the end of a chapter

so today marks the end of yet another adventure.

woke up today with an infected eye and broken down handphone. I woke up and the phone is blank and can't switch it on. it's only now that i realise how impt my hp is to me. So i was just sitting there thinking shit this really sucks, WHY NOW..WHY ME? I would have skipped work if it wasn't my last day. anyway without my phone i can't call the store to inform them. it's a major conspiracy by the hp gods. make me sit up and kowtow to my phone.

so the first thing i did was to call mom to ask her where her spare phone is. i was quite sure the problem was in my battery. i dun know who the hell i ended up calling cos it wasn't mom. i just stood there stunned (and half asleep) listening to mystery woman's voice "hello? hello? nobody talk?"

in the end i managed to fix the phone (nutshell: battery came loose, couldn't charge, and so died). rested my eye for today too. took cab to work. dramatic beginning to the ending of the chapter.

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events of the day:

1) 1 really pissed customer, and 2 troublesome customers

2) did my usual call-up-winners-of lucky-draw routine. There's this guy who didn't pick up and i got directed to the voice mail. No biggie. Problem is, i didn't hang up properly and so the conversation with my colleague got recorded down. ("so how many siblings you have?" "1 brother" "does he support you" blah blah blah)

managed to get through to the guy later and he dictated the whole conversation to me with glee. Gd thing we weren't saying anything bad abt the guy. Imagine if we manage to record down "that blardy customer blah blah" on his voice mail.

3) went to lunch with the new perm staff. she's been here for 3 days, me 3 weeks, but it was her who showed me around the building. the smoking areas of the building at least. quite an eye opener. apparantly mr sim doesn't like the habit of smoking so one (of two) of the smoking areas is in the hot sun on the open rooftop. very smart. i wouldn't even want to eat ice kachang there not to mention smoke.

4) R saw my juggling bag and thought i was flying to US straight after work. So i let her see all my juggling stuff. Later in the day she asked for a demo. and so i dug out everything and in the end everyone started twisting balloons and learning to juggle. It was quite a sight. customers walked in and there behind the counter everyone was twisting balloons (with the occasional loud PONG!).

there were security cameras all over possibly linked to the boss. when she called up we were like "shit she must be watching the camera and wondering what the hell we're up to". Boss is a nice lady. she didn't have to check, we basically excitedly blurted to her that we're juggling and would she wanna come down to see us juggle.

i taught the guys how to twist teddy bears. Both times i twisted, both times the body burst. i ended up with 2 bear heads. the guys manage to learn and twist the whole bear. some teacher i am. ("if you can, do. if you can't, teach!" haha)

Jason and darren learnt the cascade in 30 minutes. they're talented sia. Jason especially, has potential in this line i think. He basically looks like a clown. (HL to Jason: why when you juggle your butt must stick out wan?!)

darren thinks it's impossible for anyone to do 5. until i showed it to him. :)

R started nudging us to start work again after it became quite clear that we're just gonna play till closing time. we managed to stop...then someone will go "borrow balls" and then everything will start again. cool. :)

and so marks the end of the jurong refuge. thanks for the ride folks.

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no 150 balloons to do. i've copped out. that's why i'm blogging and stress free.

a bit annoyed with myself for not holding on to the gig. but my balloons really cannot make it. and i'm quite surprised that some agents hire balloonists that just picked up ballooning the day before. (i know cos when i tell them my balloon sucks they say dun worry and relate these stories to me)

i mean, i think the bare minimum an entertainer should have is competency in his craft. like gd competency not just barely make it. skill with bad showmanship is ok and will improve with experience. great showmanship with no skill is alright too. no skill no showmanship is like cow dung.

what happens is really just this. some agents dun really have quality control for their talents. they just anyhow throw someone in. when clients complain, the talents become scapegoats.

A.L says it doesn't really matter. Just do it, and everyone gets paid. even if i get a bad reputation in the end, no one really remembers. I dunno. I dun feel good producing rubbish knowing that it's rubbish.

maybe the truth is i just got too stressed over the 150 balloons quota.

i'll join MJ for balloon busking more often. hopefully my ballooning can get up to show standard. and at least i can lelong my distorted shapes instead of wasting them at home. (MJ thinks i worry too much cos ballooning is ridiculusly easy compared to juggling). Not that i'm particularly interested in ballooning, but that's where all the gigs are it seems. we'll see. If i get bored i'll scoot. it's nice to leave something tangible behind with the audience, and that's something juggling can't do.