For the Love of Life

Wow wheeeee.... I can't believe it snowed today. It started  at about 11 am and lasted for about 3 hours. I was at work, so I could only watch the falling snow through the windows. Still, it was a beautiful, beautiful sight to behold. So amazing and so surreal. With Christmas just a week away, there couldn't be a better time. The thought of a white Christmas is like a dream come true (minus the freezing temperature).

Anyway...right after work, I rushed back to the lodge for my camera and took some pictures before it all melted away cos you never know if it will ever snow again.

Yes! That's where we'll be going next Friday! It’s in the north-west of France. We'll be driving down to Portsmouth and taking the Brittany Ferries (overnight) to St. Malo in France. Then it'll be another hour's drive to Rennes where we'll be staying with some relatives.

After weighing the cost and benefit, I've decided to return to London with the Eurostar fast speed train from Paris as it only takes about 2 hours 15 mins. It's almost a day's journey by ferry or coach. The train ticket cost a lot more than I expected (£82), which was already the cheapest available (standard, non-changeable and non-refundable) but because this is a rare opportunity, I really do not want to waste precious time traveling.

My train leaves Paris at 7am on Christmas Eve. Can't afford to miss the train and since Paris is another two hours train ride from Rennes, it’s likely I have to spend a night in Paris the day before (as if that’s gonna be problem). Who am I kidding??! It’s Paris! I might just make that two nights. Will see how I feel about Rennes.

On work, we had an incident today which kinda put everyone else back on guard including myself. The hard drive from HR office which stored a lot of confidential information was stolen. I don't know about most people but I seriously suspect it's an inside job. The lock was not broken or damaged. In fact, the staff came in to work this morning, they had to unlock the door. Meaning, the culprit actually had the keys to lock it back after stealing it. Anyway, forensics were called in and they took some DNA swabs and stuff..so CSI-like. 

Am starting to feel quite uneasy after the incident cos I tend to trust people I work with quite easily. Actually I had a rather worrying experience last week as well. I left my room door slightly ajar when I came back from work. Slightly later, I heard someone walking outside and suddenly my door very slowly moved open. I stood frozen and hoped it was just the wind but there was a shadow and someone's head slowly emerging to peek in. Afraid, I quickly spoke out and the next thing I heard were footsteps running upstairs. I'm almost certain who it is (from the shadow and hair color) but I'm not saying anything to anyone yet as I'm not absolute about it. But it's really freaky to be living in the same building with a such a sneaky person.

Lord...please keep me safe...
  

This is not a recent development. I just chose not to write about it in case the plan fall through. But now I can because after a long anxious wait and a lot of finger-crossings, I finally received the green light to go.

Well, it all started in October when I got a message from Suzanna (my late mother's cousin) on Facebook with a very tempting invitation. I'll let you in on the messages we left each other on FB to tell you why it wasn't as simple as saying yes.

I've been planning to write about this job for a while but I thought it'd be good to wait until I can gather  more stories and experiences for a fuller perspective of the good and the bad.  So I've given it 3 months probation before I do full review. So here's my take, simply divided into likes and dislikes.

Likes

*The daily convenience of wearing uniforms.  
 
*My lodging and food are covered for, which is a huge plus, financial wise. That makes the communal toilet slightly more bearable when I think about the savings.
 
*The other perks eg. plenty of holidays (28 days/year),  flexible off days, staff rate at any Corus hotel of £35 per room as well as 50% discount on F&B.
 
*Picked up a bundle of new skills (Mainly cos my previous job didn’t require a lot skills)
 
*Learnt that customers are not always right. YES! They do get their asses kicked out for good for unreasonable behavior.
 
*The occasional tips, even though restaurant staff get A LOT more.  For some reason, people think receptionists are rich enough that they don’t need the extra cash.  Feel like telling them that we do not earn commissions from selling the rooms!
 
*The funny things people say every now and then, intentional or unintentional.  For example, my colleague was wearing her trainee badge for quite some time until several people thought that “Trainee” was her name. In a separate occasion, someone joked about it by saying “Hmm..your name sounds Italian”.
 
*The chance of meeting a celebrity, though none I have been crazy about so far cos they have mostly British TV series celebs or footballers.  The likelihood is much higher because the hotel is located just 2 miles away from Elstree studios where they do filming for major TV channels.  So far I’ve been here, the most exciting was having Spice girl Emma Bunton and her gorgeous partner, Jade Jones (ex-Damage boy band member) filming Mr &Mrs All Stars in the hotel  just last Friday.  I don’t even know what’s the point of saying all this when I missed the whole thing as I happened to be off on that day. (Can someone shoot me cos I’m about to die of chronic regret anyway).  
 
*The people who come to us and express their most heartfelt thanks for the excellent service they have had.  I can literally feel my face glow with pride.  

 

 Dislikes

x Having to remember faces and names.  Let’s not talk about the drop-dead gorgeous or beautiful people or on the other extreme, odd or peculiar-looking people. I’m talking about ordinary people with average height, blonde/bald, blue eyes, long thin faces, fair skin, similar accent. They all look like clones! And is it just me or all old people tend to look the same? Well, I’m sure the same problem applies if an English person works in China or Japan.
 
x This is one of my greatest struggle. Adapting to the British accent, especially if they’re from the northern region.  It made a simple task like answering phone calls and taking down messages really nerve-wrecking at the beginning. To be honest, even after 3 months, I am still nervous about speaking to the Brits because they speak so fast that it’s so easy to “lose” them half way in a conversation. I’ve had countless embarrassing situations from this problem alone but one that I will never forget is when a guest called reception to order some room service. I got him to say it 3 times and I still couldn’t understand a word.  So in the end, he had to spell out his RIB EYE STEAK for me. Now, can anything be more embarrassing than that? But I wasn’t that silly. Of course, he didn’t have to spell it all the way. I guessed it after he went “Erm…it’s R…(pause)..I…(pause)…B.” But still, no less embarrassing.
 
x Space confinement. For the whole 8-hour shift, we cannot leave the phone nor the reception area unattended.  The only time we can be excused is during toilet or meal breaks. But even then, someone has to cover the desk during those minutes.  It really feels like being tied to an invisible leash.
 
x And of course, like I’ve said before, the reception is the main link to all departments of the hotel. Hence, we get hit the hardest when there’s a complaint even though it’s not our fault.  It’s not often but one nasty word is enough to hammer you down.

 

Here's something I've been wanting to try for a while which seems to be a popular thing among the girls here. They look too pretty not to try them for myself. Being a first time user, I didn't fit them in as well as it should be but I'm still happy with the overall result.  Can't help admiring my own fingers now, thanks to nailene. Hehe. Ten minutes is all you need to glue them onto your real nails and you're good to go. Goodbye to nail polish and DIY french manicure kits.

Nails also come in various brands, colors, lengths, shapes and designs. Some even come with natural looking moon (curved white part where the nails grow out) for a more realistic appearance. Price for a whole set (24 nails, glue, buffer) ranges between £5 - £7. Nails should stay on for at least a week and possibly longer if you don't do any rough work, heavy cleaning or chew them off.

Let's hope they'd come out with fake toe nails too.   

My no-plans holiday is finally over and it was a good relaxing one, which means a lot of eating and sleeping. I think sometimes things are better off unplanned than to plan for the sake of having a plan when you don't really know what to plan, if that makes any sense. 

St. Albans town
Managed to do some random shopping (as if that needs planning) and outings in between. Made a second visit to St.Albans to show my aunt's friend around. I missed out on the lake the last time so it was new to me. The abbey church was still as magnificent as when I first saw it. I think the third and fourth photos are absolutely postcard worthy despite taken with my humble pocket camera.

Oxford Street, London
Made a trip to London over the weekend to meet up with Christine, Lewis and his high school mates for dinner. Was hoping I could do some bargain Christmas shopping in Oxford Street just before dinner but found out that there was no sale. Apparently, the big sale only happens after Christmas. But for Londoners, shopping is an all year affair. Nobody seems to care about waiting for the big sale, the weather or the economic crisis. All the shops were packed with shoppers giving the illusion that everything was on sale or limited. That didn't trick us into buying (though almost) so we had fun basking under bright decorative Christmas lights.

 
Rex Cinema, Berkhamsted
Went to catch the animated movie 'UP' in the cinema with Vinnie from church just before my holiday ended. But it wasn't just any cinema. It was an old style cinema with comfy luxurious swivel chairs, candlelit tables and a bar. Unfortunately, the photos I took poorly reflect the nice warm ambiance in the auditorium. Cost us £10 per person but the experience was worth every penny.   

 
 

Two of my most recent purchase from charity shops. Who wouldn't prefer wearing everything brand new but when it comes to deals like these, it really doesn't matter, does it? Not only you get to buy them in mint condition for a fraction of the original price but also indirectly give to a cause.

 

Chris, Jerusha and I managed to have a mini "FBC" gathering last Sunday. We met in church and then caught up over a gourmet burger meal in Westfield London shopping center. It was my first time being in the new biggest mall but I was more delighted being in the company of Kuching friends. I actually felt very much liberated to be honest because every other day at work, there's no chance to speak like the way we are.      

Following yesterday's case, the news had reached head office. The guy has now made an issue about the hotel security, perhaps thinking that his wife could have stabbed him to death that night. Well, who can blame her even if she did. Am expecting a certain kind of memo to be passed around soon that'd probably be along the line of maintaining the same level of hospitality while bearing in mind that anyone who walks in could be a murderer or some psychopath. It's difficult enough that we have to smile at the dial all the time and sound like the happiest person on earth.

And there's no escaping as the head office conducts mystery shopper calls from time to time and record some of the conversations for assessment and training purposes. And this is no joke because when I first had my training, they actually played a few bad examples from their recent round of mystery calls and got us to comment on the tone, mood and mistakes. Gosh, actually after hearing some of them, I was trying so hard not to laugh out loud cos it was so so funny. But in the same breath, I'd have instantly died of embarrassment if that was me.

Anyway..the other training last Thurs in Burnham was a fabulous treat. A room to ourselves, welcome drinks, 3-course dinner and free flow of wine, traditional English breakfast buffet the next day and luncheon. Simply too grand for just half-a-day of information feeding but what a privilege to finally experience the whole mid- to upper- class British lifestyle that used to seem so out of grasp.

It's officially the end of the British summer. The clocks were turned back one hour at 1am last night, which gives me an extra hour of sleep before my early shift at 7am this morning. But so annoyingly, at around 2.30am, got woken up by a persistent knocking on the door of the room nearby which completely disrupted my sleep. By the time I felt sleepy again, my alarm went off and it was time to get ready for work. Don't you just hate it when that happens. It makes me feel like the day started off with the wrong beat and the rest of the day will just go out of rhythm.

As far as the job goes, I am happy that I've progressed into something completely new. I think I've fairly mastered the technical part of the job which is the hotel software system. It's an extremely sophisticated internet-based hotel information system that I feel anyone who has learn it deserves to be given a certificate. Seriously, I cannot remember learning anything more complicated than this. Ok maybe not. Chemistry in secondary school is still the most impossible to understand.

We had a rather interesting situation today. Witnessing infidelity and having to put up with it professionally is almost a daily routine. But today's case was major because the guest demanded an explanation and thorough investigation on how his wife managed to find out exactly which room he was in and caught him cheating with another woman in the room. All I can say is "Serve-him-right" but he blamed the hotel staff for allowing it to happen and breaking the marriage. We still have no idea how his wife found out cos we were all strictly warned when we first started to never ever give out room information to anyone based on a similar case which happened before.

But the difference with this situation is that his wife ALREADY knew which room he was in. She walked into the hotel and confidently told reception that she needed the key to room 14 because she left the key in the room and her husband was already asleep. Because she was so convincing, the reception staff at that time didn't suspect anything and just made a new key card for her. And of course..u can guess the rest of the story. I don't know what will happen next but all those on reception will definitely be questioned, like we've committed a crime.

Anyway..am not too bothered by it because I do not recall giving anyone claiming to be somebody's wife any room number though to be honest, I am glad the bloke got busted big time. 

I've got an early shift again tomorrow. Gonna continue with some reading if I'm not too tired. Books are just so affordable here that it'd be a waste not to take advantage of it. But most closest to my heart are memories of my mom and dad and wishing that I can share every moment of every single day with them.