the day i only renewed my driving license today!

we were on the way back from kuala lumpur, when almost reaching ipoh that i remembered~ i still haven't renew my driving licence *glurp* and the best part was that even my dad dunno that it has been expired since 25 february. well its not that i simply dili-deli until i seems to forget to do it. i had the pic ready last week though :)

sometimes i feel like we must have at least not one but two reasons for us to do things out of our normal routine. like in my case, i prefer to renew my driving license myself; not through third party~ its rather quick where you will get it there and then. besides that you are also paying for the fees only, without any service charges by a third party! see- you can save some bits there for other thingy. and to make sure these were done efficiently, i chose to go to jpj office in ipoh. take note that there's no jpj office in kuala kangsar.

we reached ipoh around 11am, just on time before their long-hour lunch break on friday from 11.45 am to 2.45 pm *phew* and since the location (jalan kompleks sukan) is not that far from north ipoh interchange, i likeeeee...

my dad and kids waited in the car as we knew that it gonna take me a very short while only. upon reaching the office, i had to take a number first as its on a first-come-first-serve basis system. it took me quite some time to dig my old driving license from my wallet before i could get the number... walaweiii!!! the officer at the numbering counter teased me some more, "awat lama beno nak ambik lesen nye". then i thought: hey! watch your mouth. you are dealing with a blogger. this gonna be in my blog. now there you go... ;P

front part of my old driving license - go here to get a rough idea of why my pic in the license look aren't that good :(

and that was also the reason of the old one being a duplicate copy instead.

i didn't have to wait long for my turn. they have about 9 officers in charge at the respective counters. i was kinda shocked though when i was asked to pay RM150 for a 5 years driving license. that means the fees has been increased from RM20 to RM30 per year. its not a problem actually. but it showed of how back-dated i was! heheee...

yours truly showing the world her new driving license

kuE' note:
lessons learned here is to get the correct facts the next time you wanna approach any counter. luckily i had enough cash in hand then... hiks!

the day finally starbucks replied me...

i was deliberately happy last few days when @StarbuckMY responded to my warm welcome to them on twitter. so i thought that they are obviously answering to almost everyone, cuz there and then i remembered of an email i sent to customer@starbucks.com.my on 30 march 2009. i attached my blog post link on earth hour 2009.

pic courtesy of starbucks coffee company, malaysia

my main point was just to tell them that their outlet in ipoh didn't seems to bother to participate in the nationwide programme. unfortunately i have never received any reply.

i braved myself to tweet them to inquire about this. and i am glad i did. i received a feedback from the tweet in about 8 hours or so—

now i hope that the starbucks in ipoh will be informed of this matter. although some people think that this is nothing but nevertheless it will reflects the reputations of the whole starbucks instead. they can't take things for granted, as though that people from here are not aware about our environment. haluuu... see the legs ler, occay?!!...

you just imagine... how would you feel if the management are striving hard to do the best for their company, but on the other hand there's still some of their people who can't get along with them. how sad... even in their environmental mission statement, they called their employees as their "partners"! so isn't it uncomfortable if your "so-called-partners" can't work together with you.

project 365: 6th week—

day 36 — the last day of the week before, i snapped a hinting picture of what i sew for redmummy; while this is how i shipped my packages ie via pos malaysia’ pos ekspres! the best part of it is the recipients can keep track of the packages shipped online with the code number provided. i would like to take this opportunity to thank ayu for helping me to arrange for giving out the personalized laptop sleeve to redmummy!!! terima kasih daun keladi, lain kali kita plan lagik ek? lol... the best thing is she lurves the gift sooooo much! *big grin*

day 37 — actually on that morning, i attended a farewell function for my former teacher cik hajjah ramlah who has been officially retired on 22 june 2009. it was a very nice event indeed, unfortunately yours truly forgot to bring her camera!!! eventually i never took it out from my handbag unless i wanna snap or load any pictures. but i did the night before to charge the camera’s battery— importantly to prepare for cik ramlah’s retirement and also a function that i was supposed to attend as well over the weekend. so at last i end up with this picture of a chinese temple near our house. i had a line dance practice for a function on last sunday, at a hall next to it.

day 38 — it was a wedding reception night of my uncle at royal ipoh club. that’s me with my cousin nenen. he can speak mandarin very well occay… just like megat, yes… he went to study in a chinese school in ipoh. besides that he was also a basketball player for the state’ team if i’m not mistaken.

day 39 — it was last sunday night, when i performed for the first time with part of my line dance group. it was for the MCA kualè mother & father’s day celebrations. i was kinda nervous though when I danced the first song, to a zapin tune… walaweiii… what more when i heard a guy shouted: “come one, kuE!!!” wargghhh… i focused to the audience and i saw shafizan, an old cliffordian i knew since my school days. he must be one of the UMNO guys that he has been invited to the function, blerk! anyhow sorry ler dude, i wore my dad’s sampin koleq on that night lol… credit goes to megat for helping me to take some pics and videos :)

day 40 — it was a hazy morning in kualè, and i bet it was the same to other places around the area. luckily i happened to have my N76 with me that I snapped this pic from the river bank, before i started my line dance session— you can’t even see sayong! take note that normally i didn’t bring my mobile phone when i go for my morning exercises; but i did that morning because i wanna show-off my new N76 case to my friend ms tung hehee…

day 41 — busy at work: people take note that kualè is clean thanks to those MPKK guys for making sure that everything are in order and in good condition at all time.

day 42 — work in progress: nothing to capture? must be like it huh… that’s me anyway, trying to finish sewing the “in-the-mood” handbags that i am selling. as you could see, not all parts of the handbags were machine-stitched; thus the prices are as such.

masjid & makam dato' panglima kinta

i was in ipoh yesterday morning to bring my mother to meet her brother. at the same time she mentioned that she wished to visit pom's (my late grandmother, who was also mama's mother) makam (grave). pom died on 15 august 1983. i was about 11 years old then. the last time mother went there was so many years ago before she flied to makkah for haj.

believe it or not people, that was in fact my first time going there. i didn't even know of where is pom's makam before this... how bad. its located besides masjid dato' panglima kinta, near sungai (river) kinta of course. masjid dato' panglima kinta is located at jalan (road) masjid. the easiest way to get there is to travel along jalan sultan iskandar and head towards old town. just before crossing the bridge over sungai kinta, turn left and you will see the mosque. the nearest landmark is ipoh water front (formerly people’s park) across the river. according to the man who look after the place, the mosque has just been repainted last week. look at that people, isn't it beautiful, just like buttercream! hehee... so i guess i was lucky enough and didn't let go the chance to take quite a number of pics.

"this mosque was the first in ipoh and was built in 1898 by dato' panglima kinta mohamed yusof in memory of his first wife who passed away in the same year. the most unique feature of the mosque is its original architecture. behind the mosque is the madrassah kamaliah, the first arabic islamic religious school in ipoh."

and as usual, yours truly never let go the chance to camwhore hehee... pic taken by mama. bear me for not wearing any hijab as the trip was unplanned. by the way the mosque is listed on the heritage map like most other establishments along the kinta river.

makam dato' panglima kinta's family

that's where my late pom's remains has been buried

my late pom's makam

kuE's note:
when we were on the way back, suddenly i thought that the mosque will be a great project for puteri. i remember she told me that she has to write an assignment about a heritage building in the country that is more than 100 years old hmm... at least there's something other than koleq ;) if she is okay with my suggestion, maybe i will be back there very soon insya Allah...

a memorable unplan trip

i attended a meeting at shaidi's place yesterday. the original plan for the community programme today has been postponed to tomorrow. ok that's fine (wahhh... definitely i can't attend the penang bloggers' hike). the best thing yesterday was that shaidi brought us to gunung lang recreational park, off jalan (road) kuala kangsar, that is located very near to his place. exit from north ipoh. we were all surprised with what the park got to offer. even some of my colleagues from ipoh also dunno about that place.

yes many local people still do not aware of this recreational place due to lack of publicity. however, i don't think this place is meant for tourists and there is little to offer. it's more of a place for the local people to hang out. if you don't have much time to spare in ipoh, i suggest you to skip this place and focus your time for looking out delicious food in ipoh. you will see a calm lake surrounded by limestone hills. at the far end of the lake is a recreational park and children's playground. in order to reach there, one must pay RM3 (adult) / RM1.50 (senior citizen) for a boat ride from the jetty. at the jetty, i can see the lake is teemed with large fish hungry for food but i don't see any eagles flying around here. at the entrance of the park, you can see a chinese temple built inside the limestone cave. note that in ipoh there are many chinese temples built around or inside limestone caves i.e. perak cave and sam poh cave. we like the place so much that we told albin, our tour guide that we gonna come again to organize a company's bbq. o yes, since albin knows shaidi very well, our trip including the boat ride there were f-o-c!

btw enjoy the pics. wished i could take more ;)