My first two days (daze?) in KL

Day One:

Dunno if I’m reading too much into it, but didn’t appreciate mom’s comment about “welcome back to reality” on the drive to the apartment.

Took a shower to wash the travel ickkyness off: helped just a little.

Greeted my dad, who’d just come back from his morning walk, who succeeded in saying exactly the wrong thing to me about my weight.

Ah yes, I see the interaction with parents is going to be just as before.

Tried to unpack my suitcase, but stuff in the closet had been rearranged, since “my” room is now the guest room (i.e. a drawer now dedicated to guest/brother) and had no immediate space for my stuff. Ended up going thru and selecting stuff to discard/ give away. Helped get some space, whoohoo!

At the same time: Made myself go through and file my six months worth of mail. I even made a ‘to do’ list as I came across things that needed follow-ups. Apart from Income Tax related matters, there were no real issues. Good, cos dealing with LHNDM is going to be enough of a hassle all by itself! Btw, did anyone else notice that they’ve added the “M” at the end? Just in case people were confused which country we were dealing with, izzit?

Through all this, was also busy with sms’es, and phone calls. Apart from ‘pleasure’ calls like the surprise call from my ex-tennis partner in Kuantan, was already on the phone to deal with my car insurance refund (might not get it) and of course with my lawyer concerning the house sale and all those loose ends that have yet to be tied up…

Took another shower in the evening, and felt MUCH better. I had somehow managed to stay up and awake all day, without that much trouble. Had a not very exciting Mee Goreng Mamak (whaddaya expect – dined at Shah’s Motel, not at an actual mamak place!) for dinner. Got back, crawled into bed, and musta immediately passed out cos next thing I know it’s 4:30am: that was a solid 7hr sleep! I then slept fitfully until around 7am.

Day Two:

Had my first glass of teh tarik at Ganesh. Not nice lah… will have to visit other mamaks to see whose tastes best ;- )

Took the LRT armed with a 12-pack of Krispy Kreme donuts and a box of Honey Nut Cheerios, and made my way to KLCC, for I already had my first lunch date with S, L & M (had to deliver those two items to S!)… This is only the first of MANY lunches I expect to have… so many people to catch up with maaaah! Just hope we don’t always end up at Chili’s tho! ;- )

Also got my Borang EA, which I need in order to complete my tax assessment for 2004. Once I got back, I started filling in the form. Ugh, why on earth did they have to totally reformat the entire thing? Have most of it filled out. Will be visiting Jalan Duta tomorrow, hopefully will be able to settle some of the outstanding issues then.

Called up Southern Bank to see if I can still redeem my credit card bonus points which had expired in Jan 2005. I wish they could just be like Citibank and not have the points expire… But anyway: there seemed to be no problem in using those expired points, tho I got the impression I had to redeem those points all at once.

Spent the rest of the afternoon looking through the redemption catalog, trying to figure out what to get: so many options, so few nice/needed things. In the end, I’ve settled on getting a seemingly tasteful little figurine for me – that will use up around 85% of the points. For the rest of the points, I’ve shortlisted my options to small glass tray, a scented candle, or a fun bowl that looks like a cow. We’ll see which it will be when I place my order tomorrow :- )

Now that THAT is out of the way, I have a similar exercise to conduct for my Citibank points pulak. It’s true, those points don’t expire… but since I have no income at the moment, it’s not worth it for me to maintain credit cards that have an annual fee (my SBB MC has no annual fee)… So I will be canceling them soon.. But gotta redeem as much as I can first lah. Pity they don’t have a hard copy catalog… for something like this, flipping through a physical catalog is so much more satisfying than using the online catalog!

Dinner with parents at Kiwi’s in Hartamas (my first time there). Interesting place with unusual menu items (venison seemed to feature prominently, and the featured special was baked escargot!). Had their “kiwi pie” made not of the kiwi bird, but of beef and mushrooms lah, teehee! It came with black pepper sauce on the side, and tasted very good.

Have been at the PC pretty much since we got back from dinner.

Hey, so I’m all caught up now, whoohooo!! Depending on how things go at the Income tax office tomorrow, I may find a need to bitch and moan about the experience… otherwise, I’ll probably not be blogging until Monday.

Till then, dear reader(s)… peace.