More Issues, but small issues

So that project that I am running now is giving me quite a fair bit of problem, and the problems are coming from the client's kids (my old clients) and not the clients themselves.

I am honestly not surprise at how difficult this project is getting because my old clients have done the same thing before where they were pointing out a lot of little details that I have never taken into consideration before because of how minor those details are.

Are they valid concerns? Yes. 

Do they really matter in the long run? No

It's like me baking a vanilla cake, and after baking said cake, the customer ask me what kind of vanilla I use, and I tell them I am using Vanilla Extract, only for them to question why I didn't use vanilla bean because they wanted to see the specks of vanilla bean running through the cake. So once again, is it a valid concern, sure, if you want the vanilla bean aesthetic, but does it matter in the long run, it doesn't because the speck of vanilla bean is not obvious unless you are really looking for it.

Vanilla Buttercream without using Vanilla Bean

Vanilla Buttercream using Vanilla Bean

Same same, but not really, it's not like I made the wrong flavor or coloured it wrong, it's just a minor issue that as a professional, I can't expect the customer to know about, but at the same time, because it is so minor, it is also not something I will ask the customer about before we start work.

So the daughter reached out earlier just now and pointed those small issues out and we ended up having this back and forth with a few phone calls in between, I will say that she was very cordial during the call and it was more to ask rather than to confront, her husband than chimed in as well and I also had a call with him, once again, very cordial and friendly, no aggression of any sorts.

The deal is I like this couple, I enjoy talking to them when it is not topics pertaining to problems they have found during the renovation, the good thing about this renovation is that the house belongs to the parents and not them because if it was their own house, I will have to redo a lot of things, but their parents are a bit more easygoing, so they tend to let things slide if the problems are minor ones.

I wasn't expecting this much issue so early on, I know some will pop up eventually, but not so early on and not at every stage of the renovation. I am not at the second stage, we still have 3 to 4 more stages to go, so far I can't think of any possible issues that might arise from those stages, maybe except the carpentry part, but we'll see how much white hair I will have added to my head by the end of the project.

The Start of a Reno is the End of my Peace.

The last time I had any site to manage was back in January this year, and that January project that I had left at that point was already close to competition, after that, I had not been getting any projects due to my desire to find a new job and leave this current company as soon as possible, and that resulted me with no proper project to work on for 4 months. It was relatively stressful to know that I was not having any income, but I feel like that stress is not as bad as the stress I would usually get from running a project. My face was relatively clear during those 4 months because my stress level wasn't high enough then to cause any sort of break out.

Today marks the first time in 4 months since I have gotten busy with a site to handle and today also reminded me of the aspect of this job that I hate so much. 

It is not just the horrible income, the reason why the income is so horrible is because in order to get a decent income in this job, you will have to deal with the difficult customers that comes with it because homeowners are my source of income and cherry picking who I am willing to work with limits how much I can earn.

This "first project since 4 months" of mine went so smoothly in the beginning. The hacking was done within half a day and my clients even introduced me to their neighbors  who were also interested to do some renovation works, everything honestly went so well and I had a nice chat with the clients that I started wondering why I was even stressing out so much in the first place because they are so friendly.

I said my goodbyes to my clients after I spoke to their neighbor and briefed my sub-cons on what to do, and then headed home to prepare for my Zoom meeting with my other group of clients in the evening at 7pm. I got home at about 1pm and then started watching Youtube and playing Genshin Impact, when it was about 6.30 pm, I started prepping for the meeting, setting up the drawings I wanted to show my Zoom clients and then that was when I got a photo message from my client today.

It was a picture of a pipe that had cracked, I thought it was quite serious because the pipe is partially buried underneath the flooring, if I had to replace that cracked pipe, I will probably have to replace the entire pipe, which means even more hacking, so I quickly send the picture to my plumber and ask for his advice.  Thankfully, the pipe was actually a redundant pipe that was needed in the past but was no longer needed now, so it didn't have to be replaced, we can simply just epoxy the crack up and be done with it or just completely remove it, so I happily shared with my client via text that that pipe is not important and can be fixed easily with epoxy glue, and that was when the problem started.

"When you say repair the pipe, you mean to just seal up the crack or will you change the entire pipe?"

"I am concern that if you just repair the crack and not replace the entire thing, it will cause problems in the future."

  "What if water starts leaking out from that crack?"

"I am concerned that if we just repair the crack with epoxy and the crack starts giving issue once the new cabinet is up, we will have to dismantle everything again."

... all this happening 30 minutes before my 7pm Zoom Meeting.  I was trying to mentally prep myself for the Zoom Meeting and this gets brought up to my attention, everything was going so well and then I get this issue that I have to deal with.

I was having this back and forth with my client and my plumber who kept telling me the pipe is redundant and can be removed without causing any future issue, an assurance that I kept bringing up to my clients, but it just fell on deaf ear. I called the client up directly and spoke to him and I thought that that was it, that all I needed to do was give him a call to finally get through to him, I then quickly arrange with my plumber to go down within the next 2 days to remove the redundant pipe and at about 6.55pm, I was finally done ,or so I thought,  my Zoom application was open this entire time and I could see my Zoom clients were already in the waiting room, so I quickly set up my camera and invited them in..

My Zoom meeting didn't go super well, if I were to be very honest, I have never enjoyed Zoom meetings, so I did not have fun with this particular one, plus what happened earlier clearly had some effect on my mood.

During Zoom meetings, I will also set up 2 computes, a small laptop that has a video camera and then my desktop for me to do my presentation via screen sharing, sadly for me, my laptop that had the camera just went BSOD halfway through the meeting, so what my client ended up getting was just this freeze frame of me in a really really horrible ugly angle, that that was just stuck on the meeting screen for a good 2 minutes before it finally went away and that account that was kicked out.

I was still in the meeting via my desktop, so the meeting was still happening, the only thing was that my clients could only hear my voice now and could no longer see me via the video. 

Anyways, the reason why this appointment did not go well is because this Zoom clients decided to bring up how they were rushing to move in before a certain date, even though we had already discussed this previously TWICE in person and they had already accepted the fact that a delay to their move in date is inevitable. I don't know why everything I am saying or have said is suddenly just falling on deaf ears today.

It's always so irritating when I tell a client that their move in date is not realistic, and they still insist on moving in on that date. I was told that the reason they needed to move in directly after their wedding was because they had work commitments and exams to take right after and didn't want the renovation to be taking up their time and it's just extremely frustrating for me because this is not a problem I should be dealing with, if you were in a rush, you should have started looking for an Interior Designer much sooner.

Why are you suddenly piling this on me, especially about the exam, so if you end up doing badly, you are going to insinuate that it is my fault because I couldn't get the renovation done in time is it?

It's like me wanting to get a customized cake for a friend's party, but instead of ordering the cake in advance like I should when I want to get a customized cake, I go to the bakery an hour before the party and give the shop my order, expecting them to be able to do one for me, and when they tell me they will need at least 3 days to get the order ready, I tell them...

"Oh, but it's my friend's birthday today and I really need that cake like right now because the part starts in an hour."

...  the shop will suddenly no longer have a waiting list and the cake suddenly no longer need  30 minutes to bake, no longer need an hour to cool before it can be frosted, no longer need how many hours it would usually take to decorate, JUST BECAUSE YOU SAY YOU NEED IT URGENTLY because that can somehow alter the reality of time and logic. 

For fuck sake, that is not how this shit works, and it is just fucking irritating that homeowners don't get it, ESPECIALLY DURING THIS PANDEMIC WHEN MANPOWER IS ALREADY LOW! AND YOU WANT THINGS TO BE DONE FASTER THAN NORMAL? 

It's so stupid but anyways, the zoom meeting lasted only about 30 minutes because I hate Zoom meetings and wanted it to end as soon as possible and as I was saying my goodbyes to my Zoom client, my other client's daughter called me, she was also my client previously, that's why we are familiar with one another, and then reiterated her father's concern to me, and it was just me repeating the same thing I have shared with her father, to her again, and she wasn't very convinced, I do have to say she was very nice about it, but it's still really frustrating when the clients just don't bother to listen and believe what you have to say.

She then discusses with her Father after our call about what can be done and it seems like I am back to square one again because now the Dad wants to talk to the plumber directly and get his response, he is just going to be getting the same reply as what I have shared with him because that is LITERALLY WHAT MY PLUMBER IS TELLING ME!  What is an easily solvable problem has now become unnecessarily complicated because the clients are not convinced that what I am saying is true despite what I am saying is what the professional is relaying to me. 

The funny thing here is I have worked with the daughter and her husband twice and both times, despite me liking them both as individuals and enjoying having conversations with them, they are not my favorite clients to work with. I was honestly expecting the same thing to happen with this project and unfortunately, I was right and it is happening right now now, but it is feels less aggressive because the Dad is much milder compared to his Daughter, so I won't say I am too surprised at how it turned out, but that doesn't make the experience any less unpleasant.

Anyways,  I have to meet another client tomorrow who will be starting work next week, I was anticipating the project for that client to be the most troublesome one, and I thought these two that I have spoken with today will be somewhat manageable, but it seems I may have underestimated them. Now I feel like the one who will truly be giving me a hard time is actually the Zoom Meeting one, but we'll see how tomorrow's meeting goes and who will be the bane of my existence and be given a coveted nickname during this round of projects.

Potential Renovation Woes

 After I started taking customer leads from my company again, I have managed to clinch 3 new projects over the past 1 month. 

Out of the 3 that I got, there was 1 that I wasn't really interested in taking on, we had met a total of 4 to 5 times before they actually signed the contract to confirm my services, a contract that could have been signed much earlier in actuality, delayed only because I kept asking them to go back and consider, but eventually, it got to a point where they were starting feeling really bad because they felt like they were taking advantage of me by not signing any contract to officially engage me or making any payment, little did they know it is because I do not want the project.

I felt bad that they felt bad and the wife even insisted buying me coffee during the fifth meeting, as a gesture of goodwill for the help I have been offering them, and at that point, if I lied and told them I was busy and couldn't take on their project to get out of it, I would feel like an asshole. I mean if I tried to paylah her back for the coffee, it wouldn't absolve my guilt.

The clients are really nice people, the wife especially, but the problem I have with this clients is that we do not click, we don't really vibe, and after working with the clients from my previous project  that I really clicked with and had an enjoyable experience working with, I have grown even more picky with homeowners I want to work with, now you can't just be friendly, now you have to click with me.

There is a huge difference between being able to click with a client, and a client being friendly. 

When a client clicks with me, it means they like me and we connect at a personal level, the renovation journey is just so much smoother, any potential hiccups that we end up encountering can be amicably resolved because they will come to me as a friend, they come to me knowing that I did not allow the issues to happen on purpose or do it to incur additional cost to earn a few extra buck, they come in willing to listen to why it happen and willing to be advised on what can be done to resolve the problem.

When a client is simply just friendly, that means we don't click on a personal level, that means that if anything goes wrong, they won't be as understanding because they don't see me as a friend, they see me as a contractor who is being paid by them to do a job, and if that job isn't done well, then they, as the paying customer, have the right to get upset and angry, and it is always never a good experience when a friendly client switches and becomes a disgruntled client because they will never switch back to their friendly persona again, they will start to nitpick at every single thing, they will become less cordial because they no longer see the point in being nice and once that only redeeming factor about them is gone, then they will be no different form the rude and entitled clients that I don't even bother following up a second time after the first meeting.

So as nice as these latest client is now, I will never know when they will make that switch during the renovation because the friendliness feels superficial and I honestly just don't click with the husband at all, he is cordial during meetings but we do not vibe with each other at all. 

I went to a site visit with them one time and the existing owner had a cat, so when I saw the cat, I whispered to the husband that I was really tempted to pet the cat, had I said this to a client that I click with, they will usually respond with a chuckle and maybe ask the owner on my behalf if the cat can be pet, but because I don't click with the husband and our personality just don't match, he completely ignores me and goes on to listen to his wife's conversation with the current owner. 

I also realize that anytime I try and make some some of joke in the form of sarcasm, it usually falls flat on the both of them, like they don't get what's so funny, so the wife either fake smiles or they both don't bother to smile and just looks at me really confused or like what the husband does and pretends like I didn't say anything. 

Making sarcastic remarks or a joke is my coping mechanism in social situations because I am socially awkward.

An example of a sarcastic joke I would make would be, let's say a customer tells me he has a collection of Godzilla figurines he wants to display during our first appointment. I will remember that detail and bring it up again as a joke later on during the following appointments, for example when we reach the stage where they can't decide what colour they want to paint the wall, I will then say something stupid as a joke like...

"Why not we use Godzilla as a reference and then paint your house that color?"

... and usually, the clients who gets me will catch on and then chuckle at the joke, the good ones will sometimes think of a comeback and then we can have a friendly banter, but then there are those that don't get it, take it literally and they respond with...

"So you are proposing dark grey for our house, hmmm, I am not so sure, I think we are looking at pastel blues and greens?"

... and it's so awkward because then, I don't know whether to tell them I am  joking or to just pretend to treat it as a legit suggestions, because if I tell them I was joking and they still don't get it, it will become even more awkward.

One more thing about this particular client is that  I have also made it a point not to reply to the wife's messages ( I didn't even bother getting the husband's number and opening a group chat because that's how much we do not click) after 9.30pm, just to give myself a proper time-off from work, and I guess she is aware I won't reply, so she would usually message me at ungodly hours of between 12.30am to 2.30am. 

The reason why I didn't reply immediately in the past was because I wasn't interested in the project, so I wanted to appear like I wasn't very responsive, but it didn't work and she kept coming back, so eventually that became a habit I have with her and now, I just don't feel obligated to reply to her after 9.30pm anymore and she also does the same. 

When I wake up, I will reply to her messages after 9.30am and she wouldn't respond until that ungodly hour, and we would have this back and forth where both of us wouldn't respond immediately, which I personally kind of like. I don't think I will be able to enjoy this once the renovation starts though because if I need to confirm something with them and the wife is going to take half a day to reply me, it is going to make my job EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. 

The last exchange I had with the wife was about 2 days back, we are suppose to schedule a date to drop by the condo together to submit the renovation form, I messaged her in the afternoon, she replies back at 2.30am, naturally I am not going to reply back immediately, even though I saw her message come in because the bloody message woke me up from my sleep, and I replied to her at around 10.30am, essentially telling her that she needs to prepare a few cheques for the renovation deposit, I ask her to double check with the condo management directly on how much she needs to prepare and then that was that, I was expecting her to let me know when she wants us to drop by the condo management together to submit the documents..... it has been 2 days since that last message to her and she hasn't updated me on a date yet.

They are rushing to move in, but they don't seem to have any sense of urgency when it comes to actually getting the renovation started, which is very worrying for me and this was not why I didn't want to take the project, this is another reason why I shouldn't have taken the project after they had confirm the contract with me.

I guess the only thing I can do now is hope for the best, but expect the worst, to really just dissociate when they start blaming me for delays. It's so pessimistic, but I would rather set my expectations for them low and then be pleasantly surprise at how understanding they are, then set it high and then be disappointed when they actually become a nightmare, like what happen with Sly Fox.

Fucked it up...

So I just had a Whatsapp Video interview for an Online Visual Merchandiser role and I am pretty sure I completely fucked it up.

For starters, I have no fucking clue what an Online Visual Merchandiser does, I know what a Visual Merchandiser does but adding "Online" in front of the job title is something completely new to me, so my whole goal for the interview today was to learn the what the job entails and what the responsibilities of it would be.

Prior to the interview, when I was reached out by the HR who had informed me that I had been shortlisted for an Interview, I was very skeptical of the position because it was relatively high paying for a role that is supposedly entry level, it sounded too good to be true, plus the company itself didn't have much history, I couldn't find anything related to them aside from their official website, Instagram and Facebook, all of which were newly created only earlier last month, the website had nothing about the company's past works, no introduction to the founders of the company, there was literally nothing but the very generic introduction to their company and what they do, which was basically something like..

"Connecting business owners to the world"

... or something, it would be like my interior design company creating a website, and only have a small passage on the main page that reads...

"Making your dream home come true."

... and not have any portfolio, no proper introduction to the company, no introduction to the designers they have, nothing about what kind of service is being offered, just nothing.

The Instagram and Facebook link was worst, only had the company's logo and that was it, and the Facebook was also created barely a month ago so really nothing else for me to gain any information from. The Instagram had literally nothing posted, the only thing I noticed was that it was following 2 accounts, so I went to look at the accounts it was following and one of it belonged to the HR, which is private and I know it is the HR because the HR has a unique name, the other was also a private account, and the profile picture was not of someone who looked like a business owner or a working professional because it was simply a low resolution photo of a girl eating noodles while using the Tik Tok Twin Filter.

When I went into the interview, I was prepared to have my time wasted, aside from trying to understand the position, I was also planning to ask the HR what the company's future plans were and all that, essentially just to see if they knew what they were planning to do with the company as it was introduced as a start up company. I was planning to be the one who ask the questions and not the other way around.

So I get a video call from the HR at about 11.15am earlier just now, and surprisingly, she looked very presentable,  like a working professional. I think she told me she wasn't the HR who had reached out to me, but I wasn't super sure because I was very flustered trying to get my stupid Bluetooth earphones to work. I was having the interview at my office during working hours and the stupid call was being played on my phone via loudspeaker, it's not nice to be having a job interview at my current workplace, so it's even worst that my colleagues and manager could potentially listen in on it. 

As I was fumbling around trying to check why my stupid earphones weren't connected, the HR started introducing herself and her company, she then talked about what their company is up to and what they plan to do, about their new clients who had just reached out to them and wants to work with them and I honestly couldn't focus because of the fucking earphones were not connecting.

I had to then request for the HR to give me a minute to set up the stupid bluetooth earphones, and when it was finally connected, she ask if it would be alright for the client to join the call, which took me by surprise because I was here to learn what the position is about, but I couldn't say No, so I begrudgingly agreed to it, honestly thinking that the client just gonna sit in and brief me on the job scope and ask me all the generic interview questions. 

I was wrong.

What happens next was just horrible, the fuck up was as bad as my fuck up when I went for the writing internship interview. The writing internship was bad in a different way because at least I knew what the job entails and my fuck up for that position was entirely my fault. 

With his however, not only do I not have any experience in the role, I have no fucking clue what the role actually entails, right after the client introduces himself and his company, the HR goes...

"So my client is planning to do a recruitment drive and we want to know how you would go about promoting this recruitment drive."

... I don't even know the exact nature of the job and now you are giving me a scenario and asking me what I would do in that scenario as an Online Visual Merchandiser, what the fuck is an Online Visual Merchandiser suppose to do? I literally have no fucking clue, I honestly just started staring into space when this was brought up as a question and was silent for maybe a good 5 to 10 seconds because I have no fucking clue how to respond to that. 

This would be the equivalent of me throwing someone who doesn't bake but has bought cakes from a bakery before, into Phoon Huat and then asking them to buy the ingredients needed to make an Opera Cake with zero instructions, like what the fuck?

So I just started drowning in confusion during the interview, I even had to clarify if this was a     Marketing position because it sounded more like a marketing position than a Visual Merchandising position, I mean the whole thing was so confusing. I am not someone who can think on my feet, I need time to really sit down and come up with ideas, so I was just blank the entire time during that scenario role play.

After a while, I just started sharing like a very generic response, saying we should do an online campaign to draw the crowds in and then do a roadshow to introduce what we are doing and it was just BAD because it was so fucking obvious that I was just spewing random generic bullshit out. 

Eventually the HR changed the question and asked me where I see myself in 5 years, and because I am already in flustered mode, I just blurted out...

"Oh, a stable career and hopefully be able to manage my own group of people."

.... I don't want to manage my own group of people. I would make a horrible manager, why the fuck did I even bring that up.

And then the client brings up another question of how I would feel stepping out of my comfort zone, I could answer this a bit better because in my line of work, I am always stepping out of my comfort zone, so I shared that experience with him and then he ask me what I would do it I was presented with another job opportunity in the future, to which I responded that if it is another job scope within the company, than I am open for it, but I am looking to settle down so I don't plan to jump to a different company. I am not sure if that is the answer they are looking for, but that is my honest opinion so I have no regrets with that answer.

The client then thanks me for my time and leaves the group call because he has to go back to work, I was then left alone with the HR and I was expecting her to continue the interview further and ask me how I felt about the call and all that, but instead she just tells me someone will get in touch with me again, saying...

"The other HR will get back to you tomorrow, or maybe in a few days, she will try and get back to you in a week." 

... or within the month, or within the year, or most likely never.

I know the interview went poorly, I would be surprise if the HR actually get back to me after that mess. 

I am an Interior Designer, I have knowledge in Project Management and Interior Design, I have zero Knowledge in Visual Merchandising, much less an Online one, so I was extremely ill-prepared for the interview and fucked the whole thing up. 

So there goes this opportunity, here's hoping for another one to pop up within the next few months so I can actually quit and land a stable career somewhere.

ICT Seventh Cycle - Final Duty

The final duty today went as well as it could have gone, I got up at about 4am today, made a cup of coffee and toast, was contemplating drinking the $200 vitamin supplement because I am suppose to take a cup every morning, but decided not to just because it is a  little too early and I needed caffeine to wake me up. Did a bit of internet surfing and then booked a Grab and headed to camp. 

My duty started almost immediately once I reach camp, I got my rifle and was pretty much doing my duty within the 10 minutes, after the duty was done, I managed to get a Grab within like a 1 minute of opening the app and successfully made my way home an hour later.

The weather was nice on the way out and I was once again very lucky to be able to get a Grab today, I did have back up rides out though, but my lazy ass would rather one shot take a ride all the way home for my last duty.

 And with that, my final duty for this cycle is over! 

I have spend at least $150 for round this reservist because of Grab, it is really quite ridiculous, but I like doing my duty at this part of the camp because it's just so much more lax compared to the main camp. I can sit down during my duty, I can use my phone during my duty openly, there is hardly any traffic during peak hours and half the time I was doing my duty in an air-conditioned room.

If possible, I would actually prefer to come back to this camp during my next cycle, I am even considering taking a rider's license just so I can get a scooter and be able to travel easily to and fro, also having my own mode of transport would be great in general as well for the future.

Anyways, I will have to report to the main camp again on Monday to officially complete this cycle, work also starts tomorrow, have an appointment to attend to, and suddenly I feel the work stress coming back. 

This round of job hunt also feels like it's not really going anywhere, so I will probably start taking projects again and just see how the job applications I have submitted during the past 2 weeks go, if I get an interview and somehow land a new job, then good for me, I will move on and pass my projects to my manager to take over, if not, at least I will still have future commissions to rely on. 

Actively stopping new projects from coming in under the assumption that I will definitely get  a new job was a really stupid move on my part because now, my income is going to be dry for at least the next 3 months.

 Sometimes I can't decide which stress is worst, the stress my clients are giving me, or the stress from not having any projects, all I know is I am constantly stressed. 

Staycation

The Staycation has been stayed.

I was actually quite excited about the Staycation initially, so the night before I leave, I started packing everything I knew I needed to bring and left home the next day in the afternoon. Took a train there and it was relatively fast, about 45 minutes, which compared to when I had to take a bus in the past before the trains were up, that is half the travel time.

I don't go Chinatown often, so the last trip I remember making to that area was when the trains were still not up yet and I had to take a bus to another train station from my house.

Anyways, I reached Chinatown a little early, about 30 minutes before the check-in time, so I headed to Chinatown Point to get a cup of Boost and a few Pastries for lunch, which I was going to eat in the hotel room, I honestly don't have any itinerary for the staycation, the goal was just to stay in the room the entire time I was there and maybe pop by the closest convenient store every few hours to get lunch or a drink or whatever I needed that the room didn't' have.

After I got the stuff for lunch, I went to check-into the hotel and the reception area was really quite small, I go up to the desk, pass the guy my IC, did all the temperature check, declaration form shenanigans and was given the keycard to my room at level 3.

I got myself a Deluxe Queen room and was expecting some sort of deluxe looking space as the name implied, but when I got into the room, I was surprised at how small it was.

Upon entering the room, I am greeted on the left with this little counter which also houses the kitchen/toilet sink, the chair was initially tucked away inside the cabinet so I had thought at the start of my staycation that the only sitting area was the bed. 

The fridge on the right that is tucked within the cabinet is "working", but it's not cold, the lights turn on when I open the door, but there is no cold air inside, it is actually warmer inside than it is outside in the aircon room, so the fridge was useless.

This is the bed, tucked against the wall with 3 pillows, so the counter also acts as the bedhead. This is the kind of thing I will design for my clients, but now that I actually am using it, I am not a huge fan. 

This is the toilet that is directly beside the bed, it has a rain shower, which is nice.

But when I am laying down in bed, the toilet is essentially just right beside me, which I do not appreciate, I mean it's kinda gross to be looking into the toilet while I am trying to get comfortable in bed. There is also no lock on the sliding door, so maybe not a good room to get with friends and family, better with couples, except when you need to shit because I wouldn't want my significant other to just come into the bathroom while I am squeezing.

This is the state of the TV quality, not good, I only turn it on at night to get some background noise going.

I do like the ambient lighting they have chosen to go with, there is no lights on the ceiling, everything is lit through the ambient light boxes except in the toilet, that also means the room never really feels like it is completely lit at night.

One thing I really did not like about the room was the toilet bowl because this is how close my legs are to the glass partition wall. Number 2s were not the best experience, they honestly should have found a way to rotate the toilet bowl because this is not comfortable.

Generally, the room is clean and for the price I paid for, this is the standard I should be expecting, I mean it is a 3 star boutique hotel so can't really complaint too much. In the future though, I would probably choose to staycation at another hotel.

I didn't really explore Chinatown too much, was only sticking to Chinatown Point and that was it, but I did go to Paya Lebar Quarter to meet up with a friend since I was in the area and he ended up selling me his MLM drink, which I stupidly bought. He was very convincing during his pitch and I am as gullible as the old people his company targets, so I ended up getting like 2 months worth of powder for the drink and the price is insane, I still cannot believe I actually agreed to buy it.

He started his pitch by preparing a cup of the drink for me, then told me to wait for 5 minutes and informs me that parts of my body will start to flush, he tells me that he can evaluate the problems I have by the areas that are flushing, and within 5 minutes, I started feeling the tingles on my neck and face and he proceeds to talk about what each area means, I mean when I am physically feeling the flushes and he is breaking down the problems that are causing the flushes, it just sounds and feels very convincing because I am experiencing what he says will happen.  

I believe he thinks it works because he also uses the stuff, apparently for the past 11 years or so, his whole family uses it, his friends gets it from him as well and he shows me photos of his friends before and after they started drinking the product, their skin suddenly got better, their eyebags went away and all that miraculous shit. He then tells me that I am no longer young, so I should take care of myself, and then he goes..

"So how many bottles you want?"

I honestly thought at the start, he was going to give me like a few days worth of sample, just to try it first before I commit to paying for it, but there he was, asking me how many bottles I wanted, he was initially pushing for me to get 6 months, but I told him it was too much, that I didn't want to commit, so he said 3 months, I said still too much, and he finally tells me to get at least 2 months because I can enjoy a slight discount if I get more than 1.

He did a breakdown of the price for me and told me because I will need to drink it 3 times a day, each cup would end up to be at about $7, and I said...

"Oh, like how much I would pay for a cup of bubble tea."

... he laughs, I laugh because my dumbass made it easier for him to sell the product to me, I had self rationalize the price point in my head. It is some expensive shit, it is almost the same price as me going to the dentist to fix my cavities multiple times. 

He passes me 2 months worth, ask me to Paylah him the amount and it just felt really surreal then and there, I was a little skeptical about the product , so a part of me felt like I was watching myself get scam. 

When I finally went back to the hotel later that evening, I started to Google the company and that was when I realize I had just paid for some overpriced, over-exaggerated nutrient powder supplement drink. There are websites that are debunking the product, but those websites look dubious as shit and I believe are the brands competitor just trying to do some damage to the brand because it's written in broken English, but there also aren't any proper reviews written about the drink as well, which is a bit disconcerting.  I do think that the drink is "healthy", but it definitely does not do the things that it claims to,  because if it did, there would already be articles written about it, articles I couldn't find.

I honestly do not know if I should call this a scam because my friend clearly believes it works, that is why he sold the product to me and he himself drinks it religiously, 

Sigh, I was so disappointed in myself. But what to do? Since I already got the product might as well give it a shot and see if it has any benefits, if only I had been an old person, maybe the drink would have had a placebo effect on me. but I am not, and I am coming into it as a skeptic, so if this shit actually shows even the slightest of improvements, I am going to be impressed, but I ain't buying this shit from him anymore. Upside is I got a nice 1 liter water bottle, so there is that.

So getting scammed aside, the other interesting thing that happened happen this morning. I woke up at like 7am, ate some bread I had gotten the day before and drank 1 liter of green tea, was planning to stay in the room until check out time, but then got really bored, so I decided to go to Chinatown Point to get a cup of Boost for 2nd breakfast, like a proper cup of fruit juice, actual healthy stuff and not the dubious health powder I had gotten the evening before. So as I was making my way to the basement, I see 3 security guards trying to squeeze their way into a store that wasn't open yet, one was holding a fire extinguisher and another that was already inside was shouting for said extinguisher, I assume a small fire had happen, but there was no smoke, so I thought maybe someone had broke in and they were trying to use the extinguisher as some sort of blunt weapon to scare the guy out. 

I make my way to the escalator and when I reach the basement, I started to smell a slight burning smell, I didn't think it was a big deal though because the shop didn't look like there was a huge fire happening, it didn't cross my mind that a fire could spread because I am a dumbass, so I continue on towards Boost and then the fire alarm starts going off.

No one cared, everyone just stayed where they were, I looked backed and notice there was now a lot of smoking coming for the direction of the escalator I had just came from, the the announcement was made to evacuate the mall. I headed to the nearest exit and see a bunch of people busy taking photos of the smoke before they left and wondered if maybe I should as well, just for fun, didn't end up taking any though and just left the place empty handed. 

I settled for 7-11 instead, got a cup of iced latte from their coffee machine and some instant oats, and then just waited in the room until check out, which was suppose to be at 12, but I figured I should leave half an hour earlier so I can avoid the lunch crowd in the train.

My bag was so full because of the stupid supplement powder and it was also bloody heavy, that weight really was like a painful reminder. Thankfully, the train was quite empty, so I didn't have to stand during the ride home.

Now that I am home though, I am actually drinking the supplement, will see what effects it will have on me after 2 months. 

Will also be reporting back to camp tomorrow morning at 5.30am, so gotta wake up at an ungodly hour once again later, which is good because I hardly got any sleep in the hotel last night.

Seventh Cycle - 9 Day

For the trip to camp today, instead of taking the taxi straight from home, I decided to go to Simei and have a heavy breakfast first, this way the Grab will be cheaper and I can also get a proper meal before I book in, so I got myself  2 sets of KFC breakfast, a porridge and one of their wraps which lasted me the entire day pretty easily.

It is nice to visit Simei now because that place feels familiar after having gone there almost on a daily basis late last year for a project. Said project had a pretty smooth renovation, I really enjoyed talking to the homeowners, who felt more like friends than clients, they are one of the very few clients I have had so far that I truly enjoy texting and talking to, so Simei brings about positive feelings.

Anyways, I had my breakfast there, got a few items from 7-11, got a Grab and the first thing the Grab lady told me was...

"I almost wanted to cancel your ride because of the location you are going to, I can tell you only 1 in every 100 grab drivers will be willing to take your ride request to go the your camp because we can never get any customers when we leave that place."

... and to think, I was feeling confident that I could actually get a ride out later in the evening because I will not be ending as late as I did previously at 7.30pm, but after what she said, it just made me realize that I was actually extremely lucky to have gotten rides out from there twice the past week.

I reach camp, and I start my duty, the first guy who was doing the duty with me was only doing it for 2 hours, so I figured I didn't want to invest too much time talking to him if he is going to be gone in like 2 hours, I mean I did try a little but he wasn't really trying to keep the conversation going either, so I gave up and started playing with my phone.

2.5 hours later, his replacement finally arrives and because he had to do an extra 30 minutes of duty, he got upset at the replacement, who then kept apologizing and explaining that it was not his fault, that he had to attend a briefing and everyone also got held up, the first guy then left in a huff, saying that it is not fair. 

The replacement, whom I shall just called Harold, was a bit more open to conversation, but he is someone who does things by the book, so he told me that I can't use my phone during the duty because he was just briefed about it, apparently one of their active was caught by one of the regulars for using a phone, so now they are implementing a ban on everyone in the platoon, technically I am not the platoon, I am an ICT, so technically, that ban does not affect, and even if I were to get caught using a phone, the higher ups wouldn't be able to do anything other than tell me to be more "tactical" about it, as ICTs, we are treated and spoken to as equals by the regular commanders. I did tell Harold that I was an ICT, that the ban probably doesn't apply to me, but I could tell how nervous he was about potentially getting in trouble by proxy, and I also didn't want him to get into trouble, so I agreed to his request and put my phone away.

Harold then apologizes to me about it and asks me to sit next to him, so we can spend the next few hours chatting to kill the time. He is a nice guy, but he is also the type that talks more than he listens, and he is a bit of a geek, so he was talking about games and animes, more on the former than the latter because our taste in anime is different.

We started talking about Genshin Impact, a game I have been playing for the past few months, so that went well, I could relate to what he was saying, we talked about our luck in game, how much we spend, he shares this long story about how lucky his sister was because she got all the rare characters. After that, things kinda went a bit dull for me because he started talking about Team Fortress 2, which I never really played a lot of, and DOTA 2, which I don't enjoy playing and haven't touched since 2013 maybe.

He was trying to impress me and telling me about the strategies he used in the game that is very unorthodox, that are "high risk", telling me uses what weapon with what skill and I just didn't know what he was really talking about, and he was talking about it in such detail, I think expecting to be blown away by how insane his tactics are, but once again, I caught no balls...

"I play with my friend, he uses the Zolar and I use Hoalr, then I equipped my Hoalr with Gualr, and get a high crit rate, but because Gualr comes equipped with FHOA, it gives me this buff that makes Zolar invulnerable to BAUA."

.... didn't understand what he was saying, honestly didn't care too much about it, so I just smiled and went "Oh, wow, didn't know you could do that" and all those sort of reactions , and he just kept going on, first with Team Fortress 2, and then with DOTA2, doing the same thing, using terms I don't understand and just going on with his longwinded stories. 

Towards the end of the duty, we started talking about Genshin Impact again because I kinda had enough of listening to him talk about things I can't relate, and so he tells me we can end our duty maybe 5 minutes earlier and he can show his characters to me because he wanted to flex. 

We end 5 minutes earlier and I was honestly more concerned about getting a Grab than his Genshin Impact progress, so I return my rifle, starting packing my stuff and I could sense him hovering behind me, phone in his hand and he gestures towards his phone and then starts showing off  his characters to me. It was endearing I guess, he started flexing to me, showing me the weapons he has collected, the characters he has, I was honestly spending more time glancing at my own phone trying to see if anyone has accepted my request, no one did, the presentation of his lasted for maybe a minutes and he was done, I had to go, so I told him I was going to make a move, he plops himself down on the closest chair he could find and went on to admire his own characters after, I think also a little dejected that I was not as impressed as he thought I would be and a lot of that has to do with the fact that my characters are stronger than his, so it's a little bit difficult to be really impressed.

I head out of the camp, no Grab in sight, kept getting told that no driver is around, that I should try again later. I would have gotten a little anxiety had it not been for the fact that Steven was around, he will be ending his duty 7.30pm,so if I really couldn't find a Grab, I could always hitch a ride out from him, I just need to wait till he was done, which is better than the first time I was stuck in camp with no backup plan on how to leave the base.

So in the middle of me trying to find a Grab and accepting my fate that I will be stuck until Steven completes his duty and drives me out, a food truck comes out from the base and the driver makes eye contact with my desperate self, he could see I was desperate, so he started gesturing to the passenger seat beside him, asking me if I needed a ride out and I took his offer up immediately.

I was so grateful, climbed into the van and this nice driver drives me to Changi Village. The ride took about 20 minutes because he was driving at a speed limit, but I can't complaint, it is a free ride out, he was quite chatty as well so the ride was not exactly 20 minutes of awkward silence. 

I arrive at the bus stop at around 6.45pm, took the wrong bus and reached the closest MRT Station at 7.15pm, it's really quite ridiculous how long it actually took for me just to reach the closest MRT because if I had not been thrown in the East airbase and was in the West, I could have reached home at 7.30pm!

Finally reach Beauty World MRT at around 8pm, got some microwavable food from there and then headed home for the day.

And so with that, I am now left with 1 more 6 hour shift, once that is completed, this cycle will be over, but before that last shift, I will be going for a 1 night Staycation alone, just for fun, decided to book a boutique hotel room using the Rediscover Voucher in Chinatown, will see how that goes, and if it is enjoyable, I might do more solo staycations in the future. I just like the idea of coming into an aircon bedroom and not have to do anything.