My Sister is coming!

On Friday, my sister text me and asked me to call home urgently. I was at work and I felt kind of uneasy as I wasn't sure if something might have gone wrong at home. Somehow, I could feel the sense of urgency in the message. Unfortunately, I could not call home immediately as it was during the peak lunch hour and during that time, we hardly have a moment's rest.

Finally at about 4pm, I called home and she picked up the phone. She told me excitedly that she had accepted a job with an agent to sell clothes in Singapore. She had paid almost SGD8,000 to the agent. I asked where she will be working and she could not give me an answer, so I was kind of worried. As I could not speak for long during working hours, I told her that I will call back again in the evening. My mind is in a whirl... at least I have to thank God that it is not a major catastrophe at home!

When I got home, the first thing I did was to call her again to get more details. The agent even got her flight booked and she will be arriving on Wednesday the following week at the unearthly hour of 1.30am. She asked me to pick her up as the agent told her that he will not be picking her up due to the timing of the flight. He had the cheek to tell my sister to stay at the airport till morning when he will come and pick her up! Damn  agent... after collecting SGD8,000 in agent's fee, they won't even make the effort to pick up a "client" at 1.30am in the morning. At least my agent did pick me up the first time I came, even though he was more than a hour late. Aren't agents an irresponsible lot? Imagine my sister, coming from the country side to a big city like Singapore, with no one to pick her... how would she feel? Good thing I am already here, so at least I can pick her up!

I'm still a little concerned as she still does not know where she will be working. And I have to get to work early the next morning so I won't be able to help her. Hmm.... Not sure now if this is good news or not... but my sister is so eager to come, she can't even wait for me to find her a job to save the hefty agent's fee. I did not even dare to ask her where she got the money from! Maybe I'll ask her when she comes!

I'm back... yet again!

Saturday was a tough but satisfying day. I had to make my way to Shenyang Airport which is about 2hours bus ride away. The weather was freezing cold now in this part of China averaging about 5 degrees Celsius not counting wind chill factor. My flight was at 6.30pm from Shenyang to Beijing and thereafter, I have another flight to catch at midnight to Singapore after a 3hr transit in Beijing. The picture shows me in a bus on the way to the airport.

I reached Singapore at 5.30am in the morning at Terminal 1... what an unearthly hour. I still have to make my way to Bedok but in the meantime, I was really starving...

As I write this, I am now back in Bedok. I will take a good rest and on Monday, I have to go for my medical check-up again before I start work at my previous boss location near Buona Vista. I'm really looking forward to working with my previous boss and colleagues again. Later today, I will meet with my ex-colleague who will be leaving Singapore tomorrow. In fact, it is because she had chosen to leave Singapore that I managed to get this job, so I am going to buy her a good dinner, thank her and bid her good bye! I'm going to miss her but I am sure we will keep in touch!

Breaking News... a new opportunity?

My agent called me today and said that a new pub in Singapore is opening soon and will require 10 Chinese female workers and asked if my sister and I are interested. We are naturally interested in any jobs in Singapore but working in a pub? That's something new to me. In fact, the term pub may sound too good but in Mandarin, it's called a 酒吧 (jiǔbā) or closer to a "bar". Working hours is from 6pm to 4am which means that we have to make drastic changes to our sleeping habits and we both are really what you might call "early birds" ie we sleep early and wake up early!

I asked the agent if it is one of those "girlie bar" and he said he is not sure. I made it very clear that we are not interested in "PR" type jobs that require you to sit with the client, drink with them and indulge in small, meaningless talk to boost their ego etc... etc... He said that he is quite sure that this is not and it is more like a job selling and serving drinks to the clients. The requirements call for an age requirement of between 20 to 25 so actually I am over the age requirement but the agent told me that it should not be a problem.

In any case, the client want to see us in person (or at least over the internet). The appointment has been made for this Friday where my sister and I will be going on the internet for a QQ session with the client. We will also be able to ask questions to clarify any doubts we may have.

What's my fear? My main fear is that this is a new business venture and it is not guaranteed to succeed. If it does not, then we stand to lose the agent's fee of SGD8,000 and have to go back to square one ie back to China! Going back to China isn't the main issue... but losing SGD8,000 or twice of that (SGD8,000 per person) since my sister is the one who is more interested to come, will be a big big burden for us.

Well, it is too early to say anything yet but by this Friday, I will know if the client thinks we are suitable for the job. Who knows, they may not even want us after seeing or speaking to us. Or they may want my sister and not me, since I am over their age requirement. Anyway, my sister probably will not go alone... my mother had told her that,"...unless 大姐 (big sister) goes with you, you cannot go!" Ha ha, my parents really dote on her! And she is still just a little girl (like in the picture above) to them! My sister is really impatient to get started in life... and while that is good, hurrying into something is not always the best way to get started... as our judgement tend to be affected by our impatience and we could end up making more mistakes.

So, should we go or not?