THEY WILL ASK thee as to what they should spend on others. Say: "Whatever of your wealth you spend shall [first] be for your parents, and for the near of kin, and the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer; and whatever good you do, verily, God has full knowledge thereof." - Al-Baqarah (2:215)
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Thursday 21 February 2008

Aaarrghh!!

I was down with flu the past 2 days. And for the past 2 days too I had to finish a tight-deadline projected financial statement for a business client. Wrong timing sungguh!

Shila called me on Tuesday while I was busy with my work. She was at the hospital for her blood tests and had to wait for an hour for another test to be done. So she called me to see if I was free. But obviously I was not, and had to tell her so.

Yesterday, while I was still busy with my work (while enduring a terrible headache caused by the flu AND work), Fuzi called, also from the hospital. She was there for little Ijam’s appointment. She told me that little Iwan’s milk powder was running low. And she thought since she was already in Ipoh, it would be much easier for me to pass her the monthly supply of milk powder and diapers then.

Actually the milk powder and diapers for her son were already in my car when Fuzi called. But I simply couldn’t afford to meet her at the hospital that morning. Although I managed to finish my work by afternoon, and I could go to her house to send the things over, I simply needed a good rest. I went straight home and tried to get some sleep.

Then the hand phone began to ring. The caller’s number was not stored in my hand phone. Usually I’d still answer if the unfamiliar number was a local number (in case it was someone who got my number from a Buddies brochure), but noticing that the number was a KL number, I simply rejected the call. Not giving up, another call presumably from the same person came in, this time from a land line (the earlier one was from a mobile number). Again, I rejected the call. But whoever this person was didn’t seem to give up. Another call came in immediately after that – this time not to my hand phone but direct to my house phone.

I don’t have caller identification for my house phone, but I assumed it was the same person who was trying to call me on my hand phone earlier. OK, since the caller was persistent I thought maybe the call was important. So I answered the call despite feeling rather drowsy. I needed to get this over and done with rather than having my phone ringing all day long.

A lady at the other end introduced herself as a representative of an insurance company which purportedly has a partnership with my credit card provider. She asked if I could spare a few minutes to listen to her. Huh?! She kept on calling just for that? She couldn’t get me when she called from her mobile line; she called from a land line. She couldn’t get me on my hand phone; she called my house phone number. One call immediately after another – as though it was soooooo important! Oh she was persistent alright. ANNOYINGLY persistent. AAARGH!! Last week I received a call from another company purportedly a partner of the bank which provides my other credit card. Do these credit card providers have the right to give out our phone numbers to others?! CHEH! Can’t they just send us their brochures?

Well, I told the lady off. I was not well, needed the rest and there she was persistently calling me despite her earlier calls being rejected. So my mood memang already not too good lah. To add to that, I think some menopausal signs are beginning to show in me so perhaps I can also blame it on that as well… hahaha!

Well, today I’m feeling a lot better. So after work today I went over to Fuzi’s house to send the milk powder and diapers. When I got there, as usual, I just honked. Usually, the kids would just excitedly open the door. This time however, it took quite some time before somebody opened the door. It was Fuzi’s second child who opened the door telling me that her mother was not home. The girl was probably told not to open the door if anybody came. But when she took a peek through the windows and saw me, she opened the door anyway.

Fuzi was actually at Ijam’s kindergarten as they were having a coloring competition or something like that. I had actually wanted to ask Fuzi about the outcome of Ijam’s hospital appointment, but I guess that will have to wait. I just left the things with the girl.

I will have to follow up on Fuzi later. If I recall correctly, her case at the Mahkamah Syariah is on next week. I am more interested in the outcome of that one…

11 comments:

Salt N Turmeric said...

Looks like even in Msia ppl are getting flu. Hope ul get well soon.

Regarding the pesky callers, yup, they are bloody persistent and d/right rude. usually when i receive such calls, id just say, im not interested. thank u and hang up! lol.

Pi Bani said...

Farina:
I dah ok dah pun.

I too usually just say I'm not interested. Tapi lately kerap benar le pulak calls like that... naik rimas le pulak!

Nightwing said...

Helo Kak,

Hope you are feeling well today.

Ya..i also kena the calls. The latest one was this week.

The lady talked and talked and at the end when i said no to the insurance thingy, she asked "why?" " You have insurance policy already?"

And i gave her my answer she said ...it is never a trouble to over insured due to higher cost of living.

I still said no.

And then she got the nerve to say..."Accidents do happend...blah blah"...

Isn;t that kind of talk like cursing me?

Pi Bani said...

Nightwing:
Aiya, why didn't you ask that lady if her mouth got insurance or not?! ;)

Nightwing said...

Haha Kak,

That is a good one...will do that to the next ding dong who calls up..thanks for the tip...:)

Kerp (Ph.D) said...

tele-marketing, just like the flu, almost everyone gets it. and just like the flu itself, its extremely irritating!

chill, kak Pi. so far Alhamdulillah, the flu has yet to reach my nostril but unlike the bug, i've been receiving unwanted calls from these tele-marketing buggers.

Pi Bani said...

Nightwing:
Yeah, you do that... and tell me the outcome, ya? :)

Kerp:
I get the flu, I boleh makan ubat. But those unwanted calls, aiyah, how aaa?

Mat Salo said...

Eh.. dah baik ke Pi?

Anyway those pesky tele-marketers are hard to evade lah. Gotta admire their persistence tho'. Semua orang yang ada nama in a database somewhere sure pernah kena. Scary to think that our personal particulars or SO easily available.

Enlighten us on the court case please.. More saga to come... Need a break from all the PRU stuff :)

Pi Bani said...

Mat Salo:
Dah... dah sihat dah pun...

Court case? Nantilah, Monday nanti I nak kena call Fuzi to ask if her marriage cert is legalized yet, and how much dia kena fine. Hopefully no other problems will crop up lah.

Kak Teh said...

aaaah - am down with flu and fever too! am feeling so miserable.

unwanted calls - sini pun banyak. They call up to ask abt your mortgage, abt phone bills -and mostly on saturdays and sundays when you want to relax.

Pi Bani said...

Kak Teh:
Hope you're feeling better by now. I dua hari tu je yang teruknya - probably made worse by having to finish the work by hook or by crook.

About the telemarketers, over here they don't care weekdays or weekends. I suppose over there they purposely chose weekends so they wouldn't be disturbing people at work. So they disturb when you want to relaxlah...