some things done

four days of rest and i finally did some constructive things today. for most of the easter break, i was convincing myself to pick up the readings and notes. or watching crunchyroll. or sleeping. weather’s been really nice to sleep in. summer ended abruptly and the temperature just plunged over a couple of days.

oh well, at least i’ve done some readings and made some notes which will come in handy for the weekly quizzes and mid-semester quiz. the mid-semester quiz is gonna be held on a thursday, instead of during friday classtime. best thing is, the mid-semester quiz is gonna clash with another class and there’s at least 5 people affected. i wonder how and i wonder why.

i also did up a resume because if i don’t, i don’t think i ever will. come april i’ll be slogging away to meet deadlines and i wouldn’t be free until june. come june and july i’ll be busy packing up to leave this place (despite my reluctance) and besides, it’s a little difficult fighting with all the fresh grads in july.

so i sent my resume to P&G to apply for a couple of positions too. i don’t expect to be hired by P&G, but it’s worth a try. i guess i should start bombing the corporate world with my half-done resumes. half-done cos i don’t have access to my ‘A’ levels and ‘O’ levels certificates but i don’t think they’re that important anyway.

hmm, fingers crossed for the first proper job in my life.

temp no more

it was my last day was as a temp staff for this summer vacation and probably, for the rest of my life. having worked as a temp staff at the same company over five years, it’s weird how i was so familiar with everyone and everything and yet, chose to mostly isolate myself cos of the changes that have taken place.

the sales engineer who used to be my favourite (references: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6) is no longer the favourite cos his values have changed. i once respected him for being true to himself. gone is his sense of right and wrong. he finds it “stupid” to resist or air our honest opinions against unreasonable demands of the management.  that employees should, for their own sake, comply to expectations of the management, regardless of how they exploit the employees. so in his usual uncle-gives-advice manner, he told me that’s how the corporate world is and that probably will be the life i will live when i graduate. he went silent when i asked him if such people were really happy in their jobs, if they really lived a worthy life. maybe he thinks i’m naive to have such values. after all, i haven’t really entered the big, bad working world, have i? yet, i think i can be quite dogged about such things, about being happy,

oh well, i guess i’ll still miss the good times i had there and the fact that i’ve made friends there.

to-do list

there are just about ten million things i need to do and i’m too lazy to do them. blogging is one of them but then again, there isn’t much i can blog about. work’s been boring and sufficient to keep me occupied during overtime hours.

i’m glad it’s the weekend cos i went out with the colleagues on thursday and because we are a bunch of busybodies i reached home after midnight. thus explaining our zombified appearances and movements on friday. friday turned out to be a roller coaster day cos i thought i could leave office early after cleaning up my data entry. due to some miraculous events i left the office at 10pm. no complains though, i welcome extra income any time.

despite the strong urge to just stay at home the entire day, i forced myself to hit town in search of the elusive chinese new year clothes. i ended up not buying a lot of clothes i liked, don’t ask me why. all i bought after five hours of shopping was a black blouse for work and a pink namecard holder for my friend.

i am a doomed shopper.

i still have to reply emails, figure out which courses to take next semester, call up the hairdresser, chase after payment for my previous work stints, wrap a present, write a card and send both items to taiwan, buy clothes and shoes, meet up with people i haven’t met for ages, etc. etc.

i am a temp

i worked for an entire day on saturday and does overtime work every other day. i do not have the luxury of being paid 1.5 times the regular pay for overtime hours.

but i am still paid for my overtime work.

while on sick leave, i was viciously accused of bringing in a virus and infecting the finance department colleagues with it. ridiculous thing was, the finance department is on another level and i only interacted with one of them, who is perfectly healthy to date.

but i have learnt to ignore silly people and their mindless accusations.

the department i’m in is divided into two camps and the office is painfully quiet. the other camp is full of vicious people trying to push the blame on everyone else and darn, they’re really good at acting. i am automatically treated as one of my admin head’s people (i admit i am) because i’m on very good terms with the admin head and neighbour in black. there are many people who distance themselves from us if they do not want to incur the wrath of the evil people. it’s lonely trying to live according to our principles but fortunately we’re not exactly alone.

over these five years i have learnt quite a lot about organisational behaviour and office politics.

best of all, i get to wear jeans to work everyday, cos there are these siao geena temps who wear jeans and t-shirts to work everyday. i swear i look like a glamorous temp next to them.

i suppose i have more things to be happy about than to whine about. therefore, i conclude that i am still happy working in this office.

and because i think i’ve been working very hard without much complaints and because i haven’t had late nights for quite a while and because late nights out keep me socially active and because they distract me from other problems and because i need to celebrate the uncle’s return to china i think i deserve some beer and a late night out. but damn it, i don’t have the time and i don’t wanna spend the money. gotta focus the funds and energy on shopping for cny clothes (and shoes), bloody hell.

degraded

wah lau eh, the prices of everything went up in 2007. sugar, coffee, fuel, property, minister salaries, cab fares.

and i’m starting a brand new year with a pay cut. *curses and swears.

oh well, i guess no sane person would really pay $8/hr for a photocopying girl, eh? hopefully, i’ll make up the difference by doing more overtime. i’m promised enough OT hours to keep me happy, but my admin head told me the same thing the last time i went back and darn, she waaaaaay underestimated my efficiency. guess i gotta do the photocopying aussie style - slow and easy.

back to office politics and backstabbing and crazy gossiping working buddies! right, i guess the crazy gossiping working buddies more than compensate the pay cut.

gainfully employed

if nothing goes wrong with the office-tussle over there, i’ll be working with the neighbour-in-black and admin head again. for the fourth time, in the same office. wow.

i’m trying to work out how i’m gonna cope with a regular routine again. it’s been a year since i lived that kind of life - waking up at 6.30am, having lunch at 12.30pm, going home at 6pm. doing the same old things every single day, five days a week.

woah.

but for the money, i’d put up with anything.

loving the hair and earrings

because i love myself very much i shall post the only picture i’ll post of myself with the cute straight bangs hair. the bangs were a little messed up in this picture cos i couldn’t care less and cos seahyiyi sneakily took this picture while i was trying to destress from a conversation with the boss, who was a stranger to me at that time.

yah lah yah lah, my face very the big and round but to the hell with it. i’ve resigned to that fact. if i’m gonna post only pretty pictures of myself, there will never be any picture.

and today, a regular favourite customer of mine was awed by my new hair! she showed her extremely strong preference for the “new” hairstyle and i was pretty amused. i guess it’s really new and cool from her point of view but this is so usual for myself and people who have known me for some time. after all, i’ve had this hairstyle for almost three years.

the favourite customer squealed in excitement when she saw the earrings and we started talking about online shopping and earrings like nobody’s business. it’s a great feeling knowing my earrings are seen and admired cos it was one of the reasons why i chopped off the excess hair in the first place.

it’s customers like that that brightens up my day.

evil bitches

i know there are terrible bitches out there. i understand that they’re probably there to make me feel like a saint. i just hate it when i have to interact with these bitches.

this bitch of a tenant came by yesterday and kicked up a HUGE fuss about the free gifts which have run out, cos they were limited to the first 1,000 customers. everyone knows and understands it’s on a first-come-first-serve basis and after they run out, too bad for the remaining customers. she thought we were mistreating her customers cos “they spend (sic) so much money and they don’t get anything!” i really wanted to tell her, “then you can bloody hell provide your own free gifts for your own customers! this promotion is for all customers, you think your customers very special ah?!” of course i didn’t cos i was in no position to do so.

she then went on to whine (on her embarrassed customer’s behalf) that the instant dip results were all “thank you for your participation” and her customer had to go off empty-handed. i think i rolled my eyes at her idea of the management being able to get an endless stream of prizes to do a sure-win instant dip or something. interestingly, she wasn’t one of the tenants who had sponsored prizes. oh well.

it’s amazing how she tried to frighten me by telling me she would speak to the management about this. i wouldn’t be so worried about the management getting wind of it, but i was wondering if the excuses i came up with would get my boss into hot soup. thanks to modern technology we’re all safe, i think.

there were a couple of bitchy, irritating customers as well but they were mild compared to the witch tenant.

these kind of meet-all-types-of-people jobs can be really addictive even though those unreasonable people drive me up the wall sometimes. still, i tolerate cos it’s character building and damn it, i really feel like a saint next to these people.

is that me i’m talking about?

in less than a week i’ve turned from the most manly female friend the msian can ever have into a clingy, whinny, temperamental cow, something like a chao gu niang experiencing PMS. it’s driving me crazy too, cos i have this weird habit of forcing myself to behave like how i usually do despite the internal turmoils. the mood swings are killing me, really.

i need plenty of me-time and coffee sessions to think and break away from the whirlpool. fact is, i only have 3.5 hours to myself and it’s constantly interrupted by demanding shoppers who want to know why the redemption booth isn’t open throughout the day.

even during the 4 hours when the booth is opened, i feel like snapping at the customers and go, “go away, don’t disturb me just for the sake of redeeming that bloody notebook!” fortunately there’s only one and a half weeks to go before the christmas redemption ends.

i don’t know. too many complicated things to explain.

maybe it’s just me making every single thing complicated. just like how i’m torn between chopping my hair off to return to longer spikes or to retain this straight-bangs hairstyle.

sometimes i wish i lead a boring life and with no difficult choices to make.

food for thought

i was reading crime and punishment the other day and there was some quote from someone saying something like humans are always scared to try something new. or something like that, just let me find that again in a couple of days’ time.

coincidentally i think i found another side of me and i’m kinda frightened to know that it exists. it was already difficult making the comparatively easy choice to further studies instead of working like the rest of the world and now, i’ve found something deeper, darker and scarier.

i hate things which i can’t figure out. i hope it’s just a novelty and would go away soon. otherwise, i’ll be in deep shit for a really long time.

*****

i can’t stand rainy weather on working days. cos to use the free wireless network, i have to sit right under the air vents at the redemption booth. this position is almost the only place where the reception is reasonably strong and stable. but it’s no joke enduring the super strong wind for hours when the weather is already cool and windy. it bloody hell dries out my contact lensed eyes too.