Catching the 8am flight to Beijing on Monday, I had left home at 6am in the morning. We (my colleague and the Singapore agent) reached Beijing at approximately 2.30pm. It was at the airport that I got the first look at how overwhelming the number of people is in China. We practically had to step on other people’s toes to walk to Terminal 1 (which was a lot emptier since it only caters domestic flights). This was on a normal weekday. I can’t imagine how packed a sardine can it would be during their Golden Week holiday or next year’s Olympics.
From Beijing, we were supposed to take a 6.10pm flight to Chang Chun (capital city of Jilin Province), but we discovered it had been delayed indeterminably due to technical fault. Hence, we switched to a 5.10pm flight to Shen Yang instead.
The plane to Shen Yang was late in landing. This subsequently caused a delay in boarding. Even after boarding, the take off was yet again delayed as the plane had missed its window to fly. So there we were, sitting like stiff mummy on the plane (wasn’t enough leg room for me) while our plane queue up along the turnoff to runway with a dozen other planes waiting for their turn to fly.
Queuing to fly
Reaching Shen Yang, we met up with the Chinese agent, Director Yu (遇总), and his assistant, Xiao Cui. It was the start of getting to know the Chinese on a business level. I was introduced as Mr Lee and every other introduction thereon was such. This really made me somewhat uncomfortable as it was a tad too formal for my liking.
From Shen Yang, Mr Yu drove us up North to Jilin city (more a town actually). China’s expressways are not a good place to drive on at night if not familiar. Their turns from minor to major roads have minimal reflectors to indicate. They have work in progress that gives little warning for drivers to switch lanes. Day time travel is definitely more recommended.
By the time our car rolled into Jilin Province, it was already 2am in the morning. The first impression I had was it was a ghost town. Aside from the street lighting and lightings from some night business, there was practically not even a flickering candle light emitting from any of the windows in the buildings. Yes, it was already 2am, but surely in the long drive from the town edge to our hotel in the town centre, there would be at least a single soul who stayed up late right?
My hotel room. Doesn't look so good in the day.
The interview began the next day. With slightly over a hundred applicants and an intention to finish on that day, we were looking at a long day’s work. The interview took place inside the Government Employment Agency. We had requested for a soundproof room so we can torture the applicants without their screams getting heard by other applicants, but alas, such facility was not available. Instead, we got a small room with fruit basket included.
The torture chamber
Interviewing a hundred candidates was no simple task. Especially when 95% of them have experience and when asked to introduce themselves, they started rattling off details of their work from the time they woke up and brush their teeth up to the number of ply of toilet paper they used when using the washroom during their breaks.
When you hear one, it was okay. When you hear twice, you might find it cute. When you hear it thrice, it felt like they all had the same script. By the fourth person, you wouldn’t want to hear it again lest the urge to shove a banana down his throat happens. It was that frustrating.
So we tried tactics like asking them to briefly introduce themselves. For those who had too much ear wax and couldn’t hear the word ‘briefly’, we broke up their flow with questions and threw them a cotton bud. Of course, we do get some renegades now and then. After answering our questions, they would go back to describing their daily work as if our questions are nothing more than pushing the pause button.
Guess who came for interview?
Friday, April 20, 2007
To Jilin
It was really unexpected. Late morning yesterday, I received a sms from SAM (senior asst. manager) requesting me to call her as it was urgent (it was my off day). I thought she was going to ask me some inane questions, like the other time she called me while I was busy with operations just to ask how to spell ‘dilemma’.
This time, she just told me the company is sending someone to China to recruit more staff and I’m one of those selected! Wah seh! Imagine my surprise. How could I say no to such opportunity for free travel and legitimate reason to escape work (seriously, who cares about the interviews)? Of course my answer was a resounding yes!
‘Ok, good. You’re going on the 24th.’ She informed me.
‘Of May?’
‘Oh no, next week.’
You should see how big my eyes widen. Such haste and I’m totally caught unprepared!
Today, I dropped by HR to iron out the details. I’m not going on the 24th, I’m going on the 23rd instead! By SQ some more! I must have really step hard on some dog shit. After putting my arse on budget airlines’ seats the past few years, I’m finally going to warm a full service airline’s seat! My virgin flight on SQ.
Well, details have it that we are going to Jilin Province for recruitment. Jilin Province, a quick search on the net shows, is just next to North Korea. Now, I really hope no nukes will hit while I’m there. No more than 60 hours till my flight. Hah!
(How excited I’m is shown by the sheer amount of ‘!’ used in this post)
Monday, April 09, 2007
Brilliance
Fuming, my colleague wrote a long email to the Assistant Security Chief regarding that incident who in turn played tai chi and forward to his boss as ‘he was a more appropriate person to handle it.’
Few days later, the Chief replied apologising for the incident but not apologising for his staff as he was giving him the benefit of doubt due to a different version from him.
In addition, to ‘prevent further such future misunderstanding’, he had a blinding stroke of brilliance and implemented a Security Service request form and apparently it is for our department only (as other departments had not heard of it).
With this form, should we even require the simplest thing like getting them to flip the record books to check the key number, they will not entertain us if we just call down and ask. Instead, we have to fill up the form, have someone send it down to Security, have it approved by him and his assistant before his officers will get back to us (but did not mention whether it will be by phone call or snail mail).
And beat this; the request has to be submitted three days in advance (as if we are psychic).
This is coming from someone who makes investigating his job. Well, two can play at this game. I can imagine the next time his department is doing an investigation and needs to ‘invite our room attendant for tea’, we ask him to fill up a similar form. Only instead of just three days for processing and approval from us, he will need to get approval from HR and the union as well. Oh, perhaps we should include the MOM as well, in case any laws are violated.
Monday, April 02, 2007
Macau 0.2
One thing that struck me was the number of pawn shops situated readily near the casinos. The neon of these shops glowed as brightly as that of the casinos like they are brothers in comrade, depending on each other to increase their profit margins.
I did not walked down the entire casino stretch at that time, just staying in the vicinity of Grand Lisbao, Lisbao and Wynn. I thought Wynn is a very apt name in terms of marketing strategy. What could have been a better marketing tagline than ‘Come to Wynn (win)!’.
Right after satisfying my trigger happy fingers, I headed for Nam Van Lake. According to the tourist brochure, there was supposed to be some cybernetic shows on the lake during the weekends. No timing was given but I thought I tried my luck anyway.
If cybernetic means seeing neon tubes sticking out of the lake, than I had it. Otherwise, there was not any show of sorts which was a disappointment. The entire stretch had a few bars and restaurants, but as far as I observed, they are hardly open and I am talking about on a Saturday night. I guessed putting the chips down in casino is better a pastime than placing chips (fries) in your mouth and enjoying a nice lake view in Macau.
With time to spare before the Cinderella clock struck, I headed back to St Paul, hoping to capture some nice night scene photos. The crowd was gone alright, but there were still a good handful of tourists and locals.
From my map, I discovered that I had missed out going up to Monte Fortress (just next to St Paul) in the day. So I headed up. The route I took up was pretty steep, made of uneven steps cut from granite and not exactly brightly lit.
Ordinarily, it would have been dangerous to be out at that time and at that place for fear of crime. I said ordinarily because there were still some elderly brisk walking around the fort and it kind of reduced the illusion of danger. Of course, having said that, it would have been ironic if I had been robbed by a couple of cane touting grandmas.