I quit the IHC fundraising job. Just wasn't feeling it. Plus you get paid per sign-up and not per hour, which is sucky if you're only making a signup or two or none a day. So now I'm gonna travel more I think. Funny but I was just starting to get more friends in Auckland. Couchsurfers I mean. I went for the Auckland CS weekly meetup at the Buffalo Bar & Grill at the Viaduct for the 2nd time and I had a good time again. Was one of the last to leave as usual. I had a job for Austins Catering in Auckland Uni at the Fale Pasifika which is their Centre for Polynesian Studies I believe. Just a small canapes do for 250 people from 3.30 to 7.30pm. Well it was supposed to be. I think they had a conference or something, saw many American delegates so the event was maybe a chitchat/meetup and network sort of event afterwards. Only 30 people showed up. I bet they were all like 'I've had enough of the rest of you guys at this conference, I'm gonna explore Auckland' and decided not to show up. Good for them. The canapes I was in charge of was cashew nut crusted scallops with a sweet and sour sauce and coriander on top. They presented it as one scallop each on a chinese soup spoon, if thats what you call them. Sedap oi. Since there weren't that many people, me and the other staff wolfed the food down. YUM. Perks of the job man.. A funny thing was one of the girls had to follow me around with a big bowl for the empty spoons as I tried my best to gracefully float around the room and offer my dish to the guests without speaking almost.
Another funny thing is that I'm teaching my friends partner Malay since she and my friend are gonna visit Malaysia for his bro's wedding. It's funny cos I'm more used to teaching English to Malays. Never imagined I would be a cikgu bahasa one day. I'm housesitting their place while they're away. There's Molly the cat to feed but mostly the job is babysitting Bella, their 4-month old Border Collie pup. She is still a baby and very excitable and idiotic still. Like she doesn't know to follow instructions like 'sit' or 'stay' yet. Is chewing everything to bits. Eating Molly's food. And weeing on the carpet. Boring betul dia nie, she won't even play properly. You say 'fetch' and throw her something to return to you. But she won't. She'll chase after it all excited then she'll just sit down and chew it. Terpaksalah aku jalan pi sana ambik balik the toy to throw again. Anyway I'm sure we'll manage.
My friends daughter is so cute and a real chatterbox. Miss Chatterbox. Their apple tree is HEAVING with fruit. Terkejut aku. The branches are so heavy they are bending down and menyembah bumi. We think they're Braeburn apples ie green cooking apples. So I said to Miss Chatterbox let's sell them! And I lied and said at home I always sold produce from my Nenek and Grandpa's garden. Like their limau purut and limau purut leaves. Which I've always thought of doing, now that is true. And maybe I will too when I go home since I am pokai now and won't have a job. Anyway she was so excited and we said we'd set up stall at the corner of our street near the busy road the next morning (a Sunday). Well she went to sleep early that night. And she told my friends partner she would wake me up tomorrow cos Natasha is always sleeping and doesn't wake up early. Hah! Even she knows! At 7.30am my door is opened loudly and she's saying 'we've got to make our signs!'. We haven't collected the apples ya at this stage. Or decided what kind of table or chairs we need. No, she's just fussed about the sign. And how much we should be charging. So I get up and get her paper and her colour pens. We (read, I) wash a weed collector bag and the wheelbarrow, and collect the apples. And so at 8.30am we set up stall on the footpath.
Takpelah she made up for it by being the most charming saleslady. She dressed up so pretty in a frilly top and skirt and accessorised with a hairband and necklaces. And waved and smiled at all the cars passing with an apple in hand. We were lucky the street leads up to a nearby church (called Elim) so there were plenty of people driving and walking past. We decided on 10 apples for $1 (her daddy's idea). They were little apples anyway. We sold $4 worth! Hebat kan, aku pun excited. We gave 2 apples free for every dollar just as a little bonus for customers. By 10am she's tired and hungry so we close shop and wheel it home. Sayang betol cos her daddy ie my friend drove past us coming home on the way to send his partners daughter to school. Would have been nice if he could have seen our little 'shop'. Later in the afternoon just for play we open our kedai again in front of the house. I think its good just to get kids out of the house and away from tv/computer. And guess what, we made $2! The nice neighbours showed a little support by sending their kids over to buy a dollars worth. Bella was sitting outside with us and the son of my friends partner (he's 12 i think) came out to play with her later. Miss chatterbox had her little scooter and went up and down the footpath plus with her big crayons she was drawing on the pavement too. My friend and his partner made a fab barbecue dinner with salads and we ate outside. Then we had an icecream on the way to the nearby beach (Mellon's Bay) where Bella got to socialise with other little doggies. So all in all it was a very good day indeed.
