February 2nd, 2012

First day of work. :DDDDDDDDD


Very eventful. In an un-eventful way, sorta. But man am I tired and sore.


Work is a 25min walk away. I love walking, and since photography is in my scope now, you can't get pictures while your subject is only seen about 2 seconds before your car passes it. Ahaha no lah I just like walking. But work doesnt start until 10am, so I started from nine fifteen. Wanted to be there early, y'know, first day of work and all, build good impression, but

its not even open yet. -____-'' When I got there the doors were closed the metal shutters were down. Probably a good thing though, cause I was sweating like a pig. But when it finally opened (albeit a small side door), I went in. So I asked for my superior, codename YOUYOU, who's supposed to teach me. But YOUYOU was the one I asked. So then she just asked me to put my bag there and let me chill for awhile, looking around the shop... And then she went to open the metal shutters. I was like, WALLAH. ok nvm. Then she asked me to go vacuum the carpet. Oh yeah, I could do that. Me the master of vacuuming carpets. Maybe you should make me the official vacuum-carpeter. Basically my mind was full of crap. But looool I was a bit nervous about the stuff I'm gonna learn, so doing something which I know how to do is sorta a relief, I mean, for the first thing that one does on ones first day of work. After that, she asked me to read up some stuff. Majorly they're information like how to use the cashier machine, how to serve customers, procedures of stuff, like membership cards.....all of it at one go. And I had to read them. Have you ever read something that teaches you how to do something that is supposed to be used practically afterwards? Then you'll know how most of the time IT IS ALMOST POINTLESS. You need to actually observe someone do it, then do it yourself before you can even get the concept of it. Eugh. But I had no idea how much I am lacking in that department until much later, which sucks.

But thank God for someone. Codename:.....er.....Hehghehg. loooool ok that is such a mean name to give her. I think I'll just write her real name down, since I don't think its a breach of privacy or personal information. So thank God for Eunice. :) SO after reading that I am mostly free, cuz Youyou didnt gimme anything to do, so I just went and organize the bookshelves... yeah. And then Eunice came in for her shift. At that time it was 12.30, and she's doing the evening shift which is until 9.00, whereas I was set for the morning shift, which is 10 to 6. So yeah she came in, I went on sorting a few books but then reckoned it'll be rude to not introduce myself, I went to her and yeah. So I told her my name.....I told her my both names. I guess I kinda just want to see how the other one sounds like LOOOOOL. But I told her BOTH my names, so she kinda have to choose the nicer one. She chose the more lesser-known one. :) Glad. Well, it's easier. In a way. But yeah. I went on doing what I was doing. Did small things for Youyou like arrange accesseries which are located high up and obviously I was the man for the job -____-. And then Eunice called me to do something.

Which was the first time anyone called me by my second name. I told another stranger-then-friend my second name but not my first name, but that person haven't got the chance to actually call it out to me yet. But yeah this is the first time I responded to....

Kaden. yeah that's the name I fashioned for myself. my second name. mmmm. well. yeah. nothing else to say. hopefully I don't start to not like it or something. :/

Felt weird though. Hmm. Anyway, Eunice asked me to help her fold cd-album-inlays. And it wasnt just a few. It was thousandssss of them. loooooooool. We werent even done with it, after today. Ahahaha after a whole day of cdalbuminlayfolding.

But yeah. Youyou went up for some office work. Was gone all the time throughout the day, let me tell you, so she basically was never my teacher. :) ahahaha. Eunice is the one I owe it all to. But I'll get to that slowly. So we were folding the inlays jeez I'm repulsing that action even now. We chatted. I guess. So we kinda get to know each other. I'm an post-spm guy, working while waiting for results and until college starts. She's a university student who's gonna start semester in march and will stop at end of February :(((((( Oh nooo. And also lotsa stuff. We talked about school, careers, courses, jobs, working, the bookshop, music, and all that. But not constantly, of course. A few pleasant silences. :) But yeah, she's wonderful company. She doesn't really have my sense of humour though, and doesn't really laugh....expressively. Ahahaha.

But as the day went on, she proved to be so crucial in my training as a worker in the bookstore. As we worked on those #@$%^%@ album inlays, customers come in and go. So it was during these times I realized how much I don't know and was expected to know through reading a silly guide thingi. There are customers that came in for books, and don't know which part of the store has them. So you have to direct them to the bookshelf. There are (a lot of) customers who come in asking about a certain praise and worship cd album with certain songs, which you have to find for them. There are customers who have membership cards which are expired and also would like to get a m-card. There are phone calls which ask for a particular book. There are transactions to be dealt with on each purchase which involves a while-straightforward-but-involves-crazy-amount-of-steps. My head was blowing off. Press F9. Go to Tools. Scan the item. Credit card swap. Yeah all those is just, of course, normal, and a bookstore handles all of that, but....I was expected (I guess) to learn all of that in one day! ARGH. So I am as clueless as a chicken in a pig farm. Chickens are clueless anywhere they are anyways so bad analogy. But *sigh it gets a bit stressful. So I kinda relied on Eunice 120%. But of course, I watched everything she does carefully, and I managed to do a few of those things on my own but....there's just so much I remember. :( And.....you actually get more than one customer at a time, xinyou. I keep forgetting that looool. I sorta can figure things out slowly if there's only one customer, but if there's oh hell two or more I 'm as useless as those unfolded-cd-album-inlays. So there were a few times where Eunice went to pee, or went to buy water, or was attending to another customer at the other end of the store, so I was forced to do things for customers alone. I will still die if a credit-card-transaction came up. Ahahahha. But Eunice always comes back and backs me up. She'll see that I'm in trouble, then ask her customer to hold up, come to me and ask me whats up. I am nothing without Eunice. sigh. And I also frequently bombarded her with questions about the steps and she always patiently, encouragingly coaches me.


Tomorrow I'm gonna die. Eunice is off on fridays. blistering blue barnacles.


But it wasnt all stress. There were good times, excellent times. How Eunice scares the heck outta me with her stories of evil customers. I don't have time to write them down, but believe me, it's really scary and quite demoralizing. :/ Anyway, good times yeah. How we'll get amazing customers who are just so nice, so patient, so easy with smiling. A black married couple (to give you an accurate visual, hence the racial background. no racism intended) came in with their toddler daughter who has afro hair and its just so sweet watching the family. How the dad plays with the daughter, carrying her and swinging her up, making her giggle and scream. How the mom would tug on the dad's arm on his opinion on a certain christian book, all while the dad was distracted because the daughter was running around his legs. Heart-warming. How a middle-aged guy was buying some christian decorations for his mom and calling her up and asking what she would like, and actually buying something way nicer than what the mother told him. How Eunice and I had to literally and manually went through almost the whole bunch of cd's  because a lady was kinda...specific. I want modern songs. No, this one I already have at home. Hmm okay can I listen to this one first? Oh that one's praise, do you have worhip soundtracks? ( I had no idea they're two different things) Thumbing through music. And the lady was so fickle! ahahahaha listen listen, then dowan, get another two albums, listen listen, then the first one's better... and so on... Its such a painfully tiringly overwhelming-ly wonderful feeling. Even though its really not pleasant to actually do all that, but as long as you keep a smile on your face, you see the service you are doing to people....it's just satisfying, in a way. Oh did I mention the whole time we were folding those inlays? @#^#$@.


Shit lah. Eunice is only working until end of Feb. I don't think I can work without her. :/ She's like my morale spirit. Damnit. She's not just someone I go too if I need help with store's protocoll, but she's someone I kinda rely on for my morale attitude. She keeps me going :) I guess its cause its my first day so I was really relying on her, but yeah. And poor girl, she was falling sick today. She didnt feel too good, sometimes she sits down and stares at the floor wearily, and I had to do my best to come up with a lame joke to get a "hehg hehg" from her. I would be falling sick too, because the work is really dehydrating (eunice finished two 2-litre bottles in one day), but I don't usually fall sick unless I do something stupid. Like walk in the rain. haha but thats occupational hazard. Stormchasers live in rain.

well that pretty much sums up the day. It felt like a game where before this you're in those easy levels but suddenly you find yourself in a way more challenging level and have to work a bit more on how to get past that level. Hmmm. I should probably stop here and rest. need to fill my juice tank for Second Day.


omg i'm gonna die how the beans am i gonna get through Second Day ah ah ah God please help me ahhhhh i'll get roasted toasted beani-fied.


Oh and did I mention we haven't finish folding those inlays?