Give the Day a Chance to Start

Saturday, September 23, 2006

A day in the mall

Disclaimer: This is not going to be a ditzy entry about a day of shopping, latte sipping, perfume trying, and whatever else girly girls do all day in "where else but LIKE the mall!!!" Oh no. I've already made an entry like that before, and I'm so ashamed of it that I won't even link to it anymore. So much for being defensive, huh?

Last Wednesday, Ellaine and I went to the Mall of Asia to represent our company in a job fair. Upon arriving at the site and seeing our booth, I immediately felt uncomfortable about the fact that my face was plastered there. I seriously didn't like seeing my photograph blown up like that. My face was HUGE! It wasn't even a flattering shot. And what made it even more awkward was that I had to sit next to it feeling exposed. Thankfully, nobody seemed to notice the resemblance.


So, I just shook it off, put on a smile, and entertained questions from interested applicants/potential stalkers; it's part of our job in recruitment. We just cannot be rude.

While there though, we took advantage of our lunch break and walked around to see if there were any interesting finds in that mall everyone was raving about. Not surprisingly, we both got so famished that we just had to grab some grub even before we got to see 1/5 of the place.

By the time we got back, we were stuffed silly and just plainly felt exhausted from all that walking. On top of that, we were zapped of all our energies because the job fair was held at the Music Hall, which was a partially open air venue. Sure, there was a roof, some massively high pillars, and several establishments surrounding the main hall, but that didn't stop the rains from prematurely ending the affair. We had to evacuate when it started pouring hard.

At that point, I actually thought of the rains as a gift from heaven. I felt so drained that I'd prayed for a reason to leave the booth and relax at The Coffee Bean, which was only a few meters away from the site.

We packed up early, ran for cover, and rewarded our tired selves with our favorite happy drinks.

Unfortunately, our peace and quiet was interrupted by some guy who claimed to be part of the event's organizing committee. At first, we tried to be as friendly and accomodating as far as being professional was concerned. We answered some of his inquiries and even relented when he asked if he could join us at our table (maybe that was where we made a mistake). Fifteen minutes go by and he's still sitting there, TALKING. Thirty minutes and he's asking personal questions. Fourty-five minutes and I sense Ellaine starting to get so restless she just had to buy a pastry, eat about half, and lose her appetite for all the same.

I guess our job trained us well in terms of putting up a good front for even the most annoying individuals; too well in fact that though we both were already extremely exasperated at his intrusion, the guy just couldn't get a clue. He stayed with us, even tagging along after we'd excused ourselves and lied about our boss urgently asking for us back at the office. We just could not ditch the guy! To make that long nightmare of a story short, we finally got in a cab and swore to one another that we push-overs would never be as nice to any stranger again.

We were relieved to be on our way home, but found ourselves waiting an excruciating thirty minutes more in the cab because the driver had to make a special stop over to load up on LPG. Our cab fair increased by double because of that delay.

We could barely smile in the cab on the way home after all that.

To add insult to injury, we stayed at the office and worked an additional hour. What a funny turn of events. I just felt like ranting.