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Chance to prove my efficiency
Thursday, 18 November 2021 22:54There's this phrase in Chinese... 有咁耐風流、有咁耐折墮... the closest idiom I can think of is, What goes up must come down... literaly it means, "you've enjoyed life for so long, you will suffer for equally so long" LOL.... My colleagues think I'm having a good time generally now because my Boss is not around. That may be the case most of the time, but life is riddled with karmic energy. I may have an easy going time most of the time, but when the pressure comes up, it's worse than shit hitting the fan. Try diarrhea hitting the fan, LOL
So actually lately I've been low-key looking over an old lady. She is the mom of a long-time, loyal staff that works in my Boss' company in Hong Kong. She's 80-ish. Definitely shouldn't be traveling alone, but she is. The kids can't take the time off to accompany her on this trip.
So what happened is, now you can't just waltz into China from Hong Kong (pandemic related measures). So what Hong Kong people would do is come to Macau, spend their mandatory 14-day quaranting in hotel in Macau, and then go to China.
I understand that this woman's daughters cannot commit this kind of time from their workplaces. 14 days just for the quarantine, then there's the 10 or so days in China. Then back to Hong Kong and probably having to not-quite-quarantine, but home-health-checking.
The poor woman, just a couple days before she arrived Macau, there was a change in policy. You can't just go from Macau to China after the quarantine, you still had to spend 7 days in Macau, but not in quarantine, before being able to go to China. Boss had originally comped her a room for her one night transit, but now she needed another 6 days. Her daughter didn't want to ask for more comped nights from the Boss, so she decided to pay instead.
I helped her arrange that, she chose the cheapest room for the extra night. What happened though, was apparently, for the comped room, the people who did the comping gave her a super nice suite. Ooops. I had a talk with the hotel and they were willing to do a courtesy upgrade for the lady. I did use the trump card of "she's over 80, you don't want her to move around changing rooms, right?"
She was supposed to fly out today. I arrange for her PCR test (Covid test) yesterday, took her there to take it, got the paper result today, and she insisted on having lunch with me today.
So I figured, I'd ask her to bring all her documents down so I could look through that over lunch. I noted her onward flight ticket was dated 17-November (yesterday) and was concerned. She said that it's supposed to be changed to today (18-November) and the system should be correct.
Not that I didn't believe her, but I have an annoying habit of double checking things. I called the airline. And got the shock of my life.
All flights to that particular city in China has been cancelled until 1-December. Geez. Talk about a heart attack. Why didn't the airline inform the passenger?
First I contacted the woman's daughter to let her know, then I called my travel agent, found an onwards flight to their destination tomorrow, checked back with the daughter and the woman herself if it is ok, they agreed. Called the hotel to extend yet one more night for her. Called the PCR test center to ensure the validity of her test results (good till 4pm tomorrow). Cancelled today's airport transfer, but....
Then I hit a roadblock. How was the old lady going to the China Zhuhai Jingwan Airport? I wasn't going to just send her off to the border gate then tell her to get on a taxi after crossing into China! Had I been able to cross the border I might have taken her there, and escorted her to the airport shuttle bus station, but I couldn't (I did not arrange to get my China visa yet). I knew the Boss has a driver in China, but that's more like a family driver, so I had to call the Boss first to ask for permission.
Instead, he told me to ask one of his friends... apparently he has a side business of such Macau-China transfers. Called him, asked for his help, he agreed, and the woman now has full door-to-door service from her hotel in Macau to the airport in Zhuhai China. phew.
Don't say I'm useless at my job. I've proven I can get things done.
This is one kind of excitement I encounter in my job.
So actually lately I've been low-key looking over an old lady. She is the mom of a long-time, loyal staff that works in my Boss' company in Hong Kong. She's 80-ish. Definitely shouldn't be traveling alone, but she is. The kids can't take the time off to accompany her on this trip.
So what happened is, now you can't just waltz into China from Hong Kong (pandemic related measures). So what Hong Kong people would do is come to Macau, spend their mandatory 14-day quaranting in hotel in Macau, and then go to China.
I understand that this woman's daughters cannot commit this kind of time from their workplaces. 14 days just for the quarantine, then there's the 10 or so days in China. Then back to Hong Kong and probably having to not-quite-quarantine, but home-health-checking.
The poor woman, just a couple days before she arrived Macau, there was a change in policy. You can't just go from Macau to China after the quarantine, you still had to spend 7 days in Macau, but not in quarantine, before being able to go to China. Boss had originally comped her a room for her one night transit, but now she needed another 6 days. Her daughter didn't want to ask for more comped nights from the Boss, so she decided to pay instead.
I helped her arrange that, she chose the cheapest room for the extra night. What happened though, was apparently, for the comped room, the people who did the comping gave her a super nice suite. Ooops. I had a talk with the hotel and they were willing to do a courtesy upgrade for the lady. I did use the trump card of "she's over 80, you don't want her to move around changing rooms, right?"
She was supposed to fly out today. I arrange for her PCR test (Covid test) yesterday, took her there to take it, got the paper result today, and she insisted on having lunch with me today.
So I figured, I'd ask her to bring all her documents down so I could look through that over lunch. I noted her onward flight ticket was dated 17-November (yesterday) and was concerned. She said that it's supposed to be changed to today (18-November) and the system should be correct.
Not that I didn't believe her, but I have an annoying habit of double checking things. I called the airline. And got the shock of my life.
All flights to that particular city in China has been cancelled until 1-December. Geez. Talk about a heart attack. Why didn't the airline inform the passenger?
First I contacted the woman's daughter to let her know, then I called my travel agent, found an onwards flight to their destination tomorrow, checked back with the daughter and the woman herself if it is ok, they agreed. Called the hotel to extend yet one more night for her. Called the PCR test center to ensure the validity of her test results (good till 4pm tomorrow). Cancelled today's airport transfer, but....
Then I hit a roadblock. How was the old lady going to the China Zhuhai Jingwan Airport? I wasn't going to just send her off to the border gate then tell her to get on a taxi after crossing into China! Had I been able to cross the border I might have taken her there, and escorted her to the airport shuttle bus station, but I couldn't (I did not arrange to get my China visa yet). I knew the Boss has a driver in China, but that's more like a family driver, so I had to call the Boss first to ask for permission.
Instead, he told me to ask one of his friends... apparently he has a side business of such Macau-China transfers. Called him, asked for his help, he agreed, and the woman now has full door-to-door service from her hotel in Macau to the airport in Zhuhai China. phew.
Don't say I'm useless at my job. I've proven I can get things done.
This is one kind of excitement I encounter in my job.
