Lost

No dear readers, this post will not be about that hit TV show with the same title. ( one that I've yet to catch actually). I'm about to tell you the tale of a lost cheque.

I received a very official looking letter from the bank the other day and thought that I had accidentally exceeded my credit limit. To my surprised, it was regarding a cheque that I had wanted to credit into my account in APRIL. Turns out that the cheque had to be sent to a neighboring country of ours which I shall not name to be cleared. Now, the cheque was from a bank in Australia but had to be cleared in another country. Don't ask me why, it's all very complicated.

After 3 months, the bank now informs me that the other bank in the neighboring country has refused to answer their various calls over the last 3 months and finally got back to them and said that the cheque is lost. I was absolutely flipping mad. Immediately, I picked up the phone and called the service hotline. Now, English is not the first language in this neighboring country of ours, that is not to say that no one speaks it though.

Here is how part of the conversation went.

Operator: " Miss we cannot find the cheque, you ask the person to issue you another one."

Me:" Excuse me, YOUR bank lost MY cheque and I have to inconvenience someone else to get a new one?"

Operator: " Sorry please hold on Miss" ( After a few mins) " Miss, you will have to ask them to issue a new cheque"

Me: " Oh great, after waiting for 3 months, it's nice to know that I have to go back and get another cheque which you might probably lose anyway. ( I'm waiting for an apology by the way. PS: It never came)

Operator: " "Sorry please hold on Miss" ( After a few mins) " Miss, you will have to ask them to issue a new cheque"

By this time I was about to pull my hair out, I decided I was wasting my time and just hung up. If I thought people in TLOTW or the land of the blind ( TLOTB) as I have taken to calling it recently, were bad. This bank in the neighbouring country takes the cake!

ZACK'S 11TH BIRTHDAY!!!

Special doggy cake just for him

Dear readers, my blog is now PINK! Horror of horrors..... I can now reassure you that I have not gone mad. I'm just trying to embrace my girly side which is usually hidden away. Actually the real reason is that the old template depressed me so I decided to change it, simple as that.

The current hot topic of the week in TLOTB is the scandal regarding the salary of a CEO working for a charity. For those interested in details, pls go to http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,91415,00.html?

Since I myself work for a charity, this subject matter hits close to home. Anyone who has been to our centre would know that there are no gold taps in our toilets, heck, they should be happy to find that one out of the three taps work! ( And that the toilet flushes!)
Instead of the fleet of luxury cars that the other charity is said to have, our staff owns 1) a van 2) an 8 year old family sedan , 3) a nine year old vehicle with 4 wheels that breaks down once a month 4) a vespa and 5) 2 bicycles. Hardly swimming in cash are we?

The public is now demanding that the accused charity be transparent with their finances. If this rule was to be applied to all non profit organisations, it might not be such a bad thing. It is only then would the public be able to see that every charity dollar DOES matter to us. Being an independent organisation, we receive no funding from the government and do all our own fund raising. No TV celeb is out there doing some stupid stunt on a show to raise money for us. I don't even think half of the people living in TLOTB even know we exists. This is the same situation for many of the other small charities out there like ours.

So why am I rambling on and on? The bottom line is, I hope that most people will realise that there are many who still rely on their generous donations. It is only with their continous support that lots of other charities can continue doing their good work.

I brought Zack to have his picture taken some months ago. Haven't had the time to put the pictures up yet but I'll just show everyone my favourite shot.


He looks so sweet in that picture, actually he was a little confused cos I was making funny noises to try and get his attention.

This is Beo, nearly a year after he literally walked into our lives. Can't believe that scrawny kitten is now such a big boy!

Pictures of Zack's 11th birthday party in my next post!