Absolutely Annoying Weekend

My weekend sucked. Before I move on to my list of annoyance, I will say that there was some happy moments when I got my plant, felt very much relaxed at my apartment, had a major ego boost during Sunday's lunch, and after that, it was just and endless plunge into the deep abyss of hell.

1. My Absentmindedness.

I was excited as my self addressed parcel from Japan finally arrived. All I needed to do was pick it up at the central post office by bringing the slip left at the office by the mail man. I had it pinned at eye-level at my desk all week. I stuck Post It notes on it to remind me of the errands I needed to run on Saturday. When I was on the bus going home on Friday, I had forgotten about it and left it still stuck at my cubicle. Since I was tired, I decided to collect it the next day before heading to the post office on the other side of the peninsular. (Extra travelling incurred.)

On Saturday, I made a trip to the office and then, to the central post office. While I was on the bus, "Oh man! I forgot my passport! ... Well, I do have some I.D. (Malaysian identity card, Japanese Student I.D., Macao gym card) Hopefully they will work." At the parcel center, I was told that only a blue card (Macao government issued I.D) or my passport would suffice. I had to return another day. (Fruitless visit and extra travelling incurred.)


2. Service Standards.

At the post office, I wanted to know the prices of sending mail in regular air mail and express mail to countries that I have associations with. I asked the staff at the small packages counter (as I was there first), who said he did not know and pointed me to the regular mail counter. I was over there and when told the days needed for my mail to arrive. I then asked how much would it cost to mail a similar package via express mail and was pointed to the express mail counter at the adjacent wing. (Great. Don't they have a general information list in hand?) I was at the express mail counter and had to wait for 5 minutes because the person was speaking on the phone (while working). She was rather impolite to me after she was done with the call, and when I addressed my questions to her, she was curt and a little TOO direct. When I asked the difference in the price of regular mail, I was pointed back to the counter I was at before. (Wonderful, is it not?) I really wonder how friendly and helpful people are in this place. Mind you, these are people who holds white-collared jobs. I am very excited about Macao customer service and service standards now.


3. The Landlord and the Contractor.

They came, they messed up my apartment, and totally ruined my weekend.

After 3 weeks of living in my current apartment, the landlord suddenly resurfaced, to which I am thankful for what needs to be fixed in my apartment can finally get the attention now. An appointment was made for 4 on Saturday, but the landlord and his contractor only came close to 30 minutes later. (Yup, punctuality is unheard of here.) I had a list prepared and walked it through with the landlord. I would give him brownie points for trying to be nice to me in asking the contractor to complete what needs to be done as soon as possible, but my expectation for him being a cheap scrooge was not let down. He wanted everything to be nicely fixed and done for me, but is not willing to spend the extra money to do so. Thus, I would have my apartment fixed up in addition to the filthy second-hand washing machine and fridge he got me. (This was a negotiation which further reflected how cheap he was, as he first said that basic furnishings could be included in the initial rent, but decided to raise the rent later, and yet getting me lousy second hand goods.) I can go on and on about it, but this is not really about him.

Since the first day I moved in, there was a drainage problem in the washing area. A pool of water took several days to dry itself out. Telling the contractor the problem, he decided to try it out, and even tried to flush the pipeline, in which it only caused my entire washing area to be flooded. He then proceeded to use my brooms (without asking) to unclog the drain by ramming the handle into the unknown. (What a good way to season a new broom.) When he was finally content that the drain is permanently clogged and leaving both the washing area and kitchen in a mess, he figured that we should just use another drainage hole instead, in which he suggested to extend a pipe into my kitchen. (That would look aesthetic.) When what he suggested was carried out on Sunday, he did have a heart to dry up the flood he made but emptied all the water, sand, grime, and dirt into my kitchen sink! I was fortunate to see the kitchen sink clogged and caught a hold of the contractors as they were still waiting for the elevator. He then told me that all I needed to do was to flush the sink down with more water and use a plunger. (Well, it would not have been stuck in the first place if you did not empty water with gunk in it in the first place.)

There is more to how the contractor and his worker annoyed me and I will walk you through it. After telling me that they can miraculously make my life better after a day's job, they scheduled a time on Sunday to get the job done. I had plans, but though it was important to get my apartment done when I am not at work. He mentioned that he will be here around 2:00-2:30pm (Yes, he was too Chinese to give a specific time). On Sunday, his worker arrived first at 2:40 and was left alone in the apartment with me. He tried to make conversation and after a dose of church in the morning, I decided to be nice and responded. It was not the best conversations I had as it was shallow and there were some cheap allegations regarding me that was meant to be a joke (NOT FUNNY). He even tried to hit on me and asked for my phone number! Anyways, guess what time did the contractor waltz in? He arrived around 3:50, without a word of apology!

So, the began work and when they were done, they made a huge mess of the place. There was paint marks in the closet room, and foot prints from there leading out of my apartment into the corridor that was a war zone with paint scrapings everywhere, even into the neighbor's apartment. I also heard the contractor telling his worker that he need not be such a nice guy, just finish the job by making it look bearable and coat it with just a thin coat of paint. (Hurrah for the Chinese! They are great at saving cost! [Note the heavy sarcasm]) It was pretty obvious that a mess was made and they tried to clean the place up by mopping the floor with water from the toilet. (Well, it might be common to some, but I grew up living in a house where we used no shoes indoors, and thus walking bare-foot, sitting, or lying on a floor mopped with toilet water is absolutely gross. Imagine telling a Japanese that you mopped their floors with toilet water.) The worker did a rather hurried job and claimed that it was so clean that I need not clean the floors again. Lest he knew that his lame attempt in cleaning left the place a horror as when the floor dried up, the floor was white with water marks mixed with paint and dust! I had to hand wipe the entire floor again after they left. I heard the neighbors gasping to their horror when they came home and I had to apologize profusely.

4. The Substandard Life in Macao

I wonder whether I would be able to find something that is truly value for money over here. Does everything good or of decent quality come in an expensive price? From my description of the contractor experience, it is still rather difficult to gauge the "wit" of the Chinese. I really wonder what would the Beijing Olympics be like.

A cooking hub/ventilation hood is needed in every Chinese kitchen since the cuisine is a heavy frying one. The common model seems to be practical, but with installation and the exposure of the extended shaft that links to the central ventilation of the building looks awful and substandard. Above that, it needs to be fixed exactly at an angle and height for it to have the best performance. I obediently followed the advice of the guy who came to install my unit. But remember the smell problem that I had? Well, while the contractor was working in the kitchen, it started to become really smoky. It was by coincidence that I was checking on the contractor when I started to see smoke coming out of the suction valves on my cooking hub! GREAT! (I included the picture for visual aid. This is not my apartment nor kitchen.)

The contractor started his discourse about how lousy my brand new cooking hub was, and rambled on about how the situation was inevitable since I live on the 6th floor, that ventilation and suction is weak. (Yep, what a guy... He sure knows how to make a girl feel great.) So now, I guess all I can do to rectify the problem is to keep my kitchen door that opens outdoors open, turn on the ventilator whenever it is nearing cooking time for my neighbors, and keep the door to the rest of my apartment closed.


5. The People Profile

Again with the experiences mentioned above, I am starting to wonder about the people over here. I was given suggestions that I should be as curt, direct, loud, and even rude, if I want to get things done over here. Hmm, could that be the reason why I simply dislike speaking Cantonese? Are the people over here like animals that needs to be tamed, whipped, and yelled at for stuff to be done according to a normal human standard? Is it useless and even stupid for me to be polite or asking for assistance nicely? Seems like I would be taken advantage of and be deemed stupid. Should I truly adapt and assimilate into the local culture just to fit in? That is not the whole story of people profiling over here. There was an incident over the weekend that just blew my top. Stay tuned.

********************************************************************************
And if you think that these are my dislikes and complaint about Macao, wait till you read what is coming up. My thoughts about this place has yet to change. Even though there were a handful of encounters that might have planted a microscopic chance of me liking Macao, there are too many bads that I am unable to focus on the good, and could understand why people conceived and carried out actions of genocide. I HATE THIS PLACE.