Abe and Esther - a Tax Story ...

From My InBox:

Abe and Esther are flying to Australia for a two-week vacation to celebrate their 50th anniversary. Suddenly, over the public address system, the Captain announces: "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am afraid I have some very bad news. Our engines have ceased functioning and we will attempt an emergency landing. Luckily, I see an uncharted island below us and we should be able to land on the beach. However, the odds are that we may never be rescued and will have to live on the island for the rest of our lives!"

Thanks to the skill of the flight crew, the plane lands safely
on the island. 

An hour later Abe turns to his wife and asks, "Esther, did we pay our Visa and MasterCard bill yet?" 

"No, sweetheart," she responds. 

Abe, still shaken from the crash landing, then asks, "Esther, did we pay our American Express card yet?" 

"Oh, no! I'm sorry. I forgot to send the cheque," she says. 

"One last thing, Esther. Did you remember to send the Income tax cheque to Revenue Canada this month?" he asks.

"Oh, forgive me, Abe," begged Esther. "I didn't send that one, either." 

Abe grabs her and gives her the biggest kiss in 40 years. 

Esther pulls away and asks him, "What was that for?"

Abe answers, "They'll find us!" 

"Good? Bad? Who knows?"

From My InBox:

In old India, there lived a King who loves hunting. One day, he went hunting with his great Doctor. While hunting, the King was pricked by a strange plant on his middle finger. The finger became swollen and painful. The doctor applied a special ointment to the wound and bandage the King's finger.

The King then asked, "Will my finger be alright?"

The Doctor answered, "Good ? Bad ? Who knows ?"

A few days passed and the King's finger became worse. He summoned the doctor and asked, "Will my finger be alright?"

The Doctor answered, "Good ? Bad ? Who knows ?"

A few days later, the King's finger was badly infected and has to be amputated from his hand. The King was furious and ordered the doctor to be jailed and hang in a month's time.

Meanwhile, after a week's of recovery, the King went hunting again. This time he was more unfortunate. He was captured by a cannibal tribe. Before the tribe can burn him as a human sacrifice, the priest noticed he had only nine fingers. It was the tribe's believe that only a person with full and perfect body can be used as sacrifice. So they released the King.

Back to the Kingdom, the King immediately ordered the release of the doctor. The doctor was summoned to the King. The King said: "Great doctor, because of you, I lost my finger but in turn, it saves my life."

The Doctor said, "Good ? Bad ? I know. Great King, if not because of you putting me in jail and thus I cannot go hunting with you. If not, I would have been captured by the tribe and used as the sacrifice. Thank you, you save my life !"

So...Good ? Bad ? Who Knows ?  According to Ajahn Brahm, tragedy itself is an opportunity that teaches us to become kinder and wiser. Unpleasant things happen in life and they happen to everyone. The only difference between a happy person and one who gets depressed is how they respond to disasters. 

Learning Cantonese? Start with numbers.

I have written about the manipulation of number to enhance luck by the Chinese in Asia before. This video from "Off the Wall" will give you a clearer picture of what I am on about.

From My InBox:

What's eating you up?

Let the message in this video sink in.  Before you watch it, ask yourself if there is an obsession you have that is affecting your health.  Think about your bad eating habits.  Are you eating too much junk food?  Are you cooking with too much fat, salt and sugar than you should?

Think about the obsessions you have.  Smoking?  Alcohol? As you watch the video, visualise your obsession and sub-impose it over the image of "Key Lime Pie". 



Got it? 

Maxis "Friend Finder" not friendly

Are you using Maxis "Friend Finder" service?  If you are, it is time to stop because you should not be paying to get the wrong answers.    

Cooking lunch for my hubby today, I thought I should check on "Friend Finder" to see if he is already on the way back before cooking the vegetable.  I know he is at his worksite near Jalan Raja Chulan so I got a surprise to see that he is not anywhere nearer home in Kajang but right down in Shah Alam!

So, I decided to give him a call to enquire if he is going to be back late for lunch.  He did not pick my call and I was directed to his voicemail instead.  After 10 minutes of waiting for him to call me back, I decided to use "Friend Finder"again to see if he is on the way back.  This is the response I received:

"012-xxxxxxx phone is off or out of coverage now.  Please try again later."

As I was wondering what my husband is up to, I heard the front door opened and in came my husband.  The last I saw, my husband was driving his Hyundai and it's super not possible for him to be back from Shah Alam within such a short span of time.  I asked if he has received my call earlier.  He said that he did not.  So I told him to check his phone to see if he has switched it off accidentally.

He was very positive that he did not as he has received a call earlier.  I looked at his call history and did not see a missed call from me either.  So, I tried calling him from my mobile phone again.  His phone did not ring and I was put on his voicemail again.  He tried calling his mobile phone with our house phone and got the same response. 

Curious, he removed his battery and checked his SIM card before placing them back and turned on his phone again.  This time the phone isn't working.  Since he lost his phone recently and had his SIM card replaced, we decided to use my phone to call Maxis at 123 to find out what is wrong with his mobile line and to check if there is a possibility that his SIM card has been cloned.

The Customer service personnel told us that there is nothing wrong with his line.  He was told to switch off his phone and turn it back on to see if the problem is rectified.  He tried that again and got his line back as he could now see the missed call from me.

The explanation the Maxis staff could gave us was that this happens and it has to do with network connection and that the next time we face the same situation, just switch off the phone and then turn it back on.  She could not answer me when I asked why we should be charged for "Friend Finder" service if we are given wrong information.

I did a search on the internet to see if others faced the same problem with this service and came across a user who wanted to test its accuracy as he planned to hide one of his handphones in his car so that he could track it with "Friend Finder" service should it be stolen.  With both mobile phones on hand he sent out the SMS to Maxis from one phone to track location of the other.  He was then in Chow Kit  but the "Friend Finder" response he received indicated "Bukit Jalil" instead. 

Come to think of it, "Friend Finder" service could well help break up relationships should one already be doubtful of one's partner.  That is not friendly. Don't you think so?