Adino Online

Recently we made an interesting discovery at the market.

They were selling chee cheong fun at RM1.50 for ten pieces, which is 20% of the price they charge you at food stalls.

Best of all, it’s the rolled up chee cheong fun that I love.

To prepare the chee cheong fun, we just steamed them for about ten minutes in a wok.

When heated up, just cut to bite sized pieces and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.

We dressed with some sweet sauce (which was sold in concentrated form in a jar) which we dilluted with some hot water.

It’s funny but in our house we have two different chee cheong fun sauces. I grew up and love the dark sweet variety but Poey Chin prefers the sweet sourish sauce you can find in Ipoh.

Sometimes we would also buy some pieces fish ball or fu chuk to go with the chee cheong fun.

This has become one of my favourite breakfast meals.

Some photos taken before the kids went to bed.

This is actually a test post, trying to blog using my phone

Recently I got a DBKL traffic compound for not displaying a parking ticket when I parked my car during office hours in Kuala Lumpur.

At first I tried not to feel too bad about it, but I took a closer look at the DBKL parking saman and it said I had to pay RM100. My heart sank.

I searched online regarding where to pay DBKL Summon, Rayuan Kompaun DBKL and DBKL Saman Discount but I couldn’t find any information.

Here’s what I learned, and I hope to share with the rest of you who may be looking for the same information.

To Pay Or Not to Pay

The first question to ask yourself is, do you want to pay or just ignore the DBKL Kompaun?

Some people say that they’ve never paid a single saman because no action can be taken against them.

On the other hand, some people cannot sleep if they have something like that pending.

From what I understand, failure to settle the compound will mean DBKL can take legal action against you.

So the answer to this question is yes you should pay.

But I guess if you don’t pay, there isn’t much that could happen to you or your car. Unless you have some future dealings with DBKL (like if your car got towed or something).

You might ask, “if I don’t want to pay DBKL saman, can I renew my road tax?” Yes, for now the two systems are not linked so you are not barred from renewing your road tax.

How Much to Pay

If you settle the saman quickly (I think within 14 days) you will only have to pay half the price, which is RM50.

You don’t need to go to any counter rayuan or go the DBKL head office in Jalan Raja Laut. At first I was confused by this web page.

For parking offenses, any branch will do. The DBKL head office is maybe for more serious offense or non-parking related offense.

Where to Settle DBKL Compound

You can pay the DBKL saman at any DBKL branch.

Check out www.dbkl.gov.my for the DBKL branch office address and contact numbers.

They are open Mon - Fri (8am to 5pm) and every 2nd, 4th and 5th Saturday (8am to 1pm).

There used to be an option to pay online at MyEG, but when I wrote this the service was down for maintenance.

My Experience

The next day, I had to take time off work due to tyre puncture (talk about bad fortune happening to my car) so after fixing the tyre I went over to TTDI branch.

After making a few rounds I found a car park. I saw the DBKL officer prowling so I paid for a parking ticket this time and walked to the DBKL branch.

There wasn’t anybody else there so I just walked to the counter and gave the makcik my DBKL kompaun.

She took a look at it, typed something in the computer and I saw on the display that I needed to pay RM50.

I forked out the cash, she printed a receipt and that’s it. I didn’t even say a word and all done in less than a minute.

Four more weeks to go before baby Caleb is born. This is the last stage, the final lap, the calm before the storm.

As a father, I have mixed feelings about the impending arrival of our third child.

First of all I’m excited and happy to meet him. Whenever I try to imagine how he will look like, I always have the picture of baby Daryl in my mind. I suppose they would both look alike, but you never know.

I can’t wait for Rachel and Daryl to meet their new sibling. It’s like that feeling you get when you have an iPhone and an iMac and you can’t wait for them to meet your new iPad and see how they interact with each other.

I can tell Rachel is excited and behaving all motherly, but Daryl is quite oblivious and doesn’t understand even when we try to explain to him.

I’m feeling worried about the delivery process. There is always a risk but I’m not going to think too much about that.

In the past few months I’ve tried to prepare financially for the huge expenses that I will have to fork out next month. First, I sold off some shares to get some cash. It’s no big sacrifice, the company looked promising few years back but nowadays I have no idea what the management is doing, because revenue has been falling steadily in the past few quarters.

I made a profit of around RM3000 compared to the time I bought it in 2009, so I’m happy because it can cover almost half of the expected hospital bill. But RM3000 is not a lot when I take into consideration that I’m losing a dividend generating asset.

Anyway that’s over. But talking about huge expenses, besides the hospital bills there will be RM3200 for confinement aunty. Then there are the followup checkups. If baby Caleb has jaundice like Rachel and Daryl, he will have to spend a night at hospital (minimum RM700).

A couple of months later, we have to pay another baby sitter fee.

If I’ve not been so stingy and spendthrift when I was younger, we would be living on the streets by now.

So the countdown begins.

Four weeks before it all begins again.

The 2 hour sleep shifts. Milk. Vomit. Pumps. Diapers. Crying.

Help!

These past few weeks I’ve been feeling so tired.

It started when I was eating my usual lunch. The same lunch I would eat on Tuesday afternoons. Mamak-style fried koay teow with two eggs.

I was in my eighth bite or so when I suddenly hit a wall. I just stared at what I was eating and didn’t feel like taking another bite.

I looked around and I didn’t even feel like going back to work after lunch. I didn’t have the mood to speak to anybody.

I just felt so tired of everything, and I’ve been stuck in this rut for a while now.

Part of me is enjoying the daily fixed routines, but some small part of me is rebelling and asking for more variety.

The weekend came and I didn’t even want to go to church. Here’s what happens on Sundays.

We spend an hour getting ready, then bundle the kids in the car. We go somewhere for breakfast and if we’re lucky we can get through the meal without tantrums. Then in church Poey Chin has to babysit Rachel while I babysit Daryl.

Feels like a pointless exercise to me, having to watch the celebration on the TV and not being able to participate.

I did try a few things to brighten my mood.

First, I spent Saturday afternoon cleaning out a couple of kitchen drawers. Cleaning and decluttering always cheers me up. It helped a little.

Second, I picked up an old guitar and started following some lessons on YouTube. That gave me something new to occupy my mind.

Third, I had a piece of fried chicken and some char siew last Sunday. I thought this tiredness came because I didn’t eat any meat. Turns out I still felt the same after that haha.

I’m feeling tired and bored about so many things. I keep thinking and wishing for things to be different, to be better but I see no way out of my present situation.

Well don’t worry too much about me. I’m just going through one of my moods.

Hope this tired, bored feeling goes away soon.

P/S: No I’m not tired of my wife or her cooking.

Photo By: superburg