If you haven't already known, I'm in a new year countdown organising committee. I had to do 5 sessions of ticket sales, with no large success but the last session which was yesterday (since it's pretty much 4am already) was really good with 12 tickets! I had only two buyers, though, and both were female; the first one was a young thirtysomething year old who invited me into the house, but my socks and shoes were wet so I declined politely, and the second was a middle-aged lady who was the last house we went to and who spoke immaculately and bought 10 tickets. I think she's a teacher of some sort? Well after that I got labelled as an "auntie-killer" by the two people there with me >.< I don't want to be an auntie-killer, I'd rather attract the attention of those within my age group! haha >.<"
Anyway, I think ticket sales really help a person in many ways! You have to muster up courage to knock on doors; have nerves of steel to be polite when weird people answer the door (more to complain about later); appreciate the design flair of some people who have really nice houses, including those who own landed properties (but don't buy tickets cos they already have plans to escape overseas, argh rich people); etc, etc.
I also realised a scheme of the Government. I forgot what it was called, but I think it's the law mandating a certan mix of Chinese, Malays, and Indians within a housing block. This was quite evident as each block practically had just a few households who were Indians, and a few more Malay households (identified by the Islam symbols and arabic words), and the rest Chinese.
Okay, on to the people. Some are really, really nice. I went to a house with a kindly old lady who offerred me a soya bean packet which I took gratefully because I forgot to buy a bottle of water on the way. She told my partner and I to rest awhile but we had to cover more households, and it won't be very polite!
Some are a little puzzling - for example, the lady who bought 10 tickets from me last night, and a man who lives in a landed property and who has a son in RI (secondary) and questioned me on my motives of doing such work (it really is true when I said that I'm not doing it for the CIP hours. Honestly, I'd be a little disappointed if I didn't get anything, but it wouldn't be the end of the world.); he also said I looked like the son of a Japanese MP (I don't know the guy at all) and etc, so I guess he's really somebody to rub shoulders with MPs! And he has a high forehead and a nice house and asked questions like a true critic so... I drew my own conclusions. There was another lady from a HDB block that said she thought I was her cousin (also in JC) with an 80% resemblence!
Some are downright rude. A certain poor girl had the misfortune of running into many of them last night >.< Some close the door on you after opening the door a crack; some look through the peephole and walk back to their rooms; some shout at you and hurl expletives in Hokkien, chinese, english, etc. I knocked on a door 3 times, a few knocks each time, and then I went to the window and said "hello" softly... and the couple in the living room literally jumped up from their sofa and.. well.. you know.
There's many more different shades of people in between, but I described the more colourful ones. So yes, door-to-door ticket sales does allow one to experience a wide variety of human personalities, including the one whom you're working with for that particular shift... It's very interesting to share nuggets of information with another person and you get to know them better. So, that concludes my ticket sales! Now, back to work...
*mopes a little
There's so much left to do.. geez... the pile of stuff to do just keeps growing and never shrinks!
