Catch Up and stuff...

Went for a haircut earlier this morning and I knew the store was only going to open at 11am, so I headed out and walked over to the mall from my home about 15 minutes before they were slated to open, reaching there with about 2 minutes to spare.

Upon reaching the location, I notice there wasn't a queue, however, there was a lone boy sitting at one of the public benches a few meters away from the store and as I was making my way to the store front, there was another middle aged guy who was also headed towards it in the opposite direction. I stood on the left side of the door and the middle aged guy stood on the right, fiddling with his phone. As the hairdresser begins to unlock the door to open it for us, the lone boy got up from the bench and started walking over, but since I was closest to the entrance, I ended up stepping into the door first and became first in line, followed by the middle aged uncle and then the lone boy.

As I was about to make payment to get a ticket, I looked over at the lone boy who was behind the middle aged uncle and said to him ...

"Do you want to go first?"

... since it was obvious he was technically first in the non-existent line. Sadly, he wasn't paying much attention and this was when the middle aged uncle looked up from his phone and replied...

"Yes, I have other places to get to."

... and proceeded to buy the first ticket. He had a bit of an accent and that was when my xenophobia kicked in and in my head, I just immediately thought to myself...

"Typical Chinese immigrant."

... of course he would shamelessly take the first spot when I had never intended it to be for him. I wouldn't mind letting him go before me to be honest, it's just the immediate assumption that I was giving the first spot to him instead of the boy behind him that irked me, because I am pretty sure he is also aware the boy had been waiting way before the both of us arrived. 

I guess this is also something that the older generation of Singaporeans will do, the whole kiasu-ness of it all, I see it all the time when I am at the bus interchange waiting for a bus, there will always be a small handful of old folks completely ignoring the snaking queue that has formed and just park themselves right beside the automatic glass doors, and the moment the bus driver gives us the green light for us to board, these old folks will just shamelessly cut the line and join the people at the front of the queue into the bus. Sometimes you want to say something, but then it's old folks, it's not very nice to ask them to fuck off to the back of the line like everyone else, so we end up just letting them get away with it and they just get more and more brazen about it.

I digress. 

The haircut took me a total of 40 minutes because I had allowed 2 people to go ahead of me, and after the haircut, I suddenly realized how much older I am starting to look, my sideburns are now 40% white hair, so it really enhances the middle age uncle vibes I was not going for. Honestly, it was a bit depressing because I wasn't expecting to look even older after the haircut.

Sigh. Mid thirties is when I star to show my age, gone are the days when people would mistake me for a 20 year old and call me Ah Boy.

Anyways, today was a relatively busy day because right after my haircut, I had a 2.30pm dental appointment. I really don't like scheduling my appointments at such late timings, would have rather gotten it over and done with in the morning, but alas, I hadn't thought too far because the timing today was made due to a last minute reschedule last week. I didn't feel like going during work then and letting the appointment eat into my lunch hour, thus the switch to today when I actually have my CNY off.

The appointment itself was pretty fast, it was only for the regular check up and cleaning, which is rare because most of the time, the dentist would always find a new decay somewhere and I would have to do fillings, but today, everything as great. Just a quick clean and I was done within 15-20 minutes.

After my dental appointment, I had a pretty long catch-up session with my ex-Manager and a few ex-colleagues from my last job. The meet-up was at 4.00pm and we were meeting up at Minds Cafe for dinner and board games. 

I was done with my dental at around 3.10pm, so I headed over to Dhoby Ghuat since the cafe was within walking distance from Plaza Singapura and took a walk around the mall to kill some time. Got a facial serum from Innisfree and then loitered in Sephora for a while to just smell the perfumes they had available.  I was mainly smelling the Jo Malone range because there wasn't any Tom Ford in the Plaza Singapura outlet, which was disappointing. 

The Jo Malone scents were all alright, wasn't particularly drawn to any of the scents I had sprayed on the tester, they were nice but not nice enough for me to want to get one, that was until I decided to pump a bit of the tester handcream because who am I to deny a free pump of a $120 handcream. I walked out of the store after lotion-ing my hand and as I was on the escalator to the upper levels, I gave my hands a whiff and it smelled really good. 

Headed over to Hooga and I couldn't stop smelling my hands. 

Over at Hooga, I started smelling more stuff again and honestly, my goal at Hooga was to smell a bunch of their diffusers and then leave without getting anything, but then I smelled one particular scent and I was suddenly reminded of hotel lobbies, it was really random but I was immediately attracted to it.

The scent is called Earl Grey and Angelica.

It's such an unassuming scent based on it's name because those 2 are fragrance notes that I really don't care too much about, but after smelling it, it is really something else. 

I saw the price of the room spray because they had it in that scent and it was only $13. That is cheap compared to the room spray that I had gotten from a Tik Tok Shop small business that was $26, and is probably half the size. I ended up getting the room spray and after a surprise discount, it ended up being only $9. I have paid $40 for 5ml of perfume so this room spray feels like a really good deal.

But now that I have it, the longevity of the scent is really quite shit, it barely last a minute before the scent completely disappears, I need to spray about 10 sprays of it in my room to smell anything. The $26 one I got from the Tik Tok shop performs like a beast compared to the Hooga one. I guess you do get what you pay for at the end of the day.

It was about 3.50pm when I was done at Hooga, so I decided to make my way over to Minds Cafe, but not before dropping by Sephora again to check out what the scent of the Jo Malone hand cream. 

It's called Peony and Blush Suede. It's a fragrance for women, but I am very tempted to get it. Didn't actually get one from Sephora, but I might consider getting a small decant from Shopee just to test it out.

Headed over to Minds Cafe after I got the name of the Jo Malone scent and turns out, there are 2 Minds Cafe located in Prinsep Street, one on the street level and another that is tucked away on the second storey in one of the shophouses. I was at the street level one, which was huge, but my ex-Manager had booked the smaller one.

Ran into her as I was headed over to the smaller one and we went up together. We ordered our dinner set, which was $35, the set came with free flow of snacks, drinks and unlimited play time with any of the board games and card games they had available, it was a really good deal, especially with a bigger group of friends.

Since it was only the 2 of us at the start, we started with a very advanced version of tic-tac-toe game, towards the end of the first round, that was when 2 others arrived, so we moved on to Cards Against Humanity, which would have been really fun had all 4 of us understood how the game worked. One of my ex-colleague was so blur he didn't really know what was going on, so my ex-Manager and I had to ask the staff there for a game that was much simpler to grasp, we found one, played a few rounds of that, and even then, that ex-colleague of mine would occasionally still fuck up the game rules.

By around 7pm, the last one of us arrived and when all 5 of us were there, the focus started to shift towards  gossiping about the current happenings with the store. None of us had anything good to say about the company, we just kept talking about how bad the bosses there are, how inadequate Upper Management is because you literally have a group of incompetent individuals sitting at the top making uninformed decisions based on assumptions and not based on experience, and when those decisions ends up turning to shit like they always do, Upper Management will suddenly disappear when the angry customers start to appear, and those angry customers will be left to the people below to placate, this involves becoming a punching bag for the customer to hurl their displeasure at, which is so unfair because the ones who should be getting scolded are the inept individuals who created the whole issue in the first place, but they are always hiding in their office not recognizing their fuck ups. The bosses surrounds themselves with people like those, so it just becomes an echo chamber of them essentially patting themselves on the back for making a bunch of very "good" decisions that is clearly causing a lot of mental distress for everyone else who are actually customer fronting.

It was also brought to my attention that the company didn't even give the employees any Red Packet this year for CNY, and I thought them only giving $10 last year was bad enough. The more I take part in that conversation, the more comfort I found in knowing that I am no longer part of the company.

 

We also ended up talking about that colleague of mine who will be joining my current company soon as a Project Manager and after listening to what my ex-colleague had to say about her, that was when I suddenly realized I may have really fucked up by introducing her to my boss.

My ex-colleagues were still jokingly telling me that I have made a mistake getting her onboard my current company, and that she will now be my problem to deal with.

Shit.

They were half joking.

Honestly, she wasn't my first choice when my boss had thought of getting a new designer on board, if there was anyone I would have liked to work with again from my old company, it would be my ex-Manager, but unfortunately, she didn't have the qualifications my boss required, and most importantly, she is not interested as well. 

The main reason why I introduced my colleague to my boss is because she has the same background as me in Interior Design and I figured she would be able to utilize her skills and knowledge as an Interior Designer to help the company grow, skills and knowledge that I know she has. I only forgot about the most important aspect, her character and working attitude.

She is by no means an unpleasant individual, but she is some who needs to develop a greater sense of responsibility for her job and that is very important as a Project Manager. I really don't know how she will performs as a Project Manager, so I do hope she can prove me wrong and become a very valuable asset to the company. I had my doubts about her longevity with the company, and those doubts came from my prediction that my company will not be able to meet her salary requirements in the future once she becomes accustomed to the whole construction industry again, but now, my new doubt comes from her inability to perform well due to her lack of discipline and responsibility, and that is even worst because if she messes up, it will look bad because I would be indirectly sabotaging my boss's company, which is the last thing I want to do.

Sigh. I guess for I can only wait and see and hope for the best but expect the worst.

Anyways. 

My meeting with all my ex-colleague lasted till 11pm. We kept chatting until we were the last group of customers in the café. I would never have expected that we would be able to have such a long catch up session, I spend a total of 7 hours in the café, that's nuts, it's longer than a single round of Guard Duty during my reservist, and the 7 hours felt like it passed quite quickly... and for only $35, with unlimited snacks and drinks refill, it's a steal. 

Who knew the most eventful thing that would happen during my CNY break is something that is not related to CNY at all.

1 Week CNY Closure

Today marks my company's official closure for CNY and my boss had arranged for all of us to have a buffet lunch at Concorde Hotel to commemorate the day. It was still half day work, so I went to the office as per usual in the morning to do whatever I could, and by about 11.30am, everyone who was going for the buffet finally arrived, and when I say everyone, I mean only 4 of us, including my boss, because our company is really really small and one of out PM had recently resigned.

Before we headed out, my boss sat all of us down at the meeting table and hands out our red packets, it was a really really thick red packet, but I didn't think too much of it, I thanked my boss and kept it away, after which, he also informed us that he had already bank transferred our bonuses, which I was very surprised by because I thought the red packet was more than sufficient.

The last time I got a bonus was when I was still working at the furniture store, they had only given me a 1 week salary bonus, which I have heard from a few people that it is considered quite a stingy amount, especially because I had worked at the furniture store for over a year and that was the first time they ever gave us any sort of bonus, so my expectations for bonuses in general were not very high just due to that sole experience.

Anyways, after that, we were made to draw lots and each of us were entitled to 1 out of the 8 hampers that the different suppliers had given to us, I got a medium sized one, but since I didn't have a car, I really had no plans to actually bring it home and just left it at the office. It was a Hamper from Eu Yan Sang, so there were abalones, white fungus, bird nest etc, it was a healthy hamper, but alas, too big for me to be lugging around via public transport.

By 12.10pm, we headed out in our boss's car for our lunch, the trip over took slightly longer than expected because my boss took a wrong turn at the Expressway, and then missed also the hotel car park entrance. 

We finally reached at about 12.35pm.

As we entered into the buffet restaurant, I immediately noticed how crowded the place was, the tables were pretty much all filled up and there was already a huge crowd of people encircling around the buffet spread. We were ushered to our seats by the waiter and proceeded to join the crowd to get our food.. 

Buffets are a waste of money on me because of how small my appetite is, I was pretty much full after I finished my first plate of food, but to be fair, I did take a bit of almost every dish that was being offered. so I did have a sample size of almost every dish there.

We were there for about 1.5 hours total, it was about an hour of eating and than 30 minutes of talking, mainly them and not so much me, I just kinda sat there and listened to them chit chat about their own stuff. Honestly got a bit bored and wanted to leave quickly because the PM started talking about himself for quite a bit there, but he of the older generation so they do tendency to be a bit more longwinded.

Total bill came up to about $170, fully paid for by my boss because that is how he is. I may have my issues with the way he works sometimes, but I cannot deny that he is one of the most generous boss I have ever worked under, excluding my Dad of course.

Right after the lunch, we split up and headed towards our own direction, I decided to visit Haji Lane because my ex-Manager from the furniture store was having a pop up event at the area, I didn't tell her beforehand that I was going to pop by because I didn't really want to commit incase I felt lazy and suddenly didn't feel like going, so it was pretty much a surprise visit.

As I was waiting for the bus, I decided to check the thick Ang Bao my boss had given me at the start of the day, I was honestly expecting a bunch of $2 notes and $10 notes just stacked together and at most get like $188, which I would have been very happy with because he had already given me a 1 month bonus, but when I took a peek at the inside, I was fucking shock, it was a huge stack of blues, and I mean a huge stack, it's not like 3 or 4 pieces that I could easily identity at one look, there was so much it looked like it was meant to be split into at least a dozen different red packets.

Just as a reference. 

My boss at ID4 gave all of his workers a $50 Ang Bao every CNY. 

My boss at the furniture store gave everyone a $10 Ang Bao every CNY

I didn't actually count how many notes there were inside the red packet because I was at a bus stop, it would be a bit weird for me to just pull out a bunch of notes and started flicking through them, so I quickly zipped up my bag and waited for the bus to arrive, the entire time I was in the bus, I kept trying to guesstimate how much would be in there, the thought that maybe my boss had given me the wrong packet by mistake did cross my mind, but then everyone else also had an equally thick stack so it couldn't be.

The ride to the pop up event took about 20 minutes, so it wasn't as near as I had initially thought, and the walk to the pop up event took maybe 5 minutes, I got a little lost because I don't go there often, but when I finally reached the place and saw my ex-Manager, she was shocked.

I hadn't seen her since her farewell party at the club that was way to loud and I had actually done an Irish goodbye then because I did not want to go back into the club after I had stepped out to take a break, so I didn't actually had a proper goodbye with her. I was very happy to see her and she happened to be manning the pop up store on her own today.

The walk-in for the event wasn't great because it was a weekday, and we pretty much had an uninterrupted conversation for the entire 1.5 hours I was there, and we also calculated the Ang Bao that my boss gave me together, the both of us were shocked when she helped me count the bills.....

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

... I could hear the crescendo towards the end as she was flipping through the bills because both of us couldn't believe what we were seeing. 

There were a total of 30 $50 bills shoved in that Ang Bao....

30!

My boss gave me an Ang Bao worth $1,500! 

'

....this is on top of the bonus that I had also received! The last time I got such a big Ang Bao was when I won first price at ID4's D&D back in 2020. That was $1,888.00, and that wasn't guaranteed, this $1,500 Ang Bao is guaranteed because he gave each of us equally thick Ang Baos, maybe the others had more than me, but that still doesn't change the fact that I got a $1,500 Ang Bao from my boss! 

It's nuts! I am actually still reeling in from the shock of it all. I immediately starting thinking of what new tech I could buy, couldn't think of anything, but I could definitely get another MFK perfume if I wanted to.

Oh, and I also don't have to go to an ATM to withdraw any money for the Ang Baos I am planning to pack for my parents anymore because my boss has essentially done that for me..... and then some.

So yeah, I shoved that big fat Ang Bao right back in my bag after the counting, my ex-Manager jokingly told me since I now have access to all that money, I should getting something from her pop up store, which I did, then did more catching up with my ex-Manager, and it was really nice to see her again after such a long time. I then decided to drop by Fluff Bakery because it was a walking distance away from the Pop Up Event, so I headed over, got 2 for myself and 2 for my ex-Manager, *cue her shock and gratefulness for getting her cupcakes as well* , then I booked a Grab because I had money to splurge.

It was a pretty good day. 

And now I have a full week of break from work to enjoy! I did miss being able to enjoy the CNY Closure when I was working at the furniture store. Working retail hours sucks because retail stores have to be open throughout the public holidays. I had a lot of Off-in Lieu then, but sometimes, I just want to enjoy my holiday on the same day as everyone else without having to specially apply leave for it.

Will be going back to work next Thursday and I am not really sure how that will go. An ex-colleague of mine from the furniture store will officially be joining us on Thursday, she will coming in as a Project Manager. So from ex-colleague to colleague again.

I will be honest, even though I was the one who had recommended her to join, I have told my boss and our accountant not to put too much hope into that colleague of mine committing to the company for long. 

She is a very money driven individual and was a Sales Designer in the past like me, the main difference between the both of us is that she exceled in doing Sales, and the furniture store would have been the perfect place for her had it not been for my ex-boss's stinginess when it comes to the commission.

I had originally introduced her come in as Designer, because it's office bound and generally less stressful than Project Management, or at least to me, but she told me she preferred Project Management, so we shall see how long she can last here and if my boss may need to find a new Project Manager soon to replace her when she decides she could do better elsewhere. 

The difference between being a successful Sales Designer and being a Project Manager who will be drawing a fixed monthly salary is the income difference. Her earning power as a Sales Designer is much higher, of course it was also a lot more stressful and unstable because of the nature of the commission based job, thus her decision to join the furniture store to take a break from it all, but I do feel like once she finally re-familiarize herself to Project Managing a renovation, she will definitely start to make comparisons and either ask for a salary increment, which my boss may not be agreeable with and I am very concerned that she might make a big fuss about, or resign and return to her Sales Designer roots.

I am predicting that she won't actually last till the end of the year, but who knows, I do hope she proves me wrong and end up becoming a valuable member of the team because my boss will definitely need a bigger team. 

I will also have to deal with Terence with 1 R once the CNY break is over and I am not looking forward to messaging that prick again, I really wish we can drop his project, but my accountant told me that Terence is one of the projects that my boss has very high hopes for because of how much spending power he potentially has, it's just unfortunate that he is not going to be a pleasant customer to deal with.

For now, all I will think about is how to spend that bonus and red packet money that I have received from my boss.

Hello February

First day of the month of February and I am already getting a moron of a customer trying to correct a spelling error I had made of his name.

I didn't save his number, so his messages appears in the chat with his self written username, which he spells with 2 "r" , and I wrote it as such because I had wanted to respect his spelling version, and I get this as a reply. 

That condescending response "This is a very simple spelling" and this fucking idiot doesn't even realize he had spelt his own name wrong the entire time he's been using Whatsapp.The guy is a retiree, so he is too old to be trying to be cute with his spelling 2 "r" spelling.

 

"Ownself check ownself"

.... with a screenshot of his fucking username is what I would have liked to reply, but because he is a customer, I had to "apologize" for spelling his name wrong. I did however point out to him that I had only spelt it that way because he spelt it that way, he read it and didn't reply for maybe an hour, and after which, his response was....

"No problem, let's move on."

... shouldn't that be MY line? 

Move on from you being a condescending fuck face? At least have the decency to apologize for wrongfully calling someone out for a spelling error that YOU MADE! Or acknowledge that you had made a blunder, stupid old fuck.

To have to deal with the ridiculousness of the Bacons last week and then now this Terrence fuck face, 2024 has, so far, been really shitty work wise. 

Terrence Fuck Face's project will be starting in April and we haven't even finalized any design yet because that's how much fuck this fuck face and his wife gives about the upcoming renovation, none, I have been messaging them to arrange for a date to meet, and to let me know their thoughts on the proposals that I have prepared thus far and all Terrence Fuck Face has feedback to me about is his fucking name being spelled with an additional "R".

.

.

.

.

Ending January on a shit note....

 January 2024 is really ending on an extremely shitty note for me.

First, I got sick because there was a virus going around in the office and I ended up catching the bug from our accountant, who is always seated literally right across from me in our office space. She was coughing pretty much the whole of last week, so I knew it was only a matter of time before I ended up getting infected. 

Due to that, I am currently on a 3 day MC, today being my last day, but fuck my life because as if being sick is not bad enough, 2 projects of mine that are currently in the renovation stages had to have issues arise from it.

Let's refer to the first project as Project Bacon.

Project Bacon is actually already in it's final lap and we are about to do the handover next Tuesday, all the renovation works are done save for a few minor touch ups here and there. The deal with this particular project is I can't really predict how the customers would react to certain situations because the husbands' attitude can be quite unpredictable. 

One day he can be really understanding and close one eye for certain defects that he may have spotted. But then on other days, he can become extremely nit-picky and take issue with the smallest issues.

Yesterday was the delivery date for his fridge, and that's usually how someone can sort of tell how "complete" the renovation is, because once the homeowners are receiving the deliveries for big ticket items such as a fridge or a television, the renovation is good as done and the space is essentially ready for moving in, but then there was an issue.... 

"Why is the fridge jutting out from the cabinet so much?"

... and he attaches a photo along with that message in the group chat that everyone who is involved in the project is a part of.

Not my project, but the same fridge with the same amount of jutting.

This is completely normal for fridges, if you do not want your fridge to jut out, then buy a slimmer fridge. "Counter Depth Fridge" do exist and the reason why those slimmer fridges are called 'Counter Depth Fridge" is because kitchen counters have a standard depth of 600mm, this measurement is based on ergonomics and we usually don't tinker around the the depth too much unless specially requested by the homeowner.

My boss, who is also the Project Manager of this project, then responds back and informs the customer that the fridge jutting out is normal because fridges are deeper than the standard counter depth, he then attaches a screenshot of my 3D rendering that I did showcasing that even in the 3D, the jut out was reflected. 

Mr Bacon couldn't take that as an answer and request for a call, but my boss was busy, then Mrs Bacon responds back...

"But the 3D rendering isn't jutting out as much."

... and it's by like 4cm. So my boss finally gets on a call with them and the conversation didn't end well. Mr Bacon is complaining, Mr Bacon's Mum is also taking part in the conversation and making a whole bunch of noise because she happened to be on site as well, and my boss was unfortunately not able to assuage them that the jut out that they are looking at is normal.

THIS

LEVEL

OF

JUT

IS NORMAL!

Every once in a while, you will get customers like the Bacons who will question why something is not done to standard when it is the standard, I honestly have no words.

This is the very first time in my 5 years as an Interior Designer that a customer is complaining about their fridge sticking out too much, and when you tell them it is normal, because it is normal.

"I wasn't aware that it would jut out that much."

I get that sometimes, we have to manage the customers expectations, but this is akin to me telling people who go to the pool...

"Hey, just to let you know, there is chlorine in the swimming pool, ."

… and if they go in not knowing there is chlorine in the pool, but then end up getting the smell of chlorine on themselves, their reaction would be...

"Oh, it must be the chlorine form the pool causing that smell."

… and then they just accept that and move on instead of whining to the pool and asking why they smell weird. 

You are the one who got the fridge! I didn't buy it on your behalf without your consent! This is literally your own problem for buying a thick fridge.  

The reason why I don't want to do Project Management is because I want to avoid stupid situations like this, like having to justify why water is wet, why fire is hot, why humans need to take a shit, why a 750mm fridge would stick out from a 600mm deep cabinet.

I really don't know how to deal with this, the more I think about it, the more frustrated I get. On one hand, I am thinking, maybe all I need to do is speak to them logically, which my boss did, but it failed miserably and the Bacons are in their own echo chamber because Mr Bacon is agreeing with Mrs Bacon, and Mrs Bacon is agreeing with Mummy Bacon, and Mummy Bacon is agreeing with Mr Bacon. It's like a daisy chain of stupid just going round and round jerking each other off with WRONG. 

"Oooh, yeah, how is that wrong feeling? Does it feel good? I love that wrong! The wrong feels so good."

Today, as I was watching A Quiet Place 2 on Netflix and trying to enjoy the last day of my MC whilst pushing out the thought of the stupid Bacons out of my mind, I get a text from my boss about another project.

It had to do with a specific tile I had chosen with the clients for the project, turns out what we chose wasn't suitable for floor tiles because it was too fragile and we had to do a reselection.

I have a bit of PTSD after what happen the last time with a different group of customers involving tiles.

The difference is that this time, the project has already begun and we are in the midst of doing the tiling works, if I could visit the tile shop today to sort everything out, I would, but I am on MC and I doubt the customer can make it today.

I was very apprehensive about the whole situation, thinking the customers will flare up like how the last one did, but thankfully, both husband and wife were quite calm and the wife agreed to meet me tomorrow to reselect their flooring. Hopefully I can find a matching one because I really don't know what I would do if I can't.

My boss's quality of being late...

I had to deal with my first disgruntled customer at work today and this whole situation was honestly something that could have been avoided had my boss not procrastinated and did things so last minute.

So for some background, this customer had been introduced to me as my boss's ex-boss kid, my boss had watched him grow up and he had came to us, along with his wife, to do renovation works for their upcoming home.

My role in this whole process is just purely the brains behind the design of the home, once the design aspect of it is done, I will pass the torch to the next person in charge, who is the Project Manager and my involvement will be significantly reduced. In my attempt to make this whole renovation as smooth as possible, I decided to visit the tile shop with the homeowners a month ago just to firm up on everything before the renovation would start. This was something I had taken initiative to do because I notice my boss's style with his other projects has always been to visit the tile shop literally one week before renovation begins and then just select the tiles for the customer super last minute, which is not the way this should be done, just based on my past experience at ID4. 

The client and his wife had both taken leave just to make the tile shop visit last month possible and it was quite a fruitful visit, we were able to shortlist a few options and then finalize the selection within a week. After the tile trip, we even took time to come back to the office to confirm all the colors for the cabinets, including how the internal components would work, so my part in this whole renovation process was pretty much done last month and I had just been touching up and fine tuning on all my drawings so the Project Manager can have as much information as possible to ensure a smooth handing over of the torch for the project.

Fast forward to this morning, my boss suddenly requested for me to list down all the tiles that had been selected for the renovation because he wanted to order the tiles today, renovation starts next Monday, today is Thursday, ordering the tile now is just super last minute, but I figured since my role in this is done, everything else will now be in my boss's hands because he is the Project Manager for this particular project, if any issues arises, he will be the one who has to deal with them. I did all the calculations for the tiles needed and sends him the list.

And an issue arises.....

Few hours later, he drops me a text and informs me that the one of the tile that we had selected is unfortunately out of stock, this was the main tile for the whole renovation. I was really annoyed because the renovation will be starting next week, we literally only have 2 working days left to reselect another tile. I had met the both the clients in advance to finalize all the tiles JUST SO we can avoid last minute bullshit like this, they even took leave from work to meet me on a weekday for the visit, and now we are in this fucking situation because my boss decided to only make the order so last minute.

He already had all the information he needed to make the order weeks ago, but he just kept sitting on it. I knew we didn't have time to dilly dally anymore, so I shared the bad news with the clients as quickly as I could while my boss was still contemplating if he should tell them or I should tell them.

He should have been the one to tell them, but the bearer of bad news ended up being me because we have no time anymore, the homeowners need to know as soon as possible so we can come up with a plan and settle this in time for the renovation to commence next week.

Initially the husband didn't take the news very badly, but as the conversation progress, I could sense that he was getting more and more agitated, asking us in the group chat why the order was never made in advanced because we had literally confirmed them weeks ago. My boss just didn't bother to chime in, so I had to do the replies and that made it seemed like I was the one at fault for not ordering the tiles in advance.

I was really not in a good mood because I just felt really indignant about this whole thing. I did my due diligence as the designer, selected and confirmed everything that needed to be confirmed way in advance, but because of my boss's habit of procrastinating, all the advance work that I had done with the customers just went down the drain.

My boss and I headed to the tile shop to look for a replacement and the husband said he will also drop by, usually when I meet a customer who is upset  over chat in person, they will drop the aggression they have been exhibiting in chat and approach the whole situation with a much friendlier attitude, but when this client came to the tile shop and saw us, he was NOT HAPPY.

I was in the midst of putting some alternative options together and when the husband approached us, he was just exclaiming out loud...

"What is going on? Why is this happening? Why like that?"

.... he was saying it with a slight smile on his face, but you can sense in his tone that he was very upset and was trying to mask his annoyance with the smile, I tried to explain that my boss and I have shortlisted a few tiles for him to choose from, and a few seconds later, my boss just bolts off to go look for other alternatives around the tile shop and leaves me alone with the unhappy customer. It was so uncomfortable 

I was extremely unhappy, not at the customer because his anger is completely valid, but at my boss because this was an issue that had been caused by him due to his negligence, and he just kept running away from it, literally going to the furthest corner of the tile shop so he can avoid talking to the husband.

The husband walked around the tile shop a little after he looked at what I had counter proposed, comes back to me and ask me where my boss was because he wanted to talk to the both of us before his wife came, so all of us found each other and he basically expressed his disappointed at us. My boss kept coming up with excuses, saying all this is out of his control because the stock was only recently swiped up and to have a stock get wiped out so quickly is not a common occurrence, this made the situation worst because everything could have been avoided if the tiles had been reserved in advance like he, so the husband just got even more emotional, my boss also felt like he wasn't in the wrong, so he didn't feel the need to apologize to the client and instead kept reiterating how all of this was out of his control. I kinda just sat there and not say anything because to put it very bluntly, this is not my fault and shouldn't be my shit to clean up. 

One of the salesperson in the store came over in the midst of all this and pulled my boss one side to explain the tile shortage situation, so my boss excuses himself and I was once again alone with the husband. 

I was able to change topic and distracted the husband from the issue at hand, so the mood got less intense after that and when the wife finally arrives, the air just stopped feeling so heavy. I guess because he didn't know how his wife would react to the situation, the husband was initially really affected by it, but the wife didn't seem very upset when she arrived, and we eventually went back to looking for different options. We were able to confirm the reselection, but instead of just reselecting one tile to replace the one that's out of stock, they decided that they wanted to reselect all the tiles and just explore a new look.

Again. All of this extra work could have been avoided if my boss had just ordered the fucking tiles earlier. 

If we had informed the customers that the tiles were out of stock two to three weeks before their renovation is scheduled to start, I'm sure the customers will still be understanding and just go visit the tile shop with me to reselect with no issues because 2 to 3 weeks advance notice would mean we DID make the effort to order in advance, and if it is out of stock then, then it is beyond our control because had already taken the precaution to attempt to order it early, 2 to 3 weeks would  also have given us sufficient time to reselect the tiles and for me to properly update the drawings. I can completely understand the customer's anger because if I were them, I would also be livid, and I was livid as the designer of the project because it wasn't just the clients time that was wasted during the first tile shop visit, mine was wasted as well because that trip ended up being for naught. 

I really got my work cut out for me because now, I have to rush out the 3D model for them with the reselected tiles within a day, just so they can have a visual of how everything will look together. Now I cannot help but wonder how many more fuck ups will actually happen once the renovation starts because to get the customers so upset before we even started the renovation is not a good sign.

Project Manager Problems and more Perfume.

So I had to attend a site visit a over the weekend with my boss in the East Coast area and it is for a project that will be starting the renovation phase in about a or two week.

My boss will personally be managing this project because one of our PMs recently tendered his resignation, this particular PM, whom I shall just refer to as Dave, apparently has the tendency to "quit" when he gets stressed out at work, the reason Quit is in quotes is because he doesn't actually quit, he would usually end up rescinding his resignation letter and just come to work again as per usual after he has completed serving his notice period, that is according to our accountant, who has been with the company for almost as long as Dave, apparently this is his sixth time pulling his stunt.

One of the current projects that he is currently working on is a project that I am involved in and compared to the other PM, whom I shall refer to as Jason, Dave is not very good at his job. Jason, the other Project Manager, is very meticulous and will show initiative, he will take time to study all my drawings and clarify any issues that he has with me before proceeding with the renovation work, if he notices that I have made certain design decisions that are not viable, he will take the initiative to adjust them on-site and then explain to the clients why those amendments were made, so I barely ever have to get involved.

Dave on the other hand is the completely opposite. He will glance through all the drawings I have prepared, but he won't study them in detail and will expect information to be spoon fed to him, information that can be found on my drawings with a little deduction skill.

For example, when I present to him the electrical plan, it will be filled with information such as where the switches will be, where the powerpoints will be and where the lights will be. 

For this current project, we had to demolish a wall, and on that wall, there were existing powerpoints that would be affected once it was taken down.  As an experienced Project Manager, I had expected him to look at the electrical plan and understand how to deal with those affected powerpoints, which would simply be to relocated them to where I had reflected in the electrical plan, but instead of automatically thinking of that, he sends me a photo of that freshly demolished wall with all the dangling wiring and ask me to think of a way to deal with them.

I have already thought of a way to deal with them... in the electrical drawings. In the end, I had to literally draw out on the photo how to re-run those wires and where they will be relocated to. At that point, my mind was blown at how inept he was and my expectation of him as a Project Manager dropped.

After that, he went on and arranged more works, but had stopped requesting for any clarification on my end, so I figured he probably had everything under control and that my drawings I had prepared were sufficient for him to plan the works smoothly. 

I was wrong. 

My boss had brought me to that site to take a look at the ongoing works together and I realized Dave had done the false ceiling wrongly, I showed the drawings I did to my boss on-site and my measurements on it were a bit off, but it was very obvious that the false ceiling designs were meant to be aligned with certain walls. 

This is how a False Ceiling Plan would look like. (I found it off the internet)

If we were to look at the yellowed coloured part, we can see that the false ceiling will end in alignment with the wall on the right. I had a false ceiling that followed a similar concept, but instead of an alignment with a wall, it's in alignment with a door. 

On my False Ceiling plan, I had also included measurements, those were meant for my accountant because she needed the measurements to prepare her quotation. I had assumed that Dave would have the sense to look at the False Ceiling plan, catch these little details, and maybe ask me for clarification before he instructed the sub-cons on how to do the false ceiling, but he doesn't and instead, just gives the workers those measurements and they followed them to the dot. The floorplan isn't to scale because it's one of those condo floorplans like the one pictured above, they have no measurements and are usually not accurate, so the false ceiling that was constructed ended up extending beyond the door frame and that was an issue because it meant the full height wardrobe that was directly facing the false ceiling would no longer have enough allowance to open the wardrobe doors, they will end up hitting the false ceiling.

When my boss and I saw that, we checked all the bedrooms and they all had the same problem. If Jason had been the one running this project, I am very certain he would have foreseen all this and pointed out all this issues to me, but unfortunately, Dave is the one in charge and he didn't. Luckily my boss and I were able to come up with a solution, so nothing had to be redone, we also didn't want to message Dave because it was a Friday and we know that alerting him to all this issues would just spoil his weekend.

And that is the other problem with Dave, it's the fact that we have to baby him so much because if we don't, he will have a mental breakdown and then just go MIA, like he did last week. He was so stressed out that he just became uncontactable for 2 days, my boss had texted me about it last week and literally told me not to message Dave because he was under a lot of stress, that even my boss couldn't reach him. I was actually flabbergasted that my boss allowed Dave to pull this stunt because just like his habit to "quit" when the job gets tough, he also has the habit of disappearing for a while as well. Usually his modus operandi is to disappear for a while, and then make a reappearance to throw his resignation letter. 

SIX times.

And every time, once his notice period has been served, he would come return to work like he had never thrown the letter at all. I am honestly hoping that my boss will actually find another Project Manager soon that is as capable as Jason, because Dave is just not that great at his job, and he cannot just keep disappearing and then quitting when the job gets too difficult, only to come back again to potentially repeat that cycle. It's so disruptive to the company because projects that he is running mid-way through will have to switch hands and then projects that had been assigned to him in advance will have to be reassigned to another PM who may already be overloaded, and if that other PM has too many on his plate, it will fall on my boss's shoulders. My boss needs to find a new Project Manager soon so Dave won't be able to return once his notice period is up, because he is clearly taking the kindness of my boss for granted.

I really cannot trust Dave to run any of my future projects because the one he is working on right now is actually extremely straightforward, the fact that he can mess it up is really a testament to his capabilities as a Project Manager.

Anyways, as I was saying, I did a site visit over the weekend with my boss and we had  no choice but to meet on a weekend because the client is currently on reservist and is only available to meet on that very Saturday. We had previously met on a Saturday before on site as well and the reason why I am bringing this up is because after the meeting, I did the very same thing I did after our previous Saturday meeting, I headed over to Orchard and got a bottle of perfume. 

Previously, I had visited Escentials at ION to get the Gentle Fluidity Silver, they had a discount going on then so I managed to save around $40, but this time, I wanted to actually get the perfume from the brand's flagship store, so I dropped by Maison Francis Kurkdjian at Ngee Ann City instead, which is a walking distance from ION.

It was so fucking crowded. The walk from ION to Ngee Ann City through Wisma Atria took so fucking long because the human traffic was insane. I was actually really annoyed at how crowded it was, but I did eventually make it to the shop, passing by Le Labo, Byredo, Jo Malone and a few other niche fragrance store along the way. I hadn't noticed all these brands were at Ngee Ann City until I started getting into fragrances, and it is such a pity because I used to work so close to all this shops and could have visited them so easily.

The flagship store is a lot smaller than Escentials, but understandably so because Escentials carried other brands of fragrances as well. When I headed in, I already knew what I wanted to get, a bottle of Gentle Fluidity Gold. I had originally planned to get the 70ml bottle, which was what I tried to get online but failed because of customs issue from France side. I thought I could also get it for $300 at the retail store since it was the flagship store, but when the sales person informed me that it was going for $340 instead, I had to take a step back and reconsider, then I just thought fuck it, I will just get the 35ml bottle instead because I didn't want to pay that additional $40. 

The smaller one  was $209, which is the same price point as Escentials, they didn't have any ongoing promotions, but they did give me a free sample of my choosing, I requested for the Baccarat Rouge 540 Extrait, but it was unavailable, so in the end, I settled for Amyris Homme. 

Honestly not a great deal, if I had known the price was the same, I would have just saved myself the walking and got it from Escentials at ION instead.

I also did an unboxing video for it for Tik Tok, just to document my questionable financial decisions.

It looks good in my perfume collection though.

This 2 bottle alone cost almost $400, add in the Mod Vanilla, that is $500 worth of perfume in this photo.

And this is the collection of my full bottled perfumes, which amounts to about $700 in total. Mainly Ariana Grande perfumes because they are actually really nice, I did try the Billie Eilish releases as well but they were not my style.

I also recently added another Ariana Grande fragrance to my collection 2 weeks ago, thank u next 2.0 the heart shaped one on the bottom left.  That was a blind buy because none of the shops online sold any decants of it and the reason is because it is a limited edition.

I got it for the sake of getting it really, I was hoping I wouldn't like it because it would probably be impossible for find another bottle in the future since it is a limited edition release, but of course it had to smell fucking good. It's strawberries and apple, and the strawberries scent has a tartness to it, which is what really makes it so good to me. I can't really wear this out as my main scent because it is a bit too juvenile and feminine, it's the type of perfume popular pretty girls in school will wear, girls that are nice in front of the teacher but an absolute bitch when no one is looking, so I will usually only spray it on the back of my hands before I go out, just so I can take a whiff of it when I want whilst I am at work or just outside in general. My signature scent is still the Gentle Fluidity series.

I would usually spritz a total of 5 sprays of Gentle Fluidity on myself, mix and match maybe 3 spritz of gold and and 2 spritz of silver depending on my mood, 1ml equates of 15 sprays, which means each sprtiz is about 20 cents based on my calculations, that totals to me going out with a dollar worth of perfume on myself everyday. It's so fucking expensive, but it smells so good. 

If I manage to finish the 2 bottles within a few months, then I will definitely be buying the bigger bottle in the future, but if I don't and end up switching to something else, then that will be good news for my wallet, unless the new perfume I end up wearing is from another niche brand like Parfums De Marley or Aventus, because those are also expensive shit.

I really need to go take my IPPT soon, get the $200 incentive to make up for this MFK purchase, but who am I kidding, I will probably use that incentive to get another bottle because I am out of control.

Digivice and Perfume Stuff again..

Got a cake from Awfully Chocolate earlier this afternoon with the intention of having it for supper later this evening, which is now as I am writing this post, and it has, for some reason mysteriously disappeared from the fridge.

No one knows what happened to it, and I was actually doubting myself for a while thinking I may have moved it and left it somewhere because no one at home admitted they touched it. It's upsetting because I was really looking forward to eating it, but it's even more frustrating because someone had clearly tossed it out but cannot remember doing it, so it will remain a mystery forever and that's what's bugging me. No closure for the dessert that could've been.

I recently got my hands on a new toy...

Digivice 20th Anniversary Edition.

 ... literally a toy that I used to play during my childhood. The original Digimon device, but re-released for the 20th Anniversary. 

This was $35 on Shopee, a bit pricey for what it offers, but for the nostalgia, I guess it's worth it. When I compare how much this cost compared to the perfume decants I have been getting, and then being surprised at how expensive $35 is for a toy, it just made me realize how fucking expensive those decants have actually been in comparison. 

This Digivice cost almost as much as a 5ml Tom Ford perfume decant.

 I am not earning enough to be spending that much on perfumes.

Speaking of spending too much on perfumes. 

I might be getting a refund from that insane $300 MFK purchase that I had made last week . I had been tracking the status on the shipping company website the past few days, and I noticed that the latest status from DHL about my parcel was that it had been "Returned to Shipper"

This is a $300 perfume, I was anxious what was going on, so I send MFK an email and ask them about the situation, and this is their reply....

... I am a bit sad that I can't get my perfume, but I am also kinda happy that I will be getting my $300 back because I did get an immediate buyer's remorse after I confirmed the order. I was trying to see if I could cancel the order on the day I placed the order, but they didn't allow me to do that once I had confirmed the order on their site, so in the end, I guess everything did kinda worked out for me.

As per the email, MFK will still need to confirm with their logistics about my refund, so there might be a chance they may reattempt to ship my order out again if it was just some clerical error, which I would still be happy to wait for and receive because it is a really nice fragrance, they actually also include a lot of free samples when customers get from their website, but if it doesn't go through and I still desperately want to get the perfume, I can always go back to the perfume store at ION to get a smaller $200 bottle, and also maybe be a bit more thick skinned and ask for some samples to be added into my purchase.

 

Earlier this week, I also got $500 NS Home Credits from the SAF for my NS Milestone, so I went and got myself another Ariana Grande perfume on Shopee. 

Cloud by Ariana Grande

It's very odd that I am getting this fragrance from her lineup because when I spray this, I get dentist vibes, it literally smells like medical latex gloves to me, but I would keep spraying it in the air and on my skin to smell it just because that rubber smell has that "perfume" quality to it, it's like rubber glove perfume in a good way if that makes sense.

I did go look at the notes online and I think that the rubber smell that I am getting is actually the coconut note. If I were to really close my eyes and concentrate on that rubber smell, it does give me coconut vibes.

I don't get the "sweetness" that so many people online claim the perfume gives, but I have started to appreciate the perfume for how it smells to my nose more and more. Also, according to "GirlMath", it is technically free because I paid for it with NS Home Credits. I was so tempted to use those credits to get a huge bottle of MFK perfume on Escentials but they don't accept PayNow, so Ariana Grande Cloud perfume it is.

Also. 

Update on work life.

Not much to report to be honest, work is work, I have been really busy lately and the rose coloured glasses that I have been viewing my new job through has slowly started to wear off. I mean it happens with every job, the honeymoon period will eventually be over and everyone will eventually start noticing issues with their company or their colleagues.

That being said, I am definitely still much happier here than I was at the furniture store, and I was much happier at the furniture store than I was at ID4, so with every job I have found, they have always been better than the last, so I am very lucky to have that experience. The perfect job doesn't exist, so I am just trying to grateful for what I have right now.

Update 1.11.23

- MFK has just refunded me the money, but it's short $15. I did read online that they will charge some sort of packing fee for returned items, so should've seen that coming, although I don't think it's very fair that the consumer has to bear that cost when the consumer had no intentions of returning the item in the first place.

But I don't think I am going to write in to complaint about it, I doubt they will entertain me. 

Since I can't get the perfume from their online store, I guess I will have to go to Takashimaya one day and get the small 35ml bottle. Turns out they have a MFK store in Takashimaya that only sells MFK, should've gotten my Gentle Fluidity Silver from there, might be cheaper since I am getting it directly from the brand and not through a retailer.