First & Last

Well, my first, real job turned out to be a total bummer - I earned a mere TEN BUCKS walking around the entire perimeter of the neighborhood for six hours! Not to mention going around in circles, up and down narrow staircases and long stretches of shophouses, entering almost every store to get them to buy a big piece of card worth 29.90 for a fusion restaurant!

Bec and I didn't even end up working together! She went to a neighborhood in another part and I in another. Her trainers were 'Striped Shirt' and 'Rat Face'. Mine was just a single guy whose name I pretty much forgot. "Bummer". On the bus, the guy told me chances of me working with my friend was pretty slim. Darn. By then, I was already planning not to turn up for the next 2 days! 

We walked around trying to find this building, but turns out it was newly built and totally empty, so we couldn't go in! Then, we headed to a shopping mall and started hitting up random shops and approaching them with the card explaining to those who would listen. None of them bought!

Then we hit the streets around 4 in the afternoon (mind you, we started at 11 in the morning!) and entered random shophouses too (some with long, narrow staircases - you can imagine the strain in my feet by then!). Some we entered (like massage parlors) seemed pretty sleazy and all dark. Even the women working there looked real *ahem*, slutty. Most of them even looked middle-aged. By Golly.

By five (we were supposed to heading back to our original meeting spot), we were still going on entering shops, tuition centres, music studios, clinics and other places! Golly. Thank God he finally headed to the bus stop close to six. My toes were totally throbbing in my boots by then. Bec managed to sell 4 cards and I just ONE. It wasn't really me. The guy did all the talking the whole way through - so for that I'm grateful.

Still, when we got back, that only got me TEN BUCKS for the day, and Bec forty. It wasn't even a set pay! It was all based on commission! Ten dollars for a card, obvs. Oh, and one thing, ALL of them were effing SMOKERS. Yes, even the woman who hired us. I'm not so sure about the trainer I went with, but I def smelled cigar breath when he talked. Gross. So I was lucky in a way he didn't go for a smoke while we were out and about. Bec on the other hand, had to stand to a side as her two trainers often smoked on the job! They even made her miss the bus! Turns out, Bec had to go to an industrial place and it wasn't pretty. There was black oil dripping, perverse-looking construction workers, and the place looked like those in movies where kidnappers bring their hostages to. Pretty creepy.

We left quickly after we got our pay (mine being real measly) and headed to town to get dinner! We had Japanese rice and one stick of chicken! Too much sauce though. We wound up sitting down at the bench as we had last time (right in front a glass window overlooking the lingerie section in Marks & Spencer's) and I had a blast laughing at women shopping at that section again. Bec treated me to Wendy's Frosty (just a buck fifty), since she got so much in pay today! Haha. It all melted by the time I got home tho, so I just placed it in the freezer, and this was how it turned out:

Still drinkable though, albeit tasting a little like chocolate milk from the carton!

Anyways, sure I had some experience working my first time today, but it just taught me one thing: Never, ever do door-to-door sales again. Or those that pays based only on what you manage to sell!

"Vessels large may venture more, but little boats should keep near shore."

- Benjamin Franklin

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