2014 EA Form

EA Form

After no news from James since the middle of February I decided the time had come to call Thian Choon, my former boss from Wawasan Bersatu about the status of the EA form. He answered me almost immediately upon receiving my call.

He told me that the EA form will be issued by next week and asked how I wanted to get my hands on it. I told him to inform me in advance when the form is ready so that I can go to Wawasan Bersatu to collect it personally.

I need the EA form to file my 2014 income tax return via e-filling and the dateline for doing that is April 31.
This year will probably my last for filing an annual income tax return with LHDN.

Appeal for BR1M rejection

Notice board showing a sample of the BR1M
appeal form

Officers ready to receive the appeal applications

LHDN Cheras branch at Menara PGRM

The hall for processing the BR1M appeal application is located on the ground floor of the building. I was surprised to see more than 5 counters, each counter specifically assigned to process a particular category of rejection. Beside the counters for the processing of the applications there were two empty tables for the public to use. There were many people there who came earlier than me.

LHDN rejected my application under category 5. Category 5 refers to the application who is still receiving an income from employment. So I went to the counter responsible for processing category 5 applicants.

Including the application form I also submitted my Wawasan Bersatu resignation letter and also the latter's letter accepting my resignation as supporting documents to proof that I had stopped working since July 2014.

After going through the form and also the supporting documents the lady officer insisted that to show concrete evidence that I had stopped working I am required to submit my KWSP 2014 and 2015 statements. Apparently Wawasan Bersatu's acceptance letter is not good enough. She also required Anna to fill up a separate form stating that she has no income. I have a feeling that the officer did not believe me when I told her that I have no employment income.

KWSP Cheras Taman Shamelin Perkasa

At her suggestion I drove to Taman Shamelin Perkasa to look for the KWSP office. Although it was my first time visiting that particular branch of KWSP I managed to find it in Taman Shamelin Perkasa.

Once inside the building I went straight to a automated kiosk to get my 2014 and 2015 statement printed. The 2014 statement clearly shows that there were no more monthly contributions to KWSP after July

After leaving the KWSP I decided to return to TPJ instead of returning to LHDN. Anyway I also needed Anna to sign a form.

Peeing into the toilet bowl

Specialist Clinics at Putrajaya Hospital

The sign sticking out of the wall above the entrance depicting a stylised male figure was unmistakable. It is clear as broad daylight to the general public that the room behind the door and the signage is the male toilet. It is my habit before entering a toilet to always double check so that I don't enter a female toilet by mistake.

After stepping inside I was surprised to see wash basins and four toilet cubicles arranged side by side, but no urinals. How is it possible that urinals are not provided in a male toilet?

Thinking that I might have stepped into a female toilet by mistake I exited the room to check out the toilet sign for the third time. The signage shows clearly a male figure. Not satisfied I zoomed my vision in on the toilet sign of the adjacent room. That sign which depicts a stylised human figure wearing a dress tells me that that particular room is a female toilet and I was indeed in the men's toilet and not trespassing into a women's toilet.

What can I say? It seems to me that in the haste to draw up and complete the plans for construction of the hospital the architect and his team inncluding the hospital administrators have forgotten about the provision of urinals in the toilets for men. Hence except for the signage the male toilets are of the same design as the female toilets.

Do good any way

One day you will just be a memory for some people no matter what good you have done. Just do your best to be a good one so that they can keep you in memory for the longest time.

Hello Anjung Singgah here I come again

While helping to pack the vegetarian meals together with the other volunteers at the KSK kitchen a lady dressed in the NGO's trademark red T-shirt caught my attention as she stood beside the counter after coming down from the upstairs administration office.

I recognised her immediately, having worked with her only once on 9/9/2014.

On that day I went with her in the food delivery van to another food distribution center in downtown KL. This place called Anjung Singgah, is located along Jalan Hang Lekiu. Set up by National Welfare Foundation (YKN or Yayasan Kebajikan Malaysia) the center is a temporary lodging and intervention center for the homeless. Other than temporary lodging Anjung Singgah also provides free meals for the homeless.

My involvement with Anjung Singgah was more incidental rather than planned. That morning when I stepped into the kitchen I bumped into the Project Director who was desperately looking for hands to help out at Anjung Singgah because one of the regular volunteers there could not come. At his request I assured him that I had no objection going there at all. So together with a lady volunteer the driver packed us together with the food into the van for the ride to Anjung Singgah. I believe that on that day this particular lady volunteer who works in the admin section upstairs was also roped in to help out at the last minute.

If not for a memorable incident I would consider that day's work at Anjung Singgah as just another ordinary and mundane day for me.

On the way to our destination, somewhere along busy Jalan Raja Chulan as we waited for the traffic in front to move on we heard a loud bang coming from the back of the van. The driver of a 4-wheel car belonging to a government agency had crashed into the back of the van. All of us alighted from the van and it was the lady who took some shots of the dent in the van with her phone camera and noted down the particulars of the driver of the 4-wheel. Fortunately as everyone was driving slowly due to the traffic congestion the collision was minor, only a dent and a broken tail light.

"Hi Mimi!" I greeted the lady flashing a smile and a hand wave.

I knew she recognised me but had some problem registering where or when she had seen me before. Here in KSK volunteers of all sorts come and go and unless you interact with the individual for some time each volunteer is just a nameless face that you see from time to time.

"High Mimi do you remember the traffic accident on 9/9/2014?" I asked her. The question instantly rang a bell in her memory when before it was just a hazy recollection of some one that she had met in the past.

When she asked if I was available to help out again at Anjung Singgah on Tuesdays, I said sure I would come in on next Tuesday to give a helping hand.

Diagonal Fly

Balcony of Parkland Apartments, Brinchang, Cameron Highlands. 

My daughter wanted to see some taiji movements up-close. So I sportingly played around with some movements randomly. 

To my surprised using the view in front of the balcony and the solitary pine tree as a focal point and superimposed against a clear blue morning sky as a back drop she captured this poignant moment in transition as I was moving into a particular posture called "Diagonal Fly"

Retiring Again

Today is my last of work at Wawasan Bersatu Sdn Bhd. Thank you for everything. So long and bye bye to corporate world.

A window to the past

Just completed mounting the new "Orient" wall clock on the wall. At a time like this I wish that I was a 6-footer so that I didn't need to climb a ladder to mount the clock

To most people a clock is just a time piece to tell the time. To me a clock is like a window to my past.

In my growing up years as a boy I lived with my grand mother in a shop-house in Ipoh surrounded by watches and clocks. At that time all my grand mother's sons,who were my uncles, were tradesmen dealing with the sale and repair of watches and clocks. After school although I had no interest in the watch and clock business I would dutifully obliged my two uncles to help out in attending to customers at the counter.

Now the watch and clock business is no more. After my grandmother and uncles passed away none of their descendents wanted to take over the business.

I am surprised that the Japan-made brand "Orient" which existed in the 1960s when I was still a school boy is still in the market today.

When it rains...

Raining.

Each time when heavy rain with thunder and lashing winds strikes I worry about the water-tightness of the roof. Predictably the roof leaks again. With a LED head light strapped to my head I climbed up into the ceiling space via the ceiling inspection manhole to inspect the roof.

Where previously rain water would penetrate the porous plastering to run down the surface of the parapet wall to the ceiling and exit to the bedroom below this time the wall is dry as a bone, an indication that the last water-proof treatment applied to the parapet wall is working well.

Two wet patches in the ceiling board and also a wet patch at the bottom chord of the timber truss indicate that the rain water is leaking through the roof covering, either through gaps in the inter-locking tile arrangement or some tiles due to old age, wear and tear have become porous to water.

I am back

Since the day I clocked out of my last employer's office for the last time I didn't imagine that I would ever need the use one of these any more. 

Now that I am co-opted out of retirement back to work in the industry again I certainly need a writing medium for keeping track of my appointments and jotting down technical notes. 

So in the morning off I went to Popular Bookstore to buy myself a 2014 diary book.

Hello and Good Morning!

My wife asked me how come I seemed to know all the walkers and joggers who passed by us on our morning walks. 

I told her that in the beginning I didn't know them but after waving and greeting each of them with a warm friendly "hello!" and a cheerful "good morning" a few times we sort of warm up to each others presence and even exchange small talks. 

"I believe strangers are friends that we have yet to meet," to quote someone who wrote the above line in his blog.

A general feeling of desolation and pessimism

Expectedly Christmas has come and gone with little or no fanfare.

I reckon it will be more or less the same pessimism for the upcoming New Year and CNY celebrations.

Bombarded on all fronts by the escalating rise in the price of essential goods and services few people save the well-offs with deep pockets are in the mood to splurge and celebrate.

Yet amid the general pessimism life has to go on and will go on.

Wishing everybody Happy New Year.

One last fling

When I retired from work I couldn't wait to congratulate myself for getting out of the building construction and engineering industry, a love-hate relationship that spaned about 40 years of my working career.

Due to circumstances and the unseen hands of destiny I am being drawn out of retirement and back in again.

I don't know what lies ahead waiting for me in the shadows but I do know that the coming days, weeks, and months will be particularly challenging. One thing that I do know for sure is the final outcome. 

This will be my last fling at this love-hate affair as I am not getting any younger.

Goodbye and have a safe journey Mr Bug

Iwas sitting on a toilet bowl trying to evacuate my bowels in the bathroom when I was startled by the sight of a tiny brownish object slowly inching its way across the wet floor. Instinctively I retracted my legs a bit because I didn't want the thing to crawl up my lower limbs.

The slimy object of my fascination was a 5 cm long millipede. The bug was crawling on the floor at the junction of the floor tiles and the tiled wall in the bath room.

I noted that the millipede was crawling and stopping intermittently and turning its head left and right and top and bottom as if looking for direction with its two antennae. To my relief it made no attempt to move towards the direction of the toilet bowl where I was sitting.

My wife would have freaked out if I had mentioned there was a creepy and slimy bug in the bathroom. I would imagine that the next thing she would do would be to squash the bug with a piece of toilet paper and flushed it down the toilet bowl. No, I would not tell any body about my find. I would rather honour the right of the little fellow's existence rather than to send him to bug heaven.

After finishing my business I returned to the toilet with a plastic box to look for the millipede, half hoping that it would have crawled out of the bathroom. I found it lurking behind the bathroom broom. After gently drawing him out from the sanctuary of the plastic broom with a gentle sweeping motion of the plastic lid I coaxed it to enter the box compartment.

Once inside I closed the box with the lid and headed straight to the drying yard, which is overlooking the back lane at the back of the house. Extending my hand into the air space through the metal grills I turned the box upside down and opened the lid. With a gentle tap on the box the millipede slipped off the box and descended into the air down to the back lane below.

Goodbye Mr Bug and have a safe journey. It was all I could do for you to save you from a quick extinction of being squashed into a pulp and flushed down into the toilet bowl.

Stiff shoulder treatment

Patients waiting for their names to be called
at the registering counter

The Physiotherapy Department, Serdang Hospital.

Because I and my wife reached the hospital early at 8 am we were able to find parking inside the outdoor parking lot. On previous visits we had to park our car by the roadside and walk a distance to the entrance. Once inside the hospital we quickly made our way to the main entrance. As we are regular visitors we now know the ground floor layout of the hospital by heart.

A showcase of prosthetic limbs greet
the patient at the waiting area

The small entrance to the physiotherapy department opens up to a spacious waiting area. There are at least 6 rows of seats for patients to sit down while waiting for their names to be called. Once seated you can't help but view a glass showcase exhibiting a range of prosthetic limbs. After sitting down for about 15 minutes the nurse then called my wife to go to Room F6.

The small entrance opens up to a
spacious waiting area

There are separate rooms for different types of therapy and Room F6 is for patients with general pain ailments, considered as low frequency treatment. My wife who is suffering from pain due to a stiff shoulder probably belongs to this category of patients.


As I am not a patient I was not allowed to accompany my wife into the room. Looking in from the outside I saw some beds with curtains drawn and the inside appears to be clean and airy.

Room F6 where my wife underwent
therapy for pains in her left shoulder

After my wife was ushered into the room I took the break to walk along the aisle. I noticed many different types of rooms for different types of trauma treatment. Some rooms appear to be equipped with gymn type equipment. One room even has hydrotherapy facility.


While my wife was inside the room I chatted with a 60 year old man and later a middle aged woman.

The old man was there to seek treatment for his painful neck and shoulders. He told me that he had taken a lot of medication prescribed by doctors and consulted healers but all their treatments did not resolve his health problems except for physiotherapy which is giving him much relief. That is why he is repeating his regular visits to the clinic.

As for the middle aged woman she was here to look for relief for her painful spinal problem. However before I could find out more of her condition my wife was discharged from the room.

Asking about her treatment my wife told her a medical therapist demonstrated specific exercises to stretch and relax her shoulder and back muscles. The therapist asked her to do the specific exercises three times a day by her self and gave her a drawing illustrating the different types of exercises that she should do.

The next follow up appointment is in three weeks time.

Good customer service is a gem

Good customer service is a gem and hard to find nowadays.

The shop assistant called up to explain the delay in the delivery of the kitchen table cabinet, which was due last week. When we ordered the kitchen table cabinet the shop promised to make and deliver the item within two weeks. When the two weeks were up she called to ask us to collect the item from her shop, which had been delivered from the factory.

Then the next day after her call we received another call from Nur, her colleague apologising for not able to deliver the cabinet because the quality of the item delivered from the factory to the shop was unsatisfactory. Rejecting the item she asked the factory to make a replacement cabinet. She assured us that the replacement cabinet would arrive at her shop in a week's time and that she would notify us immediately upon its arrival at the shop.

One week passed with no calls from Nur. My agitated wife was already thinking of asking the shop for a refund of the RM50.00 deposit that was paid to the shop. Heading off a potential impending storm I was counseling her for a little bit of patience. Then when we were wondering whether to ask the shop for an explanation, the first shop assistant called. Apologising for the delay she told us the factory needed another week to complete manufacturing the new replacement cabinet.

Gratified that instead of keeping us waiting in the dark she called to explain the delay we then agreed to give the factory more time to complete making the replacement cabinet.

Good customer service means keeping the customer informed of any problem arising.

An unlikely place

Tthe things I like about this self-service cafe situated in the most unlikely location is its clean and brightly lit environment , quiet ambient, reasonable price and the food menu. This cafe is actually a staff canteen located in the basement of the TCM Department of the KL Tung Shin Hospital. Though not serving exclusive vegetarian fare, it has a large variety of vegetable dishes in its lunch time menu to choose from. For lunch I ordered stirred fried Chinese spinach, stirred fried mixed bean and nuts and stewed tofu while my wife also ordered two types of vegetarian dishes.

I accompanied my wife to visit the hospital for acupuncture treatment for her stiff and painful shoulder condition. She had been complaining that she could not raise her hand above her head without feeling excruciating pain. I should think that some people would call this type of shoulder ailment as "frozen" shoulder. The 40 minutes of laying on the bed with needles stuck on her shoulder and hand brought immediate relief to her painful condition.

Since it was about 1.00pm after her treatment we adjourned to the cafe which is located next door to the TCM acupuncture clinic for our lunch. After so many repeat visits to the hospital for acupuncture therapy we have grown quite attached to this cafe.

A new look

Strangely I get the feeling that people I am in contact with are paying particular attention to my looks.

My hair, or what's left of it is the first topic of conversation. It is not that I am out to make a fashion statement with my current military style hair cut.

It is just that when I asked for a short hair cut, the barber took the request literally and sheared off all the hairs at the back, the sides and the crown almost down to the skin save for the remaining 3 mm sticking out. I console myself that I won't be needing a comb and hair gel at least for the next two months.

A pleasant surprise in the mail

Apleasant surprise awaits me when I checked the mail box

Inside an envelope from Petronas Dagangan I found a Petronas Mesra Card and a refrigerator magnetic sticker attached to the envelope. Petronas Dagangan is the vendor who delivers cooking gas to my family on a regular basis.

We are happy with the home delivery service provided by this vendor. Since the day we ordered cooking gas from this vendor the company has provided uninterrupted and friendly service whenever we run out of gas. Sometimes even before we run out of gas their customer service will call inquiring if we want them to deliver gas to our house.

Getting rid of clutter

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.