Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Before Trip to Taiwan

It had been a long time that I failed to write down anything for almost a month, felt a little bit of guity but was really out of time...

Before going to Taiwan, MLDA was invited to a dinner orginized by Persatuan Peniaga-peniaga Kecil at Min Kok Restaurant on 19 Sep 11, just 3 days before we flied off to Taiwan. We were hoping to meet up with Dato' Sri Liow Tiong Lai as he was the invited VIP for the dinner.

We had our 1st committee meeting in Baharudin/Yati's house in USJ end Aug on this. And we also had our 1st Skype conferance call a week before the dinner to make sure things are on the right track. We felt the most important thing will be the memorandum to Ministry of Health. The memo write up only got started in the early Sep after the first meeting. We were hoping to be able to pass Dato Sri' Liow during the event. But unfortunately YB could not make it in the very last minute, nevertheless Datuk Yeow Chai Thiam had received the memorandum on his behalf and promised to pass on the copy to Dato' Sri Liow. This event was out in the 3 major Chinese Presses China Daily, Sin Chew and Nan Yang in the local news section. Besides, the organizer was very kind to offer help to get us donation during the night. And CSL too donated 10 cell phones, the sales of the proceed will be the donation for the night. We got RM6866 in total, thanks to all that came forwards to help us boost the donation.

The memorandum really took a lot of my time as I just wanted to make sure that it is short but at the same time long enough to tell Dato Sri' Liow about LSD patients request. And it should not sound too pushy, nor shall it be too flat of a tone. It must have some desperate feeling in it...So ended up, I was looking into the memo over and over again... I didn't really have the heart to do my Taiwan trip packing and moreover. To add on to my last minute job list, my girls' infusion fell on 20 Sep, the next day after the dinner. It was supposed to be on 16 Sep, but it's our Malaysia Day;  the doctors did not allow the hospital to have any infusion during holidays or weekend. However, they can't cope with too many patients on 15 Sep. We had no choice but to accept on either 19/20 Sep, on the following week. 19 Sep was totally out as it clashed with the dinner. 

Ended up, every preparation was rushed on 21 Sep, a day before the trip. I went to bank to bank in the donation. I went to bank to withdraw money to be changed into Taiwan NT$. I went to the souvenier shop to pick up souveniers for the Taiwan MPS and TFRD. I must make sure no dirty laundry will be left in the house as we would be 10 days away. I must made sure no perishable items were left in the fridge, got to start to distribute things to my neighbours. Towards the evening, then only I was settled for the packing. Then I got to think of how to make sure enough clothing for all and not exceeding the checked weight. I regreted not asking for a bigger checked in weight when coming back from Taiwan. A total of 40 kgs was not enough, therefore I got to reduce my clothings. It was into early morning on 22 Sep that I was finally satisfied with all the packing. I was tired to death...My mind was looking forwards to the 4 hours fligt hoping to be able to catch up on sleep.

Did my plan work out? We will see...