a phenomenally tiring day.
written: 10:24 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2005

Bad news: I'm not sure anymore if I want it.

It's this Aljunied thing. Aljunied, people, and I live in Bt. Batok. I topped up my EZ-Link card yesterday; added a ten. And today, I am left with a mere three-freaking-dollars. It's insane, I tell you. And I thought the government was trying to encourage Singaporeans to use public transport instead of private cars. Idiots.

Anyway, the company's office is in Aljunied, and yesterday I went down for an interview. The manager person told me to go for a job training session today, which I'd already gone for, obviously.

And I just realised that I already explained it in brief yesterday.

Well, yeah, I got the damn job, but do you know what the fuck I did today?

So I was attached to a trainer, right, and together with two other girls who have just started, we headed down to Tampines Mall (the last time I was there was probably in 1998) where we had lunch at the food court. The whole time, I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing; it was only until after lunch that my trainer made it known to me that I was to sell charity tickets.

When I saw the license and all, mentally I was like, "...?!?!?!?!?!?!?!" I think I should've bolted then and there, but I wasn't really thinking, you know? I kinda just went with the flow and stayed through the whole thing.

I still can't believe that I sold charity tickets. On the bright side, it was certainly an interesting experience. It was even fun at first, going up to random people and going, "Hi, I'm doing this fund-raising thing for this charity organisation that provides financial aid for children from broken families..." When I tried to do it in Chinese, it was freaking hilarious. For one, I had no idea how to say 'fund-raising' in Chinese; for another, I had no idea how to say the thing about the organisation relying on public donations to fund its bursaries in Chinese either. And when this woman asked me what organisation it was, I was like, "Er, zhe ge shi yi ge, er, hui jiao tu de...yeah."

Okay, my Chinese really freaking sucks, man. I targeted mainly guys/males, sometimes secondary school kids, sometimes elderly folks who look like they're quite well-to-do, but after a while I got really guilty about asking money from the old folks. I approached this old man and he was like, "Wo yi jing shi nian mei you gong le." (I've been out of a job for ten years.) When I heard that, I really felt like giving him all of the money I'd collected thus far. It's just...god, I so don't believe in these so-called "charity" drives. They're crap. People earn money from it, and it's just wrong.

This one guy really made an impression though. He's this big-sized dude wearing a beanie and a pair of sunglasses, carrying a backpack. I went up to him, said, "Hi, I'm doing a fund-raising..."

And he cut me off; said, "Save your breath. How much is it?"

I said, "Oh. Five dollars."

He took out his wallet, produced a five-dollar note, handed it to me, all the while commenting on the tsunami disaster, how he's done what he could to help, and how he's aware that there are other people who need help too. And as an added bonus, he told me that he's currently doing some volunteer work for cats.

Fuck. I so should've asked for his number. How often do you come across someone like that? Someone who believes in charity, that is, and is aware that selling those stupid things is "hard work" (my legs feel like they're about to break off any minute now). He didn't have any misgivings towards me at all, or the thing I was doing. It was just, "Save your breath. Here's the money."

Incredible. I should've asked for his number. DAMMIT.

The downside is, I DON'T GET PAID FOR THIS. Enough said.

All in all, I sold 15 tickets out of a booklet of 20, which is apparently not bad, as my trainer told me that he only sold 6 on his observation day. And when we went back to the office and I went for the second interview, it was almost like I got it on the spot. Firstly, they had this questionnaire that I had to fill up and there were a couple of spelling errors on the form. Me being the anal retentive grammar Nazi me, I corrected their spelling errors, and apparently, that made an impression on the manager person.

Uh, okay. I used to correct my Econs lecture notes all the time. Haha. The grammatical errors found in those notes are...amazingly hilarious, if truth be told.

Anyway, he asked me a few questions, blah blah, and then it was "you're selected". It also helped that my trainer said really good things about me, but I wonder if it was because he genuinely thought I was good or because he found me attractive.

Oh, who cares.

Okay, so my dilemma is this: I told them that I'd go for work on Saturday. They told me that I have to be there at 7.45 a.m. Which is fucking insane, considering I live at the other end of Singapore altogether. I mean, I'd have to get up at like 5-something which will definitely kill me, without a sliver of doubt. And I think I'd be selling more charity tickets which sucks like nothing else. Although it was fun at first, after the first two hours, I began to get damn irritated, to the extent that I so felt like saying "fuck you bitch" to stupid ugly shit-faced ah lians with shit dye-jobs who just walk past me like I was invisible. To annoy such people even more, I purposely followed them and kept talking, until they put up a hand or something. It was quite funny; only if it weren't so completely irritating and onerous.

I mean, I stood for like, six hours. I've never stood for six hours. Pampered princesses like me don't stand for six hours. I'm so close to dying now; I can't even describe it. It's worse than running 2.4, I tell you.

This is such a pain. I wasn't even thinking when I said that I'd be there on Saturday. In fact, I didn't even go down with the intention of getting the job; all I wanted was to check out what the hell they're doing that enables employees to be paid $500 a month, according to the advertisement. To think that the manager told me yesterday that there're no sales involved!

This is so scam-like. But the people were really nice, especially the guy who was my trainer, so...fuck, this sucks. And hence, we cue another moment during which Yelen wishes, for the ten millionth time, that she could just sit on her arse and let money rain from the sky, so that she can have money to spend without having to work for it.

Should I do it or should I not? I really don't want to be there at 7.45 a.m., especially on a Saturday morning. I don't know what the hell they do that garners this but apparently they end freaking late too. Imagine: if Saturday is a half day and they end at like 5, what time would they end at on weekdays?

I want money, but not badly enough to tire myself out physically like that. But I already said that I was gonna do it, and...

Oh hell. I'm going to go take a shower. Opinions would be nice.

before sunrise // before sunset

Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010