I was supposed to report at 10:45am but got there past 11:10am instead, heh. Had to get a cab too since I woke up late because of the previous night. Since it was a Sunday, we were expecting a better crowd. As things turned out, the crowd flow was just a tad above dismal, pffftt.
Lester was on duty today and since there was a branded goods sale on the 3rd floor by brands like Prada and LV, he & me went over there as we were discussing how we were gonna get belts and wallets but when we got there, we discovered that all they had on sale were ladies handbags and purses.
So much for belts and wallets, what an anti-climax for us guys.
Some boss of some company who was also having a booth at the event came over and talked to Jason about this petition he was organizing to demand compensation from the organizer of the QoL event since sales was bad due to the poor traffic flow.
He was gathering the signatures of as many participating vendors as he could to add more voices to the petition. So Jason & Luke added theirs. I would like to see how that one would turn out later in the day, heh. I couldn't help myself and joked with Jason that he better prepare us all to go on strike.
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| At Doctor Jason Hwang's talk |
I was fighting off my sleepiness and tried with some effort to focus on the talk and look awake. The doctor struck me as really friendly and amiable and judging by what he said regarding his interactions with his patients, he seems to be a doctor with a great deal of ethics and care for his patients. After the talk, Doctor Hwang came to our booth later and I chatted with him.
Diagonally opposite our booth was the booth of Yun Nam, the company specializing in remedying balding problems. There was only this poor Chinese girl manning the booth all by herself today, unlike during the first day when there was a squad of them around. I wondered how she would be getting her lunch and dinner and so I went over to ask her.
This girl with a gentle demeanor told me she came from China to work here. She told me that I didn't have to worry about her lunch and dinner since she got to eat. I also saw Jerry, my friend and manager of Optopharm who was having a booth opposite Yun Nam's went over to offer the girl some food some time during the day. The poor girl looked kinda stressed out.
When it was near the end of the day for us, our neighbor the dentist decided to pack up and leave before we did and on their way out, his female sales manager who has caused my colleagues to raise their eyebrows told me to keep in touch with her. That caused my colleagues to raise their eyebrows one final time, heh.
The last thing I did before we packed up was me going over to Ayam's booth and buying cans of tuna and sardine for my Lioness and myself since they were on offer. Jason did the same when he saw me coming back with those cans. Before that, it was the fact that I saw Jane coming back with cans of tuna and sardine from Ayam's booth which prompted me to pop over there myself. Situations are usually just a series of a chain of mutually-influential events.
Remember that guy who went around collecting signatures for his petition for compensation by the organizer of this QoL event I mentioned earlier? By the time we packed up, ready to go home, there was no news from him. Ha, so I couldn't help myself again and made a joke to Jason that the guy probably got bribed to shut up about it.
No hanging out for me tonight; I had to go home to rest. I was beat and the soles of both of my feet were kinda sore. Standing at the bus stop waiting for the direct express bus 502 that would take me home straight, a young man approached me to ask for directions to the Esplanade. I asked if he was Japanese and he told me he's Taiwanese.
After giving him the directions, he left towards Esplanade and I suddenly found myself missing Taipei much. I've asked for directions from the Taiwanese when I was there at their turf and this time round, our roles were reversed. The guy gets to enjoy his holiday here while me, the local, had to make my way back home.
Well, at least my 2 days of off-in-lieu I've earned from these 3 days of work at Suntec has already started.
Things today didn't quite end on a jovial note though. After having waited for two 502 buses that were crowded and which I refused to take because it was gonna be a long ride home for me and so, I needed to seat down to rest but there were no empty seats on both buses.
Bus 502 used to be quite empty at the bus stop outside Suntec City because that was the point where it made a loop back the way it came but with the new Marina Bay Sands, it changed its route to cater for the crowd going towards the casino there from Suntec.
So I walked all the way to the bus stop behind Peninsula Plaza to take bus 174 which would take me directly back home too instead. It was quite a walk and with every step that I took, I muttered under my breath curses at the gamblers and the current overpopulation situation. Fuck them and fuck the current situation all brought about by just one thing in essence: greed. We have to endure and suffer because of all these fucking shit..
..and that's not inclusive of those locals who have condoned all these crap. I hope they enjoy what they have asked for. I hope they enjoy squeezing like sardines in packed buses and trains and having to tough it out through long rides (AND standing up) as well as the recent transportation fare hikes in the face of such deteriorating conditions. Or if they drive, I hope they enjoy the ever-increasing magnitude and frequency of traffic jams brought about by us running out of space like rats trapped in a claustrophobic box with 'Rat Race' written all over it.
I sometimes question if some people here have the capability to think ahead and understand the consequences of the things they wish for. The only thing that cheered me up a little was the thought of my 2 days break as I made my long walk to the bus 174 stop with tired feet and sore soles; paying the price of mass masochism.
- De Lion Speaks
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