Monday, July 23, 2012

Wash, Cut and Find-a-Man

It had been a couple of months since my return from G Town and the intense heat and humidity of the Torrana summer was playing havoc with my tresses.  After two years of being pampered with a personal hair stylist by way of VBF's mum in law, going out and finding a new hairdresser was just as daunting as looking for a new soul mate.

A referral from my cousin who, has what I will politely call "problematic" hair saw me making an appointment with a salon in Korea town. I figured that any hair dresser who could manage the cousin's mop presentable was worth a shot.

Stepping into the salon, I was met with a chorus of greetings and a line of broadly grinning Korean people. The manager-lady approached me (still grinning) and a little flustered, I shook my hair out of the confining ponytail and blurted, "I need help!" Surveying my tousled locks with a stern eye, manager-lady replied with an emphatic "YES. We help. Lots." and without further ado hustled me into a chair and whipped a cape around my shoulders.

Now before I booked the appointment, I got all sorts of hints and tips from my pals. "Be firm", I had been told. "Let them know that you've done your homework and that you know EXACTLY what you want." And so, I proceeded to describe in great detail my idea of the perfect cut. At the end of my (rather long winded) speech, manager-lady looks me square in the eyes in the mirror and says, "No. That makes you look crap. We do this....." and outlines her plan. Too stunned at her point blank refusal, I could only nod weakly at her ideas.

Like a seasoned pro, she began snipping away all the while keeping up a rapid fire line of questions:
- Where you from?
- What you do?
- Where are your Mummy-Daddy?
- You marry? No? No good.
- WHY you no brush hair??

My feeble attempts at viable responses were translated into Korean for the rest of the room and at each response there would be murmurs of approval (or not!). By the time she translated the final question, the consensus was unanimous and my lack of hair-care skills was loudly discussed with much clicking of the tongues and shaking of the heads.

The whole thing was over in what seemed like mere minutes. Perhaps it was because I had been so intent on answering the questions - and then defending my answers - that I had barely noticed that my hair had been cut, styled and set. And wow, I looked GOOD! Better still, when it came to the payment I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was only $25. Apparently, the life lessons were thrown in for free.

As I thanked manager-lady and bid goodbye to the rest of the salon, her final words followed me out into the street. "Girl, you brush hair.... you find man!"

Sage advice indeed! 

Friday, July 20, 2012

My Road to Nirvana

Some folk go to spas for rejuvenation. Others walk or listen to a specific genre of music. There are those that go running to calm down (weird, yes?) and for a vast majority a bubble bath will suffice. For me, it is the tranquility of rows and rows of bookshelves that brings calm.

So, after a particularly rough day at work, that's where I found myself this evening - at the bookstore.

I spent a few hours in there wandering the rows and taking in the sheer magnitude of all of the wonderful works around me. And thanks to the generosity of my friends Beer Baron, The Blonde One and her hubby I got to take some new friends home.

For a few hours (at least), I will be able to escape the douche-bag colleagues and meander into the world of words.

Monday, July 16, 2012

The Devil is in the Details

If you know me outside of Blog-land, you'll know that things at work have been trying to say the least. There are a couple of colleagues who have been going out of their way to make life at the office a bit of a nightmare situation. And sadly, their bad behaviour is starting to affect the production of our intern, who reports in to one of the Three Stooges.

Things came to a boil about two weeks ago when I found out that emails going out to external stakeholders weren't being checked for spelling and grammar errors and most of them did not even contain a basic salutation! When I questioned this shoddy approach, one of my colleagues had the gall to tell me that such emails are "industry standard". The cheek!

Earlier today, I'd left instructions for our intern to follow up with a client about a particular matter. Sensing that she'd been the eye of the last storm, she sent me an email asking me to look over the correspondence before it was sent out. Sensible girl.

My reply:
Dear XX,
You might want to attach the update Employer Agreement as the one you have on here reflects the old pricing schedule. As you know, we moved to a new one as of July 1 this year. The new agreement can be found here on the shared drive. Make sure to keep a copy of this new agreement handy. 

Cheers,
Pixy

Her response:
Thanks Pixy, I'll do that.
Btw, can you look over the body of the email and let me know if that makes sense?

My reply:
Hi XX,
Well, since you asked, you might want to word point #4 a bit differently. See below for suggestions.

Her response:
Thanks!
Will do. Sending out the email. You have been cc'd.



My email to the client:
Dear Mr. Client,
Thank you for your interest.... blah... blah.....

I have attached a copy of our new Employer Agreement. Please disregard the previous one sent over.

Sincerely, etc.





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