Buying Dresses From Zalora

I am a shirt and pants kind of person, I have never wore a dress to work before and the dresses in my wardrobe can be counted on the fingers of one hand. It had never bothered me until I agreed to be a bridesmaid for my friend. My friend only had one rule for the dress, it had to be in white colour. Well, most of the girls have white colour dresses. I did not have. So, I planned to buy a dress before the wedding, I was very lazy to go to the malls, so I planned to buy the dresses online. A friend said that she bought a dress from Zalora, dimension and looks wise, it was ok, but the dress had a torn seam, so she returned it and got back the money. 

Well, since my friend did get back her money from Zalora, I had more confidence to buy from Zalora, if it didn't fit, I could just return the dress. So, I browsed to find a white dress. For first time buyer, one could get some discount code if the purchasing amount was more than a certain amount. For the search term, I used "white dress" and sorted from cheapest to most expensive. From the searches, I chose a Flap Pocket Detail Dress by Zalora. For the size, I measured my upper arm circumference, bust circumference and waist circumference with measuring tape and concluded the XS was my size. So, I added that into my cart. 

Flap Pocket Detail Dress

Taobao 1111 2015

I bought two coin albums from Taobao when it was having a RMB2 direct shipping deal. Well, it's an ok experience, I got my stuffs after few weeks. So, during the 1111 Taobao sales, I bought two really not so useful stuffs too because Taobao was offering a RMB5 direct shipping deal. Ah, if not for the RMB5 shipping deal, I wouldn't spend the money at all.

This second time around, I bought 5 pairs of socks and linen on 11th November 2015. Socks are essential items, but for the linen, I bought it because it looked pretty from the photo and it's quite cheap. Initially, I wanted to buy a sling bag too, however, somehow I deleted the item from my cart when I checked out, so, I ended up with two items only. 

double 11 Special deals (direct shipping from RMB 5)

For the two items plus shipping, I spent around RM30. Since it was not something that I really wanted urgently and it was not that expensive, after I paid for the items with online banking, I didn't even trace the items. The delivery system was quite fast, I received my items on 21st November 2015, around 10 days from China to my house. The items were sent using a DHL plastic bag but the document attached to it was from ZTO Express. Mmmm, weird! However, further check after I received my items, the tracking data showed that it was sent by ZTO Express 中通速递, not DHL. 

2 parcels combined and sent with DHL express packaging

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

So far, I think "Feet of Clay" is the funniest and most meaningful book that I have read from the Discworld series. Apparently, there were guilds for all the professions in the City of Ankh-Morpork, including the guilds for assassins, thieves, etc. Anyone operated outside the guild would be taken care of by the guild member. So, for example, a thief that steal without being a member of the Thieves Guild would be "punished" by the member of the Thieves' Guild and that kind of situation actually make the city more manageable. Mmmmm.

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

Anyway, the story started with a Golem (a man made creature) sold another Golem to a merchant. It's actually started the other event after that in this story. By the way, Golem is made of clay. This story focused on the murder of few elderly people and how the Watch (police in Discworld) solved it. 

Backstreet Café (Banting)

14th November 2015

I am not a 'foodie', so I wouldn't normally venture out to a new place in town to try out new things. However, I do appreciate the gathering time with friends, so when a friend suggested to meet up in Banting, we scrambled our brains to think of a place to meet up. We even considered meet up at McDonald. Hahaha. We are not teenagers anymore, so we didn't keep track of the happening stuffs in our own place, then our younger siblings suggested the Backstreet Cafe near the Banting Bus Station. All four of us had never heard of this place until yesterday.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised with this cafe because it's in Banting. In just a few years ago, we needed to go to Klang to dine in this kind of cafe. Me and my friends chose this kind of eatery for the ambience, not for the food though. For food, we would go to the Korean restaurant, we are a fan of Korean food.

This cafe owner painted the walls with chalkboard paint and the menu was written on the wall. I think it's chalkboard paint because the trend was in rage lately. Maybe it's just normal paint in black colour. Anything is possible. 

Backstreet Café

Backstreet Café

Japan Pension: Tax Refund 脱退一時金に課される所得税の還付の申請

After I got back my 80% Japan pension, I procrastinated until my friend gave me an ultimatum, she would proceed with the 20% tax refund application and not waited for me. So, I found all the necessary documents and proceeded to apply for the remainder 20% of the pension that was deducted as the tax when I applied for the Japan Pension lump sum withdrawer.

First of all, one needed to find a willing friend or colleague to be the tax representative. I have a colleague in the area that I stayed in Japan before I came back to Malaysia*. The form here is needed to tell the tax office that one is appointing the person as one's tax representative 納税管理人. Just print out the first page and fill up the necessary items, the second page is not important.

form to appoint the tax representative

*To claim back this 20% tax refund, one needs to go back to the local tax office to submit the document. So, it's better to appoint a local person as the tax representative. My own assumption though, not sure true or not.

University of Malaya Convocation 2015

19th & 20th October 2015

Two of my younger brothers were having their graduation last month, one on 19th October and another on 20th October. Since I took leave for both days, I volunteered to become their photographer on their graduation days. Since we reside at Selangor, it's not far from UM, but not that near either, if one stuck at Federal Highway, it would be so near, yet so far. So, We left the house at 5.30am and reached UM before 6.30am, normally during non peak hour at afternoon, the trip would normally take two hours. If peak hour at the morning, give or take around three hours. Well, my family would rather reached early than stuck at the traffic jam, so, we left early.

The graduates were instructed to gather at the designated area by 7.30am, since parents were not allowed in that early, I accompanied my parents to have breakfast at one of the food stalls manned by the various societies or colleges in UM. After that, my parents enter the DTC, while I waited outside.

Dewan Tunku Canselor of University of Malaya (DTC)

Parents queueing up to enter DTC

Graduates and family members leaving the DTC after the convocation ceremony