My Days in Housekeeping

Tuesday
13:43 hours
Cafe Faru
Four Seasons Resort Maldives Kuda Huraa

I think over the past week, I've kinda lost my zest for life and it really reminds you how important it is to do something that you love and are passionate about.

I haven't been blogging much simply because my life has become clock work and even though sometimes there are events and things that are worth sharing with everyone, like for instance:

We celebrated Vanessa's birthday with a bottle of Spumante, cake and lotsa snacks and invited a few of our colleagues to join us. It really makes you appreciate a simple get-together when you're away from home and that these little things are simply luxury that money can't buy.

To those of you who think that life in the Maldives is perfect and beautiful, you should honestly try living here and you would probably be glad your internship here's only 3 months long.

No doubt, we live around pristine blue waters of varying shades, beautiful sunsets, white sand beaches, there are also many restrictions imposed, especially on the fairer sex.

Even though I like to keep things spick and span, which is what I have been doing for the past week or so, I have been DEPRIVED of my basic need, the need for human interaction.

I realised I embrace change and that stagnation just drains me, I will not settle for a job that requires me to wake up everyday at the same time, to do the same things. It suddenly hits me that this will be my life for the next two weeks.

The good part about cleaning rooms is that it's a split shift and I do get to visit the gym and people, I'm quite proud to say that I'm in the best shape ever as I get to hit the gym almost everyday pretty conveniently.

It's just pretty draining when the kind of job I love's the one that really makes me feel satisfaction within even though there are no visible or tangible results, and housekeeping's just the direct opposite, it's all about the tangibles, making sure there's no dust or sand, no watermarks, amenities replenished.

One instance that really holds a lot of memories for me was when I was approached by a guest at about 7-ish in Singapore when I was training as a concierge. He told me it was his anniversary, his wife was in the restaurant enjoying a drink and he wanted some ideas for the evening.

The conclusion was, I arranged for dinner at Au Jardin, got a bouquet of flowers delivered to the restaurant by 9.30 p.m. which was the time reserved, and I took the initiative to look up the wife's name and had the florist prepare a card that said Happy 4th Anniversary, XXXXX. How I knew it was the fourth was also through daily interaction with the guest.

As it turns out, the guest never made it for dinner as his wife was unwell, but the flowers got sent to the hotel room and still, it would have definitely wowed them and at the end of the stay, $50 was put into my palms in a discreet handshake.

I never got to see what happened, but I knew that what I did would definitely be unforgettable for them and the emotions they would have experienced from my actions would only have been good ones.

This is the kinda thing that juices me and makes me want to go to work everyday. When you never know what's about to happen, but you have to come up with something no matter what and it has to be a WOW.

Right now all I can do is to wake up everyday, go to the gym during my break, go back to work for evening service, and just think of what to do at night besides staying online. And yes, I forgot, I have off days and I get to dive and surf, those days count the most.

It's been a month here and I haven't even logged a single dive. Depressing huh? I know it is, quite unlikely that I'd be getting an advanced certification here, just wanna enjoy the waters and marine life.

I'm not depressed people, I just know things can be better. Things are just a lot different here.