Cinnyz Mental Crib™

Friday, December 05, 2008Y

bs asahi

I slid the key card in and pushed open door as the green light lit up and placed the card onto the master switch right next to the door. The room brightened instantaneously, revealing two identical, immaculately-made beds, two mineral water bottles neatly placed on the coffee table, the TV remote right beside them. I dropped my heavy luggage bag on the carpeted floor and landed on the nearest bed in a heap. The clean, smooth sheets felt comforting against my skin, and I had to curb the urge to simply kick off my shoes and doze off right there and then.

Instead, I got off the bed and switched on the plasma TV, channel surfing till I found CNN. The digital alarm clock on the bedside table blinked 12:43. I sighed audibly to myself as I re-read the SMS I received but couldn’t reply earlier this evening. The boyfriend would have been asleep by now.

I plucked the mobile phone charger to the nearest outlet and went to the bathroom for a shower. Neatly folded towels, petite bottles of shampoo and lotions greeted me. I threw a clean towel unceremoniously down onto the cold, tiled floor, stripped off my sweaty clothes and stepped into the bathtub.

After a warm shower, I wrapped myself with a bathrobe and reached over to the bathroom counter and tore open a brand new toothbrush set. My fifth hotel toothbrush in seven days.

Over the past few days, I have picked up a few habits to keep me sane in the midst of a shooting schedule that probably violates more than half of ANY country's labor laws. For example:
- request for a seat far removed from the crew when checking in for a flight
- switch on the TV to a news channel (no TV dramas, movies, etc) to block out any invoking of vulnerable emotions or sense of loneliness
- always pack up my luggage the night before to maximize snoozing time the next morning
- ignore any phone calls from lady boss past midnight
- pretend to not understand whenever suggestive remarks are aimed at me

I've also done certain things I never would've done when I am sane. For example:
- clogging up a narrow street by standing in the middle of the road with an umbrella on each hand because it would interfere with the crew's filming down the road
- raised my voice and snapped at the hotel lobby receptionist (though I stand by my reason that such display of temper was necessary)
- invited the boyfriend to stay at the KL hotel even though it was against company policy (policy, smolicy =P)
- talked to a client on the phone for 15 minutes before realizing I was talking about a completely different assignment with her (the poor, confused woman)
- went out for dinner at 2 in the morning because the crew and I had nothing to eat the whole day
- bargained with flight attendants to waive the overweight charges till the frustrated man literally grabbed his hair and threw up his hands before reducing the charges to half (it was RM3k plus! I had to do sOmething...)
- gave instructions to a Malay van driver in for half a minute before realizing I was speaking in Japanese

But of course, there were some perks that kept me going from the time to time... : - Stayed at seven-star hotels (although I probably spent a total of five hours in them per day. At most.)
- Bloody delicious meals at atas restaurants for free (when we have actually time to sit down and eat)
- Earned enough money for Christmas presents from the allowances

Pictures from the job I both loved and hated at the same time.