Monday, July 19, 2004

Trying weekend at Sure Heboh Ipoh

I took half day off today. I went to see the doctor about my rashes, did the usual routine and got a half-day MC. She took one look at me, listened to my erratic heartbeat and told me to go home and rest. What's wrong with me? Nothing much except a bit of a sunstroke, sunburns and taken over by heat rashes.

Interesting experience. I've never gotten rashes from heat before. This was a totally virgin experience with the calamine lotion and all. *grin* Very cooling, took the itchiness away before I could say 'gawd darn blasted rashes'. It starts from behind my ears all the way down to my cleavage. Let me tell you how embarrassing and unsightly it was that someone caught me scratching between my breasts. *ulkgh* I didn't know someone was above on the landing looking down! Bloody hell. Anyway, it was darn itchy.

So the reason for the whole episode today was because of my weekend in Ipoh. I was there to supervise the Maxx-a-Million roadshow in the Sure Heboh Carnival that ran from 17 & 18 July 2004. I had to be there as I'd planned a whole new agenda for this time round and I had to be there to make sure that things go as planned. Hah. Things didn't go as planned and I had to scrapped my plans and improvise. But at least we sold 50% more game packs compared to the last two weekends.

Funny thing was that on the car journey to Ipoh, I had a real bad tummy ache - I must have eaten something bad for dinner and it usually takes me a long time to feel the bad food. We had to stop at gas stations three times before we hit the Sg Buloh highway. Very embarrassing for me. And since I had not eaten a thing that day, my tummy felt like there was a dark pit inside demanding to be filled whilst the tummy ache wrenches took breathers. It was h-o-r-r-i-b-l-e. My colleagues wanted me to ditch the working trip and go home and rest but I just couldn't. Even through my haze of pain, I managed to convey that I didn't want to go home, that I wanted to go to Ipoh. I felt an over-whelming sense of responsibility for the Maxx Roadshows. There was no one else in that car that knew it what to do. They sighed and rolled their eyes and I know they were irritated with me then, but I had to go. And thank god I went If I didn't, I don't think they could've handled the various and many problems that cropped up.

Oh and there were 190,000 people there that weekend, all of which ambled passed our booth I'd like to think. There were so MANY people and it was HOT. I did my usual roaming to distribute leaflets, it took me half and hour to get to one end and another half to get back. I think all in all I spent 3 hours directly under the hot sun in a day. I cannot expect others to do things that I'm not willing or capable of doing. But nobody was dumb enough like me to do it actually. I was the only one who went roaming under the hot sun, and I didn't wear a hat nor did I slap on any sun block. *eeeediot* My cheeks are burnt tight and it hurts. But then I'm tan now, just my face though... next time I'll remember to strip down to the skin. *haha*

I'll be doing face peels in a few days time, and leaving a trail of DNA to boot. *Blech*

Though it was exhausting cos we worked form 11am until 8pm nonstop. It is not an easy job - it's unpaid manual labour. This kind of work, I do not think I can do for long. It's tiring and frustrating, I wonder how the promoters do it. You really have to give them credit for determinations and stamina.

The only thing I will complain about this time is people who are of higher ranking but not in the core project team dictating and over-riding my orders. I do not like it. This is my first project, of course I'm protective of it. I do not like people to come in and give commands or complain when they themselves have not done it. It extremely irritating to pander to them just because they are of higher ranking. But then when there are problems, they refer them to me and they are nowhere to be seen. The way I see it is that if you want to be the authority figure there, go ahead, be, but be all the way, not just half way. I'm accused of being too soft and that I should kick ass more often. I know that, but I do what I can and what I think is right. I've been doing this longer than her and I know what's going on, she doesn't. Somebody mention that I should talk to her about this but I can't. If I were to do this, it'll be career suicide at this point. I know I do not have the clout yet to make people in the upper echelons to listen to me. But my time will come.

What is wrong with this project has always been stinginess. Stinginess with money and stinginess with information. How do you expect people to do things when they are not updated constantly? Meaning let us in on the project meetings instead of just the three core people. Then we have to find out the hard way and usually too late to change anything. It makes me mad when people say, "You should know, you're part of the core project team". I am??? How come I didn't know that? Since when was I put in charge of the roadshows anyway? I don't really know. It just happened. Nobody appointed me as anything, but I seem to be the leader in this rabbit hop. *Blegh* And the project's only half way thru...

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