You Gotta Have The Right Attitude

My last post spoke about this maid and two kids from hell who came for an appointment a week early. Well they made another appointment at our other branch for the same procedure and did not bother to cancel the one they made earlier. What’s more, the maid complained to my colleagues at the other branch that the staff at our clinic were rude, especially me. I really don’t blame her for saying that. I can understand how she feels, seeing that she has lived through so many years of hardship with poop where her brains should be.

Anyway, I had another interesting encounter with a client sometime last week. This lady, lets call her SumTingRong, came in asking to purchase a box of heartworm tablets. She claims that she and her dog just came from Hong Kong and that her dog has been on some heartworm tablets that she couldn’t remember the name of. All she can recall is the name went “Melva-something-something-something”. After helping to jolt her memory by listing down all the brands of such tablets I have ever come across, Bryan came to the rescue when he realized she was actually trying to quote the active ingredient of the drug.

In order for SumTingRong to buy that drug from us, we required her to register herself as a client and her dog as a patient. So I handed her a form to fill up while I went to get her a pack of the tablets. When I came back to the counter, she told me that she will only provide me with her name and contact number. Now that of course was not proper procedure. So I told her that I was instructed to get at least her ID and her address as well in order to open an account. She then demanded to know why we needed her ID. I thought, “Duh! I don’t know you, how do I know you are not impersonating someone to get drugs?” But of course I couldn’t exactly put it like that to her so I told her as tactfully as I could that it was a company policy. She then gave me a look of disdain, as though I was some lowlife who had no right to speak and she started complaining that it was in violation of her privacy.

Violation of her privacy??? What have you got to hide?

So I told her that even when if she were to go see a doctor at her neighborhood clinic, she has to produce some form of identification during registration. She retorted that it doesn’t apply here as we are only an animal clinic, to which I told her that if she doesn’t want to get the medication from us, she can choose not to fill in the form.

She then asked me if I was trying to give her an attitude. (Duh! What do you think? I wish I could give you one tight slap to go with it.)

I told her that if that’s what she wants to think, she’s entitled to her own opinion.

She then gave me a cocky look, started shaking her head and she said that she was going to have a word about me with my boss.

I told her “Feel free to do so.”

She then continued filling up the form while muttering (very audibly) about my attitude problem, so I went inside and asked Mei to take over me at the recept as I really didn’t want to look at the piece of crap standing at the counter. Besides, I had a very strong urge to slap her silly, which would have resulted in all kinds of legal implications, so I chose to distance myself from trouble.

From inside, I heard SumTingRong telling Mei that I have a serious attitude problem and that she wanted our boss’ number. Mei of course couldn’t give her that so she gave her the number to our admin department instead.

SumTingRong actually called our admin department to lodge a complaint as soon as she left the clinic. Gladys called me a while later to ask how I was doing and to tell me about the complaint. She said that she tried explaining to SumTingRong about the requirement of NRIC being a company policy and SumTingRong actually cut her off and told her “I haven’t finished talking yet.”

Who’s the one with an attitude problem? You decide.

Another Day, Another Few Thousand Cells Destroyed

Today started with a hoot. This domestic helper came into the clinic with two rowdy boys in tow, insisting that her “mum” made an appointment to have the family cat spayed. Her employer also decided at the last minute to have the cat’s 2 babies brought in to be vaccinated. Thing was, I didn’t have her cats on my appointment list. The girl kept insisting that she had an appointment for sterilization and refused to believe me even after I showed her the appointment book and asked her to find her cat or her employer’s name herself. Eventually, I found her appointment. It was booked for next week.

Anyway, she then decided to get the kittens vaccinated so fair enough, I registered the cats as a walk in patient. While they were waiting, the two boys, being the irritating pests that they were, decided to run and stomp around the clinic like apes on heat. Although I was irritated, I had pressing work to attend to, so I more or less gritted my teeth and ignored them. After a while, I heard the rustle of a plastic bag. Immediately, I thought “God… they are playing with the plastic bags (which we provide for clearing up dog poop).” I stood up and saw one of the boys happily placing a plastic bag over a kitten’s head. Hell, the bag was bigger than the kitten so it practically engulfed it!

I grabbed the boy’s attention with a loud ”HEY!” and proceeded to tell him off for doing that. While I was in the midst of that short 10 second lecture about not placing plastic bags over kittens’ heads, he was listening but his hands were automatically placing the same kitten into the plastic bag, butt first. I told him off again and ordered him to throw the bag away, which he did. He then got reprimanded by his maid.

Soon after, they went in to see the vet and guess what? The boy got told off by Bryan because he had a rubber band round the cat’s neck. I didn’t know about this till I was complaining to Bryan about the plastic bag fiasco during lunchtime.

Some people simply shouldn’t be allowed to have such control over other living things. This renewed my dislike for kids. I tend to think of them as bug splatters on the windshield of life.

Go Back To The Abyss That Spawned You

1^st day back at work after a week’s leave. I didn’t really get a chance to relax. In fact, I felt quite stressed out cos there were lots of stuff going on at home, plus having my travel plans disrupted and being called up by colleagues almost everyday with work related stuff kinda spoilt it somewhat. However, I did have some fun hanging out with my good friends. Thus I started the day actually feeling fresh, like I was ready to handle anything the bloody clinic could throw at me. Besides the paperwork that has piled up in my absence, there was also the mess that my colleagues had managed to create in terms of stocks and clients’ medication & food orders. I took it in stride. After all, I had expected it somehow. I found that I was coping fine. That was until I took the call from the Piece of Crap (POC) that hell rejected and spat out.

The telephone conversation went like this:

POC: Hello. My cat has been bzzt bzzt bzzt bzzt… (Very heavy accent that I couldn’t understand her.) … bzzt bzzt bzzt… so I was wondering how much you charge for removing the claws from her hind legs.

Me: I’m afraid we do not declaw cats unless it’s due to some infection of something that is life threatening.

POC: No you do not understand. My cat has seen over 10 vets and it hasn’t been cured. There’s no way to fix it. She’s scratching so badly that there’s an open wound on her neck. She has been in a e-collar for over a year and she hates it.

Me: Well if that’s the case we’ll have to have a look at your cat before we can come to any conclusions as to what kind of procedure is really suitable for her.

POC: My cat has been going to you guys for over a year and she’s still not cured.

Me: May I have your cat’s details so that I can have a look at the medical records then?

(She gives me the cat and her details and I pull up the cat’s medical records.)

Me: According to our records, your cat has only been to see our vet once in January this year. After that, you came to buy medications twice without your pet.

POC: That’s strange. I definitely brought in my cat several times.

I did a search of her address and (surprise surprise) it came up with only ONE file. So that removes the possibility of a duplicate account being created.

Me: I’m afraid I don’t have any other records of your cat’s visits. All our consultations are recorded in the computer system.

POC: Well my cat has not gotten better and the medicines do not help.

Me: It says here in the instructions printed on your receipt that your cat was supposed to come back for a review a month after the first visit if the condition doesn’t improve.

POC: That is very strange because I my cat is not getting any better and it is scratching itself very badly. There is an open wound at the neck because of the scratching. The only way would be to remove the claws so that it doesn’t injure itself any more.

(I looked through the records of her cat’s first visit again and found that the vet suspected it could have been a food allergy that has been causing her cat’s skin problem. The vet also recommended a strict food trial to detoxify the cat. I informed the POC about that and she insisted that her cats are all on the special diet as instructed by the vet. I then looked through her other cat’s medical records (dated sometime after January) and guess what? It also has a skin problem. And it appears that she told the vet that her cats are on Friskies. Yah right special diet my ass.

She then proceeded to blab non stop about the cat being itchy and about the open wound and the fact that she has seen 10 different vets and the cat is still not cured. She kept going on and on, expecting me to give her a solution over the phone while I kept telling her that she should bring her cat in for a review of her condition. She finally went:

POC: Are you a vet?

Me: No. I’m not.

POC: I want to speak to a vet.

Me: I’m afraid the vet is in the middle of a consult but if you like I can get him to call you later once he has time to do so.

POC: You do that.

AND SHE HUNG UP ON ME!

I HATE PEOPLE HANGING UP ON ME!!!

Then right after that. While I was typing the gist of the conversation into the computer for the vet to have a look, the phone rang and I picked it up. The call went like this:

Me: (Usual greeting) Afternoon, etc etc etc…

Idiot: WHO’S THIS?

Me: *stunned* This is Julian speaking. May I know who’s on the line please?

Idiot: Julian… Julian… never heard of you. Anyway my dog hor, Golden Retriever. How come got smell wan? What is causing it ah?

CAN SINGAPOREANS SINK ANY LOWER IN TERMS OF COURTESY?

At least the idiot became more polite as the conversation progressed but by then I had already mentally written her off as a moronic piece of toilet paper.

Then… about half an hour later, this stupid woman (SW) came into the clinic to buy some prescription cat food.

SW: I’m here to buy some cat food.

Me: Did you place an order with us?

SW: (Looks at me like I’m a moron) Har? Canned food also must place order wan meh?

Me: (Thinking: Duh… you never say wat. How was I supposed to know?)

So I proceeded to get her the amount of cans she wanted and charged it up.

Me: That’ll be fourteen dollars in total.

She hands me a $50 note. I have nothing but $50 notes in the till and I already forked out 30 bucks from my own pocket in change up till then.

Me: I’m sorry but do you have the exact amount? I’m afraid I do not have change for $50.

SW: Har? I don’t have. What you expect me to do?

Me: (Feeling my eyelid twitching) Would you like to pay by card instead? We accept NETs and Credit Cards.

She hands me her NETs card and gives me a very black look.

I’ve decided to submit my resignation tomorrow. There’s only so much one can take. I officially hate my job.

I AM ON LEAVE!

I am on leave!!! Finally… after so long!!! And I get to spend it anyway I want!!! Ha ha ha ha ha! This is probably what I’ll be doing

Today
SLEEP TILL NOON!, Play badminton, Dinner, SLEEP!!! Ha ha ha ha ha!

Wednesday
SLEEP TILL NOON!!! Play Tennis, Dinner, SLEEP!!!! Woo Hoo!

Thursday
SLEEP TILL NOON!!! Have to help a friend with her computer…

Friday
SLEEP TILL NO… oops… Air-Con servicing at 10… have to wake up.

Saturday
SLEEP TILL NOON!!! Blading!!! Dinner, SLEEP. Back to work tomorrow… L

Plus I guess I’ll be playing with my PSP in between… I BOUGHT A PSP over the weekend! I can’t believe it… it was a spur of the moment thing! I was actually thinking of buying Street Fighter Alpha for Game Boy ($60) when Kimmie said the mind altering spell:

Kimmie: When’s Final Fantasy 7 coming out?

Storekeeper: End of the month or early next month.

Something happened then. My vision blurred and the stupid Street Fighter Alpha cartridge swam out of focus. So I asked the guy in the store how much a PSP cost. He then proceeded to explain to me how there was a difference in PSP versions and the price difference. So to cut a long story short, I bought a PSP version 1.5 and a Darkstalkers (senseless violence) game for $510.

I was not the only big spender that day though… Kimmie spent over 200 bucks at GNC and we even managed to convince Weng to buy a new mobile phone! Ha ha ha. He initially wanted to get a Nokia phone but ended up being persuaded by the sales staff at M1 into buying an O₂ XPhoneIIM.

After that, we went to meet Surolan for dinner at River Valley Road. As usual, Surolan, Kimmie and Weng had their fish soup and I had fried rice. We decided to order an extra plate of Sambal Kang Kong and we told the waitress not to make it too spicy. I think she got it wrong cos it came out VERY VERY SPICY!

Anyway, after that, we headed down to Tanglin Mall where She She had a stall at the weekend Flea Market. It was a very hot day and as we approached the flea market, the smell of sweat wafted over and almost stopped me dead in my tracks. IT WAS HORRIBLE!!! We somehow managed to keep a straight face and proceed into… THE CROWD. I was quite disappointed as it was mostly women’s clothing being sold and whatever little junk available was not interesting. (I love shopping for junk by the way.)

Aso there I was, pushing my way through the mass of sweaty smelly people when suddenly Jen and Sooks jumped out from behind a pillar and almost made me contribute the smell of urine to the already pungent atmosphere of THE CROWD. Sooks had a bunch of clothes in her arms and she happily exclaimed that she was going to try them on. It didn’t occur to me at that time that you could try clothes at a flea market till Kimmie pointed out that the clothes came from Voon’s stall. (Ahh… me stupid.)

When we finally located Voon, she was sitting crossed legged on a mat behind a pile of clothes. Kind of reminded me of an Indian guru sans the pile of clothes. Candy was perched beside her on the mat and Joanne was ambling through the flea market with her daughter in tow.

As I was standing there trying to decide whether to venture further into THE CROWD when suddenly someone jumped onto the spot next to me and smacked me on the arm. After the initial shock and a second (failed) attempt at losing bladder control, I look over and saw a very pinkly attired Lemming and an equally pink Mini Corn.

At that point, Weng, who was at the supermarket buying his Ketchup Flavoured Fries found us and proceeded to introduce us to his new phone. Halfway through, Joy suddenly appeared and the girls proceeded to freak out with their high pitched squeals of excitement. It was such a coincidence that so many of us happened to be there.

We stood there just chatting, blocking the already crowded passageway. Jen was interrogating me on why it was so long since I updated my blog. I didn’t know why either. No mood? Ha ha ha. Mini Corn then entertained us with exploits of her recent trip to Hawaii (I’m so jealous) and Jen and Kimmie was bugging me to send them the Hokkien Star Wars mp3 file via Bluetooth.

After a while, we decided to leave as I couldn’t stand the heat (plus I was also itching to get home to charge my PSP so I can play with it). So we bade everyone farewell and we went on our way.

I bow before the guy who invented the Air Conditioner.