I don't mind it so much despite I crave sleeping in, as long as i's for a good story. i'll do anything to get it. once I got up at 3am to accompany an old man who has to line up regularly outside a government clinic before sun rise to renew his medication for his swollen prostate exposing the the lack of public medical services for seniors in Hong Kong.
However, 2 out of 3 of my early assignments this week, due to ill news management, I ended up being sent to the wrong place at a wrong time for the wrong reason. I can tell you one thing, this is not funny especially for an understaffed newsroom whose circulation is still a myth.
Friday morning 8:30am,i was supposed to get on a coach bus with other reporters to check out a wetland construction in Lok Ma Chau built by the KCRC. But this is not the REAL story.
The KCRC previously compensated some wetlands along the West Rail trackways because the construction of the project, according to the government, had caused inevitable impacts to the environment. *Recent inspections found the compensated wetlands along the West Rail had dried up as water leaked from the bottom of ponds and weeds had overgrown them.
Two days after the government announced the inspection report in the Legislative Council, the KCRC organized this media tour (for publicity damage control) showing us a new wetland they built in Lok Ma Chau- telling people in Hong Kong they are a corporation with social responsibility, yeah right.
Since only God knows how hard it is for me to get to KCRC headquarter in Fo Tan, I woke up at 6:30am and still ended up being late for the assignment.so i grabbed a cab and paid HK$200 out of my pocket.
Upon arrival, I was immediately told by a KCRC public relations officer that my editor didn't register me for the event thus they had yet to apply for an entrance paper into the restricted boarder zone of Lok Ma Chau wetland.
Fuck!
I came all the way early in the morning just to watch other reporters got on to the coach bus. A reporter asked me from the car window:"Hey,there are seats here,come on up!"
I was like,"nah,it looks like a story spinned by the PR, i'm going to give it a pass,''(how embarrassing)
I walked away and leaving them with astonished look on their faces.
The next thing was me standing far away from the coach bus and having a go at my assignment editor on the phone.
"I can't go to the wetland because u didn't sign me up for it.what do i do now?''
he was like..."ummmm,today is my day off...anyway, why don't you find a way to pick up the story?''
I was furious and hoping to dump a bag of dog shit outside his front door and set it on fire.but i don't know his address.
Since i am not insane enough to spend another several hundred dollars on a cab and break into the restricted zone just to watch a few birds flying over some mud, I chose to go for breakfast and some early morning shopping.
the worst thing came after I have made the decision.
I ended up finding out a pair of shoes i bought three days ago were marked down half price.
the sky fell on me and i found it hard to breath.
walking out of the mall feeling like an idiot, I ended up spending a day at my desk imagining what the wetlands might look like and calling around trying to pick up the wetland story.
i had the story delivered across.
However, when i was getting ready for an eventful evening, my date rang me saying the concert I was about to go with him was actually not on a friday nite, but a Saturday nite instead.
Having uttered a nice-but-bitter smile over the phone, I pointed him the direction to hell and advising him to take someone else to Lloyd Banks and 50 cents' concert with VIP seats on Saturday because missy is way too pissed and can't be bothered to come up with a plan B to spend the friday evening with a man who ruined my evening.
I'm sure things could go way worse, may be I am used to being lucky and not realizing peple out there are a lot more unfortunate than me. For example, the staving kids with big belly in Africa who can't afford a pair of heels in full price or my ex-date being shot down for no reason. poor thing....
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