Tag Archives: Snakes & Ladders

New signature….

It is now so simple to create a signature for your blog posts… Just head over to mylivesignature.com and follow the instructions there! So simple! And best of all it is free! Who does not like freebies?

I need to pack for our family getaway tomorrow… but heck… I feel like blogging now and so here I am (or is it here am I???) LOL.. looks like my English is going down the drain too!

Anyway, I went to LHDN this morning… To those who does not know what is LHDN… it means Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri… which translates to the Income Revenue Board… aiyoh… income tax la… apa lagi!!!!

What they say is true… in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes… and this morning’s excursion to LHDN is to deal with both. My brother passed away last year and of course, his taxes were not filed. Many people say that I am stupid to go and pay tax some more when he is no longer around…. but then, me being me, I want to close things up proper. I don’t want this to come back and bite me in my ass 5 years later on which I am sure I would not be able to dig up whatever documentation they need. And my parent are old and they would not know how to deal with this. So, better now than later… for you see…. nothing is certain but death and taxes… they will sure dig it up if I don’t deal with it now…

So, the reason I went there is because I want to find out how do I go about filing my deceased brother’s taxes properly and also make sure that the status in their database is updated… Sure enough, the status of his file is still active although my sister had already visited the LHDN last year to close his file. Now they demand for letter and copy death certificate… again… so, I will deal with it some time next week…

Anyway, my concern is this… I just tell them the story that my brother pass away n blah blah blah… and they did not even ask to see the death cert or any kind of identification!!! And since I got no idea on what password my brother used for e-filing (that is filing of taxes online), they just reset his password for me… ALL WITHOUT PROPER IDENTIFICATION!!! And then instructed me to go to a room where there are a lot of computers setup for the public to file their taxes online. There are a few officers there to assist. And since I am unfamiliar with the screen and do not know the password that they have reset, one of the officers assisted me to logon… and this officer did not ask for any identification either!!!



So, do you see the lack of security now??? All a person needs to know is your IC number, present it to the officer in charge, create a cock-and-bull story about being related to you but you are now deceased and they can now access your tax file…. online… scary thought???

OK OK … now I really have to go and pack up… otherwise, I will never be ready in time!

A few days ago, I saw this book in Popular… it reminded me of my carefree childhood days(ok.. not so carefree but you get what I mean…) when I was reading this book and was so absorbed in it that I wish that I also had a secret garden. I wondered what would my secret garden be like… It will be my very own secret place where no one can find me and all my friends will love and envy me for having such a secret garden…



And so, without hesitating, I bought the book… hoping to recapture that little piece of childhood fantasy…. I have not read it yet (again I mean.. .. as I have read it many times already during my childhood)



If you have a secret garden, what does it look like?

Joel is turning 5 this year.. and we feel that it is time to start him off on music. Don’t get me wrong. We are not pushing him to become a music prodigy(did I get the spelling right???) or to excel and get Grade 5 by Standard 3.. no nothing like that… what we want is to expose him to music… and if he loves it, all the better…

We meant to start him off in the beginning of the year but well, you know what they say about good intentions… we procrastinated… and procrastinated… and then comes CNY in February… so we said after CNY… and well, to cut the story short, I finally contacted Teacher Lisa beginning this week. Want to know more about Teacher Lisa? Here is her blog, Touching Lives Through Music, which I plagarized and use it am the title of this blog entry…. hehe.. not that this blog entry has got anything to do with Touching Lives…



Anyway, Teacher Lisa was an engineer and she has also just resigned from her job last year (around the same time as me) and decided to teach music full time. I have conveyed to her my wishes for Joel as if Joel shows an interest in music, I want him to enjoy music and not stress him out unnecessarily with exams. I went through the stressful time with my piano exams when I was a child and I definitely do not want that for my children. Hubby is of the same mind as me (Thank God!)… And you know what is the worse thing??? After laboring over the piano and theory for more than 8 years, I suck big time at sight reading and aural… And not only that, I never grasp the basics of music playing… meaning, I could never play without notes in front of me… and even with notes, I need a lot of time to practice to get it right (remember, I suck at sight reading??)… Until about 5 years ago, I took up a Play By Ear course, only then I discover how to improvise and play music without notes… all by using chords only… and when you know the secret, it is not difficult… it is so liberating!!! Really… I did teach a few students but then the workload from teaching part time and working full time plus I just had Joel was too stressful… I stopped teaching as I could not cope… but now, since I am full time selling online, I got more time on my hands and have started to tinkle on the ivory keys again .. no not teaching but just playing for my own enjoyment Will I teach again? Hmm… not sure, depends on what God has in store for me… hehe… I would love to teach again but then, we will see…

So, some of you might be wondering why am I not teaching Joel myself then? I guess that it is easier that I let other people teach my son while I guide him at home… It is just like you are a teacher in school… but you don’t home school your child right? I think the theory is something like that la… although that is not a good analogy… since kids go to school to socialize too! Anyway, we shall see how it goes… if Joel absolutely abhors music, then I guess we will then just stop his lessons….