Please enlighten me because I am confused. I am confused with this piece of news which I read in the papers this morning. If you are confused about what I am talking about, well, it's that piece of news about a Customs Officer in Johor Bahru was moved to desk duty following an internal investigation made against him for allegedly receiving monies on behalf of Customs without issuing an official receipt. Full report here.

To summarise, a complainant lodged a complaint that Customs officers at the Second Link had solicited a bribe from him for a video game console he bought in Singapore. He had claimed that he was asked to pay RM244, duty amounting to 30% of the purchase price of the product. Upon an enquiry whether the duty could be waived as the product was meant to be a present for his son, the complainant was asked to pay RM50.00 to which no receipt would be given. Whilst the news report did not state whether the Customs Officer did accept the money without giving a receipt, the report did say that following internal investigations, the Customs Officer was transferred to desk duties and will no longer have dealings with the public.

To me, it's pretty simple.

If following the investigation, he was found guilty of accepting money whilst on duty without issuing an official receipt, that tantamounts to improper conduct which deserves the sack. You can call it anyway you like but to me, it smells like bribery and bribery is an offence. To move him to a desk job is telling the public that this guy is still "OK" and he can still work in Customs nevermind his integrity being dented or destroyed by this act. What kind of a punishment is this?

If however, there are no merits to the complaint, why punish the poor fella with desk duties? He should not be punished or transferred if he had done nothing wrong.

So, you tell me...which is the more likely scenario - guilty but let off lightly or innocent but punished unjustly?

It's great to be back on Monday to see that the PayPal receiving money function is back to normal. Now I can get the money safely into my PayPal account....as long as I can withdraw it later, that is. So, all those suspicions and conspiracy theories about how paypal might be taking Malaysians for a ride can be thrown into the rubbish bin now. Woohoo!

Oh dear! Just when we thought the worst is over and that we can now send both our daughters back to the Child Care, we were informed by the Child Care Centre that due to two other kids having symptoms of hand, foot and mouth disease, the centre will be closed for 2 weeks as a precaution.

Now we are back to square one - both daughters having to stay at grandparents house during the day whilst my wife and I go to work. However, the very reason we decided to send them to child care was because 2 kids is a lot to handle for my folks. Looks like we'll really have to juggle our time and leave for the next 2 weeks!

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I was in Court the whole morning and it is difficult to get my brains to start working again after coming back to office. Much of the morning was spent waiting for my case to be called up and finally, my turn came at about 11.45am. Good thing is that my application was allowed with costs. Now, my mind is at shut down mode and it's pretty hard to get things running. I suppose the same also happens when you go for meetings or lunch appointments.

How do you keep yourself awake or get the engine running again?

Now that I live in an apartment, I don't have much gardening to do apart from tending to my potted plants (including my favourite orchids which bloomed recently). Previously, when we were staying in a landed property, the grass needs to be cut at least once a month and watered almost every day especially when it does not rain. What I disliked about the watering was the proper keeping of the hose after using them. Don't you just hate it when the hose bends and gets crumpled or twisted when you try to roll them back properly?

I just discovered that there is now a new type of hose reel which automatically rewinds itself! Using the aid of water power, the hose reel offer hands-free rewinding of garden hoses. No more mess, no more stress. Perhaps I should get one for car washing duties. Read more about this innovative water-powered hose reel.

It's almost inevitable. Our younger daughter who is 14 months old is also down with the Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease after her elder sister manifested symptoms and was diagnosed on Monday. Yesterday evening, I saw the same type of oval-looking blisters on her foot and fingers and was more or less convinced that she has got it as well. A visit to her paediatrician this morning confirmed this.

The good news is that the elder girl is certified recovered whilst the younger one should be okay with the prescribed medicine. She took her medicine well. The orange flavoured medication must have tasted good and she did not kick up a fuss.

Apparently there is a wave of this disease going around this time. If you have kids of tender age and are living in the Klang Valley, try to keep them away from public places. Do inspect your child's palms and feet for oval-shaped blisters. Ulcers in the mouth (roof of mouth) is also another indicator. If they are refusing to eat or drink unlike before, do check for signs of ulcer in the mouth. There is no medication for this disease except the anti-inflammatory medicine prescribed. The medicine is also a mild painkiller for the ulcer / blisters. Give lots of water for them to drink as they might refuse drinking due to the pain caused by the ulcer. Ice-cream is encouraged :)

Yesterday morning, the baby sitter called to inform that our elder daughter is having suspicious looking blisters on her hands and parts of her legs. We were advised to take her to the doctor which we did. The doctor took one look and confirmed it is the hand, foot and mouth disease, albeit still mild.

Upon further examination, it appears that she also has some ulcers inside her mouth. She did not have any fever and was still her normal self (thankfully!) and will be put on medication (that one bottle of medication - some kind of acid - only costs less than RM5!!) and allowed to get well on her own. It is a viral infection anyway, caused by the Coxsackie virus. So, no need for antibiotics. Just need to drink lots of fluids. Actually, this is her second bout with this virus, the 1st time being 2 years ago. Then, it was also mild and there were no blisters but only the presence of ulcers.

Now, she is placed in grandpa and grandma's care to keep her away from the kids at the child care. I am sure she will have a good time with them after being in child care for a week. Hopefully, her younger sister is strong enough to keep the bugs at bay. We will just have to monitor for signs.

I just found out that Rauff tagged me on this one. Actually, I don't have much of a clue what it is all about but apparently, I have to show my pathetic stats on this blog?!? There goes all my advertisers... :P

Lately, I’ve been struggling with two types of people. Somehow, these two types of people were “present” in the two or so years that I have been in Church ministry and they become more “pronounced” when I step up into Church leadership.

The first is the type who may or may not have attended meetings (sometimes without apologies) and yet, do not know or make an effort to know what had transpired at the previous meetings. They come to meetings as if it is their first time and sometimes ask about things which they were previously the body which made the decisions to the very questions they are asking. I find it hard to deal with them. Primarily because I’d expected them to have at least listened to what was being discussed and understood what was going on and not having to ask about the same thing again during the subsequent meetings.

Sometimes you just wonder whether they were paying attention during the meetings or they are just slow in understanding. Some of them come to the meeting without bothering to read the minutes of previous meetings. If they had done so, they would have realized that the previous meetings have made certain decisions and there is no need to revisit the same thing all over again. You can see how the other members in the meeting get irritable when someone tries to bring forth a point and insist it should be done their way when this issue was thoroughly discussed and decided during the previous meetings (which they may or may not have attended). It is a waste of time and we do not have the luxury of time to repeat the very same thing which was discussed at length earlier.

The second type is those who have nothing to do or clueless with what you are doing and yet, will criticize and claim that you have not taken enough steps to do what they think should be done. If it was a genuine query on what is happening, that’s fine. If it was a genuine concern with how things and going and offering a helping hand when there is a need to fulfill, that is most welcomed. However, when nothing is done to help and plenty of criticisms come their way, I get really cheesed off. There is a difference between a genuine concern and a mission of finding fault.

But really, with all these experience of having to deal with difficult people, I realize that I need an extra portion of grace from God to overlook their “faults”. I am putting inverted commas because I may not be completely right that they are fault and I am not. At the end of the day, God will take each and every one of us accountable for our own actions. The circumstances to which I am put in is definitely akin to being placed in a refiner’s fire. God is definitely dealing with my shortcomings. He knows I have a short temper and I am really being allowed to be put to test so that I can continue to fall back on Him for strength and perseverance. And to Him I shall have to continually surrender for He is in charge.

I can't believe it. After 2 MPs made sexist remarks against Fong Po Kuan by insinuating her monthly menses when debating about the water leak in the Parliament building, ex-lawyer and current Law Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz told the Associated Press that "This is a debate. People play with words. As long as there is no ill intention, we should allow for it. Otherwise parliament will be very boring." Read the full report here at the International Herald Tribune.

Now, what if another Parliamentarian were to make such remarks on Nazri's mother? Or his wife? Or the other two uncouth MPs namely Bung Mokhtar Radin and Mohammed Said Yusof? You think they will say "It's okay. It's only a debate. I don't mind. You can insinuate my mother / sister."? There is a limit to jokes or the use of words to make a debate alive. Witty remarks are welcomed. Not sexist remarks or insinuations meant to degrade women. How many women out there think it is not a sexist or degrading remark? How many women think it is uncalled for?

It is totally disgraceful for these men to be standing as Parliamentarians or even as a Minister. And not for the first time, they have brought the standard of Malaysia's Parliament debates for the world to laugh at. I wonder if those who voted for these MPs actually know how well they perform.

I wanted to blog about how I am now stuck being unable to receive payments through paypal because they needed my US bank account details. But I don't want to. A couple of other bloggers have already blogged about it and I guess I wouldn't want to be sounding like a playback recorder. It is probably old news already considering how fast information travels in blogosphere.

Do you get bored reading about the same stuff from different blogs? I mean, when a couple of bloggers blog about the same issue or topic, it can get a bit boring to be reading them all. Recent posts include the new Perodua Viva launch. I mean, so many people want to blog about it. Read one or two, okaylah. But when reading more than that, most of the information are repetitious. Makes me think that to blog and capture loyal readers, a blogger should blog something unique. Something which not many people blog about. And especially when nobody else blog about it in the same PPS panel from top to bottom. Most of the time, I don't bother to read something which has the same kind of topic on the same PPS panel after I have read another blog on the same subject matter (unless it happens to be from some of my favourite bloggers). Do you?

So, yesterday was our first try at going home straight from work after picking up our girls at the child care centre. This was a trip from Damansara down to Petaling Street and off southbound to Balakong. For those in the know, you can expect some serious traffic jam along the way especially if you are taking the Sg. Besi road.

We left work at 5.30pm and managed to get to the child care centre at 6pm. Surprisingly, traffic was quite forgiving and we managed to get home at 6.40pm using the Besraya Highway...of course, having paid a total of RM2.60 in toll for the couple of kilometres of smooth traffic. At least we got home before dark (which was the norm before this).

It was "work" as soon as we got home - cleaning and feeding the girls, cooking dinner (pasta and some sauce in the freezer to reheat), keeping the laundry and washing the next batch, taking a shower, getting the girls ready for sleep and preparing the stuffs to bring to child care the next day. Well, at least we managed to get to bed just before 11pm which was an improvement :)

So, the past couple of days have been hectic and I foresee more hectic days ahead. After our maid left last Friday, my wife and I decided that we will try to cope without one. Thing is, my parents are not able to cope with 2 kids especially the younger one (who is very energetic and going into an age of exploration and curiosity). So, after some quick deliberations and having the peace and assurance of God, we decided to send our girls to a child care centre which is located in our church grounds.

We decided to send them to the said child care centre because it is near to my office and furthermore, there is also a kindergarten within the church grounds which is in another building opposite the child care centre. So, our elder girl can go to kindergarten in June (when the next semester starts - though we initially planned to send her to kindergarten only next year) and be taken cared in the child care in the afternoon without us having to fetch them from one place to another.

On the first day yesterday, the elder girl was enjoying herself with the toys and new friends and the younger one was also exploring her new surroundings. However, sleeping time was disrupted by cries. Perhaps, she was still getting used to the new surroundings. Luckily, her sister was around and a familiar face helps. Hopefully she will get used to it soon.

I was heavy hearted to leave my girls (especially the younger one) there as it just isn't the same as leaving them with my parents, who are family members. But life changes need adapting and this is something that we shall need to adapt for now. It is by no means easy as both my wife and I have to wake up as early as 5.30am to prepare to leave work by 7am and we don't get home till after 8.30pm. It is a very long day indeed and bed time is close to midnight.

Nevertheless, we should get used to it over time and we just need to continually find ways to reduce the "working" time so that we can have more time to rest and spend with the girls. I am very sure God is at work and trying to teach us something :)

Woohoo!!! I just did a google pagerank enquiry and found out that my two new blogs (dot.coms) have been updated with their google pagerank. They were previously zero on pagerank and are now both pr4 for my Hochiak! Delicious Asian Food site and Blogsreview.Net. I am very very happy indeed! Have you checked your pagerank?

Oh by the way, there's gonna be very few postings in the interim as many things are happening (not to mention work) and I need to sort them out first. One of which is the maid has quit. Now I need a baby sitter!