Diary of a Bookstore Employee 1

Hello. Today I shall start a new series, thus new life into my blog. I'm gonna call it 'Diary of a Bookstore Employee' because that's what I am.

Ahem.

So the Christmas season is ending. As of 2/1/2013 things will go back as normal, which means Returns (HELL) every month. Yes, I can already imagine those frantic days of pulling dusty books from the shelves, sorting through them and putting them in cartons. Oh joy. But other than that, I quite look forward to being back to normalty. At least returns is only 1 or 2 weeks of hell per month, the Christmas season was hell for TWO FREAKING MONTHS!

And WHAT is with the type of customers walking into the bookstore these days!?!?! They walked in and expect to be treated like some freaking VIPs! THIS IS A FUCKING BOOKSTORE, NOT YOUR MOTHER'S HOUSE! So of course following the rise of people is the rise of idiots, and following that is customer complains! Lately it's not just our customer service that gets complains, but there has been reports of missing handbags/wallets/handphones/children/spouses in the shop as well. What's funny is that when these people/things are missing, and never recovered, people blame US the bookstore. Can you imagine people saying stuff like:

Why didn't you look out for my stuff?
Your store is so big that's why my son got lost.
Your staff didn't notice my very average-looking son?
You couldn't even look after just one bag?

Get the picture? There's so many questions that I could reply back to these stupid questions. But being the polite staff I am, I am obligated to hold my tongue and just smile like an idiot. Even worse is that, after these incidents were reported, and the managers all got rallied together, in the end it is the sales floor staff who got a 'reminder' (ie order) to be mindful of customers' belongings/children/spouses.

This, came right after we had to sign an agreement to perform all the basic customer service things that we already have to do ON TOP of being mindful of our display, merchandise, ordering, counter safety, customer safety, shelf tidiness, stock level and a myriad of other things. Now we also have to add 'Guardian of Customers' Personal Belongings' (including persons) = GCPB. It's been a while since I made acronyms. What irritated me more is that these rules are imposed by people not in the sales floor, but spent most of their time in the office, away from the day to day bs of serving customers. It's not just one or two. It goes on and on and on and on and on even after the store closes sometimes.

So when you see service-related employees being rude to people outside of work, now you know why...

This post is not very coherent it seems. I could barely keep myself on this page long enough to finish it. I have lost the zest for blogs obviously, but I needed to rant.

Ta'ra!

Work, work, work

I can't be bothered with resizing and editing the pictures for the post that I wanted to originally do, but there's just some things I needed to get off my chest, so here goes.

I've only recently turned fulltime at Kino and had just been assigned my own section this week. It's great to have your own section. It gives me something to focus on and I no longer feel homeless per se. It has also been quite an adjustment and although I've known this fact before, I've never actually realize it before. The fact is - parttimers and fulltimers live in completely different but parallel worlds!

Let me put it into perspective because most people are only in one and not the other. Only precious few have been in both and stayed long enough to tell the tale.

When I was a part-timer, my job description goes something like "to be the extra hands and legs of the fulltimers". On the ground it means my first priority of the day is to display. Sometimes you do wrapping, serve customers and other physical work. So during briefing time, you explained how many trolleys you cleared, how many you sent in, what sections you displayed, what section you couldn't display etc etc. It's important for everyone to hear because you display every category and their respective retail execs need to know. In addition to your chief who needs to be updated on what you did. Repeat process the next day.

As a part-timer I had a vague idea of the kind of paperwork the fulltimers do. Most of the time they are simple enough, and most of the time I think they spend waaay too much time than they need to with them. I am not wrong in this :P. I especially hate it when there are 3 fulltimers and I was the only parrtimer on duty because they don't do display or any of the physical shit and I would be the only doing display and later on, packing shelf. It is fucking annoying to have 3 'bosses' all telling you to do different things. Even more so when they are all telling you to do the same things. By then I'd just roll my eyes and snap back. I've always had my suspicions of people pretending to be busier than they really are so they can avoid drudge work (I know who you are :P). But as a lowly mindless slave, it is not your place to comment on them. Most of the time, their tardiness do not affect you. Most of the time.

Fulltimers' main focus is their section and their merchandise. Eventually they are expected to know everything that their merchandiser knows like ordering, warehousing, negotiating etc. And surprise, surprise, they are expected to know how to teach parttimers to be able to do their display so they can spend more time in the counter doing ordering and shit. Of course this doesn't mean you don't go to the shelf at all. It just means you have more free time thinking about how to improve your sales than doing mindless things other people are hired for.

Before I had a section, I was a homeless nomad. I already mastered the skills of a super part-timer which included some of the skills of a fulltimer. I have a strong basic and was taught the advanced things quite quickly compared to the other newbies who came with me. But because my 'teachers' were often distracted I could barely learn much at first. That was the weekend after all. Therefore in between, not allowed to display, I just stayed at the counter serving customers until I am sent out to pack shelf. It's funny how much freedom I have in my own section and how other 'people' can't easily order me around anymore. And the things they order me around for, I can see now that some of those things they are supposed to be doing anyway but couldn't mostly due to poor time management. Nobody told these people how we are supposed to work fast and efficiently around here?

Briefing time was different too, for me. Anything I had to share usually only things that effect me, my section and people who do display there. Nothing I said felt as important as clearing one trolley and sending it inside because that actually has a big impact on our day to day. I suppose I have yet to realize how important my current duties are. Sometimes when I'm doing work inside the counter, I look out and try to imagine what goes on in the part-timer world and felt out of touch because I really don't know what they are doing. I usually know exactly how the displays are going; how many trolleys are out there, what sections fill them, what sections can be cleared quickly and what sections are constipating etc etc. Now I just don't know. I still feel that I do need to know those things in addition to my own shit. I am still being taught a lot of things so I can't really work according to my own schedule yet. I look forward to working according to own pace. I just hope the slower pace of fulltime work won't make me lazy though.

To reward you guys for reading through this dry post, here's a picture of walabies from the Kristiansand Zoo in Norway.

Ta'ra!

My New Shelf

I finally got around to transporting my shelves to Kuching all the way from IKEA! I only managed three small ones on this trip, and I still have a lot to go, especially the big ones. But I think I'll just courier them over instead of travelling with them, since they are so heavy. My room looks turqoisey blue in these pictures but it is actually green. I actually wanted my room this color, but the shade of green I got was the closest I could get.

Notice my porn smiling on the shelf?

Not pictured: (non-porny) books to fill the shelf.

And also you can see the line of hooks I imported all the way from IKEA. Hooks are easy to bring because they are small. But who cares! I FINALLY HAVE A SHELF OVER MY HEAD WHOOOOOO!!! Now, if only I have my funky books to fill it? xD

Oh yes, I haven't introduced my boutique yet. I kept forgetting to take pictures of it. Here's a picture of the sign. I think I'll put te rest in facebook for promoting purposes xD.

Signage designed by The Other Farah.

Ta'ra!

Quarter Life Birthday 22/4/2012

It's been a while since I made any birthday posts. And it has also been a few years since I celebrated my birthday in Kuching. My youngest sister's birthday also falls on the same date so this is our first birthday together since a long time. This also happens to be Sarah's first birthday party, so she was really looking forward to her presents. Ahh, the good old days.

Anyway, she celebrated her party at McDonald's with the them of Spongebob, so all her friends are supposed to wear yellow. Of course, not everyone had yellow things to wear, but it was still amusing to see them putting so much effort to follow the dress code. Let's move on to the birthday girls shall we?


Me and my awesome party hat

Sarah and her friends. It's good to be young and excitable. sighs.

And the food, of course. Each bag contains a piece of chicken. There are fries and nuggets as well. Suits picky eaters like me best since I always have my burgers plain xD.

And you can't have a birthday party at this age without games. My dad took the games maybe a little too seriously...



 Now presenting our birthday cake! It was a surprise, apparently, because I came home for my birthday on the last minute hahahaha. You might remember this picture from this post. It is the exact same picture used. My elder sis had a copy and it was one of those rare pics of Sarah and I together.

Although I didn't get to eat my own head.

 After the party, we all went home and Sarah went to excitedly unwrapping all her presents with the (probably unwelcomed) help of some of her friends. Later that night we went out for seafood because that's all I wanted to have for my birthday. Presenting the oyster pancake!

Can't believe I've seen this anywhere else in the world but here.

After dinner I met up with Totchi at The Atelier, this bar restaurant that was set in a renovated colonial home. I played pool for the first time since I was maybe ten or twelve waaaay back at the Kiddies Club at Damai Beach. I sucked at it, but it was still fun. It was funny how everyone there had a drink, a bottle or just a glass in front of them while I had a complete tea service before me! Isn't it obvious that I don't belong in such places? I met some interesting people. Bar flies are often nice people, I was told. I just didn't dare to take pictures of myself there because I'm afraid that people will take it out of context. :P Either way, my clothes smelled of smoke when I finally went home and had a feverish, cigarette-smelling dream that night because turned out I was on the verge of a fever that became full on the next day.

Overall, what an interesting birthday! Ta'ra!

Fruityful Day

Even though I think my soul died a bit today. But never mind. Today is my day off, so I thought I’d do the second part of my errands. I woke up at 2pm today (whoo!) and decided that I need to finally go to the bank to transfer some money. The bank closes at 4.15 today, so I thought I should get there at least by 3.30. Should be easy right? Not when you’re me! Between waking up and leaving the house, took me about one hour and a half. I reached the bank at exactly 3.30pm – without eating. I only managed to scarf down two Viennese cookies after showering. It was pretty quick though. The last time I went to the bank is because I had to make a new ATM card and the previous two times before the last one, was for the same reason but without my mykad, as I was recently relieved off my wallets. Long story.

Anyway, after that I had lunch – where to go? – of course Pavilion! That’s my kitchen. I was craving for nachos and was pleasantly surprised that there is the same stall that sells nachos here in Pavilion as the one in KLCC! What’s funny was, I saw the nachos behind the counter of Little Taiwan so I asked the girls there where they got it. They pointed to the stall behind them. After that, after I sat down with my food (nachos included), someone else passed by and asked where did I get them! Hahahaha! Obviously people don’t know about the nachos!

While I was sitting down to eat, I turned on my phone and its faulty sim card and found that I had 3 missed calls from MPH. I tried calling back but my sim card hated me and kept cutting my line. After lunch I still had plenty of time before Maghrib so I thought I’d finally buy those stupid ink cartridges that kept giving me warnings about their impending dooms. So I made my way to Sg. Wang. And bought the damn ink cartridges.

And because my SIM card kept dying, I bought a new one.

Yes, Digi. I was too lazy to take a pic of my sim card so I just googled a digi image. I am not doing it any free or paid advertising. I always buy my temporary sim cards as Digi. So while I was on an sms-ing spree, telling everyone about my new number, I got fed up with the faulty buttons on my phone and thought, what the hell – let me just buy a new phone!

And so I did.

I name it NordKitten – after my laptop –NordKatten, meaning Nordic Cat hehehe.

Cameo.

It’s a Walkman W100i Spiro phone for RM250. Cute, cheap, good brand, reputable seller – what more do you need? Well, how about some accessories? Not so easy. For both case and screen protector, every seller nowadays are selling only for ; iphone, blackberry, galaxy or any variations of smartphones therefore. Gone are the days of the buttons. So I just bought a sock for it.

I wanna see how this one goes before I decide to buy anotherone which is crocheted, colorful and slightly longer, able to cover the whole phone. Because swiping your card takes some of your soul, therefore it needs some nourishment after that.

Nothing a Subway sandwich can’t fix!

I’m still keeping it for later though, since I just had a big late lunch. I also stumbled onto my neighbor who is recently married and thought I should finally give him his wedding gift. Just to be neighborly. But sighs, I still have some chores to do – clear up my desk, hang my laundry, fold my laundry and take out the trash.

((5 hours gap where I went to my neighbour’s house, hung out and had dinner. I have nice enighbours))

Forget all those things. I need to shower!

Ta’ra!

Tea Time

Apart from lunch (and brunch, or dinner and maybe supper), tea time is my favorite time of the day, regardless of when that may be - early in the morning, after lunch, late afternoon, or after supper at night before bed - I just looove tea! I love it so much that when I went to London I brought home a whole collection of tea!

Do not be fooled - I actually have a lot more! Those are just my Whittard collection. I have a few more from tourist tat shops. All were purchased for personal consumption, but I decided that I should share and gave away some of those with nice tins, like the one the shape of a double decker bus. Despite that, I still kept this one with me. It's loose leaf tea, but still...



Sherlock Holmes London Tea! And yes, I bought it just for the awesome tin! There's some 'back story' on the back:

It says: "This delightful blend of a Secret Victorian recipe known only to Mrs. Hudson, could have been served to Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in their study in Baker Street whilst foiling the exploits of Professor Moriarty".

I certainly wouldn't mind the fictional taste of tea made for fictional characters! Also, I have opened this tin yet. It's currently decorating my dresser xD.

Tonight's tea is Whittard's Afternoon Earl Grey.

My favorite tea is obviously Earl Grey. I have about...five or six Earl Greys of different brands and made it a point to taste all the Earl Greys of available brands. My favorite daily Earl Grey is from Dilmah because unlike these British teas Dilmah is not as strong. Or perhaps because the packets are smaller so the tea doesnt get bitter towards the end. Either way. My 'Tea Service' tonight:


I kept forgetting about those two pieces of cookies in the fridge so I included them there. Here you can see the stool doing what it's meant to be - being a tea table. While I was drinking this, I was going through my London pictures and some Norway pictures...well basically I was going though my camera memory card! So I thought I would include some very well overdue London pictures. Just a bit, though, don't be dissapointed.


Here we were, drinking hot chocolate with the London Bridge in the background, waiting while my older sis and bro went to the London Dungeon. I skipped out because I was a wimp xD.



Here's me again, I think we just came back from Paris. Tired. Probably hungry, and needing to poop. Or maybe just fart. Travelling makes me gassy.



And this is the very, very friendly hotel porter whom we nicknamed Mosby. (actual name Gabriel) He is French Nigerian. Took this pic after coming back from shopping one night, and was waiting for dad's cab to arrive. Apparently daddyo's cab arrived earlier and they were already lepaking in their room. Either way, very friendly guy this Mosby.

Oh, and of course. Can't blog about tea and London without finishing with this. xD

Feel like a Sir

Ta'ra! xD

Redecorating

I'm redecorating my room. I painted it green last year during my raya break, so now I'm ready to put up shelves. For inspirations, I have been going through these mooks (book+magazines = mooks).

I'm starting to get quite attached to these Hitori Gurashi series. I like these Japanese interior mooks because they feature rooms of real people, not just show rooms or designer-styled rooms or houses of really rich people. They are ridiculous and ridiculously expensive! After perusing these mooks I have somewhat decided what design I want. I already bought the shelves. After getting the rest of them I am complete hehehe! Although it might not be a bad idea to just add oneplank shelf in my KL room to put all these:

Ohh don't worry, I have more xD. These used to reside on the box for my pants under the aircond. But one night my aircond suddenly squirted water downwards on my precious pile of porn so I had no choice but to move them. Talk about a higher power!

And oh, you might remember the stool that I assembled myself that I mentioned before.

TA-DA!

Most of the time it's a tea table. Better than the previous stool, which was too low. Somehow, I found a toolbox lying around the house and the tools inside were sufficient to put this together. I felt so awesome and self-sufficient after that and had an ego orgasm.

Also recently I found myself with a bit of time, trying to decide what to do with the contents of my beading box, so I made myself some bracelets.

They are all swarovski crystals, put together with wire and sterling silver chain. And yes, I wore all five! Alas, I had to remove them when I was making grilled cheese, and forgot to put it back again hahaha! If you're interested to get one for yourself, don't be shy to ask me ;) I charge very reasonable price hahaha!

Man, I am so not used to typing lenghty blog posts. I'm getting old. Ta'ra!