Saturday, December 24, 2011

Bye Bye Blenheim~

Without knowing it, three months have passed by. My three months stint as mussel opener has finally come to an end. Despite all my grumbling and pain, I kinda missed it and feel sad that it has all come to an end.


Believe it or not, I really feel sad to leave that stupid company. It's because I've made lotsa great friends there and I regret having to leave them so soon, just as we all become closer buddies.


I still remember when we first started working, we hardly have any friends there. When we were about to leave however, we've made all sorts of friends there that make us part with heavy hearts. Each and everyone of them has etched deep in my heart and the memories we made will be fondly cherished.


I agreed that my reason of sadness is not because of the job, but of the people. It is those people that we called friends that make our mundane working life so much more bearable and fun too. I've actually had a lot of fun working there. After all, we create our own fun right? *wink*


My last day of work is definitely my wettest LOL;p It's a tradition for the people that will depart to be hosed. And yours truly got hosed, drenched from top to bottom. I retaliate back of course! It's a battlefield in the factory ^^v What a field day it was. We really had a grand time didn't we? XD


We may have to say our goodbyes now, but I believe our parting is not forever. May our path cross again in the future ;-)


After spending 3 months in Blenheim, it kinda become a home to me. Never thought I might actually like Blenheim (because previously I don't) and now it's time to say bye bye.


Like it or not, it's time to move on with my life.


Good bye Blenheim, Hello West Coast !!!!!

Thursday, December 8, 2011

My Life at Mussel Opening

After weeks and weeks working, I still find it hard to increase my numbers in mussel opening. Seriously, I have tried my very best every day to improve. In fact, I have also take pointers from Dinosaur as he is the fastest among us four. He took the time to study other's skill and method then he will tried it himself and share with us the outcome.


Finally, I get used to a certain technique and so I stick to it. Only thing left to do is to improve my skill and increase the figure. I have hoped that with time, I can and will get better. But most of the time, I'm the slowest among four.


Despite how hard I worked on it, I'm still not fast enough. I really wished I could be faster, but still not fast enough. It's damn hard to increase the score!!! There's a day when I only managed to open 4.2k and a certain Mr A opened 13k mussels.


Talk about a big gap.



This is like a huge sea between our score -.-"



Eventually, our fingers suffers from our determination to increase the scores. Twister suffers the most. Her icky fingers can't bend at all! She suffered from triggered finger disease due to opening too much mussels. Godzilla suffers from blisters on her fingers and it hurt so much that she has to put a number of plasters on her fingers everyday before going to work.



Still does that, until today - which is like 3 months already.



Haven't heard much complain from Dinosaur though. He probably the only one barely get nicked at all. As for me, my fingers suffer from mild triggered finger disease as well. I can bend my fingers, but most morning when I wake up, my finger muscles are so stiff that it can't be bend immediately. It needed time to relax and it get so much better after I dip my fingers in hot water.


According to President, hot water is the best remedy for triggered finger. If it's acute, then one need to take medication or worst still, steroid injection. I know all these because so happened at the same time, President also got inflicted with triggered finger disease. He injured his finger due to long hour of operation at work.


Pretty much same scenario with us. Holding knife for a long long time. Though we operate on mussels and he operates on human being;p


Anyway, after nearly 3 months of mussels opening, my best record is only 7.5k which is like, only HALF of the highest record achiever hold by Mr A. I have heard that a certain Mr P's record is a whooping 15k though I didn't actually saw the figure myself. Mr. P is extremely fast too, I have got to give it to him.



At times, I wonders if all these people that opens like 10k mussels a day are robots or something? Their hands are like robot!! So fast and precise! Won't they feel tired at all?


My record is barely passable but I always feel very tired at the end of the day. My hands will be so sore and tired that I barely have enough energy to lift the heavy butcher knife to do cooking at home.


Not only that, sometimes my hand hurts even when I'm just combing my hair. In my quest to improve my score, I have hurt my wrist. Therefore, my hand movement has been restricted a little. Certain movement of the wrist will make me gasp in pain.



Yeah, pity me I know. At times I felt pitiful too. My beautiful pair of hands.......