Entitled Cheapskate

Not too long ago, I was on this website called Qanvast looking for design inspiration when I came across this a rather negative review left on an interior design company's profile.



So many times, when a client leaves a negative review, the company will have to be the one who has to pander to the client, even if the clients are the one in the wrong. It can be really frustrating because I have colleagues who have gotten unfairly reviewed by clients before and all my marketing department can do is write the generic...

"We apologize that you feel this way and value your feedback."

... response, which is just infuriating.



That is why when I saw how that company responded to that particular client, it just felt so immensely gratifying. The client's review was written very passive aggressively and the company actually responded in a similar fashion, displayed a fair bit of sarcasm in their response and then essentially called the client out for being a cheapskate.

Gotta have respect for the company for actually standing up for their employee, if a customer is being difficult during the renovation and then have the audacity to actually write a negative review after the renovation is complete and blame their bad experience on the designer, then they deserve to be called out for it.



*UPDATE*

The review has since been taken down. I actually know the homeowner who left the nasty review because he is actually my friend's friend, so I went to check his instagram and realize that the company actually send him a cease and desist letter.  

He left a few permanent insta-stories on his instagram, trying to call the company out for their lack of professionalism with screenshots of his conversation with them, and then saying the matter isn't over. 

If the company was truly in the wrong, they wouldn't have responded the way they did.

If the company isn't confident about winning a potential lawsuit against a customer, they wouldn't be sending a cease and desist letter.

The matter is so fucking over, it is only a matter of whether he wants it to be over the easy way or the hard way.

more update:

I came across the review posted by the homeowner on his own Facebook after the ID Firm took legal action and had him take his review down.

... I came across his Facebook after I was looking through Qanvast's facebook page and notice there was one angry reaction on their post...

... I honestly wasn't very surprised when that the "reaction" was from him because he must be feeling extremely bitter about getting threatened with legal action from the design firm, so I saw his Facebook profile and almost everything was private aside from that post.

From what I remembered about the reply by the company to his extremely passive aggressive review.

1. The person who was paying for the renovation works was not actually him but his partner, who actually had no complaints about the entire renovation.

2. The design firm gave him a lot of discount because he was a "cheapskate", the company actually used this word to describe him at one point in the review, which was insanely awesome. This also shows that the company probably didn't wasn't that interested to take on his project because he isn't their demographic customers, which are customers who are willing to fork out money for design. I think he must have been extremely persistent to work with them and pressured them into removing the design fee as well.

3.  The company even said something about him "stealing their designs", I assume he wanted to take the design proposal the designer had prepared for his project and pass it to a contractor to do, but because the designer wasn't going to give her proposal, he couldn't do that. This is exactly why I do not give my proposal to non paying clients, I believe the designer from that design firm must have prepared a pretty extensive proposal as well seeing how they are a boutique firm that charges a design fee.

4. He got his own tiles and did not go through the company's supplier and the tiles he actually bought were cheap tiles from China to save money, so the tiles actually had cracks after they were laid on the walls and he pointed it out as poor workmanship. You buy cheap stuff, then don't expect good quality, simple as that.

The company also called the client out by his full name in their respond because this client called the designer out by her full name a few times in the review, it was so satisfying and honestly such a pity that the review was taken down.

Also just to bring up one of his point...

This is the plastic edging he was talking about and YES, this is standard practice! I am also extremely skeptical about his claims that the tiles he had gotten were "pricey Italian tiles", this dude is a cheapskate, no way he actually paid for real Italian tiles, but anyway, the designer wasn't lying, this is the standard, if he wanted 45 degree edging, it does cost more because the tilers will have to file down the side of the tiles to do that profile, and the designer herself probably didn't bother bringing that up as an option because the customer is a cheapskate, so what is the point of bringing up a premium option he was either probably going to request be done for free or be given a heavily discounted price.

Him calling out the designer for not "sharing the industry's best practice" is a fucking joke, dude, you are a fucking low baller, the fact that the company even bothered working on your project is a fucking miracle, sharing the industry's best practice should only be saved for customers who are willing to pay for the industry's best practice because sharing those with you is like playing the harp to a cow, a waste of saliva.

The fact that the boss didn't bother to reply to his messages and whatnot shows how much of a nightmare this low baller customer must have been. I have seen the way the company replies to negative reviews on their Qanvast page and they are very professional if they are in the wrong, so the fact that the response to his review was actually extremely sarcastic and as passive aggressive really goes to show the type of customer this low baller really is, truly an Entitled Cheap Skate.

This is the "Design Centric, Budget Friendly" customer type that I absolutely abhor getting. 

Second Interview

The Antoinette's renovation permit is coming to an end this coming Friday and I honestly feel like I will end up be paying the penalty fee to extend it.



I have already calculated my profit margin in an excel sheet, listing down my selling prices against the cost price, adding in all the discounts I have given them, the free items I have offered them out of goodwill, the penalty fee that I will most likely end up paying and after all that the calculation, the final figure doesn't look good. I am still earning that's for sure but the amount is not a justifiable figure for the time and effort I have put into the project and the stress and anxiety the project has put me through, especially during my reservist, which according to my friends who were with me, was one of the most relaxing one we have ever attended, we were comparing it to staying in a chalet, that's how comfortable it was and I am feeling extremely bitter that the Antoinette's Project had to ruin the whole experience.




My biggest gripe with this project right now is that is feels like it will never end, Mr Antoinette has marked out the problem areas already, so it's just a matter of touching up those problem areas, but the problem with Mr Antoinette is how nit-picky he has suddenly gotten because a some of those areas have already been touched up once, he just can't accept it and is requesting for it to be touched up again, and when those areas are fixed to his standard for approval, he will find new problem areas, thus this whole defect checking becomes a never ending procedure.




This is honestly the worst, all I want is for this project to finally be done so I can move on with my life, so I can stop glancing at my phone every  5 minutes to see if it will vibrate with messages from them or constantly have to tap on my phone to see if there are any Whatsapp messages from them that I missed out, I was a slave to my phone during reservist because of this and have been in this constant state of unease for the past month or so ever since the defect checking started.





But putting the current bane of my existence aside and on to a less stressful topic,  I went for my second job interview today at the furniture company and the whole interview just felt so much better than I one I went for yesterday because I knew the company I was applying at and did my research on them before actually applying for their job opening, the 2 interviewers who met me today did have a phone interview with me first and more importantly, I was the one who applied for the job position, a position that I know I am qualified for, and not some random recruitment agency.



The interview itself was alright, I was a little early, so I was offered a cup of tea and then told to walk the grounds to take a look at what the shop had to offer first, I spotted a few items that were quite nice but my one complaint about the selection that they have is everything looks really similar to one another, so even though they have a lot of different pieces, it feels like there isn't a lot of variety.




I was 15 minutes early, so I walked around the showroom for 15 minutes, holding the cup of hot tea they made for me, sipping it every once in a while and wondering if I am making the right choice applying for the position because it honestly is a downgrade from my current position as an Interior Designer, my current job responsibilities will go away and I feel like I will definitely be in a more relaxed state working in this furniture store because what made my current job so stressful is the responsibilities of having to manage multiple sites and sub-cons and clients, whereas in this furniture store, my responsibilities will be the upkeep of the showroom, attending to the customers who walk in and not have to commit to their project for months, reply to some emails every once in a while and most importantly, no project management, which means I won't get disturbed by clients after working hours.





So anyways, after 15 minutes of aimlessly walking around, one of my interviewer invites me to sit down on one of the many dining tables they have on display and we started our interview, there was the usual explaining what my current job is, what my current responsibilities are and then the interviewer ask me to explain my job in detail because he was really interested in how a home renovation actually progresses, so I kept talking and talking and talking and realize I am talking way too much but continued anyway because I was trying to fill the potential silence that will come after I stop and I could see the interviewer was really struggling to stay interested at my yapping, but I eventually did stop and he went on to explain to me the job position, the working hours, the company's history, the job responsibilities and the salary.




$2500 per month is pretty decent for me, I mean compared to what I am making now, which is probably less than $1000 a month, $2500 works, so I shared that I don't mind starting at the amount and the interviewer was surprised at how I was willing to start so low, and I realized I could have asked for more and fucked up, but at that point, I couldn't take it back and tell him I wanted $3000 per month, it would look weird, so I told him that I will start low first, prove myself through my actions and once the company deems me worthy of a pay raise, then we can take it from there.





Once he was done with me, he tells me to wait so he can get his partner over, and the partner comes over and starts talking to me as well, asking me what kind of environment am I expecting to work in, and I really didn't know how to respond to that, I mean the showroom felt pretty chill and relax, so I told her that the current environment of the showroom feels great to me, we then talked more about my current job, I start yapping again and at one point, the partner started to yawn but she managed to stop herself mid-yawn and that was when I knew it was time for me to stop talking, the interview ends after that and I was soon ushered out of the showroom.





I like the environment of the showroom, I like the location of the showroom, the pay is decent, the working hours is from 9am to 6pm, which is pretty average and because it is only a 20 minutes bus ride away from home, I will be able to reach home everyday after work before 7 pm, and I don't have to get up too early to reach the office on time.



But it has been a very long while since I got a job with regular working hours, so I am not sure how well I will take the 9 to 6 lifestyle, if I will eventually get tired of it and go back to Interior Designing for the flexible working hours.



This transition is going to be a lot harder than I thought. The interviewer told me they will update me on Tuesday about the position, I am actually having second thoughts about even accepting the job if they offered it to me because I have worked in my current company for 3 years and have grown a bit of an attachment to it, to the company and my colleagues, not to my clients, although I do really enjoy Interior Designing, which sucks because of the stressful project management aspect that comes with it.






UPDATE:

I just realized the last time I was put in this position of going for multiple job interviews and contemplating to quit, it was right after my reservist in 2018.


 At that time the last project I worked on was for Sly Fox and he was a pain at the end of the renovation.


This feels like a repeat of 2018, except this time, instead of Sly Fox, I am dealing with the Antoinette, and I am also fresh out of my reservist.



The only similarity that hasn't happened yet is me deciding not to quit, staying in the company and then getting a message from Sly Fox/Antoinette months later, informing me that something majorly bad has happened at their site and needs my immediate attention that will then take weeks to rectify because my tiler doesn't want to take responsibility. 



If I choose to stay and history does repeat itself, I might end up getting a call from the Antoinette months down the road about a potentially major problem.



That time with Sly Fox, the issue came about from my tiler's worker having poor workmanship and doing a shoddy job, this time, the issue also came about from my tiler's worker, the very same one who worked on Sly Fox's project, for poor workmanship and doing a shoddy job. It is the same guy, I feel like history is repeating itself and the only way I can change it is to make the decision to leave my current company and work in the furniture store, to not have to worry about the Antoinette bothering me months from now because if they do,I can simply say...

"Sorry guys, I don't work there anymore, call the company directly."

The idiot goes for the interview....

This morning, I decided I didn't want to waste my time going to the job interview for a job that I did not want, so as a basic courtesy, I called the recruitment agency and told the person who scheduled the interview that I wanted to withdraw my application and cancel my interview.

I explained to her that the job wasn't what I wanted, that it was my fault for not reading the job scope thoroughly before agreeing to the interview and initially she was a bit hesitant to cancel the interview because I think it wouldn't look good for her company, so she tried to get me to go for the interview anyway and ask me to ask the company if the position offers any design related responsibilities, she sounded really desperate and her reasons for asking me to attend the interview was honestly not convincing at all, if anything, her uncertainty makes me even less interested that I already was, so I told her I really didn't want to waste the company's time interviewing a candidate who was clearly not interested in the position and that cancelling would be the best way to go for everyone involved, to which she begrudgingly agreed.

After that was done, I felt instantly more relaxed, but then a few minutes later, I get a call from a number I didn't recognized and upon picking it up, the person started to introduce himself as the recruitment firm's team leader, turns out they really didn't want to cancel the interview at all, so he went on and on about how the company I was being interviewed at was a huge Japanese company, that it had all this amazing employee benefits and at the beginning I found it a little bit irritating because he wouldn't stop yapping, but then he goes...

"Actually the company is very excited to meet you because you are the only candidate they picked for the position, they even called us this morning to check if you were coming, they are really excited to see you."

... and being the gullible idiot that I am, I believed him and agreed to go for the interview, expecting for the company to entice me to join them seeing how I am the only candidate they had selected for the interview process.

3.30pm comes around and I set off for Downtown, I got my resume ready and reached the office at about 4.25pm, immediately got send into the meeting room and was soon joined the interviewer James, James shakes my hand and tells me that the boss will also be sitting in for the interview and about 10 seconds later, this older Japanese gentleman comes in and introduces himself to me, I literally couldn't catch what his name was because his accent was so strong, so I just smiled and nodded at him like I heard him and we all sat down.

James then ask me to introduce myself, which I did, I shared with them about my current job as an Interior Designer, my job scope and there really wasn't much to say because everything I am sharing is already written in my resume, plus a lot of the skill set that I currently have really doesn't apply to the job I was interviewing for, so as soon as I was done, the room was just filled with this awkward silence and James broke that silence by going...

"Based on your resume, it seems like you don't have the proper experience for his position. Maybe you can share with us why you decided to apply for this position?"

... and in my head, I just sort of went  blank, this is literally what I tried to convey to the recruitment agency in the morning, that I was not right for the job, but they still insisted I go down for the interview anyway. I thought the company would have been aware of this but turns out they weren't, and I couldn't help but got a little annoyed at the whole situation after that because this has clearly gone in a direction that is clearly going to be a waste of everyone's time.

I came into the interview thinking the company was going to share the benefits their company could offer me as an employee, explain the job scope to me in person and then sell the position to me since according to the recruitment agency's team leader, I was the "only shortlisted candidate"

The company on the other hand came into this interview expecting me to share why they think I should be hired for the position and what I can offer the company, even asked me why I decided to apply for their company as if I had done thorough research on them and had personally send my resume in, so I was really confused because they should have been very aware that this was done through the recruitment agency.

That little smidgen of interest that I originally had for the position instantly went away the very moment James asked me the questions he ask me about my knowledge about the company and why I wanted to join their company, because I didn't want to, I was under the impression that I was there for them to convince me to join them, that they needed my current skill set for the position, I had clearly been bamboozled by the team leader from the recruitment agency.




At that point, I just didn't give a flying fuck anymore, I knew the company was not going to hire me, I had no way of trying to sell myself to James and the boss to hire me because I have zero interest in the job, so I told James that I was going to be extremely blunt and honest with him and his boss, and proceeded to tell them straight to their face that I didn't actually apply for the job, that it was done through the recruitment agency so I have never actually heard of their company before,  I could barely even google any information about them and the boss just gave a dry laugh and agreed with me.




 I then told them to excuse my bluntness once again and confessed that I wasn't actually interested in this position at all, that I had actually attempted to call the recruitment agency earlier this morning to cancel but they insisted I come anyways. I told them I wanted a position that had more of a designer responsibilities, not a sales position, that I didn't want to waste their time with the interview anymore because if they, for some reason, ended up hiring me, I might probably quite in a month or two due to the nature of the job not being the one I wanted.

James was a little surprise at how honest I was being and went...

"I was actually giving you the opportunity to try and sell yourself and convince us why we should give you the job, but from what you have shared with me, it seems like you are not the right candidate for the position."

.... and I agreed with him, he then tells me that he is very surprised at how honest I was, that he found my honesty refreshing to see in a candidate, but that my honesty also makes me not suitable for the sales position, and I agreed with him wholeheartedly. 

I didn't want to work as a Sales Executive, and the position was as a Senior Sales Executive, I was clearly under qualified for the position, I have no fucking idea what the recruitment agency was thinking when they got me the interview and I have no fucking idea what the company was thinking for even agreeing to meet me for an interview, the whole thing was a bloody mess.

When I was getting ushered out, I could tell from James' body language when he pointed me the way out that he was probably also a little bit bumped out about the interview ending the way it did, he tried to start a bit of small talk as I was coming out of the meeting room and ask me if residential project was more difficult, so I wanted to share with him a little, but the moment I stepped out of the room and past him, barely even finishing my first sentence, he immediately points me to the door, clearly not interested to listen to me talk any longer and just waved goodbye at me. 

After the interview, I called up the recruitment agency girl who arranged the interview for me and she was surprised at how quickly the interview ended, so I told her I was very honest with the company, that I was never interested in the position in the first place, that I had told her in the morning already that it wasn't a right fit for me and I think that was when she finally accepted that I really didn't want the job at all.

Sigh, it was such a huge waste of time everybody's time and I have the team leader of the recruitment agency to thank for making sure that everybody's time was wasted today.

I'm an idiot.

I have a job interview tomorrow and I think it's going to be a waste of time. 

This is a job opening I did not personally apply for, it was applied for me by a recruitment agency and it was introduced to me while I was doing my reservist and feeling really angsty about my current job, the stress it was causing me made me agree to let the recruitment agency send my resume in on my behalf.

When the position was intially explained to me, the main information that stuck with me was...

1. Basic Pay

2. Office Furniture

3. Sales Related

... and the starting pay was about $3000, so I was all for it. The lady who called me up then send me the company's information and the positon information and I thought it sounded good, mainly because the salary is quite generous compared to the peanuts I am earning right now.

After a while, I decided to look through the position information again and realize that this position had nothing to do with Interior Design at all, it was purely sales, so what I am expected to do is cold call potential customers, come up with strategies to get more leads, sales this, sales that, there was nothing about it that was design related.

I was a little confused at the position because on my resume, it clearly states that I am an Interior Designer, I have a diploma in Interior Design, my main scope should be Design first and not Sales. I immediately lost interest in the position and hoped that the company that put out the joblisting will actually do some background check on me and realize I am not the right person for the job.

The position is Senior Sales Executive, I'm a fucking idiot for not just looking not at the jobscope properly, I didn't even look at the job title properly, I'm an idiot, and to mantain my stupidity streak, when the recuirment agency called up to share the good news with me, that I got an interview, I stupidly agreed to it. I mean what the fuck was I thinking? I didn't want the job at all and I still agreed to go for the interview. The recruitment agency lady then briefed me again on what the position required and what I should share about my last job experience, asking me to focus more on the sales aspect than the interior design aspect. I don't even know what the company is thinking, asking me to go for an Interview. I am not the right person for the job! 

I'm an idiot. 

So tomorrow, I will be wasting everybody's time by going for the interview at the CBD area at 4.30pm, which means by the time the interview is done, it will probably be peak hour. 

I cannot emphasis how much of an idiot I am. I will view tomorrow's job interview as a trip to explore the CBD area, where everyone who works there probably hates their job because that is literally a place where everyone is just going through the daily grind. 

On the brightside, I will have another job interview the following day near my place, I actually applied for that position on my own so I am definitely more interested in that one. It's at a furniture store as a sales executive, basic pay as well, not as high but the location is so much closer to my place and also potentially less crowded during peak hour. A little more optimistic about it but I will say, that urge to leave this current job is slowly starting to wear off and I am afraid the cycle is starting to repeat itself again, so I hope the job interview for the furniture store will really offer me some awesome work benefits to make it impossible for me to turn down.

End of Sixth Cycle

My 6th Reservist Cycle is officially over and I will say this is by far the most relaxing and also most stressful reservist I have ever attended.




The Reservist itself was great, my friends and I got to spend almost all our time in an air-conditioned room either playing games on our phones or watching a lot of Netflix, I managed to bingewatch Hellsing Ultimate, The Good Place and Locke and Key within the 3 weeks, right now I am in the middle of the first season of Brooklyn Nine Nine. It honestly felt like a vacation for us compared to the majority of the ICTs who were stuck doing Guard Duty under the hot sun, everyone of us agreed that we got extremely lucky.




We had quite a few time-off during that 3 weeks, so my friend who drove took us out to Changi Village multiple times for dinner, we even went to Changi Jewel in an attempt to have Shack Shak, we had assumed that the queues were no longer existent with the Wuhan Virus scare, but unfortunately the queue was very much there, so that idea was immediately aborted, but we had a decent curry meal elsewhere, I got a cup of Bubble Tea from the Alley and then we went back to base, it was pretty great, although we were only allowed to go out that night because the active commanders required us to do a bit of Guard Duty for them the next day, which wasn't so great, and that is the most shitty part of the reservist, I mean fuck, we were so fucking lucky that that was the worst part for us, none of us had the cheek to even complaint about the additional Guard Duty because we knew it would sound bloody ungrateful. The active commander even thanked us after for being willing to do the additional guard duty for them.





Unfortunately, due to work, I was not able to fully enjoy the 3 weeks "vacation" because I was literally having anxiety the entire time in camp from the myraid of issues that suddenly came up at site during my 3 weeks reservist, I have never wanted to quit my job asbadly as I did during those 3 weeks because it was literally ruining my every waking hour, the only time I felt truly relaxed was when it was late in the night and I had a lower chance of my clients messaging me, they have texted me as late as 12.30 midnight before so I can't say they confirm won't disturb me because fuck my sleeping schedule amirite, otherwise, it was just full on anxiety from the anticipation of their messages. I could feel my heart skip a beat everytime my phone buzz with a message and when I realize that the message isn't from my clients, it's like I can feel my heart beating faster for that second from relief,  and then when it is really from them, well it's just normally a sense of dread. I can't even ignore the messages and just think, "Fuck it, I won't look", because then, the message will be all I think about and I can't function properly.





All of us in the "vacation" team also ended up getting sick because we were stuck in the aircon room for days, we were complaining that the aircon was too cold, who the fuck complaints about the aircon being too cold for their reservist, I mean the whole thing just feels bonkers to me, we were literally complaning about being too comfortable, but anyways, it was really too cold so someone got sick, took MC and then infected everyone else, so my friend and I actually completed my reservist today with a block and running nose, will most likely visit a doctor tomorrow to get a default 5 day MC, if it is even more serious, then hey, quarantine me so I can have a legit reason to pass this ongoing project to my manager and have him handle everything for me.




After outproning from ICT today, I went home to put my items down, had a quick lunch and immediately went to the project site to check up on the situation, I don't even get a day off to rest because this project has officially joined the shit pile and it's main purpose right now is to suck all the joy out of my life, it is currently the bane of my existence.




Problems started piling up as I was preparing to leave my house, subcons were either not responding to me or telling me they can't make it, I was calling other sub-cons for help and they also can't make it because it was too last minute. I felt like I was very close to having a mental breakdown when I was at site because nothing was going according to plan.




This project was suppose to end in late January, it was suppose to end before my Reservist started, that was what I told myself and my ICT friend who is also in the same industry during our last cycle, that for my next reservist (which is this current one), I don't want to have any projects on hand because it's mentally exhausting to deal with, and then there I was, dealing with that site from camp literally everyday I was in camp, either through Whatsapp messages or Phone calls with the sub-cons and clients, sub-cons pushing blame back and forth and my client telling me the renovation has been a disappointment, I wish I could emulate one of those scammy interior contractor who could just tell the clients to go fuck off, call the clients up on the phone and tell them to not be so fucking ridiculous with their demands for perfection, ask them to kiss my ass instead of having to personally apologize to them and getting guilt trip into absorbing the cost of an additional work they requested.




This project is not worth it, the clients are not worth it, the commission I am getting from this proejct is not worth it, all the effort I have put into this project is worth shit because all this project has given me the past 3 weeks has been a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety. Working 5 months on this project has been a fucking joke, this project has gone on for 3 months too long, I am seriously starting to lose my patience.



I have a job interview next Thursday, if I can ace that job interview, then I am going to quit this current one in April, after completing my friend's house, and be done with this career, if this husband and wife are still not happy with the state of their house, then they can settle it with my company. That is the only thing that is keeping me sane, the idea of me just completely letting this project go in April, if it really gets to that point, and if it really does get to that point, then the problem honestly lies in the homeowner because I have never ever had to work on a project this long before.

Reservist 6th Cycle

My reservist has started and I honestly have nothing much to report because out of all the cycles that I have attended, this is the one that makes me feel the most unproductive from just the sheer unhappening of it all.




Unlike previous cycles, a few of us, including myself, are not required to do the usual guard duty shenanigans this time round, as an active, I appreciated doing purely Guard Duty because I would rather do that than get all sweaty and dirty running in the jungle, but after my ORD, returning back to camp for my reservist just to do the same Guard Duty has become an extremely dull activity, and my main issue with it is really the amount of hours we have to stand guard for, which is a staggering 6 hours.



Anyways, when I went back on the first day for this cycle, the encik who was in charge of the ICT told everyone who was called up that he needed 2 dozen guys to do something else during this reservist cycle, and initially, everyone was simply not interested because there was additional training required and no one was up for it, even myself.  We all thought that doing Guard Duty was better, and then the encik said he would select us base on our fitness level, which immediately worried me because I assumed he would probably use out latest IPPT results, which was literally information they had to gauge our fitness level.




I know a lot of the guys who got called up probably never even bothered to go for their IPPT, the ones that I knew either hadn't attended yet, failed or simply decided to pay the fine for not attending, like no one is actually "fit" there.




So everyone had their lunch after the initial briefing and once we all gathered back again, the encik decided to split everyone up into their PES Status, that meant everyone in PES A automatically got selected because there weren't a lot of PES A of begin with, after which he went into the pool of PES B to fill up the numbers and started pulling individuals out.




The first guy he pulled was able to sabotage all his friends, so even though only 1 was picked, 4 ended up joining, everyone laughed at the turn of events, I was shifting around a bit where I was standing and trying to find a good time to join the larger group to avoid being seen, even told my friend we should move over and conceal ourselves in the crowd, but as we were preparing to move, the encik begins his search again and starts wandering around the area I was standing at, which meant I couldn't move because I will end up standing out more, he goes towards the guys on my left and then slowly starts moving towards my side, I avoided eye contact with him as he was moving pass me, but he stops right in front of me, looks at me and goes..

"You look good and tall brother!"

....  puts his hands on my shoulder and that was how I got selected.



I accepted my fate immediately and walked solemnly over to the group of chosen individuals, I see my friend standing where he was, the encik had already walked past him, he was safe, but he was contemplating about something, and then he walks up to the encik, had a small exchange with him and then starts walking up to me and when he came up to me, he went..

"The thought of doing duty alone is very sian,"

... and suddenly, it didn't feel so solemn anymore.




Once all 24 of us were finally selected, we had to separate ourselves into group and my group was formed almost immediately because almost everyone was friends with one another and that was also when I realized that out of the 6 people in my group, 4 of them actually volunteered. 4 Katniss to 2 Primrose.





Being picked was honestly a huge blessing in disguise because a few days later, we were informed that the ones who had to do Guard Duty had to do the maximum amount of hours, that meant rotating between 6 hours of duty and 6 hours of rest, it sucks.




The group of us 24 on the other hand, despite having to go through a bit more training than the others at the start, were mainly required to stay in an air-conditioned bunk to sleep for the entirety of our cycle. We will only be "activated" when something really really bad actually happens in the camp, which is why we had to go for training, but the chances of that happening is almost close to zero, so I actually spend my last book in, cooped up in the air-conditioned bunk, playing multiple rounds of Mobile Legends with my team mates, talking about the recent happenings in the world, running out of topic to talk about, sitting in silence looking through our phones, a few more rounds of Mobile Legends, sleep and repeat.




It was extremely unproductive, we felt like we were getting jailed for something because we couldn't actually leave the vicinity except for maybe 30 minutes a day to take a bath back at the normal bunks, but I honestly would still pick that over doing the Guard Duty because being stuck in an Air-Con room trumps being stuck under the Sun.





1.5 more weeks to go and this cycle will officially be over.




I have also been working during this period, dealing with unhappy contractors who were pushing blame to other contractors for shoddy workmanship, additional delays that were happening because my carpenter keeps forgetting to bring the items in for installation. It was honestly a mess during this period because I couldn't be on site to overlook, which made the whole situation even worst.




When I was arranging for the touching up to be done, I told my clients that they had to be on site to overlook, so we can settle everything at one go and the sub-contractors won't have to come back multiple times. Told my sub-contractors the homeowners will be there, the homeowners ended up not being there the entire day and only came at like 9pm when the workers were long gone. My sub-contractor was really unhappy because it felt like I had lied to him to put pressure on him to put my site as a top priority.




My client isn't aware that his absence has actually caused a bit of tension between me and my sub-contractor, and as a client, it really isn't his problem to deal with, I also understand that it is not his intention to not show up because he is working, but him taking my instructions to be there as a "minor suggestion" honestly didn't sit well with me at all.



The good thing is my clients, both the husband and wife, are very nice, so despite the constant delays, they are still very appreciative.



Technically I wouldn't call it "delay", more like a severe under-estimation on my part and also because my clients kept adding in a lot of additional items last minute.



I had originally anticipated for this project to end in early December, if everything went super super well, there was no hiccup and every single item was delivered on time, but then of course there were hiccups, the timeline I gave my individual sub-contractors were extremely insufficient, my tiler needed an extra 2 weeks to get his stuff done, my false ceiling guys took twice as long as I had thought and then my clients also hadn't ordered their lights yet at that time in December and when they finally did, I get informed that the lights needed 3 weeks to ship over, also they requested to do even more major flooring works less than a week before the Renovation started  So the December timeline was never a possibility because it would have required a miracle.



After that timeline went bust, I estimated an early January handover, that also became impossible because my carpenter missed out so many times and his delivery date kept getting delayed. At this point, my clients also started requesting to add even more items, so that ended up dragging the renovation period into the CNY period.



Nothing could be done during the CNY Period, work had to stop, my permit was coming to an end, I was prepared to pay the extension fee, which is honestly ridiculous because that money goes to the managememnt and for what? So they can tap their keyboard, move their mouse a little, click here and there and extend my date? Luckily my client was able to extend the permit for another week at no additional cost, which saved me that fee, only thing is everything has to now be done within this additional week, which gives me about 1 more day as I am typing out this post.



Technically, the renovation is completed, my clients can move in anytime now but they are taking their time because they aren't rushing to move in, so even though it is "completed", it still feels incomplete because they aren't moving in yet.

I would make a horrible dog owner....

My family recently welcomed a new puppy into the house and for the first week, his presence has been great, my Sister specially took time off to care for him for an entire week, so the rest of us only needed to entertain the puppy every once in a while when we felt like it and of course help out a little when it gets a little too much for one person to handle.




Before the puppy came, everyone was really excited, so was I, to have a puppy as a roommate sounded like an adorable idea, the puppy took about 3 weeks after the deposit was paid to be welcomed into our house, so the build up to his addition was massive.




On the day of his arrival, he was absolutely adorable, everything he did was cute, he smelled great because the shop gave him a shower prior, he didn't bark, he was relatively tamed and he would sit every time someone told him to.




As the days go by, the puppy got more and more comfortable with us and that was when things started to feel really really tiring. He would get a lot more rough, jumping at us every time he sees us and when he gets too excited, he will start biting really hard, the worst thing is he pees and shits everywhere, so my Sister being the main caretaker would have to isolate him into his potty area every 30 minutes to make sure he knows where to pee and shit, it is a long and arduous process which could take months, so right now, he is still pissing and shitting everywhere.



Sharing a room with him recently become a bit of a hindrance to me because my Sister wants him in bed by 10pm, I normally am still up at 10pm and only go to bed maybe at around Midnight. When puppy gets brought into my room at 10pm and is placed in his little confined nap area, he will start to whine, he will start to scratch the barricades to get out until I turn off the lights and go to sleep, so my sleeping schedule is now 10.30pm at the latest because the puppy wouldn't sleep until he sees me lying in bed with the lights off.




At the start, he would only whine, now he has moved on to barking and it is horrible because of how loud that little dog is, it is impossible for me to stay up while he is whining and barking away.




My sister's leave is officially over, so now she is out of the house 80% of the time and only back in the evening, this means whoever is at home in the Morning to Afternoon will be responsible for the dog.



I was home the whole day today, so my sister tasked me with caring for the puppy, which included playing with it, feeding it and making sure he gets his potty break every 30 minutes.  I really didn't have the patience to follow that schedule and the puppy wasn't his usual perky self today, he was sleeping pretty much the entire afternoon, barely ate his food and since I didn't want to lock him up the entire day in his little cage, I just let him roam around the house while I did my own thing, I didn't give him his potty break at his designated spot like I should because he wasn't peeing as much as he normally would when my sister was around, so I tried to observe his patterns as much as possible when I was not busy doing my own things.





When my sister came back, the first thing she noticed was the dog shit at the front door and naturally, she wasn't pleased, I didn't even notice the dog had taken a dump there, didn't know how long the dump had been there and I felt a little guilty about it, and then as my sister walked into the house, she realized there were pee stains on the floor as well, turns out the puppy had been urinating when I wasn't looking and my sister got even more annoyed and at this point, I just started to miss the times when the puppy wasn't around.






What I have taken away from this past 2 weeks of experience with the puppy is that I will never ever get a dog of my own now that I know how high maintenance they truly are. I am too lazy to keep up with the puppy training, I do not have the discipline to maintain a consistent schedule with the puppy, I would much prefer a stray cat as a companion, one that would come and go as and when they like, no training needed.




I still enjoy the puppy's presence in the house and I am just thankful that it wasn't me who got the dog because I almost planned to get a schnauzer a long time ago when I was a lot more immature and this is also a reason why I do not want to date anyone because I honestly do not have the attention span required to keep any sort of relationship going.