Should Have Concentrated More

Exhibit A - Dented the area above the wheel guard and the door also needed some work. Mud guard needed changing as well!As it goes, I am quite a decent driver. And my specialty is parking in tight areas. I don't do fast driving though. So, if you are in the middle of coronary or are in labour, forget about me being behind the wheel to get you to hospital fast. But once you reach there, I can come in handy when you need the car parked. Well, that myth, at least to Puan Anita disappeared yesterday after a kissing incident I had with a giant concrete pole - not my fault, it was the fault of the pole for being there in the first place.

Exhibit B - At the entrance. Pick-up tickets, sharp bend to the left ..... errr! Can I sue Bangsar Village?After picking up the parking ticket, the entrance to the car park at Bangsar Village II swerve hard to the left. I was behind the wheel of the CRV and accidentally clipped the back end, near the rear wheel onto the pole. An almighty snap, and the estimate at the bodywork shop was RM1600! Can't claim from insurance as well as it was clearly my fault! Well ..... should have concentrated more I guess!

Incidence at the Neighborhood

Malaysians are generally very accommodating. However lately, it has been very clear that we as a society are being taken advantage off. Unfortunately it is a two-way thing. We are just by nature very welcoming. We open our borders to travelers and tourist. The term tourist now extends to 'health tourism' and 'education tourism'. There are currently so many foreign students in Klang Valley especially that certain neighborhood has been taken over by these 'students'.

One of my colleague had been blighted by this problem since what he thought was a good offer to buy out a unit of condominium near to UMMC. It turned out that his immediate neighbors, both vertically and horizontally are foreigners. They are 'students' at nearby colleges and being 'student' they like to party. Not to mention a rather lower standard of hygiene and selective deafness should you want to take up issues against them. He was having miserable time but had already invested too much time and money to move away. The 'students' are mainly from Africa and judging from their attitude, they either don't deserve to come here to come over to study, or we are so desperate to get money off them that we are willing to take the baggage that come with them along as well.

Here, where I live near Taman Melati, we have plenty of students from the Middle East and North America, coming over to study at UIA. The thing is, they don't come alone. They take with them their family and parents. Looking at the condition they are staying in at the flats around here makes one wonder if they can really afford the tuition and accommodation for everybody. As far as I am concerned, with their visa status, they are prohibited from working. Today, we caught a group of them trying to break into our neighbour's house red-handed. Before we can do anything, they ran away in their car. I doubt should we be able to get to them, we were probably likely going to be beaten up. These lot are big and strong.

In the last few months, there have been a few incidences similar to this but not to our immediate neighborhood. Our community here decided to hire a group of RELA conscript as security men guarding the entrances and exits. Since then, there have been no break-in reported, until today. We think that this is due to the school being opened hence more car moving in and out of the area. It was no coincidence that all this happened during daytime. 

In Medicine, we were always preached that prevention is better than cure. I think it is about time that action be taken to curtail the influx of these 'students' into our local colleges and institution who clearly do not deserve such placement. In the last year alone, I had three such students admitted into UMMC with complications of HIV when their medical check-ups upon entering Malaysia stated that they were HIV negative. Visa can certainly be bought and our Immigrations are definitely tied up to do other things than to check up on these lot. We seemed to be more concern about Indonesians and Bangladeshis coming over into the country, when the majority were here to make a good honest living. Then again, I don't make the rules .....  

First day back

For some reason, I was feeling more exhausted than usual today. Some might say that age is getting to me. It maybe true. It's just that I was feeling more run down than usual. It may be down to the fact that a lot had happened in the last few days and all the excitement may have gotten into me mentally. It did not help that I zoomed off to Kuala Kangsar on Saturday to attend the doa selamat at our new house.

My father-in-law was doing OK although I still have to visit him every night to administer his jabs. I will also be to his house early tomorrow morning to draw some blood. He is due for his test then. If his INR comes back OK then that will be the end of his injections for the time being.

Another thing Puan Anita pointed out was the boys going back to school. Everyone was excited and so was I. I could really do with a good night rest. Habibah will be attending a course in Ampang Hospital tomorrow morning, so it will be another long day. To cut a long story short, one might say that I was really looking forward to tomorrow. Well, it could be worst!

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Irfan's First Day at School

It was a big day for the household. It was Irfan's first day at school. We were apprehensive as he clearly said that he still preferred to go to his Pingu school rather than joining his brother. He was clearly was not keen to put on the uniform after his bath.

We went to bed very early last night. Everyone except for Puan Anita was asleep by 9.30. So, waking them up this morning was not a problem. After breakfast and shower, it was time to go. There were many new faces. New students joining Idlan's class mainly. We got Irfan settled into his new classroom. His teacher, Teacher Julie was expecting him to join, so she quickly came over to take Irfan away. He only have five classmates as his was the youngest class. Next came the assembly. Poor Irfan had to stand at the very front and you can see him slowly getting worked up. Fortunately, he did not create a scene. Back to the classroom then.

After some sing-a-long and colouring, we can see him much more settled. We then quickly sneaked out for a quick breakfast. By the time we came over to pick him up, he was running around excited. He really enjoyed his first day at school and can't stop telling his Granddad afterwards. We then took them out for lunch at Great Eastern Mall. Idlan dozed off to sleep on the way back as he was rather tired, but not Irfan. It's now just after 9pm and he was now past asleep. Looking forward for another day I suppose!

Colonoscopy and maid issue

My father-in-law had his colonoscopy done this morning. Alhamdulillah everything was fine. There was no ulcer or anything untoward. He was discharged shortly after. He suffered more from the fasting and bowel preparation last night than the actual bleeding. He needed some rest. I went to visit him very early on, bringing my brother-in-law along who have just touched down from Beijing at 6 am.

The colonoscopy only took around 20 minutes, done by one of my friend. My dad tolerated it well, snoozing through the whole process with the help of medications and the lack of sleep of course. After a quick sandwich we headed home. In the meantime, Puan Anita was caught in a drama of her own, bringing along one of our maid for visa extension in Putrajaya. It was nearly 7pm before she arrived back home. My mother came along to look after our boys while I was at the hospital. Upon returning, I got to spend a few hours with them, doing guys thing. We stopped short of actually building a tent! Last day of school break. Irfan will be joining Idlan tomorrow at Sri Utama.

As for tonight, I have to visit my Dad-in-law again to administer some medications on him. He will need some blood tests repeating on Wednesday. I'll be taking tomorrow off. I'm still recovering from United getting beat by Leeds last night ......