so i've been at my job for almost 9 months. sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's boring, sometimes it's annoying but for the most part it's fun.

my DM said we got 97% rating from a mystery shopper and for my part i got 100%. that really made my day. imagine getting a perfect rating as a sales staff! i wondered what i did, who that customer was and was completely blown by it. it was a pretty good rating our store manager decided to print a copy of the result for all of us to see. man... i am really proud.

so i read the mystery shopper assessment report complete with all the questions and criteria. i was hugely disappointed that for my 100% rating, all i really did was smiled and acknowledged the customer who rated me. bummer. i mean, i know it's still an important part of customer service but i expected to read that i really did something great, like answered her questions expertly or went out of my way to meet her needs. well, i guess it's a start.

sometimes it's hard...

it's physical work. i've never done any real physical work before. i've always done computer-related work or paper-work. now, i have to lift rolls of rugs or metal beds, move bins/bays around, push trolley-full, bin-full of things around and other shop-related work. i also have to climb ladders to put or take things on and off shelves, which is not a bad thing... only i'm afraid of heights. aside from the physical aspect, i have never worked in retail before. so i not only have to struggle with the job expectations but also have to adopt to a totally different culture.

the first few months were really hard and confusing. i was assigned at the homewares department where i have to sell and talk to customers about duvet and valances and whatnot. we don't have those kind of stuff in the philippines so naturally i was at a loss.

aside from being unfamiliar with the products we sell, i also have to struggle with the accent and slang of kiwi people. thankfully for me, i find that part entertaining. where we say thread, they say cotton, where we say fabric, they say material.

sometimes it's annoying...

i find it really annoying when things get really messy. i understand that you can't stop customers from wanting to look at the products and feel it. but... do they really have to be rude and lazy? rude as in not thinking that sales assistant are also just human who gets tired and irritated having to tidy and refold and repackage every hour. i mean, is it too much to ask that they at least put it back the way they've taken it out? do they really have to take out every single item on the shelf when there's already one displayed for them to see? sometimes it makes me even more annoyed thinking that maybe they do that because we're not a high end shop. i often check out other shops selling the same products that we do and i notice that customers don't mess things in those "posh" shops. i just wish customers will be more respectful of the sales assistants and the next customer. the less time we spend tidying things, the more time we have to actually assisting them.

sometimes it's boring.

when it's really quiet and all we do is tidy, it can get a little boring. it's very rare though. but still, it can be boring.

for the most part, it's fun.

i'm also lucky to work with nice people. you do get the odd one once in a while but as a whole, everybody's really nice and friendly.

we may get a few rude and fussy customers but we get more friendly ones. i particularly like the sweet old ladies. the ones who are happy just because you took the time to assist them and ask them how their day is going. some will tell you detailed account of their morning or day, some will show photos of their grandkids or them when they were young or grandkids classmates, some will gossip, some will just be happy talking about the weather.

no matter how different it is from anything i've done before, i am happy with my job. i do get a few rude customers and one even asked me if he can speak to someone who "speaks english" but in balance, i also get some really good ones who appreciate the service i've done for them.

that's all in a day's work.

i wish i could have been there. i only learned about it when i checked bianca's blog. i can't believe my sister didn't tell me. i know i couldn't really do anything about it even if she told me but still... she knows how crazy i am about the group!

anyways, shock over.

i am now on eheads reunion concert youtube videos overload mode. i'm watching every single (decent) videos there is until i'm satisfied.

brings back a lot of memories.

black phase. not in a bad or rebellious way. just all of a sudden black seems the only colour i'd want to wear (tshirt-wise) but also not in a gothic kind of way. i did have other colours in my wardrobe but black was definitely the most dominant. the grungier the better. black shirt; faded, torn jeans; chuck taylor shoes with matching silver jewelries - skull or snake rings, skeleton pendant, earring (back then just having one is cool enough, other body piercings have not yet become fashionable). i myself horded lots and lots of silver rings and necklaces. i've never even worn some of them.

groupie. my long time crush in high school was in a band. period.

although they didn't really play eheads songs (just coz they think rivermaya is cooler, only maybe to wind us girls up) we still went to every 'gig' and battle of the bands they were in. the sound system was crackly, you can barely understand what they're singing about (unless you know the song) and they didn't win anything but it's the moral support that counts. plus it still so damn cool to see your crush on stage (even when he didn't decide to wear his hair long until college and by then it just looked... er... unclean).

UP. all the members of eraserheads went to the University of the Philippines, where i wished i could have gone to also but as luck (or lack of it) would have it, i didn't. i passed the exam, i qualified for stfap or stufap or whatever scholarship system it was but still, i didn't. just because... well, because my father thought it wasn't a good idea to send me so far away to attend college. all the effort to keep me close to home didn't work. look where i am now. not only is it a very prestigious university, it is also where my crush will be studying! i already had daydreams of us bumping into each other along the halls of the math building or sharing a ride on the ikot and him finally realizing that he is so madly in love with me and was just pretending so our friends wouldn't tease us. *sigh*

eheads music. i swear i used to be a whitney houston-singing-vanilla-ice-dancing fan but ever since i heard eheads music, i was transformed. i still sing but instead of dancing, i head-banged. that's what rockers and fans do. or they stage dive. or jump round and round in circles until they bumped another hyped up fan doing the same thing and they're not happy and they start fighting or pushing each other guising it as head-banging to the music.

i can still remember my very own eheads concert experience. i was in college. i've always wanted to see them live but they never came to my hometown and i always missed them when they're playing somewhere else. so when they finally decided to do a concert in legaspi, i knew i wouldn't let that opportunity pass. and rightfully so too. coz they disbanded shortly after that. good thing, there was also another girl in my boarding house who's also crazy about them (and yes, she also wears the same black uniform). a few days before the concert, there was a typhoon. we weren't sure if they will still push it through coz of the black outs and some fallen trees and electrical posts along the roads but we didn't hear any news saying otherwise so we decided to still give it a go. we knew we would be staying in dark boarding house and would have to carry a torch on our way home but the heck with that! this is eheads we're talking about. the main entrance to the auditorium was already crowded when we arrived. we pushed our way through the crowd until we were just behind the big entrance door. we waited. a few hours or so later, they opened and people rushed in. we were pushed from all directions but we pushed in return, elbowed and stepped on other's shoes/feet and we were finally inside. among the first 50, i think. the glass door on the other side smashed from the pressure of people wanting to get in. it was crazy. we found a good spot. we decided to be safe and chose the upper bleachers. it's not our first rock band concert and we know what happens to those people down below. we were comfortably seated and people are still pouring in. excitement was in the air. the lights went out. the crowd went wild. there was chanting, calling out for eheads. and then the screams. you hear the scream first and you know somebody's spotted someone. and there they were. in the flesh.

gooseflesh. screams. and we were all up on our feet. and never sat down until the end. admittedly, eli is not the best live singer but the music was great, the band was the best and it was an experience i will never forget. near the end of the concert, we were all holding hands, swaying to the song. during that brief moment, it didn't matter who you were or where you came from. what matters was that we were all there for the love of the eraserheads.

x-x-x


i hope ely and the rest of the band is doing well. eraserheads will forever be the band that started it all.