Agency Life and Evil Rental Agents..

So it's taken me this long to have a spare moment to tell you all about the new job. And that is truly not an exaggeration!

It's been absolute mayhem...

My first day...I had to leave early to make sure I'd get to work on time. Once I got there, nobody really trained me or anything (it's kinda silly, but nobody even told me where the loo was!), the big boss just started asking me about all these companies that I'd never even heard of in this life time. Then he piled on the reading assignment because of said ignorance...
I was also given a bunch of news releases to write straightaway. I officially left work that night at 9PM!! The next morning, I was to be shadowing one of the girls at an event which required me to be at the office at 7.15AM instead of the usual 9AM...which meant I was up at the crack of dawn just so I could get there on time.

Sigh...it sounds like an absolute nightmare of a day right? But worst still is the fact that everyone accepts this sort of lifestyle. Nobody at work knows when they finish everyday, it all depends. That is just nuts to me...

How am I coping you might wonder? My current favorite mindset is to treat everything like Uni. So I take notes about the companies and what PR we do for them in a notebook, filled with post-its and highlighter pen marks. Whenever I am unhappy about how something is done or the negative tone I have been instructed in I just think of syllabus and lecturers at uni...I might not have agreed with some of the teachings but I learnt it all anyway...This will be my biggest learning experience ever. I have a 5 month contract / probation period, I just have to make it to the finish line. :)

To top that off further, we were totally ripped off by the rental agent. Yes, the gorgeous apartment that I wrote about a few weeks ago was a disaster. He'd promised to have the place cleaned before we moved in, it was filthy when we got there...he said we had a gym at the condo, there was NO gym, he promised to have a iron and ironing board there, it was only loan to us until the next client asked for it...he promised a DVD player, it didn't even work. The final straw though was when we had to walk to the train station...you wouldn't believe this, it was a dark and dingy alleyway with giant sewage drains on both sides and cows roaming free. He never showed us this part of the suburb. Disappointment doesn't begin to express what we went through. I don't even know how we managed to cope...Dean was such a brave little soldier...he had a somewhat harsh exchange with the agent where the agent denied ever promising us anything and even said we didn't fulfill our side of the bargain! The cheek! In the end, we had to lose some money just so we could move out...that had to be the nastiest experience of my life to date. You think it's just a horror story that people tell until it happens to you.

Good news though, even though it turned out to be an expensive lesson, it was still an important lesson. We are currently using the rental agent provided by Dean's work to find a place that truly suits our needs. I've taken some time off work so we can house-hunt again and this agent has been positively superb. She told us yesterday that she doesn't expect us to choose anything after our first day, instead she just needed to get a better feel of what we were after. So today, we've got a few more places to look at. It is so refreshing to get some proper, sincere service around here. At the moment, we're crashing at a friend's and seriously considering living in this area. It's considered an ex-pat area but we now know that that doesn't just mean slightly more expensive rent, it also means better service and higher security - something we are no long willing to sacrifice.

On a lighter note...my bestfriend Linzhi is in town, can't wait to catch up with her this weekend! Oh and congrats to FaerySarah, Zoe is absolutely precious!

And, to all my lovely crafty blogger ladies, I miss all of you and your updates keep me sane. I may not have time to comment but know that you are one of the main reasons I feel I'm still okay amidst all the chaos. You are in my thoughts, always.

xoxo
Miss Deb