Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!

Thurs 7th August 2008

Yup, it's that month again! Come 31st August, it would be the 51st anniversary of the day Malaysia achieved Independence. But what do we see now? After almost 51 years of independence? You tell me...

So sorry but yup, me not wanna be one of those "sacrificial lambs" used as "scapegoats" to silence the increasing voices of dissent in the country today! Hot news today included that of another Blogger being arrested for posting what the authorities deemed to be seditious. Nope. Not for me. Me no coward but me in my Golden Years now & just wish to enjoy them in peace & in my own happy world. Me fighting days are over. So, me prefer to watch & follow the turn of events as they unfold...like in the saying "The world is a stage... "...a great show is on, with me as a spectator. The final act would be interesting to see! Just practising my new philosophy...in a twisted sort of way...Enjoy the moment! Ha ha! Can only hope & pray that the action on stage would not spread & affect those off-stage esp the spectators...

However, sorry to say, events in my life for the past days had been kinda quiet. Simply because of a need. The need to save. Not the time to satisfy the temptations of the "want".To keep within my monthly limited budget in the face of rising costs & expenses while my income remains stagnant.

The Govt says that the inflation is abt 7% but to the man-in-the-street, that has no real value. If we just look around us, prices of almost everything has gone up by 10% or more! Petrol prices had already gone up by almost 41%!!

To pass our time, we made a few visits to our local malls. Star Parade, A/S Mall & our most recent "Sundry Shop", namely Tesco Mergong. More walk-walk than buy-buy...hehe...
Like someone once said to us..."Borrow ppl's air-con lo... " Ha ha! Also such walk-walk sessions actually is part of our regular exercise... a former colleague once told me...ppl climb mountains, we climb stairs. We climb floors of shopping malls! Ha ha again!

Earlier in the week, we ventured farther...a bit. Took a drive via the old trunk road north. To Jitra...abt 20km from A/Star. Toured the quite new Jitra Mall...the main tenant being Aneka Dept Store. Had Bah Kut Teh lunch for two at the Phoenix coffee shop & visited the C-Mart - Jitra branch for the first time. Paid our "dues" & left @abt 3pm. Came back to A/S via the Plus highway. Toll was only 40sen! Saved abt 7-8mins of travelling time tho.

Today was $$-moving day! Finally, me decided to move whatever little me had in one bank to another. You see, the motivation to do so came when me tried online to move a little bit of $$ out of my savings acct & could NOT do so! Was so frus! Each time me tried, me got red letterings of the word "DORMANT"! How can banks expect everyone to have $$ to keep on putting into their savings acct. regularly? Where is a poor retiree like me gonna get the $$ to keep on doing so? Me don't remember such R&R in savings accounts in the past. Do you?

What is worse is that once your acct becomes labelled as DORMANT, you will have RM10 deducted from your acct each year as a service charge! A joke, right? I only get a ridiculous annual interest of only abt 11 sen from the bank AND I would be charged RM10 for keeping a DORMANT account in the bank? A huge loss of RM9.89!! So what good reason have I got left then to still keep my $$ in the bank? So that it can drain whatever little I have left? Might as well keep my $$ in my pocket la! At least it's mine to use...to spend...to enjoy!
Btw & fyi, closing the account reduced that little bit I had, by another RM10! The charge for the closing of an acct. Phew! Guess me might have to go back to the ancient ways of keeping $$ under the pillow or the mattress...heheh....

And so, with that little bit of $$ in my pocket, me took my other half to our fav "Sundry Shop" again...had our regular walk-walk exercise session PLUS to enjoy my newly acquired $$!! Ha ha again!
For the first time, we tried a couple of dishes at the Old Delight Kopitiam there. Rendang Chicken Rice & Nasi Ayam Masak Merah. Not bad, too. A bit on the hot/spicy side for me tho...
With drinks, the bill came to RM21.35 incl a 10% service charge.

Besides the usual time spent browsing in the Net, that's abt it. Sincerely hope your days were more interesting...TC till next time.