It dawned on me today how bad the economy is. Today we had the worst sales in recent memory (since the day she joined, according to my senior). Granted, it’s a Sunday and all, but never did we have such record number of guests requesting for free parking and also asking about which credit card entitled them to a discount. And they didn’t even spend more than a hundred bucks! Worse, that woman who always requests for strong berries tea so she can ask for hot water to top up her tea for free without having to drink diluted tea came AGAIN. She usually comes with a gentleman who I assume is her lover/husband/boyfriend/sugar daddy (not likely cuz she’s not the type to easily get one) who usually drinks a coffee or a glass of wine. But today they were sharing that pot of EXTRA STRONG tea and she of course unashamedly asked for “condiments” (bar snacks that we serve with cold drinks). Usually we get pissed off at her for flagging her hands for attention when we’re at our busiest multiple times, but today I was just amazed at how she reminded me of a certain person I know who, like her, behaves exactly like a typical stingy person who exploits hotels to the max of their hospitality… She’s achieved a new low. I’ve censored myself pretty heavily in terms of language use here. Lol.
But I think this is just part and parcel of working in a luxury hotel. People usually fall into 3 categories. The filthy rich who don’t even check their bill and order ridiculous items not on the menu, the semi-rich who can afford to spend here once or twice a month and are actually more fussy about whether they get what they pay (and of course they never fail to ask for free parking and a whole list of complimentary tra la las) and the average joe who wants to impress so shows up and orders a coffee/tea/juice and eats your entire supply of complimentary snacks and demands refilling of iced water 56246956235 times. And of course they always want free parking. I say we should set a minimum spending amount before we issue the free parking coupons. I know for a fact parking in our hotel for about 4 hours will cost about SGD25+ in comparison to a juice (SGD10.60 after GST and service charge) so we will in fact make a loss by putting up people like this, especially when they cement their bottoms in the seats of our very limited and highly demanded smoking tables for 4 hours and above. Sigh. Anyways.
The only good thing that came out of today was that we got to wrap up earlier than usual and there was time to do sideline stuff like light inventory checking and stuff. And now, I gotta think of what to do tomorrow. It’s my off day again.. Been working a day and getting the next day off 3 times in a row now. The only thing that I do to kill time is to catch a movie. So I’ve pretty much watched everything there is to watch (only left Kungfu Panda and art films now), and thanks to my UOB card I at least got cheaper tickets. Did I mention here that I’m used to watching movies alone? I’m just too lazy to find people to watch movies with, and I’m used to being a solitary being. I did everything by myself when I was a student, because I was doing a distance learning degree and spent too much time in the library doing research and studying. Maybe that’s why I can’t spend too much time with people or I’ll start to get cranky due to my lack of me-space. For that, I feel sorry for my boyfriend. I get cranky on him too many times over no real reason.
Oh well. Let’s end this on a lighter note. My lovely Craig. 
Of style, fun and thought.
Pictures here.
In a nutshell, this evening was great. My sister was having her fashion design graduation catwalk show at Ritz, and I brought my own friends along. It’s such a wonderful experience to actually be there and look at all the amazing pieces the students came up with. The school in question is Raffles Design Institute Singapore.
And oh my. I must say I was really impressed with the quality of some of the collections. They look good enough to be couture staples. Some of them. Too bad I didn’t manage to catch all of the works cuz there were 2 shows and we only bought tickets for the one that had my sister’s collection in it, but this evening was very inspiring. And it made me realise that fashion, like wine and film, has to be appreciated subjectively, discriminatingly. If clothe maketh the man, then wine maketh the man’s taste and film, the man’s depth. Of course this is a very linear way of correlating the 3 elements of aesthetics, but these 3 are classic examples to draw an analogy to the quote “one man’s meat may be another man’s poison”.
I must say ever since my sister enrolled herself into a fashion design course, I was intrigued by the way the fashion universe works. I now admire Diane von Furstenberg because of an interview in Financial Times because I mostly agree with what she says, and I marvel at how her one design of the wrap dress became defined as an invention that in turn became a hallmark of an era for women. Just as how the late Yves Saint Laurent empowered women by creating stylish, figure-accentuating suits for them. Fascinating stuff. I might be tempted to go into fashion one day.
For now, I’ll be an audience and be content as a consumer.
Check this out. My sister made these~!