what a llloooooonnng morning!

before the sun had risen in the east, before the birds came out chirping and looking for food, ...my eyes opened to the sounds of pitter patter of the rain. it was still dark outside and i had to drag myself out of the bed. not that i could sleep any longer. my subconscious mind was already kicking waaay before that. i think it was more of a case where i did not get my sleep last night. too early to bed i.e. before midnight.


why must it rain on the day i had chosen to go and renew my passport??? after much effort, a cup of coffee and toast (no fruit for breakfast today to avoid hunger at mid morning), i started my journey before 7.30a.m. at the esso petrol kiosk, met the lady operator who said it would be a breeze at damansara counter because they have a lot of counters open. she just did hers not long ago. well, that was a relief and i have heard a lot about our automated passport renewal kiosk which will get your passport delivered in 2 hours. so far so good...

but ohh....the journey came to a crawl as soon as i passed sg buloh and it really crawled all the way till pusat bandar damansara. WAAAA!!!! workday crawl...and i reminded myself i am oh-so-glad not to be working in kl.

taken at the tol plaza...these 2 lines of cars would slowly merged into one under the green roof. malaysian drivers! we are so good at improvising and the lines were actually quite orderly mind you. but hell! don't they see that there is only 1 entrance for touch n go for this lane!!???!!!!

9a.m. as soon as i reached pbd, off into the parking bay and u know how LOW you have to go for visitor parking lot here. so i went all the way to p5 (basement 5) to find that place. no problem, lots of space. then straight off to the information counter to find the automated kiosk. it turns out that the kiosks as you see in the picture above, are situated next to the main entrance of the immigration office.

as i was about to enter kippas, i met an immigration officer who was on his way out after collecting a stack of passports in envelopes to be renewed. i showed him the passport photo i had taken earlier in tm to see whether it was ok. well, it turned out that the background in my passport photo was too dark! and i had to take another set with lighter blue background. damn those photo studios! so next time...remember....light blue background for passport photo....light blue like on a clear blue sky!

there went my rm14 for 4 pieces of new passport photo. gosh...no more radiant me in pink blouse and nice hair potrait. it was pale me with blemishes and darkblue collared shirt. and you dun need to wear collared shirt for your passport photo actually. i read the requirements pasted on the wall, as long as your clothing cover your shoulders and chest, you are all right.
ok, so back to kippas i went. followed the instruction on the atm-like machine until the part where they told you to put your old passport in the slot provided. another problem! the message 'cannot detect thumbprint' popped up!!! WTF!!! ok, i knew that they could not detect my thumbprint the last time i did my old passport, but what i din know was they did not put any of my thumbprint scan in the old passport! i remembered that the officer told me she could not detect my right thumb's scan so she put in the left one instead. i cannot go through the automatic scan in the airport so i have to queue and get my passport checked manually instead all this while.

ok....so i approached one of the officers there in the kiosk...and i was told to go upstairs and renew my passport there instead!!! AAAAA!!!!!

went to bought the form for rm1 (why are we charged???) and filled it there.
oh, did i tell you the automated kiosk was empty except for one lady doing her passport renewal there??!! why can't the staff on duty at the selling form counter tell ppl that they can renew their passports at the kiosk? that was they save rm1 and a lot of time in queueing up??? the kiosk is not for new passport application...it is only for renewal. but i saw many ppl in the queue (pic below) were actually renewing their passport too! come on immigration dept...the KIPPAS kiosk has so much potential. dun make them white elephant!

9.15a.m. got up and joined the queue. it didn't look long right?? but wait....i only got to the counter at 9.45a.m.! why soo long encik??? but the indian chap sitting behind the counter was smiley and friendly...that took away the gloom for a while.

9.45a.m. finally got my number 1136. the number serviced at that time was 1089. 40 numbers to go before my turn. i had to wait for them to call my no so i could hand them my documents (photocopy of ic, old passport, photo and mykad). waaaaiit.....waaaiit.....waaaiiit......waaiiit.....until my blood started boiling!!!!at 10 plus, those numbers just stopped moving!!! computer breakdown maybe???? i am sure it is not for tea break. even the makcik behind me came up with this speculation.

my number....wanna buy 4 ekor??...1136 was finally called at 11.35a.m. 11.35 freaking a.m.! that was almost 2 hours of waiting!

so went to the counter to hand in my documents and they had to scan my thumb print. oh i hate this part!!! CANNOT SEE!! i had to put on some cream and rub them between my two thumbs and scanned a few times. this time, the lady told me that, they could get the right print but not the left one. whatever. then waaaaaiiiit again for the same number to be called. for what?? to pay lah!!! i still had not made the payment at this time!!!

finally...few minutes before 12p.m. number was called and i paid!!! what a big big relief!!! by that time i had sent out a few messages to release my bottled up anger. so thank you guys for entertaining my long message.

so now....the waiting time for the red book to reach my hand began again. start the clock now. you can start collecting your passport two hours after you have paid the cashier!

so...those ppl who told you about the 2 hours waiting time only....ask them which waiting time ok.

and how did i spend my 2 hours??? i walked around outside. saw so many fast food outlets and pharmacies and mamak restaurants. starbucks looked so posh for those who could afford the designer coffee and notebook with wifi connection. hahaha...only a few tables were taken.
i ended up in mcdonalds and ordered myself a chocolate milkshake and fries. yes, these were lunch. it was soo crowded with office workers and college students pilling on the burgers and soft drinks. ok...i am turning health freak here. i dun wanna take soft drinks and burgers! but what a hypocrite, i ordered fries! so the rest of the day will just be fruits...nothing but fruits.

and oh....i finally got my passport 10 minutes before 2p.m. what a big relief. the potrait photo with a smirk was staring at me in the page with a yellowish tint...but one good thing about the photo....i love the hair! well, that is a consolation.

and zoooooom....paid rm9.70 for carpark fees and back to tm i headed.

tomorrow....another long morning.
wake up time? same as today.
destination? bidor.
purpose? examination!!!
i guess today's morning call is a practice call for tomorrow. i wonder whether it will be a wet or dry one.