small size of 14 feet x 55 feet only. The 2-storey terrace house was the home that we had successfully raised our son and daughter from babies to adults. Before moving out to our new house on Christmas day 2012, this humble abode, that we called home was the only house that we had ever known and lived in.
When the chance came to visit Kajang this morning for some banking transactions, we couldn't resist the idea of visiting our former home, just for old times sake. So after completing our business we detoured to the taman where our former house is located.
What we saw of our former house was quite depressing.
The house looks abandoned, unkempt, with magazines and mail strewn on the driveway. The post box is stuffed with unopened mail and flyers, all addressed to my family members. I sometimes wonder why our mail is still delivered to the old house. Haven't we not informed all the banks and government institutions of the change of address months ago? The space in front of the main gate has become a convenient parking lot. A neighbour has parked her MyVi in front of the main gate. The pad lock on the front gate looks exactly the same as the last time we had locked the gate which was about two months ago. The TNB and the water meter that had been disconnected upon termination of our electricity and water service accounts have not been reconnected by the new owners.
I wanted to enter the house to clean up the driveway, but then I do not have the house keys anymore. There was no way that we could enter the compound other than to scale the main fencing and the entrance door. I have already surrendered all the house keys to the solicitor of the new owners a few days before they they took house possession.
Since the house title has been transferred to the new owners' bank and the house keys surrendered, then legally the house does not belong to us any more.
I wonder why the new owners who are servicing their bank loans now are not anxious to move into their newly bought property, or at least changed the locks and reinstate the TNB and water meters.
Iattended a public gathering to discuss the set up of a proper community security system for the residents of PUJ 7. With all the seats under the two tents fully occupied and many standing outside on the grass I estimated more than 100 residents turned out for the inaugural meeting.
By a show of hands the majority of those who attended the meeting was supportive of a gated and guarded security system in the area, which led to the setting up of a pro-tem committee to initiate the project.
PUJ 7 has 630 households. Although the 100 plus participants do not represent all the households I consider the turnout a success for a public meeting of this nature. This shows that personal and home security is everyone's concern.
Imade this rectangular plate by folding two pages of paper from a Giant Hypermarket sales catalog. After eating out of the plate no need to wash it nor mop the table. Just crush the paper container with the food leftovers inside for disposal in the garbage bin.
The fierce thunderstorm came, accompanied by lightning and thunder when I and my wife were away from our house shopping for the week's groceries. At the back of our minds we were worried about our bedrooms.
Will the roof leak and allows the rain water to enter the bedrooms? We have no answer to this question until we get home to check out the rooms.
After checking out the rooms upon our return to the house from the supermarket we were relieved to find out that all the bedrooms were dry. Apparently the roof covering is holding the rain water at bay.
TT
ired of sweeping the floor in the driveway a few times a day decided to do something about the pollen blown over the top of the brick fencing from the overgrown lalang grass of the unoccupied house next door.
Although the corner unoccupied house has a registered owner it has been left vacant for a years. Left unattended the lalang grass grow wildly until they rise above the top of the brick fencing. Strong winds blow the pollen of the lalang flower across the brick fencing into the driveway of the car porch. As a result we have to sweep the floor everyday, and sometimes twice a day to clean up the fallen pollen.
Standing on a plastic chair I used a scissor to trim the flowers and stalks of all the grass protruding above the brick fencing. I know this will not resolve the problem completely but at least it will keep the driveway clean longer. I will continue to trim the grass when they grow back to their current height.
Ater enduring a week of complains from the wife decided to check out why one of the light indicators in the anti-burglar alarm control panel is lighted up day and night, even when all the doors and windows in the house are closed.
After checking around the whole house noticed that a magnetic sensor at a trap door has dislodged itself from its original station in the wooden door frame although the door is closed. Hence the separation between the magnetic sensors in the door frame and its counterpart in the door panel has triggered the ant-burglar alarm system to light up the associated indicators continuously.
The problem is resolved after re-attaching the sensor to the wooden door frame with heavy duty adhesive. With the two magnetic sensors properly secured and aligned with one another in position the affected indicator light automatically shut down by itself.
Eying the new Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 tablet lying inside the paper box container on the table, I decided that today I could no longer ignore its existence and pretended that it never existed.
My daughter gave me and my wife the Samsung tablet as a parting gift for bringing her up in life as her parents during the church wedding ceremony on Sunday. After returning home the next day on Monday, I just left it on the desk as I was too tired to open the package.
After opening the box and on inspection I found the following items:- a short length of USB cable, the rectangular tablet device, a power supply adapter, a skimpy user manual and a black plastic casing.
As I have never laid hands on a tablet before, I had no idea how to mount the tablet on the casing, plug the USB cable to the power adapter and the device. The user manual was so skimpy on details that even after reading it a few times I still had no clear idea how to activate the tablet. All I knew was that I had to charge the device first before I could operate it. However I was faced with the challenge of deciding how many hours it should take to charge the battery as the user manual is silent on the charging duration for new devices.
Not sure what to do and wary of damaging the device, I sent the whole morning of Tuesday searching online for information on how to get started with the tablet. Fortunately there are tons of FAQ and advices on the Samsung tablet available in the internet.
Then today I decided that I could no longer pretend that the tablet is non-existing. Armed with the downloaded user manual and referring to online resources, and also fortifying myself with resolve I managed to fire up the device and activate the wi-fi internet service with success after lots of trial and error tinkering with the tablets's Android operating system, applications and widgets. About 5 hours of the process was taken up just charging the empty batteries to full capacity.
Some things in the past need to be left there. As simple and profound as that, yet some people continue to cling on, unable to let go. As for the future let's leave it as "just round the corner" because if you pay attention to the present moment the future will have arrived at the doorstep.
You shouldn't chase after the past.
or place expectations on the future.
What is past
is left behind.
The future is as yet unreached.
Whatever quality is present
you clearly see right there,
right there.
Not taken in,
unshaken,
that's how you develop the heart.
Ardently doing your duty today,
for - who knows? - tomorrow
death may come.
There is no bargaining
with Death and his mighty horde.
Whoever lives thus ardently,
relentlessly ,
both day and night,
Has truly had an auspicious day:
So says the Peaceful Sage.
- Bhaddekaratta Sutta: An Auspicious Day
It was a beautiful and bright morning and the sun was just coming out as I habitually checked my Samsung cell phone for calls and messages.
"Daddy..wake up liao bo? I am inside the KLIA express train lu at 6.45am...", the text message from my daughter seemed to scream at me with excitement in her usual bubbly style of talk.
Amy and Nicholas were on the KLIA Express train heading towards KLIA International Airport. They were en route to their first honeymoon in Australia.
How nice and romantic for this generation of newly weds! Married on Sun in Malacca and today, 2 days later already flying off for a vacation overseas.
After 34 years of happy marriage I still owe my wife a honeymoon vacation. Occasionally I would get a nudge on the ribs and a gentle reminder from her about that episode of our marriage that I didn't fulfill. It is not that we have not holidayed overseas before. But I suppose those past happy vacations in Thailand with relatives and friends weren't romantic enough to count as honeymoon.
Back then our dire straits did not permit us to afford lavish wedding dinners and a post wedding holiday in the country, not to mention an overseas honeymoon. Our wedding was as bare bone and basic as two people could afford: no entourage of relatives and friends to accompany us to register our marriage except for our rent lord and rent lady who were roped in at the last minute as witness, no in-studio and on-location photograph shooting sessions that are part and parcel of modern day wedding photography packages, a simple 12 table wedding dinner, no post-wedding holiday, and no home to start our married life other than our rented room in a terraced house. At that time my wife was a factory production operator and I working as a junior draftsman for a contractor. As both sides of our family were not wealthy we had to rely on our own resources rather than financial assistance from our families to fund our marriage.
I remember the morning after our wedding my wife dutifully woke up early in the morning to help her new mother-in-law mom prepare breakfast, sweep the floor, wash laundry, cooked lunch and dinner and do other household chores. After one day of rest on Sun both of us returned from my home town Ipoh to our rented room in KL on Monday by bus to resume our day jobs.
Although our marriage story is hardly the stuff of high romance and the ideal template to offer to today's newly weds it worked at that time and is still working today; perhaps it is the shared hardships through the years that is the cement that binds two soul mates together even to this day.
After our son's marriage at the end of the year, I guess it will be a good time to think about where to take the wife to for our first honeymoon vacation. Who is to say that oldies don't have romantic notions and can't have their honeymoon?
Wishing Nicholas and Amy enjoy a happy honeymoon vacation.
For a father I considered this as one of the most manly act that I have ever accomplished.
On 7/7/2013 at the wedding reception in Melaka, walking hand in hand with my dear daughter and escorting her up the aisle I was very pleased to give her hand to the groom, the new man in her life.
I and my wife wish Nicholas and Amy everlasting happiness in their marriage.
Recently my wife introduced me to this cool kitchen gadget when she asked me to help her chop some garlic, ginger and onions.
This useful kitchen aid named "RA0689 Mini Chopper" is a manual chopper that she bought from Cosway for less than RM20.00.
It has a spring-operated central plunger with a metal blade attached to the cutting end and a plastic cap at the other. The plastic container at the bottom is where you put the ingredients for chopping. You operate the gadget by repeatedly pressing and releasing the plunger with one hand while holding the unit steady on a sturdy surface with the other hand.
Except for the spring mechanism there are no mechanical parts. The plastic container and the plastic cap protecting the cutting blade are all detachable and easy to wash.
Other than onions, ginger and garlic it can also be used to chop mushrooms, nuts and chillies. This gadget totally eliminates the traditional way of chopping ie using a knife and a chopping block.
 |
| Wedding Flyer |
Most of my friends would have thought that, with my daughter's wedding dinner done with last Saturday I can now afford to sit back for a lay-back lifestyle. Well, that is not going to happen, at least until the end of this week.
Mindful of the wedding ceremony and dinner that is going to be hosted by my son-in-law's family in Malacca over the weekend I am working feverishly to compile the Malacca wedding programne for the benefit of my 12 relatives who are invited to attend the church wedding ceremony and the traditional Chinese wedding dinner on Sunday 7/7/2013.
Being the coordinator of the event it is my job to ensure that everything goes smoothly according to plan. Thus I have kept myself busy liaising with the groom's family over the fine details of the church ceremony and the dinner arrangement.
To ensure all the invited guests are informed of the itinerary I thought that just making calls over the phone and sending sms messages are not enough. So I decided to make a flyer so that all the necessary information is recorded in writing. At the very least the flyer should provide the reader clear information on the event dates, venue and schedule, maps, images of the wedding invitation card, GPS locations of the guest house, church, the groom's house and the Chinese restaurant and some explanatory comments on what to do and not to do.
The result is a flyer consisting of a two page A4 size tabloid sheet that I designed with the aid of the MS Excel spreadsheet programne. To enhance the appearance of the flyer and to give it a professional look I inserted a snapshot of Nicholas and Amy and an image of the church ceremony programne on the first page. Satisfied that everything is in order in the flyer I then digitised it and sent copies of it to all the invited guests via FB for their reference.
Just sent out my letter of acceptance and the Aikido resume to the Sudent Services Department of Inti International College Subang as advised by the student committee of the college's Aikido Club.
Let's hope the wait for a positive outcome will not take too long to come.
Beginning from Feb some students there have been trying to set up the club and to promote Aikido a free seminar was even organised in April to garner publicity. However, despite the students' best efforts the college management seemed to be dragging their feet in giving approval for setting up the club.
Then in May I approached a senior lecturer in INTi who was once my student for assistance. With his kind assistance things started to move, albeit slowly. Towards the later part of May I saw encouraging indications that the college management was responding positively to the application to set up the club and I remained optimistically hopeful.
Then last week my contact notified me that the college management wanted me to write a letter of acceptance to confirm my acceptance as the Aikido teacher of the club.
Hoping for a good outcome I am once again feeling rather optimistic again.
.jpg)
