Hot and Cold

Today was another regular, humid day in Penang, except for the fact that we have another big auction to attend. Personally speaking though, I don't think I had the best of preparations for my first foray into the world of property auctions. For starters, I was kept awake until 4.30 am in the morning by a very important event, namely the UEFA Champions League match between Juventus and Arsenal. To compound my fatigued state, I ended staying up in vain because the team I was rooting for, Juventus, lost. After snatching a few hours sleep, I had to stumble out of bed at 8 am to get ready.

According to Tommy, we were supposed to be at Cititel Hotel, which was the venue of the auction, before 9 am. Tommy duly came by at 5 minutes before 9. Even though I was still bleary eyed, I can see that Chong Yang was already hard at work in the front seat, furiously tapping on the keyboard in an attempt to iron out any perceived errors. In spite of his efforts though, some potentially major problems still managed to manifest, but I will get to that later.

After dropping us off at the Cititel, Tommy had to rush off to entertain a client, leaving me and Chong Yang to figure out the exact place the auction was going to be held. Armed with the knowledge that it is on the third floor, we tentatively navigated the unfamiliar hotel. Thankfully, there were some signs showing the way, and as they say, 'X' marks the spot, which in this case the 'X' happened to be the bustling crowd milling in front of Perdana III hall.

Right from the get go, it was all business. We were ushered into the auction hall, and Chong Yang was confronted with some last minute changes that needed to be done. The poor dude was very nervous, and constantly cursed his bad luck of late. True to his words, the programme did act up and he spent the hour before the start of the auction troubleshooting. Some of those problems he couldn't get rid of though, like some of the property pictures looking like, in his words, ghost houses.

As I mentioned above, the worst was yet to come, one of the bigger problems concerning our the bidding info, proved to be a stubborn customer. With 5 minutes to go, Chong Yang was forced to give up in exasperation. As a fail-safe, we decided to also record the winning bids by hand. Ironically, in spite of all the high tech equipment, we couldn't even get hold of a pen. It was only after some frantic searching that this brush fire was put out.

At right around 10 am, people started to file into the hall, and this was when Tommy chose to make an entrance. Right on time too, I should say, since the auction started soon after. Even though things look to be on the up and up, we were feeling chilly, literally. The hallway and the inside of the hall were like Hawaii and Alaska. The air cond was too cold. How anyone manages to survive in there for an extended period escapes me. After sitting there for about 3 hours, my fingers were numb and I was feeling pins and needles. What I was feeling though, could not compare to what Chong Yang experienced. He didn't have breakfast and he was in the igloo longer, since he had to sort out the report.

The temperature aside, I find the auction quite interesting, even amusing at times. From out prime seats in front of the crowd, we got a good view. There were some beginners to austioneering, but from my untrained eye, most of the people there knew how to bid.I guess I was too influenced by the movies though, and the dramatic last minute bids and phone calls didn't exactly happen. Most of the time bidding was done between a handful of bidders who had registered to bid for that particular property, not the free for all we usually see on the silver screen. In fact, most of the property sold came from sole bidders, who got the property for the reserve price.

The auction ended at about 1 pm, and none too soon too, since I feel I was starting to shiver. Seizing my chance, I quickly ducked into the relatively toasty confines of the hallway, where I tried to regain my body warmth. As I mentioned above Chong Yang wasn't so fortunate, having to spend more time in the freezer coaxing a report out of his programme. In the end, we resorted to manually upload the bidding info, but we did finally turn out a report.

Even though the bidding was over, the auction was not, since the successful bidders were entitled to a lucky draw. Consequently, we had to wait until 2 pm before we were able to grab a bite or a drink, for that matter. Our patience was finally rewarded though, and we were given the all clear to 'makan'.

After freezing for several hours, stepping into the hot midday sun was unpleasant, to say the least. My residual chilliness kept me from melting though. Tommy brought us, along with his aunt to a nearby restaurant, the Green House. It was a small establishment, run by Australian expats under the 'Malaysia, My Second Home' project. Chong Yang and I had fish and wedges, while Tommy selected pasta, and his aunt settled for lasagna. After that Tommy ordered some of the dessert pies for us to sample. All in all, it was a satisfying meal, especially having endured sub-zero temperature without food.

Our job done, it was time to go home, so about 7 hours after leaving my home, I was dropped off.