Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Poverty X There Came More Injuries: February

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