It is July 2010. This week, the fruits from my Chinese New Year calamansi plants started to drop off rapidly. I was surprised they lasted this long! I had expected all the bright orange fruits to drop off right after Chinese New Year. They didn’t. They dropped only a few at a time. However this week, they started dropping off rapidly.

Then I noticed tiny white flowers growing. They look pretty and smell nice. I have two plants. One is in the sun, the other in the shade. The one in the sun has a moderate amount of flowers now. The one in the shade has none.

I love to see flowers growing. I love to have plants in my house. It is nice to see things growing. I feel alive to see growing things. The kids love watching plants grow too. Once in a while, we would go to the garden shop at a supermarket and they would pick out a packet of seeds each. We would plant them. When they grow and start sprouting fruits, flowers or vegetables, they would be delighted.

It is the most simple and basic form of science, an easy and fun way to teach young children about the living things around them. Otherwise, they may not even notice or stop to smell the flowers, just like adults who have forgotten to stop and smell the flowers because even children these days have crazy mad schedules.

My internet line was out again, since Saturday, hence the silence. Whereas previously I would have suffered from a severe online withdrawal syndrome, this time I didn’t because after more than 4 years blogging, I have finally reached a stage where I don’t HAVE to check my blog every few minutes.

After a report made on Saturday at 3pm and several phone calls later (each lasting more than half an hour of going through the same troubleshooting drills), two men came to my house to check all the phones in my house on Tuesday at noon.

They informed us that the fault was not a physical fault on our side so they will rectify it on their end. By evening, the internet connection was restored. There was only one fault though. THEY CHANGED MY TELEPHONE NUMBER! They gave me someone else’s number by mistake.

Imagine what thoughts must have crossed that someone else when he called home to speak to his wife only to have my husband answer the call. lol.

After another phone call, they restored my telephone number on Wednesday but when “back came my old number, away went my internet connection” again.

Finally, after yet another phone call, they reopened my file which was considered closed and resolved (whatever where they thinking. Resolved? Hardly, we were back to square one). At last, by yesterday afternoon, I was able to get back online again.

That got me thinking… what ISP does everyone use? What sort of package? Care to share?

I wonder if my children will remember their toys the way I remember mine.

When I was young, I fell in love with a princess doll. I l admired it and wanted it so much. It was a princess doll with a beautiful fluffy turquoise gown. I can’t remember whether I ever got that doll but I remember wanting it real bad. Haha.

I remember I had a doll house with little doll furniture. I loved that. I can’t remember whether it came with real working lights. It certainly isn’t as sofisticated as the toy houses we have these days but I loved it all the same.

Those were my favourites. In those days we didn’t have many toys. I also had other toys, which were really my dad’s favourites, like the roullette set. He used to play that one with me so often. Haha. I think he was practising for his occassional Genting trip. lol.

I also had a tricycle and a little car. You had to sit in it and push it along with your feet to make it move but the point is, it was big enough to sit in so it resembled a real car in that sense. That is what makes it exciting. I would not have remembered the car if not for the little old black and white photo of me posing beside it.

I am the last, the baby of the family. So I was more fortunate to have that many toys. My husband always has this remark for the kids.

“You have so many toys. Do you know how many toys your daddy had as a kid”

And the kids would chorus together ”One or Two daddy!”  We do this when reminding the kids to cherish their toys.

I wonder if my kids will remember their toys the way I do. Toys and play are really an important part of growing up and learning. We learn from play. Sometimes we do role play and act out our frustration and anger.

My daughter is very different from me. She is an intellectual who prefers intellectual toys. She does not care for dolls and dollhouses. “What can they do mum?” she asks. “Why, you can change its clothes and comb its hair”  I replied and she gives me a funny look.

She prefers books and crafts and other things you can make and do. I thnk her favourite toy is a drawing block. She loves to collect stationary. She won’t use them. She loves them so much, she will keep them to admire. She prefers to read and draw, write, sing or make up her own stories and uses words to express her feelings. The other day she asks me “Have you ever seen a mother who won’t forgive the whole day?” Oh dearie me…. She likes to make up “Have you ever seen” remarks. She and her brother would ask each other “Have  you ever seen a dinosaur walking in the room”? or something like that and they would laugh at their own ridiculous comments. The more ridiculous the better. Then she asks me “Have you ever seen a mother who would not laugh at my jokes?” Gulp.Yup. She is one litte kid who is very good with her words.

As for the boy, well, he likes cars, cars and more cars. Especially little cars that he can line up along with little people. He often talks or sings to himself as he plays. Sometimes it is really amusing to eavesdrop on him and he would look a little embarrassed and smile sheepishly if I repeat what he said. It is his way of sorting out things in his little world.

Ahh toys… Whenever the man buys a train set or remote control car to play with the kids, I am reminded of my roulette set and the toys my man never had as a kid. Quite often when we are at the toy store, it is as much a pleasure for us to shop perhaps even more so than the pleasure of the kid receiving the toy. Quite often we buy things that we like and never had. There is also the pleasure of imagining the pleasure and thrill that each kid would get when receiving a toy. Too bad, I have no chance to play with the barbie dolls that I never had as a kid with my girl since she scorns them.

Do you remember your toys? What is your kid’s favourite toy? Do you buy too many toys?

The other day when I was collecting my child’s report card, I was speaking to another parent. She is Indian and her child is attending Chinese School like my child.

What is amazing, is the fact that she has planned for her child’s education from very early on. She has another child who is at the moment attending a Chinese kindergarten. She sent both kids to Chinese kindy from age 4 and in addition to that they have a private tutor coming in to teach them Chinese. She says I have to do this because we are not Chinese and I don’t speak Chinese.

Imagine that. What focus. She knows exactly what she wants for her kids and plans for it. Not like me. I don’t speak Chinese at all too but I remember I was still half minded and undecided about Chinese school right up to the first day of school! No plan at all. I was playing ding dong between Chinese School and Kebangsaan school and could not make up my mind.

As a result the kids were not prepared the way she had prepared her kids. They attended a normal kindy with only an hour of Chinese. My first child could not speak Mandarin by the time she started Primary 1. Looks like I have not learned from my mistake. The second child still does not know  how to speak Mandarin and he is going to Primary 1 in 6 months. Whereas this parent, of Indian descent has a kid who spoke fluent Mandarin by the time he attended Primary 1.

I’m afraid, I can’t look that far when it comes to my kid’s education. I have met parents who have all their children’s education fully mapped out. Where they want to sent them to Secondary Education and further Education etc. As for me, I haven’t looked beyond the Primary Years yet and am still undecided.

In order to renew your work maid’s work permit, you will have to go through the following steps but not necessarily all of them. I have provided links to my posts about each step in more detail.

Note: I am referring to Indonesian maid only for my post.

1. Renew your maid’s passport. You will need to do this only if the passport expiry date is not enough to cover the work permit extension date. For example, my maid’s passport expires in May 2011. Her work permit is till July 2010. Extending the work permit till July 2011 will mean that her passport expiry date is not enough to cover the work permit period. As a result, I have to renew her passport. Take note that when you renew the passport, it is for a period of 3 years and the date begins from the date you renewed the passport, not the date of expiry eg. in our case, the 3 years does not begin from May 2011, it starts from April 2010 ie the date of renewal.

How I renewed my maid’s passport at the Indonesian Embassy.

2. Register your maid with FOMEMA for health screening. This is mandatory for the first 3 years. If you are renewing work permit for year 3 going forward to year 4 onwards, it is not compulsory but you can still do it if you want to.

Renewing maid’s work permit - Step 1: FOMEMA

3. Take your maid for a medical check-up at a clinic of your choice. You choose the clinic at the  point of registering with FOMEMA. 10 working days after you have done the medical check-up, you can check your maid’s medical results online or call FOMEMA.

Renewing maid’s work permit - Step 2: Health Screening

4. Renew your maid’s work permit at the Immigration Department.

Renewing maid’s work permit - Final Step: Immigration

That is all there is to it.

This final step of renewing your maid’s work permit at the Immigration is almost too simple to blog about.

This is the Immigration Department of Malaysia’s Official Website.

Where?

The headquarters of the Department of Immigration, Malaysia (Ministry of Home Affairs) is in Putrajaya. You can renew  your maid’s work permit at any State Immigration Office. We did ours at the Wilayah Persekutuan of KL State Immigration Office at this address:

Jabatan Imigresen Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur
Aras 3, Blok I
Pusat Bandar Damansara
50550 Kuala Lumpur

Telefon: 20905632

How much?

The levy is RM445 to extend the maid’s work permit for a period of one (1) year.

Take note that as of time of writing, if you are renewing your maid’s work permit in Putrajaya, you will need to pay by bank draft, postal order or money order payable to Ketua Pengarah Imigresen Malaysia, if I am not mistaken. (You should always check the payee name by calling up the Imigration Department). However, the state Immigration Department of Wilayah Persekutuan KL accepts cash so I paid in cash. It’s easier for me. I don’t know about other states.

What to bring?

You will have to bring along with you, your maid’s new passport (if you have one), bring along your your maid’s old passport too together with the levy amount.

After checking that our maid  has passed her medical screening tests online at FOMEMA, we headed to the Immigration office. All it took was 15 minutes on a weekday morning, first thing in the morning and we’re done.

Next, a summary of all the steps required to renew your maid’s work permit yourself.

I did not blog at all during the school holidays so this part of my post has been delayed even though I have completed the whole process and renewed my maid’s work permit for another year.

This post is continued from the post Renewing Maid’s Work Permit - Step 1 FOMEMA

This step is really easy. After you have registered your maid for the mandatory health screening at FOMEMA, the next thing you have to do is take your maid to the clinic for a health screening.  There is nothing to this. It is just taking your maid to the clinic you have selected on the FOMEMA form for a medical check-up.

Previously, even though we paid our agent to handle the work permit renewal process, they still required us to do this ourselves. So there is no difference. Or shall I say, there is a big difference. We saved a lot of money doing it ourselves.

Do note that we selected a clinic with an X-Ray facility so that we did not have to do twice the work of running around. Everything can be done at one place.  You cannot select the X-ray center as each clinic has a preassgined X-ray center but you can certainly choose a clinic with X-ray facilities.

We merely gave the clinic the forms given to us by FOMEMA, and they did the rest. No payment is required here since we have paid for this when we registered at FOMEMA. It took us less than an hour to finish the blood and urine tests and X-ray. It could have been less if the clinic had less people but we went on a weekend morning. You can go during a weekday morning to save time.

Finally, 10 working days after the doctor examination, we were able to check our maid’s health status at FOMEMA-Result Online.

Due to some low rate of payouts among residents, the local residents association security guards service has been terminated in my area. Along with that, the spate of break-ins has increased.

One month after the termination, there was a spate of break-ins, three houses, just in my row alone and there aren’t that many houses in a row. Most of the break-ins occur around noon. That is when the houses are empty as most residents are out. Even those who are normally in may be out at this time for lunch, to fetch school going kids from school etc. That is when the thieves strike.

Just before the school holidays, there was a snatch theft right outside my kid’s kindergarten. Two ladies were walking by when a man on a bike tried to snatch one of the ladies’ handbag. The lady pulled back in ernest and threw her bag into the kindergarten where some teachers and some kids were waiting for their parents to pick them up. It was around noon.

The thief climbed over the kindy fence to retrieve the bag. A school teacher shouted at him. He climbed out again, minus the bag and a motorist hit him on his escaping bike (I am not sure whether it was on purpose but if it was, kudos to the motorist), his bike fell over and he made his escape on foot.

All this despite a newly errected guard house on the other side of the road of the kindy clearly within earshot. However, the guards’ (there were 2 or 3 around at the time of the incident) job was to guard the other side of the road for paying residents and not this side of the road for non-paying residents so……

We are not safe anymore. Time to go and review your homeowners insurance.

Make sure you have enough contents coverage under your homeowners insurance. Photograph or videotape your home and contents and keep those photos.

In case of a break-in, make sure you take photos of the scene with your digital camera. That is the good thing about digital cameras. Take all photos of the evidence so that it is easier for you to claim on your homeowners insurance later on.

However, the best thing you can do is to invest in the safety of your home. Get locks, alarms etc. We were told by the housing residents association members that the break-in thefts mostly target homes without alarms and locks that can be easily cut open or those that leave their front gates unlocked. Sometimes the thieves just walk right in, break a simple lock or grill and drive off with a whole load of electrical equipment and other expensive gadgets.

Back to school means readjusting to routine. Everything, our body clock etc has gone out of sync. It is time to adjust to old schedules again.

For me, it is time to get back into my exercise and blogging routine. Everytime, I lose my momentum and become lazy…. But it is not hard to get my momentum back. All I have to do is sit down and write (type) and the words flow out easily. There is so much to write about. So much that we have seen and done.

I’ll get back to our school days routine again too, right after I fixed my front tooth cap again. At the moment I can’t think about anything else accept that. On Saturday, as I was taking a bite out of a chunk of Shitake mushroom, DANG!, my tooth fell out!!!! Geezz! Now it is nicely wrapped up in tissue in my bag, waiting for the dentist to fix back hopefully, with minimal work. I hope that it will take only one visit and not several. I hope that the dentist does not have to pull out the rest of the tooth and do a root filling and put in some screws etc before recapping.

Aarrggh… I can’t think about anything else at the moment. Unfortunately my schedule and the dentist schedule does not match so I will have to go one tooth less till the end of the week and not more hopefully. Now I look like a 70 year old hag, says the man and I smile at him sweetly with my mouth closed and give him a kick! Amazing. All it takes is just one tooth less to change one’s appearance drastically. With some claws and a witch’s cackle, I will frighten everyone away!

It is the last few days of the term before the school holidays. With the tests behind her, I thought that it would be easy days for my girl with less homework. I was wrong.

Yesterday, she came home with two chinese homework plus English homework. Sounds little right? One of the Chinese homework was a simple fill in the blanks kind of questions. She had 2 pages of that. The other was Chinese Sentence Construction. She had 10 sentences to make. Not bad. She also had 2 pages of Math but fortunately the teacher realised that she had given them quite enough homework so she made them do those in the school. Fine.

Then my girl took out her English book. She showed me that she had to complete homework for the whole unit or chapter. Imagine that! That is ridiculous. Do an entire chapter or unit of lesson all in a day? There were 8 pages altogether. Although the English is simple for the kids, however, it is the time needed to complete the work. There were a lot of colouring to do as well. There was simply not enough time to do it all. Unfortunately she had piano lessons yesterday and the teacher was also rushing her to do her theory work for her uncoming theory exams. I had told the teacher, No, give her time, do not give her extra work during her tests. Well, now it is AFTER tests, so the teacher thought it is time to do catching up.

Couple that up with the fact that the doctor ordered at least an hour of afternoon nap plus 1/2 hour of physical activity each day and to be in bed by 8.30 to 9pm. Where do I find the time for everything? Meals, naps, homework, physical activity. There is only that many hours in a day.

In the end, I had to negotiate with my girl to let me and her brother help her with the colouring so that she would be able to complete her homework and still have enough time for the rest that the doctor ordered. Imagine what sort of wrong things I am teaching her? I told her to just do it hurriedly and simply, (”ugly also nevermind”). Great! I have just taught her that it is ok to ask others to help you with your work. I have taught her that it is ok to rush and do work for the sake of doing work. I have taught her that it is not necessary to do work neatly and properly. And a host of other wrong messages and lessons.

She also did not manage to get her nap and only ended up in bed at 10pm because she was still rushing to complete her work. It is madness.