Noramlyed once more.*
The last 3 days have been awful, with one miserable thing happening after another, a lot of them costing me money that I didn’t expect to have to pay out.
So I guess I should not have been surprised to find that something went wrong when I took my husband out to the airport for an international flight. His passport was 3 days under 6 months to expiry – and they wouldn’t let him on the plane. So he had to dash off to the immigration and get a new passport. But in K.L. there are more demonstrations, and more road blocks, and tens of kilometres of traffic jams. And it was a Selangor State holiday, so no chance of going to the state passport office. What a stressful mess. Anyway, finally he took off 24 hours late, and 600 RM out of pocket for new ticket and new passport.
*word invented by the guys who married into this family, to describe the inevitable disaster that happens when travelling with us. Can be used as a verb: “We’ve been Noramlyed again” or an adjective: “It was a Noramlyed trip.”
I don’t understand this business of 6 months with one’s passport. If it expires on such and such a date, you should be able to use it up to that date or maybe up to one month, you can get a passport renewed in that time if necessary. Why are we paying for that 6 months if we can’t use them. Glad it got sorted out for you guys in the end.
I don’t understand it either…as long as you return before it expires, what’s the big deal?
Govt departments suck. I am suffering hell with the IRS at the moment.
I hate you’re having suckiness, Glenda. Hugs and hugs and fingers crossed for a swift turnaround.
I imagine the six months leeway is in case you get stuck in the country you’re visiting, e.g. if you get sick or injured, or if you’re visiting your family and your daughter is ill and you need to stay on to look after your grandchildren; or if there’s some kind of national emergency back home. It saves you the hassle of trying to renew a passport while having problems abroad, and the administrative hassle for the authorities in the country you’re visiting and for the passport authorities at home. And yes, the state gets to sting you for cash six months earlier.
What are the demonstrations in KL about?
there are a myriad of things one could demonstrate about, but this is so illogical and tragically silly – basically Hindu militants saying there is ethnic cleansing going on in Malaysia against those of ethnic Indian extraction – why? Because a developer (with police in attendance) pulled down a small mosque (surau) and a Hindu temple (both with adequate warning after offering compensation) that had been built illegally on private land!! This is apparently evidence that Hindus are being ill-treated. sigh.