Malaysian getting Taiwanese Driving License

Getting your driving license in Taiwan is simple, just as long as you had verified all the necessary documents.

It is always good to email Malaysian Friendship and Trade Center to ensure the documents required. They will send you a template on how to translate your driving license (yes, you may do it yourself).

Document to prepare before heading to Malaysian Friendship and Trade Center:

1. Malaysian driving license (original) and 2 copies (front and back on the same page)

2. Translation to English (2 copies)

3. Taiwan ARC (original)

4. Malaysian Passport (original)

5. Malaysian IC (original)

It takes 2 working days to complete. If you do not live in Taipei, you may prepare and envelope with sufficient paid postal (recommend registered mail) and they will mail the documents back to you. 

It is advised that you should visit Malaysian Friendship and Trade Center to submit the application as they will want to view the original ARC, passport, IC and driving license, it is not advisable to do it via mail, unless you have a third party whom you trust to assist you with the procedures.

Once you have the stamped document from Malaysian Friendship and Trade Center, you would need to have a Driving Test Body Checkup at a REGCONIZED hospital by Taiwan 監理所 (similar to JPJ). You may visit their website to see which hospital is near your area for you. The test is simple, colour blind check, visual test, audio test, so no worries and it cost around NTD150.

Next, with your stamped Translated Malaysian driving license and Driving Test Body Checkup, you may head to the nearest 監理所's 國際駕照辦事處 with:

1. Malaysian Passport (original) and photocopy a copy of the detail page of the passport and the page of you recent arrival stamp to Taiwan

2. Taiwan ARC (original) and a copy of both side on the same page

3. Three (3) passport size photograph (blue or white background, it does not matter)

4. Malaysian Driving License (original) and the translated copy from Malaysian Friendship and Trade Center

5. Driving Test Body Checkup (passed)

6. NTD200 for the application

You can collect it on that day itself. I had it done on a Saturday (please check which Saturdays does the 監理所 is opened and whether 國際駕照辦事處 is operating), hence it only took me less than half an hour, there was no one.

Registering your Marriage in Malaysia

My husband (Taiwanese) and I had registered our marriage in Taiwan and it is more like a re-registration in Malaysia (required to apply for Taiwan residence visa).

We planned to register in Taiwan first then re-register our marriage in Malaysia, as at the time registering in Malaysia requires my husband to reside in Malaysia for a period of time excluding the period of time required for the notice of our marriage. Hence, for convenience sake, we completed registration in Taiwan and return back to Malaysia.

Documents to prepare:
1. MyKad
2. Original Malaysian Passport and Foreign Passport of your spouse, and a copy of the page with your details of each and the page with the arrival date to Malaysia.
3. Passport size photo of each
4. Foreign Marriage certificate (Please have it (1) translated to English, (2) notarized and (3) authenticated by Taiwanese Foreign Affairs Department, you maybe do it in Malaysia if it is convenient to you)
5. 戶籍謄本 (prove of Nationality - translated, notarized and authenticated)

With all the documents required, you may just head to JPN in Putrajaya, and have some documents signed. It is advised that a confirmation of all the documents required are checked, translated, notarised or authenticated, as for us, we did not had our 戶籍謄本 done, and it was a nightmare.

Application for the Certificate of Good Conduct

As I am about to get married to my future Taiwanese husband, I am hoping to stay there in Taiwan with my husband. I am planning to get the Joining Family Residence Visa (JFRV) for me to stay and work in Taiwan. This visa requires me to be married with a Taiwanese, which I will be soon. There is one document which they require, the Certificate of Good Conduct.

I had applied mine via online through the department's website. http://www.kln.gov.my/web/guest/online. It requires a password which you have to register for it. After registering, you may login and click on Application of Certificate of Good Conduct. Read through the article and after understanding, you may start to fill in the form. One thing that you will need to prepare, they requires you to attach along a passport photo, so just make sure you have a digital copy.

After filling in everything and submitting the form, you will be able to check on the status of your application. Although they state that they will require 1-2 months to complete the application, mine was ready to be collected within one week, very impressive. But then, do note that, they will not notify you, well, I was not notified in any way. I only got to know mine was ready because I was anxious, so it's better that you check the status of your application from time to time.

To collect the certificate, you have to go to Ministry of Foreign Affair in Putrajaya. The collection is quite straight forward, get a number, wait for your turn and pay RM20 for it, and it's done. Nice and simple.

Application of Single Status Certificate

I'm about to get married January next year in Taiwan, yes, my future husband is a Taiwanese, and yes, I will be living there, will save that for the next blog.

So, one of the document required for my registration of marriage in Taiwan is the Single Status Certificate from Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN), Malaysia. For this, I went to JPN in Putrajaya.

Things to prepare for the application of the Single Status Certificate.

1. If you are doing this personally at Putrajaya (which is what I did), all you need to prepare is your IC, detail information of your spouse, which includes his/her name and passport number, and you will be good to go.

2. However, if you are planning to pass this over to someone else to help you prepare this, you may need to refer to their website for more information. http://www.jpn.gov.my/en/servicesmarriageordivorce
and click on the Single Status tab.

First, I walked in to the counter requesting for the form. From the website, it states that we are required to prepare a letter stating the purpose of this application, and also a Statutory Declaration. Don't worry, there are templates of these document prepared by the department which comes along with the form.

The letter is a simple letter where you will have to fill in your name and details, stating that you are applying this certificate for marriage oversea. As for the Statutory Declaration, after filling up the template, you will have to go to a Commissioner of Oath, which they have one in the building. Just go to the office and get the commissioner to sign this paper and you will be good to go. This cost me RM4, and it took less than 5 minutes to process.

Then with this letter stating your purpose of application, the Statutory Declaration and the form all filled up, all there is to be done is submit them and pay up RM5. The certificate will be ready within 10 minutes. As mentioned earlier that you will need some details of your future foreign spouse, like name and ID/passport number. They will state in the certificate that this certificate is applied to be used for the marriage with your spouse from which country, with the ID/passport number as given, so make sure you have the correct details.

I am indeed impressed with how fast this whole process can be, although there are some waiting and some running up and down, all in all, it's all pretty good.

The Procrastinator

I had been a procrastinator at work ever since I resigned. I am sure of that cause I had not been doing anything productive here. And after reading this article in http://www.waitbutwhy.com I confirmed myself to be a procrastinator.

pro-cras-ti-na-tion |prəˌkrastəˈnāSHən, prō-|

the action of delaying or postponing something: your first tip is to avoid procrastination.

I find this writer very interesting as he is able to describe out things that we know we are so well that after reading you will understand the state that you are in.

http://www.waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrastinate.html

I like the part where he describe that our Rational Decision-Maker owns a Instant Gratification Monkey who tends to take control of our minds, bringing us around wonderland before we actually start doing any work. Last time it used to be the fridge exercise, where we tend to open the fridge to check it out over and over again for what so ever reason. But nowadays we have Facebook, YouTube and Instagram to replace it. 

I can imagine the Dark Playground that the writer mentioned, I have the exact same playground in my mind, and it's actually not fun, as what he shared. We always thought that by doing so, we are actually enjoying ourselves, but once it's over, we are not much more happier than we expect we will be. Instead, sometimes we get disappointed as we failed to complete some tasks that we expected ourselves to complete within a time frame. More of the times, we will feel guilty for 'playing' around the Dark Playground, as said to be unearned leisure.

And when I read about the Panic Monster and how the Instant Gratification Monkey is afraid of it, oooo... I can so relate to that. Reading that part reminds me on all the memories I had on rushing assignments on the last hour, studying for examination on the night before, rushing through the past year paper early in the morning before the examination. Gosh.. Brings back memories. 

There is another article by the writer on how to beat procrastination. 

pro-cras-ti-na-tion |prəˌkrastəˈnāSHən, prō-|

noun

the action of ruining your own life for no apparent reason

http://www.waitbutwhy.com/2013/11/how-to-beat-procrastination.html

The procrastinator is in the bad habit, bordering on addiction, of letting the monkey win. He continues to have the intention to control the monkey, but he puts forth a hapless effort, using the same proven-not-to-work methods he's used for years, and deep down, he knows the monkey will win. He vows to change, but the patterns just stay the same. So why would an otherwise capable person put forth such a lame and futile effort again and again? 

The answer is that he has incredibly low confidence when it comes to this part of his life, allowing himself to become enslaved by a self-defeating, self-fulfilling prophecy.

A part which I liked on how the writer describes why a procrastinator's mind works the way it does.

How to beat procrastination:

1. Effective planning

This involves serious planning, and breaking you ideas into details, and start will steps. The writer pictured it in a way that procrastinators are visionaries who fantasize in building a house. However, for one to start building a house they will need to start will piling up the bricks one by one, day by day, without giving up, till the whole house is completed. This means that the objective of the plan may sound far more exciting compared to the actual procedure to start executing the steps to move towards achieving it. And the core of this plan is the bricks used to build the house. Hence, to start executing a plan, one should always start from the bricks, scheduling the tasks, draw down till the details of the each steps.

2. Doing

For me, I like planning, I can plan things out to the fine details, but when the start "doing" part hits, yes, my monkey will start to come out to play. The most important part here is "Get Started". This part is one of the hardest part as when we are about to start something hard, there are so many distractions around us, so many "fun" things to do. After getting started, we will come to the part where we have to continue on with the project to work till it is completed. This part is where distractions starts to look so tempting, especially when you encounter a problem and you need to Google the solution out, and hey, Facebook is just a click away. This is the part which I always end up getting stuck in. And the writer shares that, we have to be strong, and 

making progress in the task will help us stay focus on the task that we are involved in as it raises our self-esteem. At the point that you are about to complete your task, you will feel a positive drive in you which motivates you in completing your task. There are times when you reach a point, feeling that your task is actually more fun and interesting compared to the leisure activities that you were involved in. However, once you reach this stage, it is not permanent, you will fall back to procrastinating if one do not have persistence.

I need to show myself that I can do it.

I like what the writer had shared, it's personal and easy to be related to myself. Like what he said, 

Because defeating procrastination is the same thing as gaining control over your own life. So much of what makes people happy or unhappy—their level of fulfillment and satisfaction, their self-esteem, the regrets they carry with them, the amount of free time they have to dedicate to their relationships—is severely affected by procrastination. So it's worthy of being taken dead seriously, and the time to start improving is now.

Have to start now..!

Saying Goodbye

I have a colleague whose doggie is sick and can't walk anymore as there was a back injury. She shared with us that her doggie seemed so sad as he can't walk and he can't pee properly anymore, causing him to have urine burns.

It was hard hearted for her to say, but the family had decided to put him to sleep and release him from the current pain he is going through. I have a dog myself whom I love and cherish a lot, I know how hard is it for an owner to make this decision.

And I read this from some where, thinking of sharing this as it is so touching.

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Slide Share

Today my colleague introduce to me to Slide Share and I loved it, it was love at first sight.

I shared one slide which I personally find it interesting.

 

Well, This IS Interesting: Content & the Science of Interest from Melissa Rach

Don't be rich, Live rich - One year on the road - The good and the bad from nomadznu

Alien Hive

Whee... Recently I had been quite occupied with this game called Alien Hive. It's an addictive and brain draining game. One wrong move, and your whole strategy will go kaputt..

What is even more exciting is that, this is a game developed locally, Appxplore Sdn Bhd, impressive. Love the graphics, great background music.

One of my highest score, three aliens formed in a game. Working hard to get more. ^^

An Improvement in Our Future Relationship

Had this mind tickling talk about relationships with a friend of mine over dinner, mostly on how a female tends to revolve their world around their boyfriends.

Some scenarios as the girl played out:

1. Dinner. It's a regular weekday, and a girl friend calls you out for dinner. And, I as the girl, who had nothing much to do after work today would probably say yes. Then, when I am about to finish work and preparing myself for the dinner, my boyfriend texted me, asking whether would I like to have dinner with him.

So, what am I suppose to do?

Option A:

Being a loving girl friend, I would surely tell my boyfriend ya, we can have dinner tonight. And then I would call my friend saying that my boyfriend asked me out for dinner and it's been a week since I last saw him, so maybe we can have dinner some other time?

Option B:

I would ask my boyfriend what time would he be free for dinner. And if the time is late and I would be able to attend both dinner, I would have two dinners for the night. However, for this, during the dinner with my girl friend, I would be rushing and all, not wanting to be late.

Option C:

I would call off my boyfriend, telling him that I have a dinner date with my girlfriend.


It's pretty obvious that most of us have a higher tendency of picking Option A and B, Option C would be at the back of our heads.

However, if we swap the scenario, ie. your boyfriend is going to have dinner with his friends, and you called him up for dinner, what kind of response will you get? Most probably is that he would tell you up front that he is going out with the guys and it will be late. The second possibility would be he would tell you that he is going out with the guys, and I could join them if I want to. And the least possible one, he would call off the dinner with his friend and join you for dinner.

What do we see from this? The priority is a total inverse of one another. Girls do tend to give their boyfriends full priority.


2. Gym. Assuming that I am a gym kind of person, I like going to the gym on, and especially love going to the gym on Saturday morning. However, my boyfriend likes hanging out on Friday nights, having dinners with friends, catching up and chilling at a bar till late. He said you to join him on Friday nights, as that's what he loves doing. He would say that I can go for gym on the weekdays or some other days.

So?

Option A:

I will go out with him, hang out with him till late, enjoy the night and have fun, his way. I mean, in a way, I get to be with him. In the next morning, I won't be able to get up early for my favorite pass time, gym, ie. giving up things that I like doing.

Option B:

I will hang out with him and still wake up in the morning with the hang over and all to make my way to the gym.

Option C:

I will tell him no, as I feel like going to the gym on Saturday morning and I don't want to miss it.

Ok, this one is pretty obvious, written in priority order, the last one being most unlikely. However, let's say we turn the coin around, I'm the one who like Friday nights, and he is the one who likes Saturday mornings. I am pretty sure the priority order will be the other way round.

We did talked about many more other scenarios, like the one where he did not reply to your texts and you got all thinking what is he doing, why is he not replying to my texts, is he angry with me. But the other way round, guys don't think that way.

We look back to the time when this relationship had not even exist, as a girl, you would have a life that you enjoyed, hanging out with your girl friends, going shopping, karaoke, movies. But once you are in a relationship, do you notice that you don't really do all these as often anymore, some even non. Why? Our mentality will revolve around the guy, when friends ask you out, you will start making excuses to refuse them just because you want to make time for your boyfriend, or in case he has time for you. One of the most absurd reason, I am scare my boyfriend will be angry of me, or he won't be happy if I were to go out so often.

For a guy, once they got in a relationship, life just goes on like business as usual. He will still go out watching football with his pals, hanging out, chilling with friends and all. And their best move, the moment that they actually starts spending time with you, they make it sound like they made so much sacrifices and all just to be with you, but in actual fact he was just so happen free and his friends were occupied, or there's this movie his buddies had watched.

I might be wrong in the statements made above, or you may even say I am bias, well, I'm sorry, I'm a girl. But most of them are true, for me. There is this imbalance in priority in our relationships, and my personal opinion is that this may cause the failure of a relationship.

Imagine this, before the relationship, you as a girl, had a life, you are cheerful, had friends around, you did crazy things and all. You had a life and you are an interesting and fun person to be with. But once you walked into a relationship, things changed, you don't hang out with friends that often, you don't do as much things as you usually do. You only have your close friends, your family, your work and your boyfriend. This is when things will start to get crucial. You are not the same person as you were before the relationship anymore, the person the guy fell for. And right now, I won't blame him.

So, as stated in FRM Part I: Foundation of Risk Management, the problem had been identified and assessed. The next step would be to treat the risk, which would be another dinner on another night. But for a guide, we have to make moderate decisions, indifferent from how we treat our close friends, well, maybe a little different, but just not too much.

We must be able to be ourselves, live our lives, just the way we did before we jumped into this relationship, future relationship.

Books from Mitch Albom

Recently just finished reading Time Keeper by Mitch Albom, finish reading it on the day the Mayans predicted the world to end, 21 December 2012. The surrounding settings fit the book well as it is about to be Christmas and doomsday is nearing. I had always enjoyed Mitch's writing, there are all very inspiring in their own ways.

The Time Keeper, a story about father time, how he started counting time and his exploration around earth to know more about time. Father time shared his insight with two humans who are about to die, one wanting more time, one wanting less, and forgetting the ones who loved us the most around us, living the moment. It was a great read, I could barely take my hands off them till I finished the book.

There are other books by Mitch that I had read.

The first book I read was Five People You Meet in Heaven. It's a story about a guy called Eddie. Eddie is someone who is like anyone of us, with regrets in life, with all the what if's in mind., with dreams we wish to achieve yet things just swift to a different path. Working as maintenance in an amusement park for most of his life, he past away due to an accident in the park. In heaven, he met five people whom he knew and did not knew when he was alive. But everyone of them was there to explain about why did things in his life turned out the way it is. It's a moment where finally everything starts to make sense. Eddie starts to understand, starts to let go, starts to forgive. Mitch made heaven to be a place where you look back into your life and join the puzzles up.

The next book I read was For One More Day. A story of a former baseball player who had so much problems in his life, failure in marriage, his career, his financials and his family. He came to a decision to take his own life, and in his attempt he seemed to had failed, and he saw his mother, who had past away for some time. This baseball player gets another day with his mother, went back to his old family home. He got to learn about the reasons of why he had a troubled childhood and through this, his mother assists him in resolving his issues and getting his life back on track.

Tuesdays with Morrie is about Mitch meeting back his professor from university, who is dying from a fatal disease. Morrie knows he is dying and he is running out of time, but he choose to be happy even though he is suffering through this disease. Morrie shared his views and knowledge with Mitch, including family, love and things about how he view our society.

Have a Little Faith, a book I find very spiritual and very close to the heart. This book gives a small exposure on Jew traditions and believes. Mitch talks about a favor his rabbi, Albert Lewis asked of him, to do his eulogy. He decides to get to know more about his rabbi so that he could perform it properly. He shares about the insight of his rabbi, and he questions for the opinion of his rabbi about the religion, about life and about death. On the other hand, Mitch also writes about Christian along with the story of his rabbi. He writes about the life of Pastor Henry, and how he helped the people. A great book on faith, a touching one, teared while reading the eulogy he did for his rabbi.

Hope to have more books from Mitch, he is really a writer of the soul. ^^

Instagram

I am having fun uploading pictures on Instagram. And the new update makes it so much more fun. ^^

I'm actually trying out the badge function.. Hehehe.. Don't you love these small little surprises which comes knocking at you door from time to time..?


 

Rise of the Guardian

Rise of the guardian, love this cartoon movie so much. It's filled with Christmas-ish feeling and the storyline is great. Indeed, it's a fantastic kick start for the season.

Jack Frost, who is the main lead in the cartoon, is a character who is carefree and he's all the time jolly. He was chosen by the Man in the Moon to be one of the Guardians who will defend the children of the world. The story goes on with how Frost interact with Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and the Sandman and how they defend against the Bogeyman.

The cartoon has so much of humour and it very enjoyable as Christmas approach closer each day. Santa's elves are so adorable. Not forgetting Baby Tooth, one of the fairies of the Tooth Fairy. ^^

 Christmas is nearing.. I can't wait.. Love the season so much..

Coliseum Cafe

Coliseum Cafe, an authentic place to enjoy old school Hainanese dishes and western meal. The first step into this restaurant, time starts flowing back to 1921.

Not just the furnitures and settings around the restaurant was antique, even the captain and also waitresses here are quite aged. But don't you judge a book by it's cover, even though they may be in their oldies, but they know how to make your visit as enjoyable as possible.

The place is a bit smokey because they serve the best sizzling ever. The kitchen is still using firewood to cook the steaks that is served, that's one of the reason why they taste so damn awesome.



Fish

Chicken Turkey Ham..

 And the sizzle..

 

Find this authentic place and enjoy your meal in a 1920s environment.

壹碗冰

Today my friends and I went wondering around SS2 looking for desserts after dinner. Then we came across a cute sign board, a shop called Iced Bowl.

We went in curiously to have a feel of the place. It's quite similar with Snow Flake. The place is cozy and relaxing, there is a nice touch of light green around.

After placing out orders, we sat down and after a small chat, our orders was ready.

They looked so delicious. Seriously can't wait to eat them. I personally like this place more, maybe it is because there was not too much crowd, meaning you will have space and you won't feel the pressure of people staring at you waiting for your seat. I guess that's what made the ice so much more mouth watering.

Love the place..~~

Simply Briliant!

I was on the flight back to Kuala Lumpur from Bangkok, and while I was reading the magazine that they provide us on the flight, I came across this 'Briliant' article.



Seriously, it is simply briliant. Shopping while you are waiting for the train in the subway or anywhere is indeed handy in a way. The best part is that by the time you got home, you are done with your grocery shopping.

If only we have it in Malaysia. Maybe online grocery shopping having it delivered to our doorsteps. It would work, right?

Snow Flake

A random night out with friends after dinner, Friday night. The night is still young, so where should be head to? Let's have dessert..!!

We went to Snow Flake in Sunway Giza, the place was packed..!! Seriously packed! The queue was from the entrance till the counter. We got ourselves the iced red bean and the monthly special. It's actually not bad, no.. It's good. Really refreshing, something rather new, different I would say.

There are a huge variety of choices to choose from. From different types of topping, to whether you want it to be ice, jelly or soya.

It is really quite an experience. So that's why there was a queue from the entrance.

Android Users vs iOS Users

This is something quite interesting to read. There was a survey conducted to research on the difference in personality between Androids users and iOS users.



For the source and the full article, you may visit http://www.slashgear.com/android-vs-ios-personalities-infographic-15171918/

And FYI, I'm an iOS user and proud of it..!! ^^

MudTrekker 'Pain'tball

'Pain'tball day~~ I can feel the pain even before the games started. We bought this really cheap coupon form Groupon for paintball with 500 pellets and it's only RM60..!! So that's the price I'm willing to pay to get myself in 'pain't.

MudTrekker is located somewhere in Kuang. It's not too far from Kuala Lumpur, but yet, not too near neither. It is located nearby some quary, hence there will be a lot of lorries traveling in and out carrying tonnes of soil or stone.

The place is quite cool, as you have really random obstacles and the method of the games kept changing, making it so exciting. The marker (which in layman term the paintball gun) is so heavy due the the gas pressure tank. For me, holding the marker alone is tiring. And imagine having to run around the field and avoiding getting shot at.

Well, in the end of the day, I was all clean. Muahahahaa.. Cause I was all of the time hiding and shooting people. Everyone had an awesome time shooting at each other, and talking about how many shots they got on themselves, more like bruises. ^^

Tiring yet it was so much fun..!!

Pork of the Day - Cristang

James told me about this place which serves extremely good pork burger, and I just have to try it myself. Cristang, a nice restaurant with classy decorations. A nice place to hang out with friends and have good food.



Ice lemon tea there is ICE LEMON TEA, man...~~ it's so sour. The tiny cup is actually the sugar. So for those who are looking for lemon tea without sugar, here's the place, and they are refillable too.
The highlight of the day, highly recommended, Petai Pork Burger. If you are a petai person, this burger would be your thing. Minced pork with petai goes extremely well with the solid patty. Yum~~

This was a filling dinner. The portion was huge. Could not finish my burger even though it tasted so good.

A highly recommended place to go for good food. Would love to visit it again some time soon~

Gloomy Friday

How would you know that you, yourself, is feeling under the weather?
For me, it is when I start going for cakes, sweet yummy cakes.

Today was a gloomy day, in terms of the weather and also for me. Don't really know why.
After work, I just feel like having Food Foundry's layer cake. MMmmmMMmmm.. Durian layer cake.

Stepping in to the shop slowly, with no crowd around, enjoying my cake. Wow.. If only everyday life can be so carefree, so easy.