Selangor Fruit Valley

We had a fun day at Selangor Fruit Valley, which is smacked between Rawang and Kuala Selangor. It is far away from the busy city/town – we could see many monkeys along the way too!

A wonderful experience of getting through the valley on a tram (brought us up from the ticketing booth) and also tractor (brought us back to our parking) – which made few stops for visitors (we had minimal walking🤭😆)! We got through the big plantation site that has various local fruits. Very peaceful indeed! Besides fruits, there were animal farms that rear rabbits, deers, chickens, turkeys, goats and goose.

Fruits were available for sale – and it depends on the season, I guess. (It was a wise idea that we had our early lunch at Kundang because there has nothing to eat except fruits🤭😆). Fruits available for sale today were guava, rambutan, dokong and banana. We only bought guava and rambutan (plus coconuts)!

The price per entry is RM10 for adult and RM5 for kids above 4. So we just paid RM25! We were also greeted by their very friendly staff. (Anything else you wanna know- please google or visit their website)

A visit from Klinik Komuniti’s nurses

Today’s story – nurses from Klinik Komuniti Kelana Jaya came over to our house! 
Rewind back – we actually wanted to get the free immunization for Norrah from the government clinic. This is actually our first experience since the other two kids were given immunization in private clinics/hospital! 

After enquiring around mummies group, we found out that we need to inform the clinic once baby is born.

And yesterday, while we were on our way to Heromart, we decided to stop by at the Klinik Komuniti Kelana Jaya to inform the nurses – instead of ringing them up. Due to lack of packing, I actually walked down and went into the clinic while others waited in the car. When I told the nurse that I wanted to inform about a baby’s birth, the nurse asked who am I informing on behalf! 🙄🙄 Then I told the nurse ‘myself!’ 🤣 The nurse went 😱 and sort of didn’t believe I just delivered. Cut the story short, I gave them the required information. I didn’t bring anything along-but just verbal information and showed them my mykad! They just required information such as the date and place of birth, baby’s weight and contact information. The nurse just wrote those information on a piece of paper. They couldn’t give me a time on when they will come over to see the baby – but says that they will ring us up before coming! 

Surprisingly, this morning when we were settling the two other kids, we were given a ‘surprise’ visit by two government nurses! We just need to show them the baby’s immunization book. One nurse gave a check on me – blood pressure and also my c-sec area! Another nurse checked on Norrah – they were abit concern about Norrah looking yellowish! 🙄 We were given a date for the one month’s immunization! We then bid goodbye to the two friendly nurses, who have clear identification tags on them! 
Other than this, nothing much interesting – except the two kids went out with papa to buy rice grains in the morning (with papa coming home looking 😒😒😒)😂😂😂! Papa also brought them to the playground in the evening before dinner! 

Norrah has been her usual good self!

Our quiet time today

In the year, we actually skipped ‘academic’ activities – as we emphasize on play plus the girl who approaches 5 year old by end of the year has least interest in them (at that point of introduction). With ‘limited’ movement now, I reintroduced these activities – counting, connecting dots,etc – and surprisingly, she is showing more interest in them plus I could actually see how much she has improved on her understanding of these ‘lessons’!

I am having my ‘best’ makan time of the year. Food hasn’t been good in the past 8 months plus! Now, everything tastes ‘heaven’! 🤣 Most importantly, I don’t puke anymore! 
Meals today:

Breakfast – toast butter bread, gold kiwi, milo and black bean drink
My lunch and our dinner:

Steamed pork ribs with carrot, red dates and wolfberries

Stir fry French beans and zucchini

Air fried honey chicken wings (for the kids’ dinner)

Best root chicken soup (not in pic)

Kids’ lunch: spinach noodles in beet root chicken soup

Teatime: Banana waffles (tested some food colouring on waffles for the kids)

Applying a passport for little 17chipmunks

We are planning for an overseas trip and thus, we need to apply a passport for little 17chipmunks. The nearest immigration department to our place is at Wisma Glomac, Kelana Jaya, the same place we applied our passport before our honeymoon in 2011.

We went there on a Saturday around 10am to find out that there is no longer queuing numbers. So, we went there again on Sunday around 8am. There was already a very long queue outside the immigration office. No one was allowed to enter yet though they supposed to be open by that time. We were queuing up for numbers when we heard that they are limiting to 200 numbers per day on weekends. In addition, the priority lane for infants, elderly and special people is closed on weekends. We never got our number despite queuing for 1 hour, in which they announced that the numbers have all been given up and asked the crowd to disperse. Well, no choice but to come again another day. I posted our disappointment on facebook, in which few of my acquaintances who have recently applied for their infants/ toddlers, gave me advice – so there you go, our strategy.

Today (Monday), we woke up at 7am and reached there around 7.40am. We managed to get our priority number. It was rather fast except for little 17chipmunks wasn’t in the mood to take a picture. In addition, the lady who handled the priority lane that day was rather slow in adjusting her camera lense for the shoot. We had one photo, which was good enough, however, it has my body background while it supposed to be white background. We had to let the officer handle few other cases while we calm little 17chipmunks down before we took a photo again. Finally, we made it. My identification card and little 17chipmunks’ birth certificate were passed to them before we can collect them after payment is made (in another counter. For children below 12 years old, the fee is RM150 for 5 years. We were told to come back after 2 hours, but I went back there after lunch hour, where I just need to pass them the printed receipt. They then called out little 17chipmunks name and there it go, her first passport. I paid RM3 for the passport cover too.

What documents do you need when applying passport for your children, for the first time?
1. Your identification card (one of the parents) (original and photocopy)
2. Your little one’s birth certificate (original and photocopy)
3. A little form that you can obtain from their counter – which basically needs you to fill up name, address, telephone number and height

We initially followed the immigration website, which say that we need our marriage certificate. We also printed the form and filled it up. These are all not required.

For parents with children below 2 years old, I believe it is best to have two persons coming along, as one needs to get the attention of your toddler when capturing picture while the other holds on to the toddler – which we had a hard time today! Also, go on weekdays for the priority lane (in the case of Subang Jaya branch).

Service level – I believe the officers are fine. However, having the queue wait for an hour before announcing that the numbers are all given out on weekend is not a recommended action. I think they should figure out how to improve this. Having said that, kudos for the government agency for working on weekend.

Jabatan Imigresen Malaysia Cawangan Subang Jaya

We need to renew our passport for our honeymoon. We checked on the immigration department’s website and noted that the department in Subang Jaya is opened on Saturdays and Sundays from 8am to 1pm. The purpose we choose the branch is because it is near to our home. We made our first attempt on July 9, 2011, which coincidentally was the BERSIH rally. We were surprised that it was closed (not sure the reason behind it though).

 

So, on the following weekdays, I make few attempts to call their office to confirm that they are open on Saturdays. Twice or thrice the officers confirmed with me that they are operating. So, we went to the branch on July 16. Yes, they were open that day and it was rather crowded. We first need to show the man at the front counter (near the entrance) the previous passports before we were given the forms that need to be filled up at the spot. There was no pen provided (so, do bring a pen along). The other documents required are the passport photos and photocopies of NRIC (but can be done at the spot but the price is slightly steeper there). The officer only gave us the numbering when we showed him the filled up forms, the old passports, photocopies of NRIC and photos, which he stamped the form with the numbering (which was to ensure that no one cheats in the queue?)

 

The queuing was rather fast. Due to the many headcounts ahead of us, we waited close to 45 minutes. We both went to separate counters, which made the process speedier (the lady officer I went to was rather stern looking, not too friendly). After passing on the documents and having our fingers scanned, we were asked to be called for the payment (just wonder why they couldn’t collect the money together with the submission of documents?). The next queue took about five to 10 minutes, where we made the payments (RM300 for 5 years), given the receipt and told that we could come the next day (Sunday) to collect.

 

Nevertheless, we only collected the passports the following Saturday. Upon arrival, we were told to put on receipts on the basket provided at counter one. We were then called to the counter, where we just showed them our NRIC as proof of identity. We were then asked if we wanted to buy the passport cover, which cost RM 2, and we did (though I think they should have provided them for free).

 

Overall, I think they were rather efficient in their service, and have made the effort so that no one cheats on the line (queue).

 

Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara – Pusat Bandar Damansara

There were many reasons for me to change my IC. My IC was one of the first batches when they introduced MyKad. I needed to change my address so that I can change my voting area. I also found that my religion was mistakenly entered as “Buddhist” in the system (although it doesn’t really matter to me), which I found out during my ROM.

 

So, I went to the Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara located in Pusat Bandar Damansara on June 3 when it was a public holiday for Selangor. Upon arrival, I pressed for my queuing number. Before I sat down, it was already my turn. A very friendly and polite staff serviced me. She asked me the reason I wanted to change my IC and I gave her all the reasons. I filled up a form for the new address and was told to scan my thumbprints. There was a problem detecting my thumbprints plus my thumbs were sweating, as I got more nervous. The lady patiently asked me to press more powders on my thumb (after pouring some powders on the sheet of paper). I tried more than five times and it failed to detect. She told me that in that case, it most probably take a longer time to process my new IC and this could be up to four months (instead of the normal two months). I needed to pay RM 10 for the change.

 

After payment is made, I was seconded to another counter for photo shooting. Basically, I just have to sit in front of a white board and look at the camera. The officer took a few shoots, and then showed me the photos to check if it was fine. I was pleasantly surprised that I was given the chance to look at the picture and also to say ok to it. I then need to press my thumbs on the scanner again for verification. And, that’s it. I was reminded to call the number stated at the receipt about one to four months later.

 

The whole process took about less than 10 minutes.

 

In early July, I tried calling the customer service to check on the status of my new IC. I was kind of surprised that she told me that it was ready and can be collected anytime during their opening hours. So, I went to the same branch on July 13 to collect my new IC. After getting my queue number and passed the receipt to the officer who then looks for the new IC from a tray, I then need to scan my thumbs again for verification. With the verification, I was given the new IC and the old IC was passed back to the officer. It takes less than 5 minutes.

 

Overall, I am very satisfied with their level of service. The need to adhere to “key performance indicators” has somehow helped the government agency, in my humble opinion. They have become more efficient. Or, maybe there weren’t as many cases to process as before that help them fasten every case?

 

The setback of this branch is their parking. It takes many turns downwards in their underground parking before one can possibly find a spot plus the basement looks kind of creepy.