Spent *half the day* at the immigration office getting my passport done today, fuiyoh, kai wan xiao.
At times like these, I am reminded why I don’t like public holidays. THERE’S TOO MANY PEOPLE AROUND.
Roads are jammed, parking’s a bitch, places are packed, queues are long, the wait is longer

Good thing I brought 3 essentials with me to cope with the boredom of waiting around:

1. A book to read. I’m currently reading A Million Little Pieces by James Frey.
A controversial memoir of an alcoholic and drug abuser and how he copes in rehab, and how he finds love, and friendship, in the strangest places :)
(edit: ok I just found out it’s possibly only a fiction, and not a memoir! I. Feel. Conned. hehe it’s ok still a good read:) )

2. My handphone, ok not mine I’m still currently using a spare. Critical for text text texting ;)

3. My sister, whose passport also expired, and is shitloads of fun to be with especially when we’re BOTH bored and getting delirious At some point, we starting singing old Chinese songs ok, the ones my dad used to make us listen to for hours during our road trips to Penang, HAHA. Don’t know the lyrics, bang only la :)

ni wen… wo ai….. *giggle* ni you….. *gigglegiggle*

:+:

I also got to (hopefully) teach SisterDebbie a thing or two today about being stern with a smile.

Longest long-winded boring story cut short,
There was an error when Debbie renewed her passport at the auto machine. We were then basically transferred here there everywhere to see officers in different departments all over the place regarding the error, and in the end of that whole ordeal, we were sent back to the first officer we started with

I didn’t mind at first, I thought I’d let Debbie try sort her things out and speak to these people, and there was nothing we could do really.
But what started to annoy me was then, back to the first officer, he then told us, “Hmm, ok there doesn’t seem to be any error then. Must be the machine then. Please queue up and try the machines again?“

Whoaa.

At this point, I had to step in and take the reigns from Debbie for a bit.
Not only did we *already* queue up in that crazy-ass long line, and got transferred back and forth between departments, I was honestly getting damn hungry already la hence impatient and agitated.

Being stern, while maintaining my sweet smile, I talked it out with the officer, stating quickly and clearly that it was NOT our fault. And we wanted to try again on the machine but the nearby guard moved us aside to make way for the other people in the queue. And after being transferred everywhere and now back at the start, and he can’t expect us to queue up all over again? Surely he can do something about it, right.

He ended up calling for an emergency case for us, where an officer specifically attended to us and took care of Debbie’s passport manually, quick and easy.
And I was happy too, for I got to eat very shortly after that :)

While makan makan, I asked Debbie. “When the officer said you’d have to queue up all over again. I bet you were gonna say ‘ok’, right.”

“Err… yeah. “

I went into a little big-sister lecture with her on not letting people push us around.

People may easily think that, just because we’re girls, we’re young, we’re polite and we smile sweetly, that somehow immediately brands us under “pushovers”.
Granted, that officer was probably busy and thought he has better things to do than to attend to us, bullying us at his own convenience, because we are not the kind who will kick a crazy fuss and slap him wtf. Or report him to his superiors.

But a little stern tone of voice, mix it in with a dash of jokes and a smile, and all the while remember to stand your ground.

If that doesn’t work, then only resort to kicking a fuss and throw a tantrum la :)

:+:

But after all said and done, we went and got our nails done eee, manicures are addictive!
Debbie’s beaming happy and show-offy now with her first French manicure,
I’m not so show-offy anymore la I’ve shown it off enough the first time round

Okay bye lovelies, I’m off to officially start my holidays on a beach down south! Yeayy!

Currently listening to: Seabird – Rescue

1. AGP Says:
   December 11th, 2008 at 5:32 pm

   a million little pieces wasnt really a memoir right?.. wasnt he the guy that got called out by oprah after she found out that his memoir was actually a (good) work of fiction? hehe. not that it really matters but he kinda milked the endoresement by orprah when they thought it was a true memoir.

2. Cynthia Says:
   December 11th, 2008 at 11:34 pm

   AGP: ackk, i didnt know that! but now people are telling me the same stories as you are. Oh well :( still a good read nevertheless

3. AGP Says:
   December 12th, 2008 at 5:12 pm

   haha , even though its not true for him, its a good read, and there are probably many people which the story rings true for.. enjoy:)

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