work

finally..

six months... six months out at the real world.
six months w/o pocket money.
six months w/o any homework.
six months w/o any lab work.
six months w/o any uniform.
six months w/o using my brains.
six months w/o any hols.

i've spent the past half a year doing things tat i don even know wat im doing.
i've wasted half a year.
but i've learnt quite a bit of stuffs too.
most importantly, i've come to know many ppl in these six months.

------
i could still rmb vividly tat i was so bent on getting myself a teaching post then in the dec hols. i registered at the moe website; went down to schools; called up all the neighbouring schools; then waited n waited n waited... and eventually i gave up waiting.

it was then tat agnes' words came to my mind.
'.. let's go find job tgr if u can't get to teach..'
so i contacted her. and the very next day, we set off on our job hunt.
we flipped thru the papers everyday..
made a couple of futile trips for interviews..
got cheated by some ads n companies which stated 'event co-ordinators'..
frankly, job search was such a frustrating task.
it really gets on my nerves.

and then, in the morning on dong ji, brandon called w the job at cpf.
the phone call woke me up and he then promised to call back later to fill me in w more details.
i woke up, had my tang yuan, and met agnes for the interview at 3.
none of us had thot of working tgr. we only wanted to search for jobs tgr.
but never did we expect us to be working tgr. upon reaching the office, we were rather surprised to see mdm loh there. and anw, we ended up working tgr as well. then was my first encounter w agnes' frens and shifu. i feel rather threatened by shifu then cos she was so fierce! and the next thing, brandon n gang left the room, leaving the 7 of us. we discussed. and decided to take up the job. the nxt thing was 'enjoy ur christmas wkend, and u guys will start work nxt wk'. we were all so delighted then. not only were we finally employed... we were working tgr too! even tho i only knew agnes n mdm loh then... i was more than happy to have a fren w me. it was so exciting!

on our first day. we went to the 37th floor and met up w the head of HR. we were briefed and then proceeded to the 10th floor by the nxt hour. rafil took us then, and we all sat at the meeting room where we spent the entire morning. it was the first time when the 7 of us, together with huiren and the big 4... gathered tgr. we were briefed for the ENTIRE mrn cos rafil was too 'busy' to bother abt us. haha. so we chatted and even took a group photo. haha. we were then dispersed into groups around the office to do different stuffs, and i was tgr w agnes n andrea, and the 3 of us were attached to snoopy n woodstock, who are in charge of replying emails. so we were told to learn from them for the rest of the afternoon. and we were simply dumped w files and files of correspondences to read. it was ultimate boredom! nearly bored to tears then.. tat we started manufacturing our very own mini poker cards to play dai di. haha.

well. for the next couple of weeks, instead of replying emails, we did form processing. it was during then tat we met the group of temps who came before us, and we chatted and began to make frens with the ppl there. haha. wat we were doing then were form processing. but within this 'form processing unit', there are sub-units too. like letter-opener, damage control, batching etc etc. and i rmbed tat i was kinda amused by the letter opener then. we handled hundreds, if not thousands, of letters each day. still rmbed nazri bringing us to the post office to collect letters. hey, he brought along at least 5 gals with him to collect letters, yet he himself carried nothing back to the office! haha. lousy. tho rather ungentleman, but he could be the one who broke the ice amongst the temps.

so we processed forms for a couple of wks, collecting stamps at the same time. and there were really many beautiful stamps. processing forms may sound dull, but i tink i enjoyed doing tat most. it kept u busy, and time past so fast w/o u realising it. there was once when there was overwhelming number of letters that we ve to do OT till 10pm. the few guys brought dinner back and it was the first n the last time tat we dine in office. it was real fun.

soon, as the volume of forms went down, we were dispersed back into our little groups and we started replying our first email. at the end of the email, it wrote this:

Carmen Choong (Ms)
For Executive Assistant
Agency Projects Department
Central Provident Funds Board

hahaa. sounds so pro. and there were replies from the public thanking us for the prompt replies. it started off rather slowly cos we were afraid of making mistakes in our replies. but snoopy n woodstock guided us along the way and settled those problematic emails for us. cyndi and roro joined us in the email gang when one day the volume of emails shot up like nobody's business. then we shifted up to the 25th floor, n i was arranged to be seated beside cyndi. that was when we really exchanged and i got to know more abt the big 4. after a while when the previous group of temps left, we were back to 10th floor again. haha. one after one, the more senior temps left. first was the 2 hongkies, then snoopy, then nazri, then someone else whom i dunno too, then edmund, esther, elizabeth n woodstock. elizabeth was a nice lady who enjoyed working w us. often when she came by to pass me the letters or faxes, she would hang around and chat w us. telling us about her boy; how she went thru her pregnancy period; how she maintained her figure after giving birth etc etc. edmund, a nice guy who ve this quiet sense of humor. haha. on our first day after lunch, he came to us in the meeting room and talked to us. told us where's nice to go lunch etc etc. all of us told he's a perm, until he said 'if you all are free, just act busy' and we realised then he had been acting busy chatting w us. haha.

other events..
- dajie's bday was the first, and we bought her chocolates.
- then i joined the big 4 to kbox.
- the big gang dining at glutton sq.
- a few of us meet up to elizabeth's hse for new yr.
- upon getting our first paycheck, we headed to marche for dinner w an unexpected guest.
- then we headed down to sentosa after being deprived of sunlight for a couple of months. it was fun! we met denise keller there. played volleyball. picnic. suntanned. played water. played daidi which i kept winning. hahahahahaa.

after all these fun...
it's time the big gang dispersed as well.
i was one of the last to leave. big 4 had a new member - peiqin n became big 5.
the big 5 were the last to leave. and they left in a group of 5 too. all 5 remained unemployed after that. i left just before them.

it was all just a couple of months back, yet it seems like years ago.
i still miss the food at amoy. esp the wanton mee. fell in love w it after the first time. one of the nicest wanton mee i've ever had. the 2 bucks nasi lemak at the food market. so cheap, yet so filling! and food at maxwell too. haha. come to think of it, sometimes it's really funny. like the times when we tried to push 4 tables tgr to fit 12 or 15 ppl at Hans. den back to our very own gang, the lunch at pasta mania too. becos of the good food there, i've put on quite a bit of weight. should i be back in sch, i guess they wont allow me to graduate from taf club. haha. n the influence of good food was so strong tat for a period of time, i've wanted to take up food sci. hahahaha.

there was never a day which i dreaded working when i was at cpf.
everyday was filled w laughter n fun.
every morning kicked off w the morning madness.
we met at the mrt station every mrn, w shifu challenging me to walk fast in heels.
it was madness! cos 'fast' was never a word in my dictionary. and worst still, heels. haha. but it was damn fun. tat was how i was trained to be walk fast.

when strangers come tgr and became frens, the feeling was just so right, so good.
becos of this, leaving was hard.
it didnt mattered to me even if there's any better job offers w higher pay or better prospects.
for i knew tat no other jobs would bring to me so many frens and so much fun.

but eventually, becos of some personal reasons, i've upsetted some ppl.
it wasn't much of a big deal, cos i knew things could change for the better if i wanted to.
and yes, i wanted. i wanted things to change for the better.
but i couldnt do it.
and so i left.