Renunciation of Malaysia Citizenship(Part 2)

Singapore Citizenship Journey ( Part 2)

There are  2 places which you will need to visit:

a. The High Commission Of Malaysia
b. ICA - plan the dates such that it is at least 3 days after you have done (a)


Part 1:
Preparation of documents:
For place (a), link
For place (b), link

Part 2:
Now you are ready to visit (a).
Some tips are as below

• The opening hours are from 8-11am( do check the website for updates). The whole process will typically take <30 minute. If you plan to take time off from work( ~1 hr) , it is possible.
• When you reach the High Commission of Malaysia, make sure you exchange a visitor pass with any ID card Except your Malaysia IC/Singapore PR blue card as you will need them for the application later.
• Mistake which i made was queuing at the wrong queue =(....Make sure you are in the RIGHT queue.
• Remember to head to the consular office and the original yellow form will be provided to you by a person who checks your document.s
• Queue number will only be allowed after your thumbprints are done by the person ( same person who checks your documents)
• Once you have collected the queue number, the rest of the process takes ~10 minutes includes a payment of SGD6.60( amount might differ)
• A pink slip will be passed to you for collection 3 days later.

Part 3:

To be continued...

Singapore Citizenship Journey( Part 1)

Singapore Citizenship Journey( part 1)
* disclaimer for links as they might have been moved to a new site

It has been almost 18 years since i have resided in this country which i have considered as my first home. So, you will be wondering, why now only did i decide to convert? The answer is probably timing and also laziness. It is definitely not because of the intention of buying a property as DK and i have settled since 7 years go. ( both of us have been residing here since 18 years ago).

Step 1: What is the first thing you should do once you have decided?
Apply and fill in the forms
Refer to this link

Step 2:
Get an appointment for an interview

Step 3:
Wait for "the letter".This is the easiest and probably difficult for some applicants as they don't like to be a limbo situation.
The interviewee probably will tell you that the timeline to expect would be around half to one year.

Step 4:
You got a mail! So now, you are being offered the citizenship but DO NOT renounce your original citizenship yet. You are expected to go through the Singapore Citizenship Journey.

SCJ: expected timeline will be around 2- 3 weeks depending on how fast you complete the 3 main sessions and also the survey.

Step 5:
Repeat Step 3....wait again.
Once you have received "the letter" to inform you are now accepted as a Singapore citizen,
 you can now start preparing to renounce your original citizenship.

01-01-13

It was a great 2012 year with lots of changes and opportunities. Midyear, I nearly became a housewife or a yoga teacher but things took a change.Instead, i got promoted to handle a challenging projected which only survived 4 months 20 days ( it was announced one day before the doomsday prediction 21-12-12).
Overall, it has a been a blessed year and i will recap my personal/travel accomplishments of year 2012 by months.

Jan- It was our 3rd anni month & we had a small celebrations at the tastings room.We visited the underwater world, butterfly and insect kingdom in Singapore. Both these events were done through a good groupon deal purchase. Had BBQ @ whitewater with hubby's colleagues and it was CNY.

Feb- After 6 years, i revisited HK for 4D3N ( it was a blessing as hubby had a long stay in HK). It was a short but wonderful trip & i managed to visited the Lantau Buddha island this time=).
Back in Singapore, we watched The Wicked on the 25-02-12 with Jo and her friend. It was my first show in MBS and it was great!

March- Nothing happened???!!! I did not have any photos on this month, probably, it was just a silent month.

April- My bday & it was celebrated in Bali. This was our 2nd visit to Bali & this time round, we stayed in Seminyak. It was a fun trip( despite of the lousy accommodation) and while visiting the silversmith, hubby made a pair of earrings for me.

May- We decided to make good use of our groupon purchase ( bought in year 2011) and visited Langkawi for 3D2N. The silkair flight was splendid and because of my dear hubby's colleague,we sat first class! We made a tedious climb to Telaga Tujuh which was worthwhile &  visited Dataran Lang, paddy field museum, Gallery Perdana & had lots of splendid food.

June- My turning point month- filled with excitement on my job prospect. I decided to take up a yoga teacher course which costed me SGD4500. It was a great course and i made lots of friends.I am now much better in Yoga, but have not started teaching Yoga as a career. I was promoted to a new position and took up a challenging project. It was unexpected but God was/is in control.- see Dec for more info.

July- Hubby's bday month! My dream to visit Alaska got fulfilled this month as hubby had a long stay in LA-ANC. It was great getaway for me ( to take a break from my job trauma) & i revisited LA. I am so proud to be my hubby's tour guide for this trip! We met Gerard at ANC and had breakfast together.
It was the best trip of the year after what i went through in the month of May-June.
Back in Singapore, we visited Punggol Promenade.

August- Flew to Italy for almost 3 months on my new project with another engineer. It was a great reunion between my old colleagues & I. Words could not describe how glad i was meeting them again after 7 years!
Hubby managed to fly into Italy end of August and we did a tour around the north of Italy. Places which we covered were Venice, Florence, Pisa, Nice, Monaco,Milan, Lake como(Bellagio) and we had a great dinner at Montevecchia. To top this off, we even watched a match at San Siro Stadium.
On a side note, i also revisited Bergamo, Verona, Largo di Garda & Monza Park with my colleague.This time round, i actually enjoyed sitting down having a long and lengthy lunch/ dinner instead of hopping around (unlike in year 2005 when budget was superb tight).

September- still in Italy. I did a wine tour with my colleagues at Franciacorta. Visited also Genoa, Lake maggiore, Torino and joined the potato festival on the 15th Sept.I revisited Milan to shop for my family=)

October- Visited Dublin with hubby!!! (Fortunately, his flight changed and he flew into Dublin to meet me).
God is gracious=). I persuaded my hubby to visit Rome ( it was weird that he did not visit Rome previously in August, and this was a great short trip). Had my last trip to Monza with my colleague before heading back to Singapore.
Back in singapore - visited Gardens by the bay with hubby!

Nov- Flew to Boise, Idaho for my project & it was a short but sweet 1 month trip.I visited Boise city and did some shopping on the 1st week. 2nd week - managed to visit Portland with the rest of the project teammates. 3rd week - watched the BRONCOS & did cycling up the tablerock cross. 4th week- it was thanksgiving week! Drove up to Utah and down to LV. It was really great to revisit LV and we managed to catch 2 shows- Le Reve ( wonderful !) & a stand-up comedian show.

Dec- Back to Singapore! Bought and set up my first Xmas tree with hubby! Project was good until it was announced that it will be axed. I am back to square one in my job and all my engineers are relocated to another group. Had a great time with hubby - dined at Sushiairways, The cajun kings and just yesterday, chengdu sichuan restaurant. This month, we watched the Hobbit & life of Pi=)

Today, I prayed for good health, prosperity and peace for all in this new 2013 year.
God is gracious and kind. I am thankful for his guidance and He will lead me on another adventurous & fruitful 2013 year.

Thanksgiving @ Utah & LV

It was my last weekend in Boise, Idaho but the most exciting! I decided to follow the group to Utah & LV though it was a long drive. My other options were to either visit NY ( which turned out to be a disaster as the host was so irresponsible and i had to pay a penalty of SGD150 to cancel my air ticket),Virginia or San Francisco.

We departed at 6am on Thanksgiving day itself and reached Utah around noon time.Lunch was at a dim sum restaurant.All the shopping malls were closed and hence,we decided to bring the newbies to visit Utah Capitol building and did a city view at the Ensign Peak.Thereafter, we checked into a superb nice mid range motel - Hampton inn to nap for the day and gear up for the Black Friday shopping which started at 10pm.
First place on the list for shopping was Walmart since we arrived at Tanger outlet earlier than expected.It was pretty cold at the Park city as it snowed the previous week.We were lucky that it did not snow and spent approximately 3 hours at Tanger outlet before heading to Best buy. At 3am, we were finally in the cozy bed zzzz. The next day, we got up at 9am to feast on the breakfast buffet before heading to Macy's / the gateway for another round of shopping.

At noon, we embarked to LV where we arrived at around 730pm and had dinner at Capitol Seafood restaurant. Thereafter, we started walking down the whole stretch of  LV boulevard. It was a superbly long walk and we were exhausted by the time we reached our hotel. It was 3am. The next morning, we left to the souvenir shop at 10am before feasting at a lunch buffet at the Cosmopolitan hotel.
I had 6 servings and was too tired to move...but it was shopping time!We spent 3 hours shopping at the premium outlet before heading to our Le Reve show at 7pm in Wynn Hotel. It was the best show i have seen so far & worth every penny! After this, we walked AGAIN to the Tropicana hotel to watch the laugh factory. It was worth the SGD25 as it woke 2/3 of us from our sleepy mode.

We reached Boise at 10pm after having our lunch at Gossip ( Utah) and breakfast at another dimsum restaurant in LV. Overall, it was a long, exhaustive but great trip!

Broncos + biking

This weekend was spent in Boise town & i had lots of fun!

On Sat, my friend & i went to watch the Boise state vs Colorado state football match on the blue turf Boise stadium. It was a chilly and rainy noon but the great score of 42-14 made the day! We had fun taking photos with the Buster Bronco before making our way to the North End.After the match(we left half way tru the match),we visited the newly opened Whole Foods Market and dropped by Walgreen to get some supplements.

In the evening, it was time for movie marathon! We bought tickets to watch the twilight ( part 2 & finale) - very overwhelming and superb ending+ the Sky fall ( there will be a sequel to it). It was midnight when we completed the 2 movies at Edwards 21 cinema.

The next day, i went for a biking trip with another group of friends.We rented the mountain bike for USD25 (4 hrs) and covered part of the Boise River Greenbelt before heading to the table rock cross.
It was a very tedious uphill ride but we made it. After taking some snapshots, we went down using the dirt road. It was the first time for me and thus, pretty scary.I actually made it alive to tell this story=D.Amazingly, we were back on time to return the bike!

Although we were superbly exhausted, we decided to drop by Mongolian BBQ to nurse our hungry stomach.It was my first time in this restaurant and i was amazed by the way the chef cooked our food.I discovered that this place was where the Big Bang Theory takeaway dinner boxes originated from...

Portland - a city of roses?

Last weekend,a group of us headed to Portland.We departed after work and it took us slightly more than 7 hrs to reach the Day's Inn Hotel in Oregon.It was snowing heavily(near the mountain valley) which slowed us quite abit.

Fortunately,all 3 cars reached Portland safely and we knocked off immediately.The next day,we had breakfast at the Inn before heading to old Chinatown.We walked around old Chinatown and it looked pretty deserted like zombieland!!We walked to the Tom McCall Waterfront Park en route to the Saturday Portland Market.There were lots of geese everywhere just like in Boise.We passed the minute Oregon Maritime Musuem.

After that, we split into 2 groups.Some of us headed to the Woodburn outlet while the rest went to visit the Powell's bookstore, the Rose garden & the Grotto.I joined the shopping group as the roses were not in season & i was more interested in e-books.On top of that,it is tax free in Oregon!

We spent almost half a day there, and the guys were so engrossed in shopping that they forgot about the agreed lunch date!I tried calling both of them but to no avail.Hence,i decided to wander around and started visiting each shop.The other group joined us in the evening.

Dinner at Salty's was great though costly.I had the local fish- stealhead and it was beautifully prepared.I also ordered a glass of wine and clam chowder soup as appetizer.After dinner,we headed to Bailey's taproom in town.The guys had a great time trying all the beer flavors.Surprisingly,the bar in Oregon closed before midnight!

The next day,we had breakfast at Bijou cafe and some of us went to queue for the voodoo doughnut.We headed to the Wahkeena fall and did part of the trail(70%).It was really cold and windy but the view was worth it.
Thereafter,we headed back to Boise.

Boise town

It's been sometime since I have updated this blog.I have crossed to another part of the world since 1 week ago.This time round, I have arrived to a remote place known as the potato land- Boise.

The first thing which I noticed when I arrived at my apartment were the autumn leaves covering the street sides.It was and still is an amazing sight!

Initially,I was quite apprehensive as to how boring Boise would be, but i was proven wrong by my team mates.For my first Friday night, we went pub hopping and were rejected by 3 pubs as some of us did not bring the right ID. Nonetheless, it was good fun with great dancing and drinking.

On my first weekend, I visited the Boise town with some of the teammates already here. Boise is indeed a small town but there is still much to see.There are lots of parks and also gardens to chill out. We visited Julia Davis park, Ann Morrison park, Idaho historical museum, the rose garden, Boise depot and also the Idaho Capitol building.After that,we hanged out at the Boise Towne mall and ate at the cheesecake factory.

The damage to the mall visit was manageable as it was a winter shopping session.

That's about it for my Boise update and do look out for more updates!