China Square 25th/26th November 2010 Post-Mortem

Hey folks!

On Thursday and Friday, I had my very first push-cart experience.

Day 1

I am so utterly poor with display. I went to check out a very popular push-cart nearby and this lady had MEGA lights.  Oh, the very first bag I sold was the shoulder bag on the left hung on the hook.

My zip pouches display

Famous fried rice

This was my lunch on Day 1. It turned out to be from a stall by an old lady who is loved by many people for her delicious food. I was of course unaware and only bought from her because the stall was open and didn't look expensive. I thought it tasted so-so.

Me hubs showed up in the afternoon and ate the fried rice. He said it was good. I think he was starving.

After my successful first sale, the crowd, mostly office workers disappeared and it left us with many, many hours to kill. So we took photos of ourselves. What else? This place is not air-conditioned so we literally sweated buckets. I think I lost 1kg.

The problem with a non-airconditioned area is people smoke. Oh, how people smoke. Morning, noon and night. My push-cart neighbours on the right are smokers. Serious smokers. I thought I was gonna die from inhaling the smoke.

Jane thru' her bag handles

Yep, that's how bored we were. I am filled with admiration (ok, wonder) for people who could operate push-carts on a daily basis. Pretty much a long lazy day. The only "exciting" thing that happened was when I went to the toilet. I came out of one of the cubicles. To my shock an old MAN came out of another cubicle. At the same moment, a lady entered the toilet. Both of us screamed out, "Female toilet!" at the old guy. The old guy insisted he was in a male toilet. To prove his point, he opened the main door and pointed to the sign on the door which showed a female. See? Male toilet. Then he left. Later I saw him wandering around.

In the evening, it rained and that of course completely ruined the al-fresco dining businesses in the vicinity.

Hainanese pork chops

While waiting for the rain to stop, I went to Han's cafe for dinner while hubs guarded the push-cart. I had Hainanese pork chops. I had been to other outlets of Han's cafe but this one is different. Firstly, it's HUGE. I mean, airport HUGE. It also had polite service crew.

My dear friends, this I swear is the best, no, bestest pork chops I've ever, ever ate. Maybe I was starving. Whatever. It tasted like heaven. While eating, all I could think of was how good it was. Yum, yum. Oh, so mother earth-shattering good. You have to try it. Just to be on the safe side, go starving. I even phoned me hubs to tell him how good the pork chops were. You know, I'm almost afraid to eat it again for fear of ruining the memories.

Day 2

Day 2 was a short day for me. I changed the display a little and added lights. I didn't really expect sales to improve dramatically. My smokers neighbours soon showed up. Oh, wow. Joy. I couldn't really tell the ladies apart. I mean, I couldn't see thru' all that smoke. But I noticed a different lady. She looked even more nicotine-addicted than anyone could possibly look. I was right! What's worse than a smoker? A chain smoker! She smokes while she sells, eats, drinks and pees.

Sales was sluggish. However, my mind was on something else. I had terribly neglected my motherly duty and forgot to renew my son's passport which he needed next week. I had submitted the papers on Monday and of course I was beginning to panic because it's Friday and still no news from the passport people. I spent a long time on the phone waiting for a human to answer my call. Finally, I spoke to a human being and she took pity on my predicament. She told me to go to the passport dept to collect the passport NOW. What!!! I looked at my watch which said 1:40pm. I had sold 3 pouches and I told myself that's not bad. Besides, I was becoming ill from stress (or inhaling smoke) because I totally screwed up with the passport thing and I could go NOW. So I packed up and had hubs and son meet me at the mrt station. By 3pm, I was at the passport department and I'm happy to say it only took me a 2-hour wait to collect the passport.

So, there you have it. My first push-cart experience. And now I totally want to purchase a push-cart to manage. Bye.