finally found time and privacy (sort of) to blog. this is gonna be a very long one. you have been warned.

my job at JL finally ended on wednesday. jo was asking us if we wanted to extend our time there. as far as i heard, only jovan and shah are doing so. brave souls. not that it's that bad working there. it's just really really tiring. especially when they give you B shift for the entire week. the fatigue gets to you. thank god i live nearby. think about poor latifah who lives in woodlands (apparently). don't know why she came to JLPP to work.

bit more about the job. i kept thinking about this when passing the long hours in the fitting room. people who answer the phone and handle the customers are called customer service officers. people who tidy up the clothes and take stock are called packers. people who take care of the fitting rooms are called attendants. people who work the cash till are called cashiers. people who do all of the above are called sales associates. :D

i guess i'll miss working the place. it's the atmosphere. it's not so competitive among the staff. i mean, they do their work yes. but they're also willing to help out other stuff that isn't their business normally. the work conditions are good. as in, they're working for the store and not just for themselves and their pay. that in itself helps new staff to fit in cos people are willing to help and teach them.

i'll miss the talking-while-we're-supposed-to-be-working sessions with nisha. i'll miss fooling around with BNN. i'll miss gila-ing with latifah. teasing jenny, hanging out with francisca, working with jo, florence, candy and soo hwa. i guess i'll miss the never ending folding of the clothes bins that gets messed up again the minute i walk away. (never ever try to tidy the oddments bin. it's pure waste of time.) tidying up the shoes which always will turn up odd shoes with missing partners (don't know how people try shoes until the shoe goes missing). struggling with the crazy cash till, trying hard to remember when to do what and what each voucher is categorised under.

interesting experience was dressing up the mannequin. jo made me and francisca do the job cos it'll be an interesting thing and maybe we won't have the chance to dress up the mannequin ever again. so there were the 2 of us, struggling with the stupid mannequin. lucky i dressed the thing once with soo hwa so i got some idea. the thing's arms refused to come out. we were both pushing the thing up and jo was standing there laughing at us. :p when we finally got the arms out and the shirt off and the new shirt on, the arms refused to go on again. darn. but jo said that we did a good job in the end.

the fitting room duty. normally we 'fight' over who does fitting room cos it's the most slacker job of all. but it means sitting/standing there for hours with nothing to do but watch people come in and out and put the number tags on the door. did you know that there are cracks in the wall near the rack that looks like an owl? did i mention how irritating the piped in michael buble is? one day i was thinking about nus and the sociology talk i attended. and i was thinking, someone should do something on the sociology of the fitting room. how some people will just zoom in, some will stop and ask permission for using the room, some will rush into the first room, some will take their time and look for a room that they like, some will move into the room that you vaguely gesture them to. how some people will unceremoniously dump their unwanted clothes on the rack or leave them in the room, while some will bring them out or nicely hand them to the attendant. why some people will thank you after they finish trying on the clothes. very interesting study it would make.

i'm surprised that i didn't meet many people i know while working there. i met zaidah. twice. but the second time she came purposely cos she knew i was there. i saw ms mabel yong. i was serving her at the cashier and i was thinking, she looks familiar. then i saw her name on her robinsons card. gosh. i had no idea she was so short. she used to be taller than tall to me. but that was when i was pri 1. couldn't say hi cos by the time i realised it was her, there was no time. long queue. then, i think i saw emily. omg. she's so pretty now. she looks so grown up and sophisticated. the type that wears branded from head to toe. the type that goes for manicures and facials and wears lace coloured bras (no offence whatsoever. i'm describing a stereotype). but i wasn't sure enough that it was her to say hello. sigh. well, she looked alright.
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moving on. mj choir concert the other day. of course, jasmine gave a wonderful account so you can check it out at her blog if you want. but here's my take.

watched a bit of american idol before leaving the house. i was in fits over simon and the 'too tight tees'. lol! but didn't stay to watch the rest because of issues i won't discuss here. anyway, went to parkway to meet them. yes it was my off day but i ended up at parkway anyway. grace was on time. zaidah and jasmine were late. after they finally arrived and finished their mcdonalds breakfast, they decided to go shopping. and guess where we ended up? john little. soo hwa and latifah were there. grace bought that nice layered skirt. i saw wendy and she was smiling at me. so i quickly run off lah. she scares me. especially when i was supposed to not be there. i told them i needed off for school activity so what the heck was i doing shopping?! anyway, grace went to samuel and kevin and bought a tank top. by that time, we were already running late. it was 12. we had to somehow get to vch in half hour.

so we took a cab. and we arrived just in time with the rest of the choir and the other alumni. i noticed that building opposite vch had this huge "I WAS HERE" sculpture in front of it. i was telling them, we gotta take a pic with that, it's just so cool. anyway, going up to the concert hall. watched the choir practice for a while and then me, zaidah and jas were assigned to guard the food. guard the food?! why on earth for? so we went out and beheld the packets of food, all opened and on display. apparently, they were opened so that they could cool. huh? apparently, the curry on them would spoil if left until evening like that. weird. why are they even eating curry when they have a concert later? but not our place to question. we vowed not to eat the food unless we had no choice. it didn't sound appetising anyway. so we were chatting. then a bird flew down. again and again jasmine had to do her squirrel dance to chase it away. :D poor her. me, i only had to walk over and the bird would fly. haha! well, we heard music playing. zaidah peeked through the door. she said there's this angmoh fella playing piano in there. so we looked. at first i couldn't see anything. then i saw him. and thank goodness it was daylight and the other 2 were there. cos it the atmosphere made it look like a ghostly vision. vch's reputation for being haunted didn't help. and mr yong scared the heck out of us when he suddenly appeared behind us while we were staring at that pianist. lucky he didn't question us about invading the privacy of the pianist. he was too confused by the open and cooling food.

being free after the one practice with the female chorus, the three of us went to funan to eat. and talk. and shop a bit. we went to the vcd shop and watched the demo of "shall we dance?" then we walked back to vch and took pictures of the I WAS HERE. the guard was too busy making sure we didn't step on his perfect grass than paying attention to the fact that we were considering climbing on the sculpture. gosh. so that turned into a mini photo taking session. one disappointment was that i was going to take a pic with the hippo bus in the background. and i realised that the camera wasn't on. sigh.

back at the concert hall, we were backstage. we went to collect our bags which we dumped in the room. we went there. something not right. what happened to all the other gowns and bags there? how come there's a conductor's suit hanging on the hanger?!?!?! oh no!!! it was the conductor's fitting room. for some reason the room was changed. so we rushed to get our bags out. just in time cos kwei came along the corridor just as we dumped our bags on the sofa. :p actually, it was very relaxing to not have to rush to change and eat and all that hoo-ha that dominates backstage life. the alumni spent a very leisurely time in the vch toilet downstairs getting dressed and putting on makeup.

lots of time before the female chorus. so we were fooling around with mr yong. he and grace were having a very in depth discussion of the tk choir's overseas trips and of pokemon. did you know that mr yong likes pokemon? lol! he did this pikachu imitation, pika pika. aiyo!! we had to really control ourselves so that we didn't laugh out and disturb the concert. during the female chorus also, i couldn't look directly at him cos his conducting motions reminded me of his pika pika. :D the concert itself was great. i couldn't remember the words for the songs but it didn't screw up. we joined the audience after female chorus and had fun. recorded the concert. still trying to email it. the file is too big. taking damn long time.

it's after the concert that the fun really begins. sumi gave me my first bunch of flowers. pink roses. so sweet of her. i'm drying it in memory of my first bunch of flowers. me, duan hui, sumi and shi yun walked to raffles. the ambience at the bridge was so romantic. being high on the concert and newater (that kok yong gave us), we were having a blast on the bridge. duan hui was as usual moaning about her lack of guys. we were teasing her about it, saying that we'll matchmake her if she wants. me and sumi burst into a spontaneous rendition of "tonight i celebrate my love for you". poor shi yun wanted to deny that she knew us. actually, i don't really remember exactly what we were talking about. me and sumi fighting over the abba score that i asked shi yun for. shi yun telling us about the high class hotel their prom would be held at. taking photos in the mrt before the crowd came in at city hall. sigh. i miss those days. can't wait for the next concert.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ doing some blog surfing and i came across the blog of some guy i know. (people who know, you know who i mean) found through a link of a link of a link. it hasn't been updated since november but since he's in ns... so excited that i found it. :D haha!

right. enough crap for now. had fun reading? hahaha!