My Corner

Finally. Finally.

It's the third week 2008. I finally have time to be by myself and chilling at home. It was crazy busy for the past month. They were fun busy but I am glad they are finally over. Christmas, New Year, parties, exams, wedding, birthdays and more birthdays, the dayshift/nightshift/dayshift/nightshift... Finally, finally, I get to breathe.

Well... not so much because the dayshift/nightshift thing is still going on plus work is way too dramatic. They should really film a tv series at work and called it "CFIA FUNG WUNG" (as in wind and cloud, haha). It is really reaching the climax now as the Season 1 big finale will be on the last week of January (yup, getting there!). And of course, Season 2 will continue right after. Thank god I DO have one very patient audience who follows this show religiously (sometimes, I think he knows more than I do, cuz I do forget things occasionally. =P).

Big finale will involve a big change for me. I now play such an important role in this series and my role is getting bigger and bigger by day! If everything goes according to plan, I will be working a different schedule very soon. My schedule will be a 4-on-4-off basis, meaning work 4 days and off 4 days but a 11 hr shift. Neat, eh? It IS kinda neat, cuz when I look at the calendar, I only work half the days. 4 days off = a LONGGGGG weekend every week. How sweet is that? Well, the pay off is to work on weekends if your shift does fall on Saturdays and Sundays. But still, I consider that a good deal and it IS going to happen and this dayshift/nightshift thing is going to end. It is just a matter of how and what other dramas will be involved.

I think I deserve a little break when all this chaos has settled down. I am planning to visit my aunt and cousins in LA in late February during my 4 days off (yay, I don't even need to take time off work!). I am also planning to visit HK in March where I will be taking 4 days off work and go to HK for 10 days or something (4 days leave = 12 days vacation). I really, really want to see my grandparents. I plan to do a lot of traveling this year but mostly short trips making good use of my 4 days off.

i would like to write about a little incident that happened yesterday at work.

since i work for service centre now, i have to answer phone calls from time to time. i have heard stories about angry importers/brokers when we refuse their shipments. never have i thought i would receive a crazy call plus being filed a complaint when i have only worked here for less than 3 months.

me = me, ph = physco, (me in brackets)= me thinking
me: canadian food inspection agency, bonjour.
ph: i am xxx (damn i forgot his name) calling from the border. how are you today?
me: i am doing good. how are you yourself?
ph: i just came back from the states and i bought some cheese with me. now the customs people said i have brought back over the limit. they said i can only bring back 20kg and less than $20. now, is that correct?
me: (i hate travellers and customs calls cuz there are always exceptions and nothing is always right. besides, as an import specialist, we deal only with commercial shipments)
me: let me take a look at the directives, i am going to put you on hold, ok?
ph: sure.
me: (checking directives and apparently, customs is right. so, basically he has two options: 1) to get an import declaration which would have to billed or 2) dispose his cheese)
me: thanks for holding sir. unfortunately customs is right. you have to either get an import declaration and fax it to us and there will be a bill associated with it or you are going to have to dispose your cheese (i am feeling sympathetic for him as well)
ph: so how much will i be billed?
me: (staring at my cheat sheet, dairy products are the most complicated commodity because it is billed by weight. but everything less than 500kg is $44 which would be his case...) it will be $44, sir.
ph: ...
me: yes, we bill according to the amount. we have different codes for different weight range.
ph: i don't understand what you are saying here. i want to speak with another inspector (in a demanding tone!!)
me: what don't u understand?
ph: well, u were saying one thing and the second later, you were saying something else.
me: what do you mean?
ph: you first said i will be billed by the quantity, the next second you said i will be billed by the weight. (sorry, i still don't see the difference) so if you don't know what you are doing here, just give me your name and i will call again later to speak to your supervisor.
me: i DID say you will be billed according to weight.
ph: LADY! I AM DOING THE TALKING! YOU JUST LISTEN! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. I AM GOING TO FILE A COMPLAINT AND.....
me: ... (saw coworker walks by, signal her to come over and pass the phone to her)
Coworker: hi, susan speaking, how can i help you sir? (listening.....) no, this is susan (listening....) no, that was gladys. (listening...) ok. (hangs up)
me: what did he say?
susan: he just said "sussan and gladys, you will be hearing from me very soon" and hung up.

********

can u believe that psycho? my office is always so freaking cold but after that phone call, i was hot!! i could seriously felt my blood boiling. OMFG!

that was yesterday. i am already over it because even if he complains, i have done absolutely nothing wrong.

so guess what happened today then? this freaking psycho called again (luckily i wasn't in the office when he called) and someone else picked up and he did some yelling again. the weird thing was, he didn't even ask for my name and he just yelled at the clerk who picked up the phone. clerk didn't know what to say and passed the call to the supervisor on site. supervisor got yelled at and yelled at him back. and oh yeah, the three of us all got a complaint. poor susan, she didn't even do a thing.

psycho... go see a doctor. i am glad your cheese got conviscated.