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02/01/22 Sun. The poor weather continues unabated! We have fairly strong winds from the northeast and continuous rain throughout the day and night - very depressing! This morning we spent over on Shelley repairing the fresh water pump which had stopped working due to cable and contacts corrosion.
04/01/22 Tues. Yesterday was the first morning in over a week that I was able to sit and enjoy morning coffee in the cockpit, with no rain! However, it did come later on in the day for short periods. Fitted the engine space blower yesterday, a few unforeseen problems with that job which were overcome by pushing a small person (Ana) into the restricted space - I can't get in there like she can! This morning I wired it up. The original intention was to wire it into the ignition circuit but I had second thoughts and decided on wiring it to a spare switch so that it can be run for a few minutes after shutting down the engine. It's a little noisy, but I expect we will soon get used to that.
07/01/22 Fri. You may remember last month we tried to send a parcel from KK to Manila? This was on the 9th December at the J & T Express office. Firstly, they wouldn't accept it because it had a used, second hand laptop inside. OK, fair enough, we removed it and repacked the parcel with just doll dresses that Ana had made as a birthday and Christmas gift for her grand-daughter. The tracking number now shows the package back at the J & T Office in KK and "under investigation". There is no way to contact them as the phone number given is incorrect, the 'chat' line doesn't work, the complaint desk doesn't work, the hotline (manned 24 hours a day) doesn't work. Steam is beginning to come out of my ears as it seems the only way to get anything done is to go to KK again and into the office. They opened the parcel in the office last month and counted the dresses even though as courier, they had no right to do that, only customs can do that. To say I am furious is an understatement!!
14/01/22 Fri. I have sent e-mails to the J & T customer service department and all have bounced back as undeliverable........what a total crap company!! Finally, today, they sent Ana a message on WhatsApp to say the parcel was back with them in KK and was not delivered due to a false declaration. The mind boggles, they opened the parcel on the day of sending, they filled in the declaration so the fault is theirs entirely, and the tracking doesn't show that reason, it shows 'wrong routing code' - again their fault. Now they are asking for a copy of passport, bank details, invoice for package AND they want it by the 17th. Why the hurry now.......they have had the parcel back since 28th Dec and this is the first contact from them!
16/01/22 Sun. Splicing braid on braid 6mm rope - a job I love doing but difficult because of the small diameter. Ana has learnt how to do it as well and we made seven eye splices this morning - until a big blister on my left thumb burst! Ah, well, remainder of the day resting!
17/01/22 Mon. Made another appointment to see Dr Melinda Tong on the 11th of next month. A few hours playing around with photo editing to get these sort of images...........
..........it passed the time of day!!
21/01/22 Fri. Nothing much happening, cloudy and cool most days, all our splicing done and the new bridle made for the dinghy hoisting.
23/01/22 Sun. Today, Ana e-mailed the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur to ask how her application for a passport extension was progressing. They said.......it's on hold because you didn't submit the correct fee! Hello, we sent the amount they asked for with the application, and if it's now on hold, why the hell haven't they told us earlier? Now they want us to send the correct fee before returning the 'wrong' fee - and it has to go by 'blue envelope' which are only available in Kota Kinabalu! I really despair about the way these countries work, it beggars belief!
25/01/22 Tues. The parcel saga update - Craig and Josephine are in KK and have collected the returned parcel for us. J&T Express say it was customs who wanted a further detailed description of each doll dress in the package (there are 47). What a total load of nonsense! IF it were the customs, or the declaration that was at fault, then why are J&T going to refund the sending fee? In my opinion, it was J&T's fault for putting on the wrong routing code - as stated in the tracking information!.
31/01/22 Mon. We now have the J&T parcel back onboard, and the refund has been made. Nothing much else happening, it seems the Philippines are to re-open their borders on the 10th February but no news of Malaysia opening up again as yet. We have sent off the 'correct' fee to the Philippine Embassy in KL and they now say it will take 5 weeks to process once they receive it. No comment!!
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