A day off from office

I had a day off from office on Wednesday. I look forward for days like these because I can spend my time doing my personal errand....some which have been overdue for a long long time. My day started at 10.00 a.m.....yea, finally I am able to get up from bed after 9.00 a.m. Usually I wake up at 6.45 a.m. on a weekdays to get ready for work. I count it a luxury to be able to sleep extra hours in the morning :-)

Anyway, here is my some of my stories for the day. Enjoy it.


--> Drive to CIMB (the true Malaysian bank....China India Melayu Bengali Bank) in USM to deposit a cheque which is almost 3 weeks old and then update my Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 pass book. The book has not been updated since 1998. Surprisingly my investment of RM100 is still there plus with some good dividened payment. I am surprised to see ASN is giving much better dividend compare to EPF. Maybe we should ask ASN to manage our EPF savings. Anyway, I saw there was no dividend transcation for couple of years. According to the CIMB officer, I need to go to ASN office in the mainland (there is only 1 office in the whole state of Penang) to check the status of the missing payment.

--> I drove to mainland to look for ASN office. Make couple of wrong turns. After few rounds, manage to locate the office. Only 3 counters available but there were so many people waiting in-line to see the officers. It took me a good 1.5 hours of waiting before my turn. The officer at Counter 1 was pretty good and I am amazed with the level of service given. I give my thumbs up for ASN Penang office. The officer explain that prior to 2004, ASN normally issue cheque for dividend payment. Somehow due to my multiple time of shifting house in Malacca, the cheque did not come to my hand. Partly it is my fault. I have forgotten to update my new mailing address with ASN since the investment is so little......Maybe I forgotten the importance of an old Malay proverb..."Kecil kecil lama lama jadi bukit"....direct translation would be "small small long long become hill". Anyway, the officer told me politely that I still can claim those dividends that are not claimed but there is a processing fee of RM10 for every year of claim made. I told her to forget about it as the dividend is less than RM10 for every year. I then enquire the officer whether is there any unit of Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 available? She said, for non-bumi, there is none available but for bumi, there are still lots of unit available. According to the officer, 51% is allocated to bumi’s and the balance to non-bumi’s. I wish Malaysia will be for all Malaysian and that none of us would be differentiated by our race, religion and gender. I wish that all of us can enjoy the produce of the land freely with such complicated quota system.

--> My next stop was the Touch N Go office in Penang bridge. I wanted to change my Touch N Go so that I can enjoy the special discount given to the Penangites. Do you know that you only need to pay RM5.60 when you are using the Penang Bridge if you have this special Touch N Go card? The man in the counter told me that it is impossible for me to change the card. I got to purchase a brand new card. Somehow the entire Touch N Go sales looks very disintegrated. If you want to enjoy a special discount when using the PLUS highway, you need to get a special Touch N Go card at their Juru or Sg. Dua office. Maybe all of us will land up with 2 or 3 Touch N Go card. In the world of IT, this should be a piece of cake for integration but I wonder why these highway operators are making life so difficult to their users. Anyway, I got my card and use it for the 1st time yesterday....yahoo...I can save RM1.40 every time I use the bridge from now till someone crazy change the rules.

--> After a busy day in the mainland, I drove back to island. Couple of the activities was done such as sending Sathy's car to mechanic for routine maintenance, send my car to Honda for warranty parts replacement and buying some food stuff from Tesco.

All on all, it was a long but fun filled day especially doing something that is not in my daily routine.