Sold My First Flat
[Wednesday, 27 December, 2006]
I was behaving quite like a zombie in the morning for the lack of sleep and disappointment of the unsold flat, which could have been sold a week ago.
I was actually quite excited for the arrival of the valuer and Kelly had taught me more things this morning. The valuer was a girl who looked quite young and pleasant. She came with papers to note down things and later, took out a camera to take photos. I thought she had a nice job for she got to travel more than me to look at houses, and also able to practise photography.
Rahman was late for a while and he brought down the couple and their son. My instinct was right this time that the buyers were willing to buy the flat. I supposed it was partly due to the fact that they were urgently looking for a new house and Rahman’s team worked so swiftly that they did not want to hold on to any client. Of course, the buyers, Mr Low and his wife were very easygoing people.
We went down to the stone table but it was too windy. Later on, Rahman finally got his name card for both Kelly and I. We moved to the community centre. I was surprised to see Mr Low having very long name and Kelly told me he was a Chinese who had converted to Muslim. I was very impressed with him for it must have taken him a lot of sacrifice to be with his gorgeous wife.
We finally got the paper work done with Kelly’s help. Actually, Rahman was handling the JTC resale flat for the first time as well. Even though the flat was finally sold, I knew well I did not make much from the little commission; it was so pathetic for I had made almost ten trips down and the travel fee and time wasted was enormous. The greatest worry was how I was going to answer to Francis when Kelly did not want anyone else to know that she was helping us. And also, since the case was closed after so much helps from Kelly, I did not feel proud.
After reaching home, I was dead beat from the lack of sleep. I was also quite disappointed that Vivi was actually out with another guy, her senior in school, to catch a movie instead of accompanying me. That guy insisted her to date with him out of so many girls in Singapore but her mum had ordered home in the midst of the romantic movie. Seeing her nick in MSN was a sickening thing when she was apologising so much to him.
I did not doubt her loyalty but her naiveness that people always took it for granted. The day sucked to the maximum and I was getting so weary perhaps due to the numerous travelling in the bad weather that I dozed off many times.
It was during evening, she called me while she was going for tuition and she told me she had dinner with the same guy who insisted it in order to forgive her for her mum forced her home earlier. Maybe some people would think she was so lovely to repay her mum’s debt but I only cared about how weird it was for a guy to ask so much from an attached girl.
Kelly had arranged to meet me at 9pm for Mr. Low wanted to pay for the exercise fee immediately so as to proceed with the flat faster. It was a bad timing for I was going to miss my favourite channel 8 show. Weirdly, my mum had not returned home with my dinner at such late hour as she was kind of forced to join a religious gathering with great food; I thought those people were very hypocrite to force people into their believe.
I was wearing very causally as I thought I had to just pass her the document. Then, she was late for she was doing her holy task of helping Jenny with some stuff. Suddenly, she called me and asked me to go down to McPherson Road and I was so stunned. The exact location was Pipit Road which I had not heard before. There were a few persons in the queue but they were all not in the same way as the cab driver who came next.
I got into it and soon, started chatting with the uncle. He thought I was from China for I was speaking in Chinese all along. Later on, he introduced me to a china website where he got many cheap China goods. He told me that he was working nearly twenty years in the sales line before switching job. It was a good experience to be his customer and partly thanks to Kelly that I was getting noisier, but of course still not even half of my past standard.
I thought my job was to pass Kelly the documents but she brought me up to Mr Low’s house at block 54. I was very embarrassed for wearing shorts and the NP t-shirt. Then, Kelly got me to fill in the forms and she guided me by the side. However, I did not understand the whole procedure still.
After everything was settled, we went down to the void deck to settle the payment. I returned her the $172.50 from Mr Low for the valuation fee and she insisted me to take $25 from her as cab fare. From then, I deducted that she would never take the commission from Mingfa and I as we planned to divide the small amount between the three of us. She had put me to so much shame for she was helping us so much that she was wasting so much of her time and money.
It was pouring heavily still and we sat there to discuss over how to talk to Francis. I reminded her that it was obvious someone had been helping us and she finally agreed to let Francis know about it. Francis was praising Mingfa and me for doing the valuation despite the risk that we would be wasting the money if there was no buyer, which was different from what he said to me in the afternoon.
At this point of time I was quite lost. The society seemed so dark that no one was completely trustable. From Kelly, I knew many things about our team for she was a great observer. So far, I had not seen anyone as hardworking as her and I really wished to learn more from her in a way such that Francis would not be angry in any way. It was pretty obvious that Mingfa and I were neglected somehow and we had no choice but to accept Kelly’s kind help, which had benefited us so much to start off into the field.
She insisted to see me into the cab before she rode home in her bike.
Labels: job, property, sold flat, vivi
... Skai (Kailun) dreams @ 3:02 AM
