Lost in Existence

Wednesday
13:18 hours
Canteen
Four Seasons Resort Maldives Kuda Huraa

I just had the heartiest lunch and feeling a lil queasy.. And now the sight of everyone around me with their plates full is just tempting me to barf.

Today's the day off again and this afternoon I scared myself awake. I am due to go diving in half an hour and when I woke up this morning, it was noon. I set a ringer on my phone, for me to wake up to call my mum, who's setting off for Holy Land today (take care mum, I love you!). For the convenience of the people back home, I set my mobile to Singapore time so at noon, my phone was 1400 hours which was the time I needed to be at the jetty! >.<

Well I had the longest call with my family and it was good to hear that all of you are doing well. :D Mum's en route to Sainthood, Shern's en route to become Sharapova, and Shane's rocking like Jack Black. WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...!

Right, let's just try to recall what happened in the past days.

Initiation into Front Office
I am very happy to say, that for the past week, I have been officially admitted into the light at the end of the tunnel, FRONT OFFICE BABY!

To just put things into perspective, why it is the light at the end of the tunnel, for all you people who have been actively reading and probably understand the hardship of housekeeping, my Resort Assistant Manager Nawaz had this to say to me after I worked an additional two hours.

"Okay Shawn tomorrow come in at 7pm instead of 4pm to make up for this additional two hours you did today."

Grinning wide from cheek to cheek, I was almost laughing and said, "This is something you'd NEVER hear in Housekeeping!"

"Well Shawn, welcome to the world of Front Office. ;)"

I did luggage crew for last week and made some good tips. Had the opportunity to speak some Japanese (, a little bit of Spanish, and some Cantonese (xiu xiu la, sek teng mm sek gong). Haha. Basking in the interaction with our guests.

Oh right, there was this one incident, it was the first time I encountered an aggressive guest. What happened was that he had two rooms, one for himself and another for his parents but he instructed for his luggages to be kept together. On our part the parents' room was not ready due to a previous guest checking out late. Hence he did not get his baby food on time and his baby was crying for half an hour.

And I only arrived with his laptop.

"I don't want that! Why do I need that? Half an hour, half an hour, is that the best you can do? What's wrong with you!"

And by the time he said the last line he was in my face, this big Russian dude and I was sure for a split second he was about to pull a punch. >.< I didn't have any chance to react, to say anything, but finally apologise and left quietly.

Looking back, at that moment, I think in his state of emotions, no matter what anyone said wouldn't have made a difference and that the best solution was to deliver the baby food first before anything else. Whatever strategy or steps you have for service recovery probably wouldn't have made the difference.

As much as I wished I could have done something about it, as much as I understood the frustration of a father who wanted his baby to stop crying and be fed, it was probably better for him to let out his frustration until we could deliver his items.

Aside from that, I think it was pretty refreshing to see Singaporeans in Four Seasons as guests, I just told them we could do with more of us spending on a good holiday instead of working ourselves silly.

I am now working in Operator and I won't elaborate too much on it, it comes pretty naturally thanks to my experience in telesales and Concierge back in Singapore.

Alright I'd have to get going to set up my dive gear, will share more when I'm back. ;)

13:50 hours