6 hours.
Thats the grand total of time I spent early this morning at the Natl Registration Dept in New Town, PJ - all for exchanging one piece of plastic (IC la, for the so-tong*) for another (though I won't actually be getting it for a coupla more months).
6am plus : I dragged myself out of bed. The last thing I wanted to do was get up, considering my uber busy past few days.
6.20am: "Oh, this time its better" By this terse sentence, I refer to the queue. Snaking around all the way from the 1st floor of the building out to the stairs on the ground flr, this time it was only a lil' better than my previous (note- failed) visit here. I ended up becoming food for the armies of mosquitoes right outside the building. In 10 minutes, the line stretched to the gate and the lone guard was forced to divert the rest of the queue to the car park.
7am: Continue waiting. In the meantime, the two ladies queuing behind me have settled comfortably into their lil' picnic chairs. Really reminds me of scenes where prospective house buyers queued overnight to obtain their choice lots / concertgoers queuing for topchoice tickets. Turns out they're here for the third time. Aduh..
8am plus: Finally, the line starts to move. They're starting to give out the numbers, curiously beginning with 100. I got 268. Meaning there were some 168 ppl who were even earlier than me! In less than half an hour, they've given out the day's allocation of numbers. "Hah!" I sniggered at those people who couldn't obtain the oh-so-important pieces of paper. They've got to learn something from those rajin people up front. Get up at 4.30am, make sure you go bug the guard to let you in by 5am. I'm sure your chance will come..
9am: I'm off to breakfast. Government offices aren't so well known for their efficiency I'm sure you know i know everyone knows except the govt.
12.30pm plus: Finally. I've gotten through the whole process. I hope the lady remembered to put the "K" in my new IC. When I first applied for one as a kid, they totally forgot about it..
And that was a whole morning just to get that done. Sigh..
I wish - our Prime Minister pops by for an impromptu visit, preferably at 6.30am (1st visit) - to witness the fairly large crowd already waiting there, and at 11am (2nd visit) - to witness "what happened to the majority of employees there???" as this morning, a simple count showed that including 1 information counter , 3 counters for processing and 2 counters for taking the photos, the department only had a GRAND total of SIX counters functioning, with an amazing/incredulous/(add your own bombastic adjective) TWELVE other counters not manned. wah-liao-eh. only a third of counters up and running. Its no wonder they can only handle a mediocre amount of applications each day..
On other things.. I'll be leaving next week. Part of me wants to stay and the other part wants to go back. For me the grass isn't necessarily greener on the other side, imo KL and Melb are distinct, each with characteristics I love. Doesn't mean one is better than the other.
Tomorrow I shall have to waste more time fulfilling something so incredibly nonsensical. Instead of increasing my baggage allocation for my flight there and then (before they issued the ticket) in the PJ MAS office, I have to make my way to Bangunan MAS in Jln Sultan Ismail.
Early this month, if you happened to be in the PJ State area near the MAS office, you'd have witnessed a frustrated 22 year old waving an ECOE (that's Electronic Confirmation of Enrolment - evidence of my full time studies Down Under) and a VALID student ID card, futilely trying to get the personnel there to approve my student baggage allocation. I'm not even asking for student fares (though even if I'd gotten the RM150 discount, it doesn't matter much when the fare comes up to almost RM3000). Still, Mr Kelvin at the office noted - "you have to go to the KL office. No. You have to go to the KL office to get it done." I felt like asking him "What if I stayed in Sekinchan?" I'm sure he'd have gone - you have to go to the KL office to get it done.
So this simply means I've to take time off and go all the way down town to change something minor on my ticket. The mighty ECOE, recognised by the High Commission plus numerous other financial institutions - is totally ignored as irrelevant by MAS. My student ID which has a validity date is also plain ignored. I haven't even gone into what happened BEFORE they issued my ticket (Thats worth another rant entirely). Things like this gets on my nerves. I for one cannot take the "everyone also like that, so you also have to follow and not complain la.." that so so so many people spout. That kind of attitude is plain apathetic.
Nothing will ever change if people don't bother to change. A little change each day leads to changed lives, and to changed generations. But do people bother? Sadly - i think no.
Its been a hectic few days, and things'll only get busier. People to meet up with, shopping to be done, bags to pack (the packing is the quick part!), goodbyes to be uttered..By today, I'd already lost track of numerous calls I'd made, and dates to be kept. I've resorted to keeping a tattered piece of paper to help me keep track of all that. Stuffed in my pants pocket, its a little reminder that time is precious.
My friend (YKWYA)
thankyou for your time
thankyou for your regard
thankyou for your heart
6am plus : I dragged myself out of bed. The last thing I wanted to do was get up, considering my uber busy past few days.
6.20am: "Oh, this time its better" By this terse sentence, I refer to the queue. Snaking around all the way from the 1st floor of the building out to the stairs on the ground flr, this time it was only a lil' better than my previous (note- failed) visit here. I ended up becoming food for the armies of mosquitoes right outside the building. In 10 minutes, the line stretched to the gate and the lone guard was forced to divert the rest of the queue to the car park.
7am: Continue waiting. In the meantime, the two ladies queuing behind me have settled comfortably into their lil' picnic chairs. Really reminds me of scenes where prospective house buyers queued overnight to obtain their choice lots / concertgoers queuing for topchoice tickets. Turns out they're here for the third time. Aduh..
8am plus: Finally, the line starts to move. They're starting to give out the numbers, curiously beginning with 100. I got 268. Meaning there were some 168 ppl who were even earlier than me! In less than half an hour, they've given out the day's allocation of numbers. "Hah!" I sniggered at those people who couldn't obtain the oh-so-important pieces of paper. They've got to learn something from those rajin people up front. Get up at 4.30am, make sure you go bug the guard to let you in by 5am. I'm sure your chance will come..
9am: I'm off to breakfast. Government offices aren't so well known for their efficiency I'm sure you know i know everyone knows except the govt.
12.30pm plus: Finally. I've gotten through the whole process. I hope the lady remembered to put the "K" in my new IC. When I first applied for one as a kid, they totally forgot about it..
And that was a whole morning just to get that done. Sigh..
I wish - our Prime Minister pops by for an impromptu visit, preferably at 6.30am (1st visit) - to witness the fairly large crowd already waiting there, and at 11am (2nd visit) - to witness "what happened to the majority of employees there???" as this morning, a simple count showed that including 1 information counter , 3 counters for processing and 2 counters for taking the photos, the department only had a GRAND total of SIX counters functioning, with an amazing/incredulous/(add your own bombastic adjective) TWELVE other counters not manned. wah-liao-eh. only a third of counters up and running. Its no wonder they can only handle a mediocre amount of applications each day..
On other things.. I'll be leaving next week. Part of me wants to stay and the other part wants to go back. For me the grass isn't necessarily greener on the other side, imo KL and Melb are distinct, each with characteristics I love. Doesn't mean one is better than the other.
Tomorrow I shall have to waste more time fulfilling something so incredibly nonsensical. Instead of increasing my baggage allocation for my flight there and then (before they issued the ticket) in the PJ MAS office, I have to make my way to Bangunan MAS in Jln Sultan Ismail.
Early this month, if you happened to be in the PJ State area near the MAS office, you'd have witnessed a frustrated 22 year old waving an ECOE (that's Electronic Confirmation of Enrolment - evidence of my full time studies Down Under) and a VALID student ID card, futilely trying to get the personnel there to approve my student baggage allocation. I'm not even asking for student fares (though even if I'd gotten the RM150 discount, it doesn't matter much when the fare comes up to almost RM3000). Still, Mr Kelvin at the office noted - "you have to go to the KL office. No. You have to go to the KL office to get it done." I felt like asking him "What if I stayed in Sekinchan?" I'm sure he'd have gone - you have to go to the KL office to get it done.
So this simply means I've to take time off and go all the way down town to change something minor on my ticket. The mighty ECOE, recognised by the High Commission plus numerous other financial institutions - is totally ignored as irrelevant by MAS. My student ID which has a validity date is also plain ignored. I haven't even gone into what happened BEFORE they issued my ticket (Thats worth another rant entirely). Things like this gets on my nerves. I for one cannot take the "everyone also like that, so you also have to follow and not complain la.." that so so so many people spout. That kind of attitude is plain apathetic.
Nothing will ever change if people don't bother to change. A little change each day leads to changed lives, and to changed generations. But do people bother? Sadly - i think no.
Its been a hectic few days, and things'll only get busier. People to meet up with, shopping to be done, bags to pack (the packing is the quick part!), goodbyes to be uttered..By today, I'd already lost track of numerous calls I'd made, and dates to be kept. I've resorted to keeping a tattered piece of paper to help me keep track of all that. Stuffed in my pants pocket, its a little reminder that time is precious.
My friend (YKWYA)
thankyou for your time
thankyou for your regard
thankyou for your heart
posted by xaverri at 3:18 am
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