When Will I See You Again

I was running out of empty pages to my current passport which is due to expire in April 2011 – no thanks to indiscriminate immigration officers who merrily stamp people’s passports - and finally I drew a line in pencil across the two remaining empty pages (they are back-to-back) and wrote ‘for visa’ diagonally across. I would have happily continued using the passport until October this year (no thanks to the six-month rule) but I have to apply for visas from two countries. And I would have taken my chances and still apply for the visas but because the two pages are back-to-back and because I may run into problems in at least of the countries I hope to visit, I finally (and reluctantly I may add) decided to renew my yet-to-expire passport. So there went RM300. To make things worse, my new passport will be valid only until October 2015, meaning I can travel with it only until April 2015. If I had not needed two visas as I do now and just wait for the passport to run out pages and space before, my new passport would rightfully expire only in April 2016, which means a ‘loss’ of six months for me. Bloody hell.

Oh yes, now you can renew/apply for a two-year passport for RM100 but in the long run, it works out almost the same. Over ten years, for a two-year passport, you need to apply five times at a total cost of RM500 and take new passport photos five times. On the other hand, for a five-year passport, you pay a total of RM600 and take new passport photos only twice. And three times less the hassle and waiting. And oh, the system had to go offline or something to that effect this morning and my transaction (along with everyone else) took much longer than it would have. I also had to ‘scan’ my thumb numerous times before the system could capture it (switching from one machine reader to another and from one thumb to another...). What a bother and no way am I going to endure that every two years. Spare me already.

I can’t be bothered to wait for another two hours and will only collect my passport tomorrow morning. That is at least one beauty of the system here: your new shiny pristine passport is ready two hours after you make your payment. And the office at Pusat Bandar Damansara is open every Saturday and Sunday morning – well, except for this coming weekend as it’s Labour Day weekend.

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I’m also gutted over the footie results on Saturday. I know we hardly created chances but I thought we threatened more than Man Sh*tty did (and they had Tevez). I also saw some players running around like headless, mindless chicken (Disastre and Diaby came to mind). Anyway, am glad we didn’t concede what with Flapianski aka Flopianski in goal. Ade somehow reminded me of Chucky, that Child’s Play horror movie doll, with his never-ending sickening grin. And why did the camera keep panning on him is what I’d like to know. He’s an evil one, he is. Take a look at this and refresh your memory.

What a disappointing April it has been football-wise if you’re a Gooner. Why, only last month we were still in contention for at least the league title.

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I flicked through an old album Saturday evening, of pictures of us way back when, when I was a mere toddler. Three weeks since he left and if anything I miss him more every day. Everything else grows and I suppose I shouldn’t expect missing him to ever fade or diminish altogether. Because at the same time, everything builds, including our courage, strength and ability to cope with it.

Sometimes I feel he’s near, so near I can feel his presence. I feel like he’s watching me. Is that possible? And sometimes I whisper back what I feel. People always say we will meet again on the other side. Will we?

And you, oh, I miss you so much. When Will I See You Again, love?

Not a recent photo