Last Day in Popular

Well, the time has come and I am towards my last day in Popular tomorrow. It has been a turbulent start and end towards my part time job, especially this month. The series of unfortunate events range from Jian Ping accident to my complain from a customer. Although it was a just a temporary job and I shouldn’t treat it seriously, but this time to many things had happened to avoid my attention. Maybe this time is my last time I went back to Popular and I may not return to retail line again as the experience in retail line had been full of up & down. But at least it gave me an insight on how is it difficult to survive in the retail line especially Customer Service whom they might have different needs.

After my last day, I may turn to some other job especially something related to my IT diploma and may take up teaching tuition for primary school students. My aspiration might come true or might not based on what is my posting after Basic Military Training (BMT).

Sign Out now… Cheers!

Counting Down to resigning Popular:
1 Day

Counting Down to NS:
8 Days

The Freaking Freak Week

Yesterday……………
Well, the complainant did complain about me in the previous post I had posted. My assistant manager told me yesterday that she had complaint to the top management. In the email, she describe that I was rude and I lift up my tag to encourage her to complain.

Well, in the investigation report, I rebutted every point in the complain she had made against me. I mentioned in the report that I say politely to her son not to sit on the floor and further explain that it was dangerous for her son to seat on the floor as the books might fall on her child when she asked again why. The books are place in a face-out position and any careless customers will result the books crashing down on her son. The matter of lifting up my tag doesn’t even occur as I mentioned in the report that I did not lift up my tag. This is a brief preview of the investigation report.

Chua Ah Nei Advice:
Be prepared to have a fair share of rewards and complain in the retail line as different customers have different opinions towards customer service.

Today……………
Accompany Jian Ping to purchase his long awaited Creative Zen Neeon. Went to different electronics shops along the Orchard Road stretch and after 2 hours, we have finally found the “Prestigious” mp3 player. Furthermore at the shop, it had the last one left. After the so call bargaining from S$350 to S$329, he had successfully purchased it. I called it the last Zen Neeon he owned in Singapore before the next batch of Zen Neeon.

Counting Down to resigning Popular:
4 Days

Counting Down to NS:
11 Days

The Complain Customer

Yesterday, as I was making my rounds around the text & assessment department, I saw a child seating on the floor. In Popular Bookstore, customers are not allow to seat on the floor neither can they eat nor drink. So I kindly told the child not to seat on the floor as the books might fall on him or it will obstruct customers from browsing the books. As soon as I told the child not to seat on the floor, the child’s mother turn around and question the rule saying: “My child cannot seat here meh!” I repeated that in Popular, no seating is allowed as it might cause inconvenience to other customers. Next, she ask me whether I knew Jon Lee (I suppose the CEO of Popular), I just stare blankly at her, showing my calmness on the confrontation. She then proceeds to ask whether my manager was in, and I replied that they had gone for a meeting. From that point, I knew that the customer was one of the Popular branch employee but I a not sure where. Furthermore, the customer asks for my name and I just replied.

After I went back to my work, one of the supervisors, 兴人, told me that the customer had gone to him to complain about me regarding the “no sitting policy”. He mentioned to the customer that I am “New” in Popular which made me boiling as I had been working for so long. The customer also mentioned to him that sitting on the floor is common in Causeway Point Popular and 兴人 told her that in Popular, no sitting is allowed. She even mentioned that if I said that no sitting was allowed, does it mean that no standing or squatting is allowed also. That is when 兴人 told her I didn’t said that her child cannot squatting or stand. This made her furious and she made her way out to the exit proudly. Later, I told 兴人 that I am doing the right thing and if she wants to complain to whatever Jon Lee, she can go ahead.

No wonder people say we like to complain over small matters. Haha!

Counting Down to resigning Popular:
7 Days

Counting Down to NS:
15 Days

The Working Life

The Worst Places of Interest

Today, my friends and I went to the listless Reptile Park @ Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim. It is really &%$#$#$@*&* man. The park is just a run down place. The whole park had only the 4 of us walking around. All the crocodiles, snake and iguana are all so sian. Their body colour seem like a far cry from their glory days where they will show off their vibrant skin colours under the sunlight. But now is just a pale shadow of their former self. Furthermore the crocodile’s show had closed down due to unknown reason. For the record, after 1 hour, we are out from the park. I think the park is just waiting to be brought over. It is just, hiaz, sian, and boring.

Post some comments on this reptile park. It really needs improvements.

Worst Places Of Interest Profile
Place: Reptile Park
Location: Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim (beside Jurong Bird Park)
Rank (Based on the worst places of interest): 1
Price: $5 (Adults [P.S. They claim they are giving discount, but I think it should be free])
$3.50 (Children)
Chua Ah Nei Verdict: It just sucks man. Die Die also don’t try.

Haiz, Sianz

Nearly got eaten up

This show juz sucks!

The Steaming Steamboat

After the horrible trip to reptile park, we head on to Marina Bay or South where we have steamboat @ the 镇发火海鲜 (Zhen Fa Huo Hai Xian). But before we had our dinner, we purchase a kite as the area is mostly for kite-flying. But after multiple tries to get the kite up and flying, we gave up, as the wind over the Marina Bay was not strong enough.

Over to dinner, they got a variety of food over there, from si chuan chicken to french fries to crabs and live prawns. We had had a hearty meal from 6pm to 9pm. But the only disadvantage is that the area was too stuffy and hot but nevertheless I quite enjoy the meal. For the crabs and prawns, they were mostly “settled” by Mun Fong, Edern and Jiayi. Mun Fong even stirred fried sambal prawns on the spot. Haha! After the meal we have an hour of pool and the nearby pool center before heading for home. At least this is a consolation for what had happened to the reptile park visit earlier on.

镇发火海鲜 (Zhen Fa Huo Hai Xian)
Price: $12 (Adult)
$5 (Children)
Location: Marina Bay
How to get there: Get to Marina Bay MRT station and walk out to the nearby bus stop
and take SBS 400.
Verdict: Very Good.

KIte Flying Session

The "Sotong" Club

The Popular Gang

What is a "Mouse"?

Another Birthday Celebration

Jiayi Birthday
Yesterday, we celebrated Jiayi Birthday @ Kbox at Paradiz Center in Dhoby Ghaut. We had had 5 hours of “ear-deafening” singing in the room. Haha… Mostly all Chinese song and sang a Hokkien song which sound quite wired to me. Later we had dinner at the SubWay where they call the long sandwich as “Long Foot” which is 6 inches long that was solid man. I get to taste the Sour, Sweet, Bitter, and Hot from the sandwich.

At night, we had a mini birthday session for her at Northpoint where we have a cake waiting for her. Taste like cappuccino flavour.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Quote of the week
Approximate 4 weeks before NS. Life is full of surprise each day, enjoy freedom and Out Of Course (OOC) from SISPEC if ganna. Quote from my best friends who are currently serving NS. Thanks!

The Accident

On 8 June, Wednesday, an accident occurred in Popular. On that day, it was a store visit by higher management in Popular. Just after my lunch break, an accident occurred. The area was located at the Multimedia department where thousands of CD-R cylinders are placed on the tables. The management had suggested that we shift the tables inwards instead of near the railings so that customers had enough space to move around.

By right, based on the force of the millions of CD-R exerting on the table, they should remove all the CD-R before the table can be shifted. But one of them, the promoter, decided to push the table despite the warning to remove the CD-R before pushing the table. As the promoter pushed the table, two of the table legs had bent inwards causing the table to tiled sideways. One of my colleague (Jian Ping), was about to adjust the legs of the table back to its original position, but before he could do that, the promoter give another push causing the legs of the table to give way and causing the whole table to come crashing on the floor. This crash resulted a deep fracture in my colleague finger. Blood was oozing out from the wound and he was sent to the hospital immediately.

Luckily, it is only a fracture as it could be much worse to the state where the finger need to be amputated. He was discharged the next day. From that incident, you will notice that all table use to place the millions of CD-R are placed in a platform position across all Popular store. Sad.

The Birthday Bash

Everyday around the world, thousands if not millions of people celebrate their birthday around the world. Some will be celebrating with friends while some celebrate it with their family. On 3rd June, I did the same the thing but with more thrill and excitement for him.

The Birthday Bash
When I heard that my colleague’s birthday from my colleague, I was in a shocked as his birthday is only a few days away, in fact it is 3 days away. BTW, he is Edern. So therefore we are discussing what we should do, as the time is very limited as most of us are working. So I discussed among our colleagues that we will buy a birthday cake and a “Surprise” present for him. On 3rd June, we meet up and ask Lynn to physco him to the place where the birthday celebration for him will be held. The group involves Lynn, Mun Fong, Shirly, Jiayi, Ah Ping, Ying Jie, Chang Zhi and myself. Once we reached there, we start the celebration for him. First, it went on as normal, but actually we got more plans installed for him.

The “Sabotage Club” which I called it, gets into action immediately. Initially, I was pretending to get a slice of cake for myself, but when Edern was unaware that I was going to “Smash” him a cake. Instead of eating, I smashed the cake into his face. Photos shown below. Next, Ah Ping and I decided to use an empty bottle and filled it up with water. Once we filled it up with water, we analyze his location to make sure that he is alone. Then we splash him with water all the way. He was all wetted up.

But nevertheless he enjoyed it and I guess he had his “Best” & “Worst” birthday celebrated for him. HAPPY 23rd BIRTHDAY, EDERN.

Supper at Chong Pang
Yesterday, I had supper with my colleagues at the famous Chong Pang Nasi Lemak. It was superb man. They got a variety of dishes beside the standard nasi lemak. They got Otah, Luncheon Meat and lots more… Thumbs up man!
Verdict:
Die, Die must try.

Sabotage Part 2 

Sabotage Part 1 

The Birthday Bash 

My First Blog

Hey hey,

This is my first blog, yup my first blog. What a hectic 1st half of the year it has for me. I got my NS enlistment, settle my graduation and applying for university. Blah blah... But besides all this things, the best part is enjoying the relaxation i have.

Actually it took me quite sometime for me to setup a blog for a "Computer-Nerd" to setup this blog especially we are suppose to try new things on the net. But nevertheless, i have one right now. During the last few weeks of this month, it has been more fun & fun (On my off days) even though the work in Popular juz bored me easily.

The Fun Part
I got the SP BBQ at East Coast Park, where i so-called it as the last poly gathering before i entered NS. The most interesting part is where we got a lot of leftover satay sauce and David Chien and I suggested a game called the guessing number, which is played in Taiwan varitey show. Whenever the person guesses the correct number that a person give out, he/she will have to drink a cup of satay sauce. To make the "Drink" more "fragrant", we added syrup, coke and the worst "seasoning" is Curry sauce. I drank 2 cups and some has drank around 5 cups of it... is the "best medicine" i have in my life...haha... In the end, i end up sick for 1 week and couldn't work.
SP BBQ on 7 May 2005 


The Next outing is the SP Computer Club gathering. The gathering was held at the StraitKitchen at Grand Hyatt Hotel in Orchard Road. We have a feasible meal over there where it offer a lot of cuisine like indian, chinese, malay and lots more... We eat all sort of stuff like popiah, "Muthu Curry" (Because is dammed hot). Beside eating, we spent most of the time interacting and joking with each other. Furthermore, i know a lot if new faces which i have forgotten who are there especially the year 1s.
SP Computer Club Gathering with Kian Seng


The Bored Part
The most boring part is working in Popular. I admit, it juz...s****s. Packing, shelving and serving rowdy customers, is part of the boring state i am in in Popular. Working Popular for 3 yrs is like serving Popular for a lifetime. No wonder a lot of working adults leave the company after a 1 or 2 yrs for greener pastures. Still, i am glad that i am "Retiring" from Popular soon for good or for bad, i am not sure. But knowing the staff is one where i find is the most challeging. Y? Because the staff in Popular keep changing (except for a few), also knowing the staff will enabled me to work with them easily. But currently, it juz get boring and boring each day as the same old tasks are repeated. Haiz.

Wat's Next...
Next month will be my last month where "Freedom" is used to describe the time i have currently. After next month, it will be start of NS life. But nevertheless, it will be interesing to get hold of the M16 again and meet some jokers inside. Until then, wait till for my next blog soon.

Cheers,
Chua Ah Nei

Chua Ah Nei 

SP Computer Club Gathering with Kian Seng 

SP BBQ on 7 May 2005