Awesome Weekend: Clubbing, Movie, Karaoke

So I haven't blogged in a while because I kept falling asleep before I could do so. It's unfortunate, because I have so much to blog about. Let's start with Friday.

On Friday, I woke up when my dad walked in the room and asked what the music was about. I told him it was my alarm, and then I listened carefully and noticed that it was Should I Stay or Should I Go, which meant that it was already 7:15am, which meant, holy shit, I was super late.

My dad said he'd go down and get the car ready while I got prepared for the day as quickly as possible. I didn't have time to put in my contacts and I was only in the shower long enough to get myself wet and I don't think I used any soap, but that was fine since I had taken a proper shower only a few hours earlier before I went to bed. Also I had that mouthwash I bought at Guardian with Amanda, so that meant minty fresh breath and that was nice.

It was raining like mad while we were driving to work, but I still managed to arrive before eight. I got sat down at the same computer and I was set up and ready to go a lot sooner than on Thursday. I got a call from a lady who was willing to pay for support, but just before I was able to charge her, her problem fixed itself. I hope she gets the customer satisfaction survey, because she was very happy with the service. I was a bit miffed about missing out my RM10 commission, but right now I'm new to the job so happy customers are still worth more to me than commissions and a low AHT. That'll change eventually, I think.

I answered calls until two-ish, then I went for what I had hoped was going to be a quick lunch and a nice nap, but I got approached by someone representing Prudential, so I did a short survey, and then after I bought my pies and lunch a colleague engaged me in conversation so I was in the cafe for a while. The pies and conversation were good, though. The guy I was talking to was an overflow technician or something similar-sounding, which basically meant that although he was with the new Fujitsu department, he'd handle calls from the HP queue if all the other T2 guys were busy. He had actually got one of my customers and helped her fix her problem, which was cool.

Anyway it was a good thing I was talking to him because after lunch I forgot my bag and he reminded me about it. When I got back down I was still on my lunch break, so I went to talk to Kuberan and we talked about our jobs. After that I think I had a talk with my supervisor, then I went on break for fifteen minutes. During that time I traded some movies with Dinesh, who is a very experienced T1 guy who sits nearby and answers my less complicated questions when he's not on call.

After the break I handled some more calls. I had to process my first two DOAs on Friday, which drove up my AHT quite a bit, but now that I know how a DOA case works it should be a lot quicker next time. I also ended up inadvertently frustrating a customer by taking too long to register him and then forgetting to tell him about the support charges until quite some time had passed, so he demanded to speak to my supervisor. Fortunately I was told it might be a hardware issue, which was still under warranty, so I logged the rest of the problem details and he said he would call back later when he was more composed and ready to troubleshoot. I told him that since it was a hardware issue and since he still had a hardware warranty he could get to T2 free of charge. Anyway that is the closest a customer has come to crying and I hope I never screw up that bad again.

I did have a few victories that day, though. An old lady called and she ordered some recovery CDs, which were 66 AUD, so after Dinesh helped walk me through the process of charging a credit card for a purchase, I had earned HP the equivalent of two days of my salary. My AHT was quite high at the end of the day, but since I'm still quite new it's still fine. I should be hitting the six minute target within two weeks, apparently. But yeah, old people are my favourite customers. They don't care about having to pay for support and they're always so friendly and easy to deal with. It's the people with technical knowledge that are harder to deal with, since they usually want to get through T1 as quick as possible and over to T2, so they treat T1 people quite poorly. Oh well, I get paid either way so I can't care too much.

I texted Aunty Rosie to pick me up at five, since that was the exact time I was going to stop taking calls. A few seconds after 4:59, I got a call. It went on for about fifteen minutes. The lady at the other end was pleasant enough, though, so I didn't mind the extra time so much. Aunty Rosie might've, though.

When I got home I set my alarm for nine in the evening and then I took a nap. When I woke up I had a huge bowl of carbonara that I could almost finish (I've still got a few forkfuls of leftovers in the fridge from that dinner), and then I got Hannah to help me figure out what to wear. She picked out a nice shirt that was a bit large and I called it "garish". I wasn't quite sure what "garish" meant, but it sounded right. I looked it up later and that shirt was not at all garish.

Ian dropped me off at Amanda's house at 10:15. Amanda was still getting ready, so her mum let me in. She complimented my Puma shoes, which I thought was pretty funny because I had recently come home to find that my aunt wears the exact same shoes as me but two sizes smaller. We watched the Asian Food Channel while waiting for Davinia to arrive and for Amanda to get ready.

Davinia arrived and she looked nice. She had apparently been getting ready since six. I told her I had only been getting ready since nine. I like being a guy.

Davinia told me to tell Nick that she was going to wait with him while Amanda and I were going to pick up Milan and get some money from an ATM (I only had nine ringgit). I texted Nick the plan and he told me to withdraw loads of cash. Thousands, he specified. Maybe steal a credit card if I didn't have that much in my bank. Nick's a funny guy.

Amanda got done and she looked very nice as well. I told her that I thought her shawl was an especially nice touch, but then she told me that she was only going to wear that in the car and I was all like "oh".

Geraldine was going to leave somewhere with Amanda's mum's friends and then they were going to The Ship in town. I said hi to everyone involved with that previous sentence. There... there isn't much to say about that, but I remembered it so I figured I might as well put that in.

Davinia realized that I had not brought a car and that meant that she had to drive us to pick up Milan and head to the ATM, so Nick would have to wait on his own. So Davinia drove us to the Maybank in Bangsar and Amanda went to 7-Eleven while I withdrew some cash. I met up with Amanda in 7-Eleven while we waited for Davinia to circle around. Amanda had bought credit for Davinia's phone and also some mints for me. In the car I had told her she could get any flavour except purple, which was unfortunate because she had wanted to try purple. Anyway I didn't really have a good reason for not wanting purple, so I let her get it anyway. Turns we both had never tried the purple flavour before, which was why I didn't want it and why she did. So a packet of mints taught us that Amanda likes to try new things and I like familiarity. That was nice, I guess.

After that we picked up Milan from his house nearby and then we went to the Esso where Nick was waiting. Actually, we may have picked Milan up first and then gone on to get the mints and cash and stuff. Whatever. Anyway, we were at the Esso and I noticed that Nick was driving alone and so it was just going to be the five of us. Davi and Milan swapped places so Davi could eat while Milan followed Nicholas to Changkat.

Along the way, Davi lost her spoon so she had to use her hands to eat some food she had brought. When we stopped at a light near Dataran Merdeka, she opened the car door, leaned out, and washed her hands with some mineral water that was lying around. When we stopped at the next traffic light I told everyone about my worst nightmare ever, which I had had just a few hours prior while I was taking my nap. In it, I was at work, but then I screwed up on a call, and then my supervisor came and talked to me. It was terrifying.

When we got to Changkat we drove around for quite a bit looking for parking. The best word to describe the place would be seedy. Seedy with a lot of interesting-looking food places. Well, interesting to the rest of them, it was all oriental nonsense to me. There were a lot of guest houses which made me wonder if it was a really convenient place to stay for tourists or if (and I considered this less likely in my mind because real life is usually more boring than this) they were all fronts for brothels or something.

Anyway we found a place to park and then we walked down to find a club and then loads of interesting fun stuff happened.
Around five hours later Davinia dropped me off at home and I went to bed after doing my exercises (or not, I can't remember) and taking a nice warm shower.

When I woke up I did my exercises (or not, I can't remember) before my shower. I had woken up in the afternoon, too, so that was nice. It was Saturday and I didn't have anything to do, so when my aunt asked if I wanted to watch a movie I said yes. I asked Hannah if she wanted to come, but she was too lazy.

We decided to watch Devil because she screening time was convenient and there wasn't really anything else worth watching. When we got to Mid Valley we picked up the tickets, and then we stopped at one of those stalls that sell all sorts of trinkets so my aunt could get something engraved. While she was doing that, I met Mark Tan. He told me that Ian and Jan were still in a meeting in Cheras but he had left early to get his eyes checked and he was currently looking for something for his girlfriend. I would later be informed by one of my brothers that he was going to marry that girlfriend soon. I am always the last to find out these things. Anyway, after that we went to Popeyes for lunch. It was extremely tasty and I now love it more than KFC due to the delicious chicken fillets (I think they may be called tenders) and the lack of grease. The biscuits are great, too, but my aunt wasn't too fond of them. Oh well, it just meant more for me.

My aunt picked up the engraved thing while I got the popcorn, and then we went to watch the movie. We saw the trailers for Red and The Green Hornet, both of which looked awesome. After that was the movie itself, which was surprisingly good. I guess that may be because even though the story was from M Night Shymalan, he didn't actually write the screenplay or direct the movie. Anyway when it was over we agreed it was quite good. In my opinion it's better than Signs because it makes more sense, even if Signs might have been the more enjoyable movie experience.

We split up for a while after the movie was done. I went to MPH to read the first bit of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at my aunt's recommendation while she went to look for a handbag strap or something. The book was good, but she never found her strap.

When we got back home the house was pretty empty. Aunty Rosie said everyone had just left for dinner, so when I called and found out they were in Sin Kee, I told them to order me a chicken chop and I'd be there soon.

I drove over and we talked and ate dinner and then we went back. Jan wrote his name in the new sidewalk that had just been filled with wet cement, but then Hannah went and tried to write hers next to his and she got spotted by one of the workers who probably smoothed everything out when we left. Nice going, Hannah.

When we got home I went on the computer for a bit, and then I decided to take a nap on the couch for a while before I blogged and did my exercise and took a shower and went to bed. Unfortunately, I did not wake up from this nap until sunrise on Sunday.

Breakfast was okay. The newspaper was a bit more interesting than usual (there were articles about rape and affairs in the NST). Church was slightly better than average.

I watched Mission Impossible until 3:30, then I went to pick Hannah up from Royal Rangers. When I got there, she texted me and told me that I could wait until 4:20 before picking her up. I napped in the meantime.

When Hannah was done we drove home and I finished Mission Impossible and then I forgot what I did. I probably procrastinated writing this blog post, actually.

Oh wait now I remember, I went on the karaoke for about an hour and a half. Susanna and my aunt joined me. Apparently the machine cost RM1.2k. That... that is a lot. We'll have to use it more. It's fun. I only actually went on it because nobody else was at home so I could sing without offending the hearing of others. I love singing but I suck at it, it is my curse.

This post isn't a finished product. After work on Monday I'll come back and fill in all the details about Friday night. I've got a bit of paper with a list of stuff on it that I had written down before I went to bed that night. Here is exactly what's written on it:
"Main points for 1st time clubbing:
-Changkat, envie, nevermind, (it is lousy)
-Car to Palace with Nic, talk about prostitutes & politics
-Palace, too young, lenient bouncer, yay
-No cover charge, yay
-First round on Nic
-Felt socially obliged to purchase second round
-No Heineken, no Tiger
-Is Corola [sic] RM17? Yes. Later, nope, it's RM26. Had to collect RM10 from guys.
-Amanda wants to dance. Nevermind.
-Money seizure stuck in head. Said it, no real result
-Saw some video boobs, weren't that great
-Half songs good, half lame
-Sweet child o' potong steam
-Dance & talk
-Why no jump? Chest spill issue. - Amanda
-Go back before 3:30
-Milan wants to watch fight, is strong
-Drunken goodbyes
-Cheese Naan
-Drive back
-Amanda says I can talk about spillage on blog but nothing else
-Pretty 5.5 for a white guy
-To Devi's
-Explain over & over why Kierran [It's actually Kiran, I think] can't make it.
-Amanda fed by Da
-Amanda sleep
-Nevermind McD's
-Drop off Milan
-Went home
-What else?
-Will figure out later
-T-shirt (Hannah) did good.
-Amanda slurr
-Premarital sex advice from drunks
-Skin colour attraction
-Maybe/Definitely for Da/us"

So yeah, that's like a sneak preview of what's to come. Hopefully I'll have this updated on Monday.

First Day of Actual Work

Thursday (today?) was my first day taking actual calls. It was very interesting. Other stuff happened after work, but I am tired and I have to be awake again in less than five hours so unfortunately not every thing that happened will get the details they deserve. Also this post will probably be loaded with errors.

Okay, so I woke up early. I did my daily Bible reading. I took a nap. There was some alarm trouble but fortunately I set two alarms, so it was inconvenient but not, um, fatal.

I got ready and then I spent a little too much time on the computer. I left the house later than I should have.

I arrived in the office around eight minutes later than I should have (I was supposed to arrive at 7:45, I got there at seven fifty-something). Fortunately, I was already inside the office when Hariz first spotted me and nobody had started working yet so I was in the clear.

I got assigned a temporary desk and computer, and then I tried to set everything up. The computer froze, so I restarted it and went through everything all over again.

I got my first call before I was actually ready for it. Right now I've forgotten what it was about, but I think I should be able to recall in future if you ask me.

After that the calls came in quite steadily. I answered them to the best of my ability and it took me around 15 minutes to work on each. A few wrong numbers meant that my AHT was down to 12 minutes, but it was still way about 6.

I had to check with my supervisor for help quite a few times, but I was told many times during training that calling the supervisor was perfectly okay as long as the customer agreed to be put on hold, and all of them did.

Between twelve to one o'clock my fellow part-timers went home, but I elected to stay on until five for more money and experience. Before my lunch break I got called over to meet with a dude who does call monitoring. He told me that the call he was monitoring of mine had passed, so I was doing okay. However, I had to practice the script, slow down so the customers could understand me, repeat the serial number with the phonetic alphabet (alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, etc), and use less words (I was talking a bit too much). I also met with Hariz and he told me some stuff, but I kinda forgot what right now.

After that I took my break and did my Conquer Club turns and then I answered one more call before I went for lunch. The car was really really hot. I had to wait a few minutes for the car to cool down before I could drive it. I went to McDonald's. I had too many fries, maybe.

After (or before, it's late and my memory's a bit wonky) lunch, a lady dropped by my desk as she was leaving. She had also stopped by earlier when my wrap-up time exceeded six minutes. Anyway, she asked me how things were going and I told her that my biggest mistake so far was sending a customer to T2 without giving him his case ID and the support hours. She said that was not that bad for a first day mistake, but I shouldn't repeat it.

Anyway, I took more calls until five, then I went for a talk with my supervisor. Dave asked how my first day was and I said it was good. He said that that was good because I was doing a pretty good job. I asked him what AHT was expected of me as a new guy, and he told me that 12 minutes was pretty good since his AHT when he was starting was between twenty to thirty minutes. I asked him how long it would take before I could keep my AHT under six minutes, and he said around two weeks. He also told me that hiring the lot of us was no mistake, so that was nice. It's nice to know that I'm not a mistake.

Oh yeah, sometime during work it was someone's birthday so I got cake. It was chocolate indulgence. It was delicious cake.

On my way back, I decided to drive by Amanda's house to see if I could help her pack. I gave her a call and she said she was in Bangsar with Davinia because her parents were away, but I could join them in Devi's in a bit. I told her that sounded like a good plan.

I drove to the cul-de-sac (it may not actually be a cul-de-sac, that's just the first phrase that comes to mind to explain the place) near Saundra's house to do a u-turn so I could go back. I decided to park and see if I could go see Jared and Saundra's new puppy. I gave Saundra a call and she let me in. Kendra, Saundra, and I went to see the puppy. Scratch is adorable. Kendra is nice, too. I don't understand how Hannah can think she's one of the most annoying children ever.

Anyway here is a picture of Scratch.
While playing with Scratch, I got a call from Amanda. I said goodbye to the Lockes and went to Devi's to meet Amanda. She told me where to park.

At Devi's I washed my hands and looked for Amanda. She took a while to find me because I wasn't wearing orange, and I took a while to find her because I was looking in the wrong direction, I guess.

We went to Guardian to buy Amanda some eyeliner (Geraldine had lost her previous supply) and to get Davinia some makeup remover. I bought some mouthwash while I was there. I also saw some eyeliner with ferrocyanide in it. I probably spelt that wrong. I'll Google it tomorrow, it can't be as dangerous as it sounds.

After getting the stuff from Guardian, Amanda and I went to Devi's to meet with Davi. We got a table and we talked about stuff until Geraldine arrived, and then we talked until we ran out of conversation, and then we played a game where you connect animals to other animals or countries based on the first and last letter and it was a lot more fun than it sounds and a lot easier to explain than I've explained. Amanda kept getting "E"s and "A"s, it was fun to watch.

Anyway some of the stuff we talked about in Devi's was how Daryl worked nearby and what was going on with Amanda and the guy she liked and how apparently Juria and her boyfriend had been in that very same Devi's just three hours ago or so. We also gossiped but I won't be sharing much of that here. Also this local celebrity showed up but I didn't recognize him. Also Amanda and Davinia passed judgement on random passers-by. Also Amanda told us about her upcoming Nike photoshoot and how I should do some modelling. I agreed to let Amanda and Davinia take me shopping one day to get me new clothes because I don't really know how to dress fashionably. I dress for comfort and utility first and fashion... last.

We went to Bangsar Village so the girls could use the bathroom. Davinia spent a long while waiting outside with me for Amanda and Geraldine while Amanda and Geraldine were spending a long time in the bathroom waiting for Davinia. It was a bit pointless.

I returned Geraldine's English-Malay dictionary and said goodbye. I'll be seeing them again on Friday evening at 10:30 to go clubbing. I'll be driving Amanda there and staying sober so I can witness the shenanigans and drive her back home safe and sound.

When I got home I told my mum and Hannah how my first day of real work was, and Hannah asked for some of my money. I told her that I'd give her RM5 a day if she exercised with the stairs and fake sit-ups. She agreed. I realized later that this scheme would lose me RM155 a month. Dang.

Hannah actually got me to sign a contract about the exercise and stuff. She's also getting RM20 for burning Cloverfield and Titanic onto a DVD for me for a movie night that may be happening next month or so.

Hannah is a crafty girl.

I need to go to bed now, after showering and stuff I'll maybe only get three hours of sleep or so. I need to nap from when I get back from work until when I have to get ready to go out at around nine forty-five or something.

P.S. Oh yeah, while I was at Devi's, Amanda pointed out that she saw my brothers. I wanted to sneak up on them and surprise them, but they spotted me first. They were going to Pappa (Papa?) Rich with El-Hanan and Joel. After exchanging greetings, I went back to Amanda and Davinia to talk about nonsense.

Two Days, One Post

Eh. On Tuesday I just went for my Psychology class and came home and tried to get past the level in Zero Hour that I'm stuck on but I could not. Instead I dropped Hannah off so she could watch Valentine's Day with Audrey. I went with Ian and Jan to pick the girls up and after dropping Audrey back home we had some fast food and then we went back home.

On Wednesday my aunt came over from Australia. She and her roommate are staying in Hannah's room, so Hannah has to sleep with Susanna and Aunty Rosie again. Susanna threw some cards onto our neighbour's balcony and they returned it to us. I was not aware we had such good-looking neighbours. Anyway I had some spaghetti carbonara for an early dinner and then I went with Jan and Ian for baptism class at church.

I'm still stuck on that Zero Hour level.

Oh yeah, also, I met my second semester Advanced English classmate, Jeh Ying, at Popeyes on Monday. I forgot to mention that in the other post.

I Drove and Drove and Drove

Jan had to go to a BB meeting after church, so I volunteered to drive him. First, however, we stopped over at a corner shop for some lunch. When we were sitting down at our table I noticed that Elo was having lunch with some people one table over, and my mum noticed that her doctor was at another close table. We said hi. That was a nice coincidence.

When we got home it was apparent that we had spent a bit too long having lunch and so Jan was going to be late. I took the keys to Ian's car and dropped Jan off at the YMCA, which is where he had said the meeting was going to be. On my way home, he called and said that the meeting was actually at Wesley Methodist Church, so I turned around and picked him up. I got lost on the way there, so I asked Jan to call Ian so he could use Google Earth to guide us there. Ian failed, so Jan called and said he would be really late and was told that if that was the case he didn't need to go, so I drove him home.

When I got back home I barely had time to settle down before I got a call from Audrey asking me to pick Hannah up from her house in half an hour. I looked up her address on Google Earth and said told her it was entirely doable. An hour later I remembered where I had to be and got in the car and drove to pick Hannah up.

I arrived at the road, but then I realized I wasn't given a house number. I called my mum to ask for Audrey's phone number so I could call and ask which house it was, but as I was talking to my mum I saw a bunch of girls with a bunch of dogs leave a house. As they got closer I recognized them as Audrey, Hannah, Ebony, and Audrey's sister. That was good timing.

I got out of the car and walked the dogs with them. Ebony and I took our dogs far ahead of the rest, but I stopped for a rest while the others caught up. Audrey told me I shouldn't've sat where I was sitting because the person who owned the house I was in front of did not like dogs. Later on she told me that that person was Anwar Ibrahim. We also saw one of the cop cars that patrolled the area every half hour because of that.

At Audrey's house I had some pop tarts and sat around playing with a hamster because Hannah didn't want to go yet. We finally left when my dad called and said that she had to be home immediately because she had had a long day. Ebony came home with us because I had offered to drive her home, too.

I barely had time to hang up the car keys before my dad asked me to go drive him to Mid Valley so he could pick up a thing to fix a door. I managed to drag Jan along with me and buy enough time for a quick nap. On the way back from Mid Valley we wanted to stop off at Sin Kee for dinner, but the restaurant was too crowded, so we resolved to come back later after I had dropped Ebony off.

Ebony didn't know where exactly her house was, so I told her to get the address and look it up on Google Earth. She only managed to get the general area, but that didn't matter because she told me that she could direct me once I got to Tropicana Mall, and I can get there without a map.

After Hannah and I dropped Ebony off we went to meet my dad and Jan at Sin Kee. The food had just arrived when we got there. They were out of chicken chops because it was closing time, but the pork chop that I got instead was good enough.

Back home Hannah finally gave me the massage she promised me for driving her to and from Sunway a while back. For all the delay, it was merely okay. Audrey had told her about Paranormal Activity and she was scared, so she moved over to my parents' room to sleep that night, and so I got to read my Psychology textbook in her beanbag. It was very comfortable.

My first Monday at college starts in eight hours. Should be fun.