Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth

I have been trying to help this one particular client of mine get a sofa at a pretty good deal for the past few weeks due to a price increment from the supplier next month.

Her situation actually made getting the deal difficult because in order to enjoy the current pricing, we have to order the sofa from the supplier in Italy before the price increment, but her house can only be ready next year, so I had to get my boss to give me the greenlight to actually allow her to purchase the sofa first and then store it in the warehouse, which would incur additional cost, but my boss actually decided to absorb the cost for her out of goodwill because I spoke to him about it.

Current Price of Sofa - $25,000

New Price of Sofa - $28,000

So aside from the price increment, I actually also offered her a huge discount, which meant she will only be paying about $20,000 for the sofa.

   

So here is a breakdown of how the exchange I have had with her over the past 3 months have been like....

The original plan was...

Jan 2022 - She confirms the Sofa Order with my company and we send her order to Italy to start fabrication, ordering within this month would ensure she gets to enjoy the old price, and on top of that, the discount for the month of January.

Feb 2022 - April 2022 - Sofa gets fabricated in Italy and shipped to Singapore

May 2022 - We Receive the Sofa from Italy 4 to 5 months later and store it in the Warehouse for her until December 2022. 

... with this arrangement, she gets to...

1. Purchase the sofa at the old price with the generous discount of the month of January.

 - $8000 worth of savings.

2.  Enjoy Free Storage in the Warehouse for 7 to 8 months, 

- This storage would have cost her about $100 a week, that makes it about $3000 for 7 to 8 months 

This 2 benefits total up to $11,000 worth of savings for her

I mean this deal alone is already insanely generous, seeing how she is only getting a single sofa and only forking out $20,000 for it.

She was happy after that, but then calls me again a few weeks later and informs me of the developer delay in handing over of the keys, so she requested for me to speak to my boss about possibly extending her free storage in the Warehouse for another 3 months, which meant that she will only get her Sofa in March 2023, my boss agrees and I tell her the good news, so this was another $1000 worth of free storage for her, to which she goes...

"But actually if you store it in the Warehouse for so long, won't the Sofa get moldy? Can you get your boss to assure me the sofa won't get moldy? If it gets moldy will your company offer a replacement piece for me? Help me talk to your boss about it because I am pretty much confirmed about getting the sofa already, I just want to make sure."

... and my boss allowed me to give her the assurance and agreed that if the sofa gets moldy during storage, we will replace it for her. My boss is like the gift that just keeps on giving to this customer, but then she calls me again this afternoon, which is when she was suppose to come down and confirm her order, and tells me...

"I just got news that my apartment will be delayed by another 3 months, I was hoping you can talk to your boss for me again and request for an extension of the Warehouse Storage, or if you can get him to hold the order from Italy for me until I am ready."

.... so I inform my boss about her predicament and he agreed to it, this is another $1000 worth of savings in storage fees. He was a bit hesitant but he agreed to it and I was just mind blown at how giving he was because I was completely expecting him to tell me that he wasn't going to anymore, that this customer is not worth the sales, but he actually agreed. He only had 2 requirements for the client.

1. She had to make full payment for the Sofa instead of just a deposit.

2. She can't use her Credit Card (because he didn't want to absorb the 2.7% service fee for her credit card payment)

I thought it was a fair trade because right now, the total amount of savings she gets to enjoy is upwards to $13,000, just for the purchase of a $20,000 sofa, so I shared this good news with my client and told her about the requirements, and I informed her that we can hold the order until she is ready like she requested because my boss has also agreed to that, but instead of being grateful and accepting the offer, she got extremely skeptical and starting asking me..

"Can I just check, why is your company willing to hold the order for me? What about the additional cost of incurred from the price increment?"

... and I told her....

"My company is willing to absorb the charges for you."

... and she just kept asking me why and telling me it was a bit suspicious. I was just flabbergasted that this was the response I was getting, after all this back and forth I had with my boss to get her those discounts and benefits, she then ask me for my boss's name because she wanted to do some research on him and then tells me she will call me back later, she never did, I mean the whole thing is just...

... I really don't know how my boss will react when he realizes the customer didn't actually get the item in the end. I am honestly quite relief she decided not to get the item in the end because I really don't think her purchase warrants all these free service we are offering her, plus the fact that it is probably going to be a logistical nightmare to have to hold on to her item for so long, and not only that, the need for us to get her a new replacement should the sofa get moldy because she has to delay the delivery.

My company has offered customers who have purchased much more so much lesser, the fact that he is offering this customer, who is only purchasing a single item, so much really blew my fucking mind, and she just looked a gift horse right in the fucking mouth.

Sure, spending $20,000 on a sofa is a crazy amount, but contextually speaking, you are buying a luxury good and $20,000 is the entry level for the particular brand we are carrying. 

The amount of free shit she is getting is akin to me ordering a single $3 cupcake from a bakery and then getting free delivery, free candles, discount coupons while customers who are ordering whole cakes that amounts to $50 only getting a free candle but still has to pay for delivery. 

It makes zero sense and she had such a insanely good deal but she decided to blow it. I understand the phrase "When something is too good to be true, it probably is", but in this case, it really isn't, you were offered something amazing and you decided not to take it. 

I am never offering her this offer again, the next time she comes back, if she comes back, she is paying full price at minimal discount and if she wants to store her sofa in the warehouse, she is going to store it at the full price. 

Updates - 22/1

Everyone in my household is currently Covid Positive and being the only one who is testing negative, I am the one who is isolating in my own room, not that it's that much different from how things usually are because I am in my own room 90% of the time when I am home. Just wondering when I will actually get infected by it because it probably will happen eventually, would be a nice break from work, speaking of which, work has been feeling very unsatisfying, so nothing new there. 

I lack competence to do the things I am suppose to be doing at work, which is to actively approach walk-in customers and trying to start a conversation with them, I am not good at it because I do not like doing it, it's uncomfortable, it's awkward and I don't like being the one that initiates a conversation with anybody. Ever since I came back from Reservist, I have been very passive with the walk in customers, so much so that the In-House Interior Stylist (who has a very different position from me because I am Sales) ended up talking to more customers than I do when we end up working on the same shift because he will always greet them when they walk into the store, whereas I just can't be bothered if the customers aren't looking at my direction, which is most of the time, so naturally when the customers have any queries, they will approach him first.

So the situation at work hasn't really improved. It just sucks going to work and feeling incompetent, I'm being made to do things I am not good at and the things that I feel I am better at doing, the company isn't really giving me the opportunity to do them, like doing Interior Styling Proposals for prospective clients.  Well, I wouldn't say the company isn't giving me the opportunity to, it's more accurate to say the company is expecting me to create those opportunities on my own by informing every customer who walks into the store that we have that service available.

The amount of talking that is required to actually convert a walk in customer into an Interior Styling Project customer is too much for me to handle, my colleague who is more chatty is able to do that, and he has spoken to dozens over the past 5 months he has worked in the company, out of the dozens he has spoken to, only 2 were converted successfully into Interior Styling Projects, the others who are initially agreeable to it will forget about it the moment they leave the store because they will either have their own Interior Designers / Architect to do that for them, they are only there to get a few items or they are just window shopping.

I am not going to offer doing an Interior Styling Proposal for a client who is only planning to get a Sofa and Coffee Table with a few Armchairs, that's like a homeowner finding an Interior Designer to help them change a Toilet Showerscreen, or engaging a Professional Baker to help them slice their cakes, it's redundant.

 

Customers should be looking for us to prepare Proposals for them and not us looking for customers to prepare proposals for because chances are the latter aren't going to be very receptive to the service, and it feels like such an afterthought, it doesn't' feel like an actual service because sadly, it isn't being promoted very prominently by the company. 

When I first applied for the role back in 2017, I tried to look for the information of the Interior Styling service on their official website and had so much difficulty trying to actually find it because the only mention of that service is right at the bottom of the main page where hardly anyone would ever scroll down to, it was already difficult for me, someone who knows the service actually exist, to find the mention of the service, imagine how much more inaccessible that information is for people who don't actually know the service exist, putting that at the bottom of the main page is the same to not putting it at all. 

Speaking of Interior Styling Proposals, I decided to sent the customer that I wrote about in my last post the Interior Styling Proposal yesterday, I rendered the drawings for him earlier this month, but because of how "pleasantly entitled" ,but entitled sounding nonetheless, he was during our last phone exchange, I purposely delayed sending him the renderings, just to manage his expectations.

Well, I didn't manage his expectations enough because this fucker decided to just ignore my messages, I guess because my proposal wasn't send to him quickly enough, I no longer warrant a reply from him. Not even a courtesy response, nothing. I feel like I want to actually call him up just to incite some sort of response, but then I also don't really want to because I just really do not want to give him anymore attention and assistance unless he actually shows up to the store to meet me in person.

This is a customer who requested for the service, imagine if the customer was offered the service by us, they would feel even more entitled to it because I am the one who is offering to help you as oppose to you requesting for my help and the sad truth is, majority of the customers that I have spoken to so far who visit the store are a little entitled, that is why I am unable to have conversations with a lot of them because I just really do not want to.

Speaking of entitled customers....

I had the unfortunate pleasure of assisting this Caucasian lady who came into the store a few days ago, asked about this particular table that she was eyeing and it wasn't what she said but her tone that just turned me off completely. 

I was actually busy doing something else and just happened to walk past her, so she ask me about the table's price, ask if there was a showroom discount and then said that it should have a bigger discount because the table was a bit stained, she then ask me if the stains can be removed and since I didn't really have the answer to that, I told her I wasn't sure. She was already using an unpleasant tone with me from the start, so I just really didn't want to assist her further by helping her check if the stains can actually be removed. 

I told her what I know and that is that before we send the table to the customer's place, we will clean up the table first, and she goes...

"I'm not asking about the cleaning, I am asking if the stains can be removed. If the stains are still there after the cleaning then what's the point?"

... in a really annoyed tone, so I told her I wasn't sure and just can't be bothered to deal with her attitude anymore, so I just walked away to deal with something else because thankfully, I was actually busy with something else and had a valid reason to just walk off. My colleague then assisted her and she was equally unpleasant, she was with her husband and toddler, and the husband is so passive throughout the exchange, when I see couples like that, I can't help but wonder, what exactly did he see in this woman that made him want to decide to spend the rest of his life with her because she was also quite rude with him, such a horrible personality.

I have seen her in the store before and the reason why I remember her is because of how unpleasant she was during that visit as well, and she is the type of customer that comes into the store, asks a lot of fucking questions, is very rude about it but then doesn't get anything. When she finally left the store, my other colleague then tells me he has served her two times before and every time, she doesn't end up getting anything, that's why he didn't bother approaching her. 

... anyways, I digress, back to the original topic of Interior Styling Proposal Customers.

 

The other customer who requested the service on the other hand, the one who physically came to the store to ask for the service, well, he came down with his partner again to meet me in the store for us to run through the proposal together and I was more than happy to give them a copy of my proposal, the space planning layout and quotation after we were done, this is what the customers should be doing, and I am very grateful that out of the 2 proper Interior Styling Proposals I have done so far, at least one of them had the common decency to meet me in person for the run through. 

I have already been with my current company for 5 months as an Interior Stylist and till date, I have only done 2 proper Interior Styling Proposals because barely anyone knows that Interior Styling service is actually available and I am lucky that I happened to be in the store when the customer walked in and actually requested for the service, otherwise I wouldn't have had the chance to properly do one.

Doing these proposals is what I want  to do as an Interior Stylist and it's what I was expecting I would do when I first join the company, but at the present moment, I am barely doing any of that and am instead doing more sales, which is frustrating because I do enjoy doing the proposals, I like sitting down and looking at a floorplan to best optimize the furniture layout, creating 3D renders. I enjoy talking to customers who are there to talk to me about their home, who actually want me to help them and are actively asking me questions.

I would very much like to just leave this current job and go back to doing Interior Design, because I do miss it, the customers that I meet in retail are very different from the ones I meet as an Interior Designer, as an Interior Designer, I get to form relationships with most of my clients because we will end up working together for months, they tend to be more understanding and patient and I can feel some warmth from them usually after the first month, whereas with retail customers, there isn't any warmth that radiates from them, they come, they buy, they leave, the only nice ones are usually the couples in their late 60s to 70s. 

Likely gonna be stuck in my current company for a while because the pay is decent and I am really enjoying getting a fixed salary every month, it just doesn't feel like a very fulfilling position to be doing long term.

Finally doing Interior Styling Stuff

 I'm back at work and for the initial few days, I was writing out blog post about how this job is horrible and how I am not doing what I have been hired to do, that I want to leave soon because the job just feels so pointless, but I never posted any of the post because they are too ranty and probably not something I would like to come back in a few years time to re-read again.

Just as I was at that peak of being unhappy with my job, I suddenly get a call-in customer requesting for Interior Styling services, which is extremely rare in the company, literally the only time a customer actually requested for that service on their own since I joined the company. so I took it.

Funny enough, at that same time, I was informed that the company was going to hold some Interior Styling competition whereby the Sales Staff and Interior Stylist can all submit an Interior Styling Proposals that they had done for clients in the past and the winner can stand a chance to win an iPad. 

So the fact that I was able to finally do what I was hired to do and also have something to submit for the competition was like killing 2 birds with 1 stone. 

I was quite happy doing the Proposal because for the past few months, I have just been feeling like an over-glorified Sales Associate, a lot is expected out of me, but I just cannot perform because I am not being given what is needed to perform, which are customers who require Interior Styling services. I do not have the social skills to actively approach a hundred customers and only come back with 2 to 3 who are genuinely interested in the service, my fellow newbie colleague has been doing that since the start and up to date, he only has 3 to 4 customers who are genuinely interested. He is someone who has an extroverted personality, can start conversations with customers very easily, and the fact that he actually feels drained from talking to so many customers just to get 3 to 4 Interior Styling Project is telling of how much this service is really needed in the company, which is pretty much not at all.

Anyways, I completed the Proposal within 5 days, which is 2 days earlier than what I had promised the customer, I did all the mood board for him, an un-rendered 3D drawing for him because my office laptop doesn't have the rendering software installed, collated the price of everything and to be very honest, even I myself was impressed at how the Proposal turned out because I have never done this level of proposing back as an Interior Designer.  I send the Proposal to the client, not really expecting him to reply to be honest because he was after all just a call in, and my main goal for preparing the Proposal was really to take part in the competition, but then 15 minutes later, the customer actually calls me up and goes...

Customer : Hi Tim, I just received your file. What is that may I ask?

Me : That is the Interior Styling Proposal I have prepared for your space.

Customer : Oh, I didn't see my name on the proposal so I didn't know it was prepared for me.

Me : I didn't add your name into it, but it is based on your floorplan if you look through the pages.

Customer : Yeah, okay, the whole thing is quite impressive, I can see you prepared a lot of things for me butyour 3D drawings, I am looking at them and I just cannot accept it.

.... and at that point, because I have been getting paid a regular salary by my company for the past 4 months, I undermined myself and readily accepted his criticism of the drawings, thinking that this was what the company paid me for. 

So I told him I will help him render the drawings out and he starts discussing with me about how the company can throw in a few freebies for him when he finally gets his furniture, which is probably not going happen until the end of 2022 earliest. 

When I shared this exchange with my colleagues, the In House Designer got very upset for me that the customer had the audacity to actually give this kind of feedback, I felt really shitty after I realize that because it is true, he is not a paying customer at this point, he isn't entitled to anything more than I was giving to him, and it was already quite a fair bit of styling service.

It was fucking stupid for me to agree to do the render because whether or not the company pays me, the customer is still getting a free service, and you just don't look a gift horse in the mouth. If I was still back in ID4 and a prospective customer had said this to me, I would have instantly shut them down.

I am not going to drop the customer yet, and I actually rendered the drawings already, but it's for the competition than him, so I am just going to make the customer slowly wait because I don't see the rush since the the house has not even been built up yet.

Really don't know what the fuck my deal is with all this customer that I offer Interior Styling Services to, the first lady I ever offered this service to back in September was just straight up entitled and unappreciative, left such a bad taste in my mouth that anytime I see a customer of her race step into the store, I don't even want to approach them, not that I am approaching any customers regularly but I make an extra effort to actively avoid them completely. And now I have this entitled guy, granted the way he talks to me is  ALOT friendlier than that other lady, but still, entitled is entitled.

I now have another Interior Styling Proposal to work on because another customer actually came into the store a few days ago and requested for the service, he and his partner had the sincerity to actually physically drop by the store for a consultation service, so that was actually nice and I hope their sincerity is consistent. 

8th Cycle - It's Over

My reservist is over, nothing much to report for this cycle to be honest, it's pretty much just a rinse and repeat of what I have been doing for the past few high keys, except this time, I actually rented a car for the 2 weeks.

Doing the 6 hour sentry duty almost everyday for the past 2 weeks have not been fun, reporting to camp at odd hours of the night or way to early in the morning has not been fun, renting a car for the past 2 weeks and being able to drive to camp and back from camp however is probably the best decision I made, travelling takes half the time and I actually get to drive. 

One of my ICT mates who got thrown into the ulu camp didn't actually drive a car, and he shared with me on the last day when we were doing our out-pro that he actually had difficulty finding a cab after the end of one of his duty. When I was in the same situation as him back in March, it took me about 20 minutes to look for a Grab, but because this time round, we were also made to do the graveyard shift, which is when I assumed he had difficulty finding the Grab, he was actually stranded right outside the camp for 45 minutes, and no one could drive him out because there was no one else in camp who were on their way out, everyone who can leave had already left in the evening.

 

I can't emphasis how happy I rented the car, even though the total damage was about $1000 including the petrol top ups, it was worth it and definitely something I will do again for my remaining 2 cycles. I have since returned the car, didn't manage to fully utilize it on the 2nd last day because I just didn't need to go anywhere with it after I had outpro-ed in the morning, I attempted to take it for a spin at 4.30pm, but then at about 4.45pm, the roads started getting crowded and I just didn't want to be stuck in the peak hour traffic, so I just drove back home.

The goal of the drive was to use up the petrol because I only had to return it at 70% and mine was full, I also topped up the cashcard that the rental company had loaned me because their cashcard machine was the old one that could only read the cards with the chip, so my credit card couldn't work with it. When they pass the card to me, it only had 65 cents, when I returned the car however, there was about $6 in it, so you're welcome.

Overall, this cycle had it's ups and downs, but the only thing I am going to remember this cycle for is the fact that I rented a car for it. 

Song of the Moment

Eleven - Ive

Cycle 8 - Day ? (Live Update from Duty)

I'm gonna just blog from camp in the middle of my duty right now because I am bored, there is about 90 minutes left before I am free and the active soldier that I'm doing my duty with has a stick up his ass.

When I started my duty earlier this evening at about 6pm, I had a quick chat with the ICT whom I was taking over and we started talking about how we are being taken advantage of this cycle because the active soldiers didn't seem to have any manpower issue for us to be covering so much of their duties. We were really having a nice chat until the active soldier that I am currently stuck with chimes in and goes...

"Sir, its already 6pm, your duty has ended, you can leave now."

... to my ICT friend, which was unnecessary because my friend is very aware he can leave, the moment I arrived, he knows he can leave, we have been doing this shit longer than the active, the reason he is staying is because we are having a conversation. 

But upon hearing that comment, my ICT friend just nodded his head and made his way back to return his rifle and as he was leaving, he kept making hand gestures of how "up there" the active was, to which I just shake my head at how unlucky I was to be paired up this fella and then proceed to start taking out all the items I had in my vest and laid them out on the table, items which includes snacks, phone and my portable charger.

The goal tonight was to just watch Netflix and Disney Plus until the duty ended because its going to be pretty quiet. I was planning to strike a conversation with the active solider midway through the duty and we can have at least have an hour of chatting before we went about to do out own stuff again as that is how it usually goes, but after he chased my ICT mate away, I just didn't feel very talkative because he didn't seem very approachable.

So I did what I had set out to do from the start and started watching my show, there was a new episode of Hawkeye out and I figured I will just stream that. At the start, the active would glance over once in a while and I thought maybe he was interested to watch the show as well, I didn't offer initially because they were just quick glances and not really the lingering type, but after 10 minutes, and this was right after he came back from the main gate that he had to open for an outgoing car, he suddenly approaches me and goes...

"Do you know what you duties are? As the sentry, you are supposed to follow me at all times and protect me with your rifle."

...I was a bit stunned and just looked at him for a while, he wasn't rude when he said it, it was almost instructional and firm, but he was also actively avoiding eye contact. The active commanders don't talk to an ICT that way but here I was, being spoken to about how I should he doing my duties by a newbie who just joined the camp for a little over a month with a rank of a Private no less, I carry the rank of a Corporal. 

In terms of hierarchy, I am about 2 ranks above him, throw in the fact that I am also an ICT, he is pretty much at the bottom.

So I just went Okay and he goes and sit back down on his chair, which is facing this giant fan, a position he would stay in for the entire duration of the duty period unless there were outgoing and incoming vehicles,  it was really weird. I wasn't angry when he said that to me to want to cuss him out, but I was definitely annoyed enough to write a rant text to my friend.

I mean the fact that he think I, an ICT who spends 95% of my time as a civilian, would have the confidence to open fire at an Intruder, to protect him is fucking hilarious, chances are I might actually end up shooting him by accident. I'm very sure even the active soldiers would freeze up if they are suddenly required to open fire at another human being, what makes him think I could do that. 

He doesn't understand that all this is really just for show, a show that I don't really want to put up for a bunch of Bangladeshi workers leaving the camp, because those were the personnel's who were leaving the camp prior to him coming up to me and schooling me about my duty as a sentry. 

Anyways, I went back to watching my Show and I did get up and followed him a bit whenever he was opening the gantry for the cars because that is technically what I am suppose to do and something I would have eventually started doing regardless or whether he "schooled" me about it or not. The reason I didn't do it at the start was because the outgoing vehicles were all contractor lorries, and I didn't think it was necessary to "put on a show" for a bunch of Bangladeshi workers because at the end of the day, that is what it really is, we are just putting up a show, and the truth is, when the higher ups sees our ICT pass, they would usually close one eye if we are not performing up to the highest standard.

We don't talk for a while but then I notice he was literally just sitting in front of the fan and not even using his phone, so I decided to approach him, offered him a mentos to try and spark a conversation, asked him how long he has been in the base hoping we can start chatting because he was going to be my life line if I needed to use the toilet as he was the one with the walkie talkie required to request for a replacement, but this guy turns down my mentos offer and then just gives me the driest response, clearly not interested to talk, and the tone he replied back with sounded like I had offended him.

I tried, it didn't work, so I just gave up and left him alone for the entirety of the duty, I ranted to my friend and also to my ICT mate whom I replaced earlier and the general consensus was that the active soldier needed a good reprimanding and just be ignored for the entirety of the duty, I wasn't really keen to ask him to go fuck himself because I don't really want any feeling of hostility in the air, but I did ignore him for the rest of the duty.

I will say though, watching him do his duty is very fascinating because he is constantly giving 100% all the fucking time, do full checks on every single incoming vehicle, even though the outgoing traffic is starting to pile up, and doing all the traffic hand signals with fully straightened arms every single time.

If he was part of my platoon 9 years ago, he would definitely be an outcast because he is so fucking rigid and by the book and I feel like he doesn't have any people skill. I will have another duty at midnight tomorrow and it is still with his group, so I really hope I won't be so unlucky to be stuck with him again.





UPDATE:

After sharing my experience with the other active soldiers that I was assigned to do my other duties with about this Social Retard, it turns out that the Social Retard is pretty much the Platoon's weirdo and no one really talks to him very much. 

Some of the newer guys from the other Platoon who were in the same training batch as the SR also knows who the guy after I just share with them the initials on his uniform. One of my ICT mates actually managed to start a conversation with the SR and he learnt that SR wanted to become a commander after BMT. I really cannot imagine him going through command school and coming out as a Lieutenant, the guy has no social skills at all, he has no people skills, how the hell does he expect to lead a bunch of men under him with that rigid personality of his?

8th Cycle - Day 2

Reporting time today was slightly later than yesterday, so I had a bit more time at home to watch some Youtube before I drove to camp.

I was actually worried that I might be late, because we were suppose to report at 8.45am but I was still on the road at 8.30am, but when I finally reach the camp at 8.43am, there were only 2 other guys there, my friend being one of them. 

We only had a full attendance an hour later.

Today was the same as yesterday, but with some practical training, so we had a few familiarization lessons and one of the active sergeant today was way too "up there", the way he was acting all firm towards us Reservist Personnel was a bit unnecessary. My friend surmised that he probably just graduated from Command School, that's why he is so serious because everyone in camp knows that Reservist Personnel's are usually treated with very very little regimentation when we go back. 

We still behave ourselves and adhere to the standard rules and regulations of the army, but the way we are being spoken to by the commanders has always been very cordial, akin to talking to an equal as opposed to a superior talking to his underlings. Unless we really fuck up, they will never show us their intimidating "commander" side, that side is usually saved for BMT recruits or when we are going through our Vocational trainings as privates.

Anyways, after that familiarization training, we did more waiting before lunch was served and after lunch, more waiting before the next training started, by which time it was already getting a bit late, so the final round of training was more like a very quick run through, and once everything was done, we were released.

Nothing too significant happened today, the only thing that was sort of a bummer is that one of our manpower got relocated to the main camp, so now everyone in the remote camp has more duty to cover, it sucks that that one guy got moved to the main camp but at the same time, I also understand why he would prefer to be at the main camp, because he doesn't drive. 

Oh well, the main event will start tomorrow, not looking forward to my sentry duties that I will have to do for the next 1.5 weeks, luckily I have a car now, so I don't have to worry about not being able to Grab to and fro from camp.

8th Cycle - Day 1

Today is the official start of my 8th ICT Cycle and for this cycle, I decided to rent a car for the next 2 weeks, just for the convenience of it really. 

This is the first time I will actually have a car for the entire duration of my reservist and I am pretty sure I am going to be spoiled by this experience, that being said, the car itself isn't really a great car, I got the cheapest one from the fleet of cars the rental services provides and I pretty much got what I paid for, there is just no power to the car, it takes a while to pick up speed, so when I am on the highway, I feel like I am hogging traffic. 

Nonetheless, a car is still a car and it was able to get me to camp today with no issue. 

Day 1 of my 8th cycle is the same as with my previous few cycles, just a whole day of waiting for things to happen. I was actually the very first one to arrive today and I was quite surprise at how little people got called up this time.

My friend whom I always go through my reservist with arrives a few minutes later and we both pretty much just told each other that we wanted to go to the remote camp, this is honestly the main reason why I rented a car, aside from the sheer convenience of it all, because I wanted to be assigned at the more remote airbase I was thrown to during my last cycle, it's just so much better there because of how quiet it is, my main issue at that time was that I didn't drive and it was very very difficult to call a cab there, but now that I have resolved that issue with my car, I really really wanted to be assigned there. 

So we go register ourselves and weirdly enough, the group wasn't separated like the last time, everyone was together, and I figured maybe they will ask us later, but when we went to the assembly area, the commander suddenly went..

"Separate yourselves based on the color of the sticker on your pass."

... and that was when I noticed my friend and I had different colors, this meant that only 1 of us was going to get what we wanted. I was a bit bumped out that we were going to be separated again, but I was more concern about which colour was going to be the one going to the remote camp. 

The passes were given out at random and usually it is not given at random, the ones who didn't drive wouldn't want to be thrown into the remote camp, they would always ask us if we drove, and usually only the ones who drive are thrown into the remote camp (not always because they threw me there despite me telling them I didn't drive the last time) so they clearly missed out a very important step. 

Anyways, after waiting in the assembly area for a while, we were asked to move to a small room because there were less than 40 of us in total and the hall we were in was clearly too big, and once we were all settled down, the commander tells us which color will go which camp and my color was unfortunately in the main camp, but after that revelation, he suddenly asks...

"How many of you wants to go to the remote camp? Best for those who drive."

... and everyone looked at each other for a while, I knew another ICT also wanted to go to the remote camp as well because we were assigned there the last cycle and we both felt like it was better there, he didn't raise up his hands and I figured it was because no one else was doing that, so I slowly raised my hands up and after that, a few more raised theirs as well and I am very happy to announce that I got assigned to the remote camp with my friend.

 The fact that I have a car for this ICT makes me very happy.

So we took our lunch after a pre-recorded briefing and it's amazing how the commander can still be so long winded in the pre-recorded briefing, people were pretty much bored out of our minds hearing the commander just constantly going off tangent in the briefing and then this boredom continued after lunch as well, where everyone was made to watch 8 mandatory training videos back to back, they didn't give us any break in between to rest our mind, every time one training video was over, they will just play the next one and the next one, and the next one, by the second video, all of us pretty much just switched off because all of us have watched the videos multiple times, every time we get called back, we have to sit through the video.

This lasted for a good 2 to 3 hours and after which, because we still had some time left, we were just left waiting for another hour and a half before we were release because there was nothing else planned and it was too early to actually dismiss us. 

It took me just 40 minutes to reach home today, it was very very nice.