He’s Never Too Early and He’s Never Too Late

Today everyone in Down Under is celebrating Australia Day.

One of my friends from KK who lives in Victoria with his wife asked me whether I would be celebrating today.

Well I wish I could cos Down Under was my second home. I lived there for more than a decade.

Come to think of it, I do have something to celebrate this day and I have the Lord Almighty to thank. Thank you Lord.

Two days ago I was praying that I would get paid this week for the claim that I made about a fortnight ago.

Last month I paid my ING insurance payment using my SCB credit card and the amount is due at the latest by this Sunday. Since I started using credit card, I have been clearing all my credit card debts at the end of each month. I have never paid interest yet and am not about to start to do that now.

But the problem is I do not have enough cash to clear all the credit card debts. And I would only get my pay cheque at the beginning of next month, which means I would have to pay credit card interest.

That would be a complete irony. On one hand I am investing into insurance but on the other hand I would be charged high interest for my credit card debts. It is not meant to be like this. I do not want to be in this kind of situation.

This morning I was exhilarated when someone delivered my claim. I banked in the cheque today. Hopefully the cheque would clear either tomorrow or Thursday and I can withdraw the balance of the cash that I do not have enough of on Friday and then clear my credit card debts.

My prayer was answered today. Indeed He’s never too early and He’s never too late. He's just on time. PTL!

Gold Card

When I was at Jaya Jusco Departmental Store at Midvalley Megamall on 19 December, a Malay guy approached me to ask if I wanna apply for an AEON Credit Card. First of all, I made sure I did not have to pay the RM50 to the government and I was assured I did not have to. So I applied it for fun.

Today the card arrived and it is a Gold one. This is the first time I am given a Gold Card.

After pondering for a while, I just realised how I would make payments for the card since I do not have any cheque books to write cheques to pay for the payments. Duh

'Ngau Chap' at Nountun, Inanam

Today finally went to Maybank during lunchtime to collect my Visa Credit Card. Supposed to have gone since beginning of last month but procrastinated until today.

Had the following for lunch with a friend who works in that area. This ‘ngau chap’ has salty vege inside and one bowl is RM5.00 or RM5.50.

Across the street from this shop, Menggatal Nyuk Pau has also set up a ‘ngau chap’ shop and selling one bowl at RM7.00. The official opening will be on 2 September 2009 though it has started operation already.

Over Credit Card Limit

Went to Servay Hypermarket Likas for grocery shopping. There were quite a lot of people and trolleys were still available.

Saw some Malays buying groceries. They started their fasting month yesterday.

While waiting for mum to select some veges, I was standing near the freezer section with all the packets of hotdogs in front of me. I heard a man telling his maid to sample the FOC deep fried potato wedges. The maid told him she’s fasting. Then the man’s whole family laughed at him. I had to control myself from bursting into laughters. The maid just stared at her boss.

When it was time to pay for our trolley full of groceries, I felt like the cashier was taking such a long time to scan all the items. I gave her my SCB credit card to pay and after she swiped, she waited for quite a while before telling me the credit card service went suddenly offline.

In fact I wanted to test whether SCB would allow the transaction to go through since it would total up to be over my credit limit. I have not paid for last month's ING insurance payment yet. When the credit card service came back online, she tried again and waited. Nothing was happening and the queue behind me was getting longer.

I felt like time stood still for that moment. Another 30 seconds went by before she told me the transaction went through. That goes to prove that if the amount is over the limit by a tiny bit, the bank would allow the transaction to go through.

SCB Credit Card Points Redemption

A week before 31 March 2009, I reminded myself that I needed to get moving in redeeming my expiry points.

After that I forgot about the whole thing until two nights before the deadline. I checked out the Choice Rewards Catalogue at the SCB website. I found out the way to print out the form but the next day I was too busy to fill in the form and fax over to KL.

I only remembered at 10p.m. on 31 March 2009 about the redemption and was glad to find out that I could call up to redeem my gift. Otherwise my expiry points would have been forfeited by midnight.

Today my redemption gift arrived through the Skynet Courier Service. Eventhough it is not much but it is better than zilch.

I redeemed 5 x RM10 Parkson gift voucher. The vouchers will only be expiring on 15 April 2010.

VISA Credit Card

When I login to Facebook this morning at work, I had a pleasant surprise. One of my favourite high school teachers had finally joined! I was so thrilled. I have been trying all kind of ways to be in contact with her and finally my persistence paid off.

After one of my colleagues came to the office, I drove to the main Post Office to collect a registered letter from Standard Chartered Bank.

The previous week the postman had tried to deliver the letter to my house twice but mum was at the backyard and did not hear the postman honking his motorbike.

I arrived at the post office slightly after 8a.m. and I was glad I did not try to drive in the car park at the post office. There were so many cars circling the car park and some cars were already double parking. I parked at Segama and walked over.

I had to give the person attending to me my Identity Card. He went inside the building to find my letter and I was happy to finally had the letter with the Standard Chartered Bank VISA Credit Card inside.

Sometimes if people do not collect their documents after a fortnight, the post office would send the documents back to the sender. They should give consideration for a longer period of time because sometimes people may be outstation or have gone overseas.

VISA Card Scare

Today at 1.54p.m. I received a call on my mobile phone from Ken of Kuala Lumpur Standard Chartered Bank Visa Card Department to inform me the bank suspected a third party was using my card fraudulently. I remained calm and allowed Ken to explain himself.

The bank is cancelling my Visa Card and will be issuing me a new card. I should be receiving the new card and pin number separately within the next seven days.

Medical Check Up 30 August 2008

Since last weekend was the National Day long weekend, my colleagues and I who work on Saturdays took the half day off.

Two days before that day, I made an appointment to see Dr. Cecilia Chong at 9a.m.

(The reason I made the appointment was because when my ING insurance agent asked me when I had my last medical checkup, I told him maybe four years ago. But upon inspection on the last medical report, I discovered it was done seven and a half years ago, which meant another medical checkup is long overdue).

I left home at 7.30a.m. and dropped by the office to feed the fishes in the aquarium. I am usually given this task when the bosses are outstation during public holidays as I live the nearest to the office.

I drove to the city and deposited cash into my Visa credit card account at Standard Chartered Bank. Next stop was to the tailor at Segama to get the broken zip of one of my pants fixed. Even at only about 8a.m., there was only one parking space left near to the tailor shop.

But the tailor was not in yet and I could not buy any materials to make some more work pants as the shop where I usually buy materials from was still closed.

I had nowhere else to go so I drove to Taman Chemei at Penampang for my appointment.

As usual this place is jam packed with cars everywhere. I could not find a parking space and had to park at the back of the clinic, outside someone’s house. The time was 8.35a.m. and the clinic was not open yet but there was a piece of paper stuck to the door with instructions to call the handphone number. The nurse who answered the call told me they were having staff meeting and therefore I had to wait until 9a.m. I was sweating profusely.

Before I saw Dr. Cecilia, I was given a small container to fill in my urine. The nurse took my BP, weighed and took my height.

Dr. Cecilia was happy to see me as that was the first time I went to her clinic. She said I had lost a lot of weight. She could easily find the vein on my left arm to take out quite a good sum of blood for testing. She is a very patient (and I am her patient :)) and detailed doctor. She asked lots of questions and I also told her my medical history.

She finished seeing me at 9.45a.m. There were four ladies waiting in the queue to see her. I was glad I was the first patient because when I arrived at the clinic, I received a sms from Andrew Tai to tell me to get ready to leave for Kundasang at 11a.m.

On the way home, I dropped by a roast shop to buy duck drumstick rice for lunch. The food cost RM8 and that was my food after more than 12 hours of fasting.

When I arrived home, there was a motorbike parked at the side of the garage. I forgot that Chloe and Alistair were having their art class.

That was the first time I met their art teacher. The teacher was teaching them to draw and paint the Beijing 2008 Olympics mascots to make a lantern for mooncake festival.