Memoir of a Rojak Gal: February 2013

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Most frustrating experience with CIMB bank

Dear Mr. J,

I have submitted my request letter for home loan interest reduction more than 1 year ago.

Ms. JJ said that I needed to submit the letter personally to your branch and that I can't send by email/fax.

So, I took leave and went to your branch and submitted the letter. A few months later, I called to check since I have not heard from her.

She said that she has LOST my letter!

Fine, so I made a trip to your branch and submitted the letter for the 2nd time.

A few months later, there was still no reply from her and I called again. She said that she needed two signatories for my request letter and I only had one in my letter. Apparently, she has FORGOTTEN to inform me.

Now, the FUNNY thing is that she said that I could submit by fax/email instead of coming personally to the branch. So I did that, and this is my 3rd submission, and you can see from my emails below that she has yet to reply me. Maybe she has FORGOTTEN again.

Dear Mr. J, my interest reduction might have been approved 1 year ago if the officer is more competent. Do I have to bear 1 YEAR of interest differences due to your staff's negligence? Please advise.

Secondly, I asked Ms. JJ if my fire insurance charges has been waived and her reply is very inconsistent as you can see from the emails below. I wonder why she has to take so LONG for such as simple enquiry. I have also called her a many times on this.

I hope that you can help me on this.

Thank you so much.

Regards,

Elle

*names have been changed

Thursday, February 21, 2013

My Journey with 30-Hour Famine

I am finally back from my World Vision Famine Advocate study tour to India! It was really an eye-opening experience and I really couldn't wait to share the experience here!!! But please wait till my write ups are published on World Vision website yah? =P

This was the short article which I wrote when I apply for the role of Famine Advocate, I hope that it will give you more reasons to join the 30-Hour Famine. Here it goes:

Five years ago, I signed up for the 30-Hour Famine camp without much idea of what I am going to experience. Little did I know that the experience is going to be "life-changing”. Being in the fasting mode which I have never done before, I was horrified as being hungry was so gruelling.

We started fasting early in the morning at the stadium. By the evening, my body had already become weak and so was my mind. Each minute seem like hours when my stomach was growling. Despite the hunger, everyone participated wholeheartedly in the activities and we were in such a high-spirit! Not only that it was a lot of fun but we’ve learnt so much about absolute poverty. There were also a lot of teary eyes as we finally empathized with the sufferings of living in hunger and poverty.

The most unforgettable experience was when we had to build a shelter from scrap materials such as newspaper and water bottles. We were to imagine that our house has been ruined from a disaster and we had to build a new one. We then had to squeeze in that little shelter which we built. The organisers even had the lights switched off and put on a commotion noise to make it more real and challenging! This was the closest that I can get to living in such horrible conditions.

As the night hits, I was shivering and had a terrible numbing headache, resulting from lack of food. How could I bear the thought of others especially children having to go through the same, maybe for most of their life!

As someone who always has sufficient basic needs, it’s only now that I could finally understand how precious basic needs are and how tormenting to be lack of it. From then on, I’ve vowed that I will make a difference for the needy by volunteering and other means.

(Due to words limit, I left out the interesting part like how I screamed my heart out when my Wang Lee Hom (30-Hour Famine Ambassador) appeared from the backstage (when I was volunteering), and how I get to rub shoulders with all the interesting people...hehe. This year I hope that Van Ness Wu or Henley Hii won't be getting a deaf ear from my scream.)