I woke up before 6am because of Lucky moving around. I was very scared that he wanted to pee or even do his big business that I opened the door a few times for him. In the end, I switched off the air-conditioner and went back to sleep with the door opened so that he could go outside any time.
I woke up after 9am eventually caused by the renovation noise of the unit above. The disgusting bitch decided to join in the fun of the HDB home improvement after all my surrounding units had completed ours.
The renovation was actually planned well enough that the work would start for one unit on three storeys (vertical) each time for two weeks. In the mid of the two weeks, the next three units (horizontal) beside them would proceed. Upon completion of the first three units, the next three units below would have their turns.
I did not expect the terrible noise and air pollution would come back a month after everything was cleared up. I started cursing her when I recalled how much time I had spent cleaning the kitchen’s windows and frames right after our renovation, because the dust and dirt had their best hideout in between the windows and frames; unless I could remove the entire windows from the frame to clean them, nothing much could be done to clean them.
I was extremely disgusted and disappointed at the management of the project for allowing such incident to happen. The noise and dust had badly affected my family and I. I had to change my plan to go to the gym earlier to do work and train up before the meeting in the late evening. I had to stay at home to bear with the noise with all the windows closed, because I could not leave Lucky inside the kitchen anymore like usual when everyone was out. My younger brother went down to the third storey to escape from the shit soon since he had to study for his exams.
I was very fed up and the nasty network connection worsened my mood. I replaced the old router my elder brother took from his girlfriend with our original tiny one, and the connection was much faster and I needed not refresh the pages multiple times in order to get some images loaded.
In the early afternoon, nobody was at home except me. Lucky surprised me by going into the bedroom alone and slept on my bed. I went in a few times to check on him and he followed me out like normal but he went in again. I was not sure why he was so “emo”. He was never like this even if my elder brother was not home and I suspected it was due to the drilling noises caused by the bitch. Anyway, during my house’s renovation, I stayed inside the bedroom almost the entire day with Lucky, and I suspected it was partly due to this experience that he thought he should stay inside.
In the mid afternoon, my mum returned home with a neighbour who stayed next block. My house was the “show flat” again and I was quite sick of it. Moreover, this auntie asked me to carry Lucky when I was trying hard to rush my work. I got so disgusted for I could not do my work anymore.
In the evening, I tried my luck in Facebook to look for people to go to the movie with me for the next day. Luck was not with me but it was a really good try for I did not expect to get a response that I did not have for many years. Eventually I had to leave my house for the meeting at the gym. I tried to do my work-out but I only got to complete one station before the meeting started.
We were stuck at the same issue until Andrew thought of an alternative. Since it was not foolproof, I still could not see a confirmed success.
I reside at Blk 3, TG Pagar Plaza #16-* S081003. My neighbour, staying a storey above me at #17-26, has been lighting his cigarette at the corridor everyday. Since it is very near to my house, the smoke is being blown into my house every time.
The smoke has affected my entire family’s health badly, causing breathing difficulties and cough. It is very unfair to my family. Correct me if I’m wrong but I understand that no organisation nor the government will pay for our medication bill due to such inconsiderate act.
I have approached the man politely on 29th Dec 2009 at around 5.30pm when he was smoking at the corridor in the presence of his wife. He claimed that there was no law prohibiting smoking at the corridor and that he could not control the wind. I walked off in his arrogant tone.
I do realise the sad fact that there is no law against smoking at the corridor. However, since my family’s health is at stake, I hope you can kindly help to resolve the problem before there are greater health issues or disputes arise in future.
I slept at around 3.30am and waked up at 7.45am like usual. There was a meeting at work in the morning and I almost “died” there. Basically I knew I had to work no matter what changes were going to be made, therefore I was not very interested in the contents other that Han Seng was leaving the company.
I had lunch at Amara Hotel with the guys before leaving for home during after noon. Just then, a girl from MediaCorp called me and asked if I were free for a filming the next day and this time I would be given lines. I had to reject her even though it would be another good experience for me.
I left for Toa Payoh and met up with Kelly. It was good that Penis Seah did not go down and instead, he sent Lester and Yanyan down. Kelly did not stay long before leaving with her other client. The clients were late as usual and the appointment was delayed badly. I supposed some of the officers had taken leave and thus, appointments were pushed to other officers, which resulted in the long waiting time.
Actually, I felt very reluctant to go down for the appointment. Anyone could just take my place to go down for completion and since we were co-broking with another agent and we actually represented JTC, Francis had told me I was not required to go down at all. At least, that would mark the end of the interaction with Penis Seah and I was drawing nearer to freedom from those cheap labour jobs.
Before peace could restore in my mind while waiting for the queue to be called, Kelly called me and told me to get number from the buyers. There was this rules that we were not supposed to exchange numbers with co-broke agents’ clients and I felt really weird to abide to Kelly’s instruction. This was one of the reasons why I hated the line because those experienced agents always told me to be straight but I had to start suspecting.
Kelly’s intention was to help the buyers to install SCV, which was her side line. Since she had met up with them a few days ago for the final inspection, she could have taken the number herself on that day. What was more was that she had given them her number and it was impossible for her to forget to get theirs. Anyway, I talked to Lester and got his permission to do it in front of all of them. Yanyan did test the couple out by asking them about the SCV thing.
Anyway, I could have left right after coming out from the officer’s room after the appointment was over but I had to stay for the sake to help Kelly to get the number. I had to wait for them to finish applying for fire insurance and SP services, which took another half an hour.
I tried to rush home immediately and was very disappointed to see that the UOB bank’s teller department was closed and that I could not activate my Visa Mini card, which I needed for renewal of my domain and possibly, acquiring of other new domains.
After reaching home, I dozed off from five to eight. After doing some work, I went into my brother’s room to “blow” air-con and I started playing Condition Zero with him, also to try out his laptop.
Towards midnight, we started checking the price of computer hardware.
I got to sleep from 2am to 8am and was satisfied with my performance to sleep early. I continued with some work before setting off to my company.
I was intending to fulfil the client’s request by changing an advertisement banner of the S-League website but somehow there was no changes reflected on the actual site. It was only till an hour later, Sheila dropped by and told me I was only uploading it to the company’s server and not the actual one. That was the IP which she saw in my email and told me to transfer the new file into. It seemed like I had to put in much more effort to really figure out everything.
I continued with transferring of contents from an old website to the developing site and I was getting a better hand of it. However, I was not sure of my speed and the most important thing was to meet the deadline. Liza told me it was okay for I was only a beginner but that did not justify the speed of my work. I had been working so hard, trying to avoid errors and also made extra effort to check the actual day of the week of each article when only the date was provided, such that the entire date format would be really standardised. I did not want to work too slow nor fast, which would cause delay or extra workload.
I took a half day leave in this first week of my new job. I left for home at 1pm and my mum had bought nasi lemak for me. While travelling to Toa Payoh, I almost overshot after dozing off and managed to dash out of the train seconds before the doors closed. I took a seat at the first level of the HDB Hub and was shocked to realise Kelly was already at level two, and was more surprised that she did not give me a call. George and his wife arrived later and somehow, we were delayed.
Rinna called Kelly and I quickly went down to meet her. It was the first time I dealt with non JTC resale flat and I was not sure of the actual procedure; worst still, there was a bank loan and non HDB lawyer involved.
The lawyer, Wendy, had told me hours ago that there was a problem with Maybank issuing the Cashier Order (cheque) and she would call me back to update me. I received no news from her and Rinna asked me to give Wendy a call and since it was my job, I tried it but Wendy was not in the office, placing question marks in my brain.
I was so shocked of these “professionals” – Chris Chong Law Firm and Maybank. I was not sure who was at fault but what we were facing was huge transaction of money and existing big players of this market should never give such crap that the appointment time was ripe but we heard no news from them.
We had to embarrassingly tell the HDB officer that the lawyer was not there yet and also told the sellers to go and have some food. Meanwhile, Rinna pressed me to follow up on Wendy and only at the third call, she was back in office. Yet again, she told me she would get back to me when the bank’s Cashier Order was released.
This time, Rinna told me to call the banker directly and I went to the Maybank branch nearby to seek for Grace’s number and the receptionist refused to give me the number. I had to go back to the HDB officer’s room embarrassingly again to retrieve the bank’s letter of offer to search for Grace’s number. Eventually, I was able to contact her but she told me it was not her problem anymore. She put my line on hold for a couple of minutes before giving me a number to contact someone called Steven Lee. I could not get through his line and after a few minutes, I finally succeeded and he sounded quite polite and offered to help me check about it without shrinking responsibility. Rinna got me to call Wendy back and this time, she was besides me and said loudly that the law firm should have collected the Cashier Order a day before. Wendy was already not in a very polite tone, sounding quite pissed, and upon hearing about this, she raised her voice and claimed that it was Maybank’s practise not to release the Cashier Order a day before the appointment. Since I was new to the line, I was not very sure who was at fault but I was glad that I had done my part, and definitely more than that.
After some time, almost an hour after the actual appointment time, Wendy called me back and told me her runner was collecting the Cashier Order at Maybank’s Ang Mo Kio branch and would take another fifteen more minutes to arrive. Steven Lee called me back soon after and told me it was done and I was too boiled to talk more. After some time, Rinna told me to call the runner, Edmund, and he was already at the car park. We finally went back into the officer’s room and did everything, which ended fast.
By the time we finished everything, I realised it was near 5pm and there was no chance for me to hurry back to the agency to submit the cheque from George and to collect the cheque of 219 Ang Mo Kio – my plan was screwed up by either the law firm or bank, or both of them. it was a rare chance that I could take a half day leave to settle stuffs, which was a great sacrifice since I could have saved the leave to go out with friends and not giving any bad impression to my new company for taking leave on the first week of work. Moreover, the following Monday onwards I had to continue to work and the agency would not wait for me after 6pm. The law firm and bank had given me such big problem that I was unable to go back to the agency to settle my stuffs.
I could not help but feel so pissed off even though I had told myself not to get so fed up over bastards. It was just too ridiculous for them to display such unprofessional service. Apart from me, the sellers had taken time off from his work just to attend the appointment and the delay would give problems for him to return back to work in time. In fact, the HDB officer complained to us about the bank as well for their repeatedly delaying of time. Rinna was asking me to cool down but I was the one facing all the stupid phone calls and obviously she was not as pissed off as me.
If any bank is causing delay of more than an hour, it does reflect and clearly show their capability. They play with investment and each second can pose so much difference to the huge sum of money that their clients have entrusted in them. How can anyone trust them then?
If any bank cannot meet the timing of the appointments, causing more than an hour of delay each time, their license for home loan should be annulled. Why would Singapore’s government want to continue the service of lousy bank which gives problems to the entire country, causing inconvenience and time lost?
Law firm: - had typo errors on the document on the first meet-up - failed to push the bank to release Cashier Order on time - failed to contact me to update me earlier as promised - played “missing” at crucial time - failed to present proper tone on phone
Bank: - failed to submit documents to law firm - refused to submit documents to law firm - did not practise releasing of Cashier Order a day before - failed to release Cashier Order on actual day - refused to give contact of banker - denied responsibility
Kaven finally called me back from overseas but everything was already solved. Rinna told me to apply SP services for Kaven and I left soon after that. Right after getting up the train, I remembered Mingfa wanted to meet me at Toa Payoh at 5pm and I had earlier told him that I could be rushing to the agency. I called him immediately since it was near 5pm and I could have waited for him there but he told me he had cancelled his appointment. Kaven called me again and I accidentally cancelled it. After calling him back, I checked my phone and realised I had exceeded the free talk time for the month; moreover I gave Kaven an overseas call minutes ago.
After reaching home, I dozed off. Backache was terrorising me the entire day. After waking up, I started packing my work area lazily.
I made a miracle of sleeping at 2am. It was all for the HDB first appointment which I would be facing the bastard Penis Seah. Since his attitude was ridiculous at times, I needed to catch more sleep in order to obtain the concentration to screw him back any time.
I waked up at 6am but continued to laze on the bed for another half an hour. My mum prepared milo and dumped biscuits inside, which was a dangerous thing because it used to play prank on my stomach every time. I realised I should have ordered half boiled eggs.
I took train to Toa Payoh as usual and reached by 8am. I knew for sure the buyers would be late. Fifteen minutes later, I went up to level two since JTC flats were only served there by six of the officers and the clients might have gone up there directly as indicated by the letter. Another fifteen minutes later, I saw someone who looked like Penis Seah at level one but I did not care about him for he could have called me when he could not find me and I did not want my number to appear in his phone.
I called Kelly to confirm if she was coming because she should be more experienced to face the bastard but she sounded like dying and told me she was having a headache. I was hoping she could also pass me Kaven’s documents as well and it was the second time she did not turn up. Since she had done a number of tasks, I could not blame her.
I called Penis Seah immediately and he claimed that I should meet him at counter A since all agents usually did that. I did not want to argue with him saying that we did not agree to meet up there, and thus I just told him I was going down to find him. We met up with his clients soon and proceeded to the room in a short while. During the process, the way he talked to me was surprisingly not arrogant. I was suspecting that it was because of the presence of his clients.
Anyway, it was a fast appointment for the clients were taking bank loan. I followed them to the ATM to collect the valuation report’s money and later, requested them for the commission cheque which they had prepared earlier. I offered to accompany them up to the law firm even though I was not sure if I was supposed to do so, but it was truly based on sincerity since their agents did not tag along. At least, I did manage to learn new things about the procedure and I met my objective of comparing the lawyers’ attitudes. I also got to chat with the clients and realised they were really nice people.
Kelly was asking me to get their contact numbers such that we could find out about the completion date since Penis Seah was not cooperative at all and would never tell us about it in order to make things difficult for us. However, it seemed not right to do to get contact numbers from co-broke agent’s clients even though Kelly claimed it was alright this time. Anyway, I told her they had to contact me in order to bring their contractors down to plan for the renovation as well as treating it as a final inspection. Basically, I seriously thought that we could have approached JTC for all the appointment dates, which they ought to assist us, instead of approaching buyers’ agents. I was really lost because all the while I listened to Kelly and she might not get all the correct information.
The lift's button at the office was finally upgraded and I loved the luminous blue colour.
I took bus 153 to Bukit Merah Bus Interchange and went to the office. Winnie was away and I waited there quite long for her. James saw me and even passed some documents for me to pass to Winnie. The big boss, Andy Low, saw me and greeted me always.
I took bus 145 home and it was pretty crowded again. On the way, I received a call from Jingkun to ask me down to Clementi ITE to play volleyball. Since Weitat was going for reservice the next day, I decided to join them no matter what. Just after I rushed home and got changed, they informed me of a change of time. It was changed from 2pm to 2.30pm and finally at 3pm.
The delay of time was pretty good for me as Weitat called me after 2pm to check if I was at home and offered to drive me over since he was at Tampiness and was on the way. By the time he arrived at my place, we were already late. Since Mingfa was waiting for us since long ago, Jingkun was asking us to go down to Clementi to meet Mingfa immediately but in the end, we proceeded to fetch him.
We went to a coffee shop near the Clementi MRT, which they claimed was very famous for the western food. I paid $6 for my fish and chips and the fries tasted more salty as potato chips. It was after 4pm, we proceeded to Clementi ITE but realised Mingfa’ students had not set up the net yet.
I joined them to jog one round around the school campus which was a torture to my full stomach. I continued to play with them at the side of the court and during breaks, we went in to do spiking and I had difficulties stretching my body. Mingfa and Jingkun left at around 6pm. Weitat was offering to send me to Harbourfront Centre but Mingen told me to stay behind to accompany him. I knew it was meaningless to play with the girls but decided to stay. The girls played two matches against themselves and I was worried for Mingfa because they might not be able to bring him glory for the competition this year. We did not play any match after that and I was wasting my time around.
Mingen sent me to the T-junction and I walked very fast to the MRT station. I realised a few of Mingfa’s players were quite hardworking for they chose to walk instead of taking bus. After taking the train home, I went to jog. Even though I was tired, I managed to maintain a good timing like the previous time.
After that was catching up with my work and kissing the television set.
I played Condition Zero with my elder brother from 2am until 5am, but after that, I still could not doze off. It became so obviously that my mindful of stuffs were determined to keep me awake. I left my house at 7am and unfortunately, arrived at Toa Payoh at 7.30am.
Just as I was trying to find the coffee shop which Kelly always brought me to, Kaven called me and told me his sister was at the Ya Kun Kaya Toast. Suddenly, I felt a hit on my leg and it was from a bike. That auntie was absurd to cycle at that area and when she was near me, she did not make any soft voice that would attract my attention. Since I could not find Fui Yen, I went inside the HDB hub and waited there alone.
I knew obviously something was wrong. Kaven had told me before that the appointment was at 8.45am but Kelly told both of us to go at 8am. since for the previous HDB first appointments I had attended, Kelly had told me to reach only fifteen minutes earlier, which she did not turn up punctually everytime as well, I roughly guessed it was too much of an extra effort to go so early.
Luckily Kaven was late for around fifteen minutes and after which, he called me and we met up. It was a terrible situation to have to answer to them why Kelly was not present when she was still holding some of his documents. What was more was that I had not been through a normal first appointment other than the JTC flats ones, which was said to be different.
Rinna’s clients, the sellers, arrived and they got the queue number already. I did not keep track of the time anymore since the presence of the experienced agents seemed more important. The number was called but the counter was empty. I was quite pressured by then for I knew the co-broke agent had to be around even though I should be able to handle everything myself if nothing went wrong.
I made a call to Rinna after waiting for some time and she told me she had just arrived. It was exactly the appointment time, which was 8.15am. We proceeded on without waiting for Kelly. I was worried for her for she usually would set auto answer for her phone but this time it continued to ring and she did not pick it up.
Things went on quite smoothly but we had to borrow the original OTP to make photocopies for we had to go to the law firm after that and the documents were with Kelly. The shop near escalator charged ten cents for each piece of paper and I was sure they had made a lot of money. Kelly finally called me back when I was going to return the OTP back to Mr Kee; it was kind of at the wrong time but Rinna helped me to pass to him instead. The sellers came out shortly. Kaven gave a call to Kelly and thus, we were kind of having a conference. Then, she promised to meet at the law firm afterwards at 11am, which was almost two hours away.
We went to Ya Kun Kaya Toast for breakfast and Kaven bought my share even though I had told him I did not want to eat anything. I had two eggs, some breads and a cup of iced milk tea. He did not expect to get so many eggs and he had to take six of them since he did not want his dad to take any. His dad thought I was from Beijing for the accent he heard.
We set off in Kaven’s car then and I was quite surprised that they found it squeezing to have three persons sitting behind. We went to Shenton Way but could not find the place and since Kaven told me it was besides his office’s building, I thought I could count on him. I learned my lesson that I should check out everything by myself as well instead of depending on others. We went to the wrong building and had to walk over.
Just as we were walking near the building, Kaven asked about Kelly. I called her and she used private number to call me back and I could guess that she could not make it since she was should be at home. She told me she was looking for her bike’s keys and I was quite embarrassed to explain to Kaven that she could not make it again.
It was my first visit to a law firm, which was nothing impressive. Wendy was a middle aged lady, sounding much friendlier than the banker from May Bank, Grace. However, I thought she could do better in her fact-finding from the bank before making any assumption, which ended up delaying the time and causing of confusion. Luckily Kaven was alert and hardworking enough to do his sum.
After spending almost an hour at the law firm (Chris Chong), I took bus 10 to Vivocity. I messaged Weitat to meet him up but he did not reply. Therefore, I dropped my plan to visit him at Harbourfront first and instead, I went straight to the Rip Curl shop. The two girls were chatting all the way until I was very near them, which was different from other staffs in other shops, who would serve their potential customers once they stepped into the shop, or at least gave some greetings. One of them was quite a cute girl and I got the registration form for the Rip Curl beach volleyball competition from her.
I was stunned at first when I saw that there was no slot to put a name for reserve. I stood there for some time to read the lengthy paragraphs but it seemed to be useless. I went out to give a call to Mingfa but he cancelled my call. I gave a second try and he cancelled it faster than the previous time. Suddenly I realised he was using my tactic to call me back using his house’s phone so that it would be cheaper. I explained to him that Jinyang aka sheep had promised to join us, which was quite rare and thus I wanted them to play together, leaving myself out of the team; most importantly, I was not a good spiker for my height and they could have higher chance without me. Mingfa did not want to leave me out for I was the organiser and he told me we should discuss over it some other time. I went back to get a second registration form.
Just as I was on my way home, Weitat finally picked up my call and told me he was sick and did not go to work. Soon after reaching home, Justus arrived and saw me at home. Soon, he came over to do his mathematics works again. Since Mingfa had called me earlier to tell me he was going to play billiard with Mingen, I did not push Justus away. I was having a chat with Xinyi at the same time and she told me she might be going down to Clementi ITE with Guoxin. Halfway through, Kelly called me and told me she was sick. She wanted me to go down to JTC Summit to collect three pairs of keys from Miss Lee.
At first, I was still considering whether to go down to Clementi ITE or not, but since I had to go down to Jurong East, I decided I should not waste the trip since they were nearby. Justus finally left at 4pm and I started to pack up. I gave Miss Lee a call and was surprised that she already knew I would be going down as Kelly had told me to contact her instead. However, one out of the three pairs of keys Kelly asked for was different. Since the four flats had finished the first appointments, I decided to take all of them instead. I called Kelly to double confirm with her but her daughter answered the phone and told me she was asleep.
My 4 branches of old friends and my personal keys
I took train to Jurong East and saw a few cute girls but soon the train was well packed that there was no sight of them. It was my first trip down to JTC Summit and it was only then I guessed that was the JTC headquarter. I was able to find my way inside except that I could not see the “resales” department. I went to the “sales” department and spoke to a guy who went in to find Miss Lee for me. I was quite disappointed when he came out with the keys instead of Miss Lee for I thought I could get to see her after talking over the phone with her. She sounded very young even though Winnie told me she was married.
I took bus 198 towards Bukit Merah. A pretty girl was nearby and I could sense that she was somehow curious about me, maybe for my four pairs of old friends hanging on the Carabineer attached to my phone pouch. I alighted at Weitat’s house’s bus-stop and walked to Clementi ITE.
I joined Mingfa and his girl team in the slow jog around the school. Weitat arrived soon, followed by Jingkun and Guoxin together with Xinyi, which was very rare. I was uncomfortable with the low net but did not do well in spiking despite the low height. I joined in the matches in the end but it was pretty boring for the girls were not strong enough to play against us.
When the training ended, we played three against three and Guoxin refused to join in. We had fun except that my shoe’s sole came off and my moment was restricted. My back-aching problem could explain why I was not able to spike as good as the previous time. Since there was problem with my right shoulder’s joint still, I could not serve normally and had to use back my very old method of serving to use some back muscle, which proved quite useful with the strength. In the end, I took off my shoes and was able to move freely, except that it caused pains on my feet.
Our lao da
Pretty eyes Xinyi
Neo Weitat
Mr available Ou
After the break, I did not join them in the training for my lousy shoes. Guoxin left before we went to bathe and Jingkun went off without us. After that, the five of us went to the famous coffee shop again for the usual western food. We had chicken chops except for Xinyi.
By the time I reached home by train, it was almost 11pm and I missed a few parts of my “Zou Xiang Gong He”.
Before I could realise, it was already near 5am. After waking up in the afternoon, I started my daily routine of clearing my emails. I was basically waiting for my mum to come back with my meal and also Kelly to message me the particulars of the buyers for the flats.
After she gave me the details, she sent me another message to ask if I would mind that she disband the group. It was unfair to her all along that Jenny, Mingfa and I were kind of dragging her since she was doing most of the work and that Jenny did not even appear once. Looking at the other angle, also mentioned by friends, Kelly was too busy to really teach us.
I did not finish my lunch and left home at around 3pm as I was afraid the HDB branch office would not wait for me. After reaching the office, I was a bit weary somehow. The two attachment students were at Regina’s counter and the cute one looked quite expressionless. However, I met Regina just outside the photocopier room and she was smiling so happily finally. I got down to a seat and quickly started filling up the Salutatory Declaration forms before going down to the HDB branch office.
This time, the reception counter was empty and I pressed for the queue number myself for the first time. There were three counters available and somehow my wish was granted and I was served by Mr. Ho again. He looked friendliest among the officers and was also most professional.
I went back to the office afterwards and helped Kelly to get an invoice from Winnie. It was then I realised I had keyed in the wrong number into my phone and that was why I was unable to get through her line. She looked extremely shagged and sick that as if she would fall down anytime. Nevertheless, she was still as helpful.
I had a long wait at the bus interchange for bus 167. After reaching home, I finished up the remaining food for my lunch and started bathing. Then, I took MRT to Kovan to meet up with Kaven. His sister, Fui Yen, caught me at the door of Heartland Mall and I was very glad that she still remembered me. I got to meet their mum and later, Kaven joined us after buying his drinks.
It was only near 7pm, which was an hour away from the arranged time. Kaven’s mum wanted to go up to the Hougang flat immediately and I was quite lost. I called Kelly and got Rina’s number from her and tried to see if Rina could arrange to let us go up earlier. I was lectured by Kelly for she said I was supposed to control the situation. Nevertheless, I did my part to ring up Rina who told me the owners were inconvenient to let us go up earlier.
The worst came while we were approaching Kaven’s car, for he and his sister had a tiff. I was not worried about my commission but the sudden cancellation of the second viewing of the flat in jus less than an hour’s time. We paused at a car park for some time before proceeding to the flat. I did not understand their language on the car but I felt so awkward to sit in their family’s dispute. It kept my head spinning.
Luckily, Kelly had reached there earlier to wait for us. I had quite awkward encounter when Kaven’s mum asked me about why Maybank was not giving any gift. I explained to her that its interest rate was lower than other banks and that could be the reason why they were not giving away any freebies. Then, his mum told me she had just bought a house in Malaysia and the bank offered zero commission for the first year. I became quite wary of his mum for I was afraid to give any wrong answer to her questions.
We did most of the documents at the void deck while waiting for the time to pass. Rina arrived at 8pm and we went up together. It was the third visit there and both Kaven and I loved the place. We stayed there to finish up the documents after Kaven and his family decided to buy it. Suimin called me twice to ask me for translation again when my mind was in chaos and was actually busy with the documentations.
After that, we went to the coffee shop across the street while waiting for Kelly to photocopy their identification cards. I did not buy any food for I was having headache. Kelly returned for the second time to let me sign some documents. Kaven was booked for parking his car outside the rubbish dump collecting place and was fined hundred bucks. He sent his mum and sister home before dropping me at my house.
The fact that I had to either get a part time job or switch to a better company troubled me and that could be the source of my illness. I would probably wait till finishing the course at my company before deciding on anytime. That was five months after joining the company, they finally got the course up and I wondered how many cheated people would attend the course for I believed many of them had already gotten themselves other jobs.
I began feeling worse and almost felt like dropping down onto the floor. The cough was irritating. However, as time passed by, I began to feel better.
I was waked up a number of times in the morning. Two hours after I dozed off at around 6am, my mum unintentionally and stupidly disturbed my sleep just to switch on the fan. Afterwards, my elder brother’s girlfriend came and they made so much noise and followed by phone calls.
I got up at around noon finally after Jingkun told me we were going to meet at 1.45pm. I could not finish my lunch and was eventually late for fifteen minutes. However, I had totally forgotten I was meeting the BMCC guys and I had to be late for an hour in order to match up with the latest comer. Jingkun’s girlfriend cocked up the day for us and eventually I went to Mingen’s house with only Meijun and Weitat.
Mingfa was already waiting there for us. Mingen’s house was big and nice and his mum was very friendly. I stayed until Wilson arrived and left with Mingfa to Hougang. Luckily I dropped Kaven a message for he thought the meeting was called off. Mingfa and I took bus to Choa Chu Kang MRT and finally reached Ang Mo Kio by train. Afterwards, we took bus 88 to Street 61.
Kaven reached there just before us and Suimin called me up when we were reaching. She was asking me about outputting Chinese in her computer. She was behaving weirdly like an insane somehow. This day, she turned into a tortoise.
This was the first time I experienced signing of OTP other than JTC flats’. Later on, I gave a call to Ruoci but she did not really sound like wanting to meet up and thus I followed Kaven home. I joined in the steamboat with his tenant and her friend. Then, I went for a swim with him and afterwards, got to meet up with his another two friends – Eric and Rina. By the side of the pool when I was shivering, I did not say many things and mainly it was because I did not want to say anything which Kaven did not want to announce yet.
Later on, he sent me to the Clementi MRT station and I managed to reach home at around 11pm.
After so long, my sleepiness could finally drag me to bed. I was editing the MP3s using Winamp and I nodded so many times that I decided I should take this good opportunity to sleep early. It was only at around 1am.
Shoulder
I was not sure what time my mum reached home but she dragged me up and started peeling the dead skin off my body for the third consecutive day. That was an addictive game for her but if you were to think in another angle, it was quite crazy to wake me up just for that.
I had quite a good rest afterwards thought I woke up a few times and finally at 11am. Updating of my websites and coordinating of appointments kept me busy.
I left home at late afternoon and went straight to the office. Regina was not around and Sharon was at the receptionist counter instead. I found it quite weird to Sharon somehow; probably because she was quite stylish looking and I always had this mentality to avoid chatting with babes somehow.
Winnie saw me from far and greeted me so happily, which seemed like replacing new batteries to me. Her hair was nicely dyed and tied up. She was not pretty but cute, especially with her baby fats.
Louis was busy chatting with one of the big shots. I took the chance to use the computer and utilise the company’s resource by printing out some information. This time when he called me into his office, he was not as calm as usual. Friendliness filled the room. Somehow, he looked so familiar.
I set off for Toa Payoh immediately. I was so early and decided to get some buns from the Breadtalk. I grabbed a chocolate and a hot dog one and paid the cashier with my remaining two two-dollar notes, which was so pathetic. While I was crossing the bridge over to the park, I decided to enjoy my chocolate bun first. Somehow, I made a little mess there but was nice enough to clear it up.
After using the toilet, I set off from the Toa Payoh Central. I took out my note book and tried to spend the time usefully by writing down contents for my property website. I took another path to the flat but it did not seem as near as I expected. It was only 7pm and I started sitting down on the floor to continue with my work. Eventually, the second chapter of my new story caught my attention. The process was halted for so long with all the work piling up.
Both Kelly and Jimmy were late. Kaven reached first and followed by Kelly. Next were Jimmy and surprisingly, Cherylyn. Since Jimmy and I had met before at Tampiness, we seemed to be quite close with each other even though he did not pass me his name card the previous time. He was the easygoing type, whereas Cherylyn was quite gorgeous. This time, I could see both of them were trying hard to introduce the house to their clients. I was very happy this night with all the friends around.
In the morning when I decided to take my own sweet time and eat before going down to Boon Lay Drive to meet up with Jolee, I received a call from Francis at 11am. He told me Jolee would be going down only at 2pm and he wanted me to go and take the keys from James at the office.
At first I thought Jolee was doing it on purpose but she was actually sick. I knew well I needed not rush myself like usual. But when I got to the office, Francis seemed shocked and told me James was at the show flat already. Then he told me that there were many walk-in clients and James could not handle it.
At first I felt heaven was unfair but later, I realised it was a crap. I would not rush down specially to get those free money and I felt it was quite an insult to treat me like a fool. Instead of taking train down there, I took a longer way to take the bus to office and then had to walk a much longer distance to the MRT station, which was so stupid.
James passed the keys over to me and I was alone until Alvin arrived. Jolee reached at 2pm and she started teaching me things. In the late afternoon, she even went out specially just to get me packet rice and also a packet of lime juice for she claimed that I needed vitamin C badly for my dried skin; the skin on my face was peeling off badly.
I received a call from Kelly later and it was viewing again. Jolee and I walked to Jurong Point together and later, I dozed off immediately on the train. I walked from Ang Mo Kio MRT station to block 554 and was quite disappointed to realise it was a walk-up again. Then, I waited at the fourth storey for Royston to come. I was surprised that he did not introduce the flat to his clients. Then he explained he had told them to choose one out of the five JTC houses he was showing them to.
Living room and common room
Master bedroom, attached bathroom and storeroom
Kitchen
Common bathroom
At around 8.10pm, Kelly called me and she sounded quite irritated. I realised I forgot to call the co-broke agent for I thought he would call me when he arrived. He was waiting downstairs instead. I was quite lost after that and thus did not say much. It was also the first time I went to that flat and I did not even know the estimated valuation. I guessed that viewing was a disaster and probably a waste of my effort.
After reaching home, I went straight to see Uncle Sam. I wanted to go for a jog but was worried that James might come anytime to get the Boon Lay Drive keys from me. As it was getting late, I gave him a call and he told me he would not be coming over as promised, and that the next duty personnel would collect it from me. I thought he should at least inform me of the changes.
So, I went down for a job after at least more than four months of slacking. I went to the pull up bars with my whole body so exhausted by the beach volleyball games and swim. The muscles on my arms were aching badly but I was still able to do fifteen chin-ups with struggle. Then, I started jogging and knew it from start that I was not capable of doing anything good. It was the worst of my timing as expected, reaching to 15’41 for just six rounds.
I began the day with going down to Toa Payoh. I was quite lost for I did not know how to get out of the interchange to the opposite side without walking till the swimming pool side. Finally, I found my way to block 171.
Lobby, front and kitchen
Store room, master bed room and bathroom
Common rooms and living room
View from windows
I met Kelly on the way and we rotted at the super “chio” flat, which was designed like a condominium. Kelly left to collect documents from Grace and I was left behind to wait for Chris, who was supposed to come at 2.45pm. At around 3.10pm, I wanted to call him and realised my SIM card was invalid. I tried restarting my phone and he arrived at the same time. His buyers, the couples, were very unsatisfied with the shape of the house; the lady started showing black face and they left soon. I was alone again, feeling so disappointed for I felt Chris’ clients should have appreciated the structure more.
Adeline arrived after 4pm to get the keys from me, followed by Kelly. We had some chats before rushing off to Tampiness for the 5pm appointment. I seemed to be flying throughout the journey. We passed by many vehicles and I found them so slow. We reached Tampiness very soon.
View from living room with two common rooms
Living room, kitchen, bathroom
Master bedroom, bathroom, store room
The flat was just besides the MRT track and near Simei MRT. Basically, I could not stand it but it was really cosy and windy. The agent was very friendly. The clients however, found it hard to arrange their future furniture and I was idealess with the fatigue for not having even a slip of water.
Living room, kitchen, bathroom
Common room, bedroom and bathroom
We went to collect keys from another agent before going for dinner. Then, we went to block 554. The agent was a nice guy and the buyers were an old lady and her daughter. The old lady had been there before and was very interested in getting the flat but her daughter seemed hostile somehow. The agent was very angry and he left soon for he had other appointments.
We tried so hard to explain to the daughter about the procedure and she started to ask unrelated questions and kept repeating. Then, she kept asking about bank loan, which was totally out of question for her salary was less than a thousand dollars. We knew her mum meant well and was willing to fork out the money in cash so that she would not be taking any loan.
We switched to the void deck so that we could rest our feet but our throat continued to suffer. The daughter kept repeating the same question even after Kelly got fed up. She turned to me and continued asking until I gave up on her too. Overall, she had repeated the same question for more than thirty times, which was so crazy. Both Kelly and I pitied her old mum who was trying so hard to help her but we had to give up and leave the place.
The night ended with this misery that we always thought we could at least close this case after so much effect for all the JTC flats.
It was somehow the unluckiest day throughout my months of stepping into this line.
In the morning, my mum accompanied me to Singapore Waiting Hospital. The appointment was 8.30am but we were earlier. The receptionist told us the doctor would be around only at around 9am. They could have set my appointment at 8.45am instead.
The doctor analysed the ugly thing on my waist was wart at the very first sight. It was due to virus infection and anyone could have gotten it at any part of the body. It could be spread but not so easily and the worst thing was to have this virus got into the inner body.
I was given three choices, of which were to apply medicine for months, Cryotherapy or Electrosurgery. Cryotherapy was applying of liquid nitrogen and Electrosurgery would be a painful one with injection but was the most effective of all.
I took the second option and waited outside the room for another doctor. Then, I had this weird experience with the spray landing on my waist, causing pains and numbness. I could take the pain at the infected spot but not the holding of my numbed thumb, which was a very irritating feeling. The bill was $41, which ached my heart and I probably had to go back for another one or two similar treatment.
Back at home, I received calls from Kelly and started to get cracking. She had a bad news for me, which was the application for the Toa Payoh flat was rejected. We were too excited in getting it and did not realise Chinese was not eligible in that month.
I tried hard to alias with other agents to deal with the JTC flats. One frustrating thing was nobody could find the block 610 Ang Mo Kio keys as Louis had left for overseas. The struggle to get hold of the keys was tough.
At around 2pm, I rushed to office to get and return some keys before rushing down to Ang Mo Kio. The speed walk towards Redhill MRT was tiring and boring. Royston called me just before I reached the destination, which slowed me down a lot, causing me to miss a train and a seven-minute delay. I got to see many cute uniform girls throughout the journey.
I reached block 219 at 2pm sharp with my swift pace and Stanley was already there with his buyers. I was shocked when he claimed that his wife was working in my company and somehow I realised I might be screwed up; he could use our time to show him the flats and close under his wife’s name.
Ah Beng and Ah Lian at Ang Mo Kio. The girl in white clothes looked sweet but she smoked.
Later on, Kelly had a long struggle over the phone to trace whoever took some keys. The managers of those teams certainly sucked terribly for unable to account for the keys. I was watching some students downstairs the block, creating nuisance and one of the sweet girls was actually smoking. Some of them were in Ang Mo Kio Secondary’s uniforms.
Kelly left after 5pm and I went up to the Ang Mo Kio Community Centre alone to wait for Mingfa. Then, I bought a packet of titbit and a bottle of ice lemon tea from the provision shop. Just when I managed to find a seat outside the MacDonald’s, watching some girls celebrating birthday, Mingfa called to ask me to go down to Block 110 Lorong 1 Toa Payoh myself. It was another terribly tiring walk towards MRT station.
The trip was a fruitful one and I managed to get to see two babes, of which, one looked like Ruoci (definitely not as “dao”) and another resembled a prettier and healthier looking Jielin. I took a seat for I was already exhausted and each of them stood by each side of the door such that I was so lost whether to look at my right or left side.
Just as I reached Bishan, Mingfa called me as Mingen was ready to pick me up but it was of course too late. We met up at MacDonald’s and Mingfa insisted me to take a burger. We went up to the flat later and Audrey’s clients were late.
Just as they arrived and I was trying to do my best to promote the flat, Kelly called me. Then, Royston arrived to collect the keys and Kelly called me again, such that everyone was busy with our own stuffs. This group of clients left soon and I was so disappointed for Royston was bringing his clients for a second viewing the next day.
We went down to block 171 immediately but Kelly’s information was so unclear. I called Lynn, and she claimed that she did not have any viewing with us and I was loss. I knew she was all messed up. We waited downstairs the flat and I was waiting for information whether who to contact.
We saw Francis Foo and Irene and later, Kelly finally gave me the correct agent’s contact number but she claimed that Kelly had fixed appointment with her only on the next day. That was when I showed my shagged face to everyone. Then I realised I was facing Peixian’s parents. Later on, another agent by the name of Adeline came and she needed the keys as well and thus we arranged to meet up the next day.
Mingen was driving us to Marina South but he did not know the way. I wanted to help out when we were at Kallang but I was not very appreciated since I was not firm enough. However, suddenly they changed idea and went to Suntec City instead by taking ECP.
Fountain of Wealth
Fountain of Wealth
We rotted there for a while and went to the Fountain of Wealth where a couple were performing live kissing and petting. Mingen and I decided to go down to try dedicating message to Mingfa and Meijun but they decided to follow us. We told Mingfa of the plan and he lured Meijun to other places, however, the plan failed as the insensitive and lagging touch-screen system slowed us down and the dedication system closed for the night.
I was quite lost with my way but managed to see the bus-stop at Nicoll Highway and bid them goodbye. My neighbour boarded the bus and we started chatting then.
I was waked up by Kelly’s SMS at around 10am but before I could resume my rest before replying to her, she called me.
My backache was worse than ever for the day. I had to resort to use electronic application to massage my back but when I wanted to do the second round of fifteen minutes session, the batteries seemed to have died out.
Afternoon was updating of my websites, especially on the unreleased property one. It was during evening when Kelly arranged to meet up with me at 8pm for flat viewing at Toa Payoh. I quickly called my mum but just after she brought my dinner home, Kelly asked me to go to office immediately to retrieve the keys. I quickly got changed, switched off my computer and left with the packet rice.
On my way, an agent called me to enquire about the Ang Mo Kio flat. She was not as professional as other agents to introduce herself, such that I did not know her name. I was as holy as usual, giving her all the details and she started nagging. I supposed she was more experienced than me and obviously much older, but her brain seemed to be tiny and immature. After explaining to her, she refused to listen and insisted in talking like as if my company and JTC owed her money.
I was new but professional and kind on the phone. I had explained that many companies were fighting over this JTC project that some companied had even offered negative commission (have to pay JTC for selling their property instead of getting any money from them). That was crazy but inevitable a true fact in the industry now. The heads of the companies were brilliant enough that they knew earning “little” was better than earning nothing at all.
This lonely auntie agent could not stop repeating the same words. It was such a shame that she was actually from a bigger company. She claimed that even though JTC’s flats were sold at very reasonable prices, she could help her buyers get much cheaper ones. She claimed that she had just closed a deal to help her buyer acquire a similar flat at $200k, whereas the one I was holding was $224k; I realised she was a fool after so many years in this business for flats at different location even though same district had different values.
One funny crap that she said was she was going to gang up with other agents to condemn my company’s agents, which was as scary as a child’s threat. She also tried to instigate me to get all the hundreds of agents in my company to refuse to sell the JTC flats. I thought that was funny for I might think of same tactic to battle my enemy during primary school. So, I treated her like an ignorant child and explained to her that I was just a peanut in the company and had no influence but she refused to listen just as expected.
I felt like telling her the fact that she was really annoying even though I was so friendly over the phone but after reconsidering the fact that she might have been ditched, I held back. So, I continued to listen to her bullshit from walking to the bus-stop, waiting for the bus, till before alighting. Then, I started to reflect over why I was listening to an alien for so long; even a child would be brighter than her.
I maintained my top speed in the brisk walk. Just before reaching my office, there was a man dressed up more formal than me tried to stop me. I knew I was running out of time but he talked like as if we were having a million dollar business deal that he had to be slow and careful. From the start I guessed he was either asking for money or borrowing of phone. I was not sure why but I was so holy to entertain him. He claimed that he could not contact his boss and had to borrow some money from me, which was extreme questionable. However, the angelic and busy me, took out my remaining coins and handed over to him. It was really stupid of me for he was most probably a crook.
Finally, I reached the seventh storey but when I stepped out of the lift, I turned back and almost wanted to close the door. I came out again and looked at all the different labelling in doubts, but decided to try my luck. It was indeed the correct floor. I went into the office but hesitated to go into the administration office for there was a new rule urging people not to step inside. Regina had probably left for home and the reception area was empty.
I took the risk to go in and was glad to see Louis. This helpful, kind and smart-looking guy was so familiar somehow. He passed me the keys and being polite, I asked if he had taken his dinner. Since I could only get to eat my dinner an hour later, I told him to take my lunchbox. I was very glad that he accepted it for he had been helping my team so much.
I quickly rushed off. I could take bus towards Outram Park MRT but considering the traffic flow, I chose to walk to Redhill MRT, which could be faster and cost-saving. My pace was faster than anyone on the roads. In the train, I felt so uneasy when I took out my phone for the nine pairs of keys were chained to the pouch.
After reaching Braddel MRT at 8pm sharp, I resumed my speed again and was surprised that the exit was just in front of a flat. My destination was less than fifty metres away. It took me some time to meet up with Kelly and then I realised she was meeting the agent half an hour later and that was why she told me to relax. Then, she started to burn incense papers for Louis had told her that flat could not be sold somehow even though so many buyers had viewed it.
View from corridor
Living room and flooring
Living room and two bedrooms
Kitchen, bathroom, toilet and extra room
I loved the house for its design and location even though it was facing the car park. Upgrading was done and paid for and the living room was so big.
When the first clients arrived, I was quite shocked for the guy looked quite unfriendly and did not even shake my hand. The lady was so hyperactive and pleasing that her smiles had lightened the night. She insisted in staying behind but her agent hurried them to the next flat.
Another group arrived soon and they seemed to be quite interested. The earlier couple came back wanting to pay for the deposit and Kelly told me to bring them down to somewhere to do the documentation first. Later, their agent insisted to go up to settle it but the second group of viewers had requested to buy it as well and were willing to fork out higher price. I was at a tight spot but Kelly kept her words in the end.
We went up and started to do all the documentation. Everything was ready except for the valuation report as well as the client’s HDB loan eligibility letter.
The following days would be very busy for this new change, which had excited Kelly so much. The returning of all JTC flats’ keys to the office was a great chance for us to prove ourselves. I was quite puzzled for the previous agents could not sell this unit when it was so near to the MRT. So, after this night, the total number of JTC flats in my company’s possession was reduced to forty-eight. We did not let the administration staffs down.
My $5 Malay style fried rice with mee goreng's taste with egg and half chicken wing. Quite nice tasting though.
Kelly sent me home and this time she seemed to have ridden her bike faster than ever. Then, she paid for my dinner again at the “Golden Café” coffee shop. I reached home at around 11.30pm.
610, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4 - living room and kitchen
3 bedrooms
As the daily routine proceeded, I was lack of sleep once again. I managed to reach Lorong Ah Soo at 12pm and met up with Kelly. We did the final documents for the flat before Kelly sent me over to Ang Mo Kio. We went to block 610 straight before rushing to block 219.
We met up with Jeff and he sounded better in real person than on phone. His client was a very nice and easygoing guy. Throughout the showing of the flat, Kelly out-performed Jeff so much that I was afraid Jeff would be jealous of her. Anyway, Kelly did it on purpose for he was muttering to his client all along.
Kelly and I went to near her place to pass her son money for dinner. Then, we went in the rain to my house where Kelly used the internet to check for client’s enquires. Later, we went down to meet Uncle Sam and David. Things came to a good progress finally.
I went down to Jurong East straight away. Walking there with a total empty stomach seemed to take forever. I managed to find the chalet fast and quickly grabbed some bites at the barbecue pit. It was not as crowded as I expected. It was quite boring at times.
I pulled through the night with my work together with the lack of sleep. Despite sleeping at around 4am, Kelly called me at 9.30am because the Bedok flat’s keys were with me and the valuer was going down at around 10.30am. I dared not go back to the bed to rest and sat on the chair to nod my head until around 10am. Kelly’s timing was perfectly nice.
After that I continued with my sleep but there were some phone enquiries of the flats and also some instructions from Kelly about the business with Uncle Sam. I went down at around 2pm to talk to him. Then, I went to find him again at around 3pm to meet up with another agent called David.
Bathroom and toilet
Other parts
Balcony
We went up to the walk-up and all of them were patting at least a little except me. At first, nobody opened the door and I was quite lost and embarrassed. After a few minutes, a bangala finally opened the door. It was a mess inside and even the tiles were cracked. The living condition should be okay without the bad smell.
My brunch - Curry chicken. Used to be hotter and nicer.
I spent the rest of the day on my website. It was around 8.30pm when Kelly called and asked if I wanted to bring my potential client, Cui Wei, down Ang Mo Kio to view a flat for rental. My mum finally arrived with my dinner but I rushed off without eating. Other than waiting at the MRT station, I was either walking very briskly or running. I finally reached there on time after getting out of the maze – the government had built the flats in weird shapes.
Kelly was at a higher ground facing the flat. There was a private driving instructor, Steven, teaching his student how to park the car. I was in sweat and had the second shock of the day when Kelly announced that the owner of the flat had not arrived. Cui Wei was late and then she called me that she was lost. Kelly and I went over to find her and then we discussed a lot about what her requirements.
In the end, Kelly went to Toa Payoh to find the owner while I took the same path as the two China ladies to the MRT station. It was a terribly tiring and disappointing day.
Anyone who knows of any 3-room or 2-room flats near Presbyterian High School for rental please let me know as soon as possible.
- 2 rooms with 3 bed each to accommodate up to 6 people. - Fully furnished with bed, sofa, and study table. - Whole building equipped with wireless internet connection. - Air-con on request. - Available to only students including foreign students. - Show flat at 14 January. - Leash on 16 February 2007. - Rental fee estimated to be in the range of 1.2k to 1.6k (to be confirmed).
Please notify your friends of this upcoming rental, especially for NTU students. I suppose they will be grabbed fast.
