it has been a
roller-coaster riding month
well..
the month started off quiet
as expected since
it’s still during Lunar New Year
and i was away from
2nd to 9th February
hence I made the worst forecast
that there will be zero sales
for the 1/3 of February to begin with
then it turned out not too bad
as i was doing work
at the airport at 3 AM
minor tasks yet at least
it will “break the ice” of zero sales
as forecasted as
the worst case scenario
then there were minor tasks
coming in on and off
and during day 1
i was struggling with
internet connection as
my laptop was suddenly
not connecting to any Wi-Fi network
There We Meet Again! X Network Issue: !!!!
but it was solved as
i resorted to data roaming
and personal hotspot via
my mobile phone
then during the night
two days before leaving
my Wi-Fi was suddenly okay again
yet i was charged for another day of
data roaming as I forgot to
turn it off after 12 AM
so during the day trip to Fo Guang Shan
i actually had access to Internet
throughout the day
and i was actually accessing it
during lunch hour and
posted some photos on WeChat
but i hated to check email
because i hate the feeling
of “there’s work waiting”
during outing knowing that
there’s awaiting work
when I get back to the hotel
so i went on without checking email
but in fact i did turn on my data
to access the Internet
for some useless purposes
it wasn’t turned on all the time
as my camera was card-less
so i had to rely on my phone
to take photos throughout the trip
and i have left my power bank
in the hotel
then something WTF happened
there came the climax of the story
the only time
i turned on my data was during 2PM
while we were having lunch
5 something in the evening
we were back in town
and I was finally checking email
via free public Wi-Fi
at the train station
like WTF right
when I have my own data
to discover that
an important email
came in at 1:50 ish PM
as expected
there was another recall email
sometime before 5 PM
i.e.
the 400 USD task
has been assigned to someone else
simply because I didn’t get to
see the email although I had
internet access and time to do so
and the deadline is pretty good too
like 5 days down the road
and by the time
i would have ample time to do it
since I’ll be heading home soon!
it wasn’t exactly good!!
like it kinda haunted me
throughout the journey
and for the few days to come
especially when sales
wasn’t too good
it was such painful
to crawl through the days
and although there were
tasks coming in after the 10th
i forecasted that
this would be the
lowest month ever
throughout my career
until 22nd
things took a turn
as I got a high volume task
which i felt was more than
the total of i have been
struggling to earn
for the past 20+ days
since the month started
so it wasn’t that bad after all
and I have been living like a dog
given the poor sale and forest
to start with and
the huge amount of $$
spent lavishly during January
in preparation for
Lunar New Year and upcoming trips
two weeks ago
a friend of mine wanted to
book flight tickets and
i was telling her about the
20% discount for booking done
over the mobile app
she was not familiar with it
so we met up and
had the booking done at KFC
there was some payment issues and
the only way was to pay
via my online banking account
shame on me that
i didn’t even have enough balance
to pay for a pair of
discounted tickets to Vietnam
not to mention
she wanted to book two pairs
so she had to do an instant transfer
before I could actually pay
from my bank account
the “wound” was exposed
under the sun as
i was showing her the balance
because I didn’t want her
to think that I am not
willing to pay for her in advance
well i don’t even have enough to
for real
i should have pumped in money
sooner or later
but let it be late then
because
it nevertheless feels
good to be poor
because whenever
i thought of buying something
i was reminded of how poor i am
and i can’t even afford it
given the critical limit
in my daily transaction account
and habit forming
is a funny thing
once you are used to it
it will stay with you
they say it’s a 21 day circle
but now i somehow
don’t have any urge
to buy anything
nothing at all
you won’t believe that
my latest loot from
internet shopping is
actually 5 pieces of
micro fiber cloth
since there was some
cash rebate credit which
i really had to make use of
before it expired
and the next thing
i am planning to buy
is a spinning mop
well
being poor is one thing
getting old is another
it is simply reflected in
my online shopping list