Day Eleven; The Extraordinary Joy and Glum

I decided to wear a little more formal today because I’ll be following Aliya to the off line presentation later. I woke up thinking that my vision was blurred but actually it’s just oddly misty today. Not a nice day for a sunny photo shoot. It even drizzled in the morning. Mornings like this only make me want to lie down and snuggle in bed. Ah Boy guessed that breakfast today would be nasi lemak while I guessed fried noodles. As usual, I’m always right or rather she’s always wrong. Haaha. Desiree, Gogula, Van were seated at the table while Gin May got herself a drink. Today, Calvin, another intern from Lim Kok Wing joined us for breakfast. He’s a mix of Indian and Thai/Chinese parentage. We had a fun time chitchatting and as always Van and Ah Boy is always competing to be the joke of the day. Please note, I did not say joker. Haahaha. One of my favorite line from Van is “Sometimes you all like to make me seem so stupid!” Haaha. Van, its not that we want to. You want to know why I said they were competing to be the joke of the day? Van was TRYING to impress us by asking a kiddy question, “What is a female peacock called?” Ah Boy, the smart one, answered “Peapussy”. We all had a great laugh and then after more teasing, we returned to our seats to begin the day. Gin May suggested we have pizza today. Sounds good to me. Let’s give the sandwich family a break. Oh Jenny is back. But she left again. I heard from Jas that she is taking an emergency leave or something. Desiree just treated me to some Breadstory bun, leftovers from a meeting that just ended. Aliya gave me some job requisitions to submit to traffic and at the same time explain the changes to me. Job reqs are like work request sheets for the creative. Whenever anyone needs the creative to do something, they need to submit the job req to the traffic so that the traffic is able to monitor the workload of the creative as well as make sure work is done prior to the due date. Aliya also told me that there would be a photo shoot next Tuesday! Yippee! She says that I would be able to see the amount of work that goes behind just one photograph. There is even someone called the “Food Stylist”. Wow, I am so looking forward to this. Van just told me some disturbing news She told me that Aliya is going to leave soon. I haven’t heard it yet but I hope it’s not true. What am I going to do then? We’re going to order from Dominos and we’re going to order 4 large pizzas for the price of two! I have the Dominos Gold Card and Desiree will be going out to buy it. 4 Large pizzas should be sufficient to feed 7 people, I hope. I helped Gin May type out some stuff and munched on some Pringles I bought today. Today is going to be a fattening day. Pringles and pizza. Yummy, fattening? Who cares! Oh my god. Something super extraordinary has just happened. It started like this. Some of the senior staff went out and came back with bouquets of flowers and a cake. Then Connie, somebody I just got to know today, came out of Cyril’s room and they all started singing the birthday song. I then heard “Faster faster where camera?” For some odd reason, I felt the urge and without any thought, just stood up and said “Here! Here!” Only then I realized that eh wait, I’m in the office and I don’t know any of them. They were already smiling and stuff so I just went on and took some pictures. They then got to know me and Cyril asked if I was free on Saturdays. He wanted me to roam with them for an event and take pictures on behalf of the agency. He asked me how much I made a day and when I said “RM 15?” He replied, “Screw that! How would you like to earn more money? You just tag along with us take some pictures and we’ll just pay you.” Sounds pretty nice! I’ve got the 15th of December booked now Bringing a camera to work has actually paid off. I don’t know how much I will be earning but it’s still an extra! I was freaked out actually. They now know who I am and what I do. I am not that invisible in the office anymore. And to think, it all started with an impulsive reaction when I hear the call for a camera. “Faster, faster where camera?” Connie and her surprise cake. Malu but true. I now have the chance to earn extra pocket money :) Who would have thought, my first paying job as a photographer came from the agency itself. Oh before that, Aliya told me that the one who is going to sit next to me is quite cute. Hmm, it’s casual Friday tomorrow isn’t it? 1.40pm now and Desiree is still not home yet. She is caught in a jam I guess. Ah Boy and Van has already started grumbling and all we can do is wait. Everyone was so hungry. The pizza finally arrived at 2.30pm and I have to leave in about 15 minutes time. I gobbled it all as quick as I can (I’m bloated now) and helped Aliya send out another job req. Gin May kept getting calls and couldn’t even finish one slice when I had already eaten at least 3. Work never seems to spare her some free time, not even for lunch! We will be leaving anytime soon for Damansara. We're almost done. Aliya and I left the office at about 3.10pm in her new Honda Civic. Wow, it’s an awesome car. In the car we had a chat and yes, it is true. Aliya is leaving and next Friday would be her last day. Honestly, I don’t know why but I feel sad deep inside. It’s like; I’ve lost my purpose for going to the office. I won’t even know what work to do now. I was already curious as to why I have receive three mass emails from staff of Leo Burnett wishing everyone well and saying goodbye despite the fact I’ve only been in the agency for a mere week and a half. Aliya says I’ll be receiving her goodbye letter too and about 5 or 6 to follow soon. In the advertising world, the turnover rate is rather high in comparison with other industries. People tend to move around because the industry is pretty small after all. However, Aliya said that this shouldn’t really be happening so frequently in an agency such as Leo Burnett. Leo Burnett must be going through some tough times. Aliya has only been in the agency for 7 months. Soon, she’ll be going to Bali for holidays. I wish her well I am so thankful for Aliya because she has been an incredible mentor to me. She takes the time to tell me things, explain the procedures and even take me around for shoots. In the world of Advertising where patience is rarely heard of, Aliya is one patient woman. I also noticed that Aliya which is she is an extremely polite person. I have never seen her raise her voice and even when she is not satisfied with something or someone on the phone, she keeps her cool very well. It doesn’t even show. Aliya even promised to introduce me to Yasmin Ahmad before she leaves. How cool is that? The walls are bright orange In VHQ. We arrive at VHQ Post, a post-production company to view the rough cut of the shoot we did the other day. You will not believe the amount of work, effort and attention one puts into a mere 15 second ad you might not even remember. “Ali Baba had a cat that was fat. The cat that was fat ate lots of rats. The rats that were eaten by the fat ass cat were very sad.” There, if you read the sentence above, 15 seconds has just passed. That is how quick 15 seconds is in reality. You hardly even realize 15 seconds. I realized that the shorter the advertisement, the more careful you can be. Every second or even a split second is carefully watched. The video, the audio, and the synchronization must be perfect. A decision of whether one should sulk or smile, even if it is only a one second frame needs to be carefully contemplated. That is the world of advertising for you. Once we, the agency, saw the rough cut, we immediately mailed it to our partner agency in Hong Kong who is supposed to immediately rush to a conference in another hotel to pass it to our client. The world is extremely connected now. Within 5 minutes after we in Malaysia watched it, the whole process of sending it to Hong Kong and to a hotel where the client is, is done. Another 5 minutes later, we are on a speaker phone having a conference with the client from Hong Kong about what is wrong or needs to be adjusted. If you believe the rumors you hear about advertisers having a blast in their casual wear with beer cans scattered all over and bottles of liquor on the table, it is time to rethink that. It still amazes me how connected we are and the amount of attention is given to a 15 second commercial. I think I will start appreciating advertisements more often now. We were done only at 8pm. Aliya took me to Megamall to catch a cab before going off to Bangsar to have a drink or two. I got back at 8.41pm, bedazzled yet hollow of what has happened today. The thought of Aliya leaving is still boiling in my mind. Picture this. A nation without an identity. A driver without a destination. A tribe without its head. I feel so lost. I am not ready to do anything yet and I still need guidance, lots of it. What becomes of me when Aliya leaves? I have a week to prepare myself. Amounts of “Fucks” today is 4. An interesting addition to the family that deserves mention is “Wah Lan Eh!”. It basically means Wow, but with a vulgarity on the rocks. Orientate you tomorrow. ~ Countdown till Aliya leaves : 8 days.