Today I brought the kids to the Bon Odori festival in Esplanade in Penang. The place was filled, few hundreds people were there. Parking was nearly impossible. God provided us one, although it was a distance walk from Esplanade but it is sure better than none. We reached there about 8pm.

Lots of food stalls around and hungry people too. There was a popular stall selling mega huge balloon and water balloon that they played like a yoyo. I got my son a big balloon. My son played for a while and passed it back to me. I can see $$ flying away, anyway, it was for charity.

The place was dark, not enough lighting. Fortunately, they placed lots of tables and chairs.

There were dances & performance. Many people joined in to dance. Lots of Japanese people around. Mostly there were in Kimono. Too bad, no kimono for sale else would have gotten one for my gal. I saw so many Japanese children in Kimono, they were very adorable.

Fireworks were started sharp at 9pm. It was beautiful and real loud. My children enjoyed it. People started leaving once the fireworks was over, so did we.

17:20 Arrival of VVIP
17:30 Speeches…bla bla
17:45 Launching by some Japanese guy plus chingay show
17:55 Inspection of stalls by VVIPs
18:25 1st session Bon Odori dance
18:50 1st Awa Dance session
19:15 Drum demonstration
19.35 2nd Drum demonstration
19.55 Dance performance by Msian Jap Soc.
20:15 2nd Bon Odori dance session
20:40 2nd Awa Dance session
21:00 FIREWORKS display
21:10 3rd Bon Odori Session
21:30 Lucky Draw
21:45 Sayonara

Sponsor a child. You get tax exemption for it. Start giving to the needy rather than those who squander your hard earn money.

I am sponsoring a child in India. She is from a poor and abuse family background. I don’t get any tax exemption becuase the organisation is not part of the IRB program. Anyway, I am happy to sponsor her in her daily living and education.

Here are a few options:

Women Aid Org

Red Cross

World Vision

LUKE 18:22 So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” (NKJV)

I stumbled upon this at Mid Valley when I was down in KL. Actually I saw this in Las Vegas, US but I didn’t dare to do it. I was afraid of the hot wax. I wanted to try it but in the end, I ask my hubby to do it.

It was cool, I think my hubby has the biggest hand and it was worth the money. The mold cost RM10, coloring cost RM10 and the base cost RM10. Total was RM30. First the wax hand maker put my hubby’s hand into cold water for a while. After that, quickly dip into the hot wax and cold water again. My hubby told me a warm feeing, no pain at all. She repeated it until the mold was form. Later she pulled it out slowly from my hubby’s hand. She fixed the holes with tiny pieces of wax. Later applied color and put on the base.

If I ever bum into it again, maybe I will try and put the hand mold in my office.

Finally I have received the EPF cheque after 32 working days. The officer told me that I will get it in 21 working days. Anyway, there were some hiccups in between. The HQ officer wanted another letter from the bank because the S&P and the Grant has a different address. It was due to the purchase of the property before it was completed. The officer was very ambiguous on the instruction and had to call him a couple of times to get the exact content of the letter. If they have put the information on their website, wouldn’t it be easier?

I must say the bank was very efficient to produce the letter for me on the spot. Another plus point is EPF office is just near my house. I will be very frustrated if I have to go to town every time to submit missing documents.

I love jigsaw puzzles, not those 100 pieces but 1000 or 5000 pieces. The satisfaction of getting the right piece to fit, increases my adrenaline. It takes me 3 days to complete a 1000 pieces. Once I start, I cannot stop. Trick is to do the corner pieces and work your way in. Collect the same color tone pieces and match those first.

Once you have completed it, apply the glossy glue on top of the puzzle and not below, you will be wasting glue if you apply it at the bottom. The glossy glue will give a shine on the surface. Do not frame it will glass as glass will reflect and when you look at it, it is not so nice.

During my Uni days, I did like 20-30 puzzles cheap ones, gave it all away. Now I do not have time for it after having 2 kids. Hey I did one during my confinement. Maybe when they grow up, I may restart and fill my house with jigsaw puzzles. By the way, I love solving puzzles too.

Las Vegas

Yosemite

Grand Canyon

Night View

Peanut

Ever wonder how to reduce your housing loan using EPF. First of all you have to submit a whole lot of documents. I finally succeed in doing so. Let me share my experience so that you will not fall in the same trap.

For those of you, who have Internet access, go to this website to get the document checklist (http://www.kwsp.gov.my/index.php?ch=139&pg=148&ac=1186). By the way there is 2 category of checklist, make sure you are in the correct category. I won’t want to see you traveling to EPF office back and forth with frustration. The 2 category are House Purchasing and To Reduce Housing Loan. For Housing Loan Reduction, you can do it every 3 years until the loan is all paid for.

Here are the documents required housing loan reductions:

1. Complete KWSP 9C (AHL) form, you need to get this from KWSP.
2. 2 copies of your IC/myKad. Both side on the same page, don’t do any stunt.
3. Surat Pengesahan Baki Pinjaman from the bank.
4. Sales & Purchase Agreement.
5. Loan Approval Letter from bank.
6. Suratan Hakmilik (11A/B) from bank/law firm
Borang Gadiaan (16A) with Annexure from bank/law firm

Or

Loan Agreement cum Assignment (if the Garan/Hakmilik is not issued yet)

7. Undertaking Letter from previous bank if you did a refinance.

All the above documents must be certified by the bank or law firm. When you submit all the required documents, it takes 21 working days for EPF to send you the cheque. For the first withdrawal, the cheque will be in your name. You can use the money for renovation. Second withdrawal will be issued to the bank.

I have to compliment EPF for explaining to me what documents are needed. Best of all is that EPF office is just nearby and no queue.

Some rooms for improvement for EPF:

The frustration I had was not with EPF but with the law firm. Geram only!! During refinancing, a law firm that was assigned to me by the bank. Proper documents should have been sent to me after the papers were signed. I have to chase them everyday to send me all the documents.

At the final stage, one document was still missing. When the bank issue the “Surat Pengesahan Baki Pinjaman”, advisable not to wait too long as the letter has a date to it. If the date expired, EPF may ask you to re-submit it again. A tip from EPF office is to ask the bank to give print a few dates for the baki pinjaman in case of delay in getting the documentation. By the way, my bank needs 2 weeks to get this letter done.

I had to call the law firm to send me the last piece of documents since there is urgency. The law firm officer gave heaps of excuses, files it the store room, officer in charge on MC, cannot find the documents. I had it with them and arrange for the bank to deal with them. I never get a straight answer whenever I deal with the law firm. At least give me a date when it can be done rather than excuses. It is so frustrating. In the end, I managed to get the copy of the documents and made my submission. Now I am waiting for the cheque to be posted to me.

By the way, you can ask the bank for all the EPF required documents and pay administrative fees. My bank charge RM50 and it takes more than 1 month. It may save you a whole lot of trouble.

Anyway, I am no expert but like to share my experience so that you can get information here.

Despite a lot of complains with regard to the implementation of the new 2005 tax system, I would like to compliment the IRB staffs for putting an effort in making it easy for us. I am sure it is not their fault that the higher management wants to change the system without studying the pro and cons.

What the IRB staffs did that was good?

What need improvements?

• Numbers should be right justified.
• Cut out the blank or not applicable entry, e.g. No Polis, Tarikh Cerai…etc.
• No liquid paper.
• Black ink is required.

My friend saw a few people actually registered the mailing of the form to tax office. Jokingly I said, next 2 weeks, you may see people using POS LAJU to send the tax form.

By the way, another tip, it is best to bank in (cash or cheque) the money to the designated bank. Why? The staff told me if you send a cheque and the mail arrives late or the IRB staff bank in the cheque late, the taxpayer is responsible. The date will be taken when the cheque clears.

Ever felt shortchanged in your life. I went to a shop to get some goods, the goods are price to the sen. When you pay, obviously you have to pay the exact amount. However when the cashier return the change, there were some sen missing. I asked the cashier, where is my 2 sens. She replied, sorry, I ran out of sens. When don’t you give me 5 sens instead? She said she cannot do that. What kind of shop, robbing customers in broad daylight? I bet this happen to you. Now, I will carry a whole lot of sens with me. One time I even gave more than 20 one sen coins. Pay back time.

Another frustration of “Malaysian Service” incident I had, my family and I were dining in Pizza Hut. We ordered our meals and one of the meal came with a “free spin” to get some special side dish free. I spin and got a free soup. At the end of the meal, we went to the counter to pay. As the cashier was reading out our order, she read out the soup. I told her that the soup is free. She gave a nod and went on processing the bill. The bill show 1 soup – RM1.50, then the cashier just disappeared. Before she disappeared, she asked us to sign the bill. I ask another cashier about the bill and she told me “Sorry I am not responsible”. What is wrong with the service?

We waited for the responsible cashier to come back to explain the situation. She probably went to ask her manager with regard to the problem, but she did not tell us nor ask us to wait. She just vanished. She kept us waiting without a clue. When she returned, she opened the cashier and returned us the RM1.50. Now if you are not careful, you will be happy to accept the cash. However I spotted that she also charge service and government tax on the RM1.50. I probably will ignore it but due to her poor attitude, I made a big fuss out of it. In the end she returned additional 25 sens. If she had listen and take the free soup out of the bill, she will not have to do more work. The lame excuse she gave me was, she cannot change what was already keyed into the Point of Sales system. Yeah right! My thinking was she was hoping that the customer will not spot her mistake so that she can get away with it.

I am starting to love my Company, it is a MNC (Multinational Company). MNC is famous for good benefits for the people. Besides the priority focus on Performance, Results, Speed and Accountability, it is also very people focus.

On certain days, I can work from home, when I don’t have on site meeting. I deal with foreigners a lot and do have many virtual teleconferences (meetings with different ppl from countries) at home. The infrastructure (telephone, remote access, notebook and etc) is all paid for, by my company. I have a foreigner as my reporting manager who is very understanding, measure by my performance, not how many hours I work, recognizes accomplishments with results. With working from home, I can be with my children while I work. Isn’t that nice?

Recently my company decided to add more UMPPPHH to the C&B benefits. I get RM1000.00 yearly for children medical expenses which mean free immunization jabs, free children medicine and free children doctor consultation are all paid for. Hospital bills are also covered under the company insurance package. They top up the employer EPF % for my retirement fund.

My husband company’s covers even maternity bills, gynae visitation & consultation for first 5 kids. Nope I am not having more children. Two is just nice.

All in all, I think companies should be more family focus and people orientated besides always focusing on company profitability. As one of the top 10 best companies to work for in US, states “When employees are happy, the customer will be happy too”. YEAH!