333A Orchard Rd, #04-02/03/04, Mandarin Gallery, 238897
after dinner, we took a tour at the hotel. i told Kiki i used to work at that hotel. that was when i was 16. she asked how could i be working when i hadn't reached the age of 21. i said in the past, as long as you are 16 and have a CPF account, you could work. i am not sure if it's the same now. i think it should be. she asked if i worked at the check-in counter. i said no, that's the front desk, i didn't work there. i worked at the back-of-the-house, telephone operator. she asked how many phone operators were there. i said about 10 at any one time. she asked if the phones kept ringing. i said yes, the phones came in non-stop at all hours. i told her there's a standard greeting script and then you will have to pay attention to what the caller wants. sometimes they want to make a reservation at the restaurants eg: chatterbox or top of the M etc, sometimes they want to speak to a room guest, sometimes they want to book a room and sometimes they are fanatics trying to reach their favourite band residing at the Mandarin. as we toured around, i realised that the main wing lobby is gone! they are left with the second wing for check-in, and where all the ballrooms used to be and main lobby used to be-- are all now boutiques. i think it's okay because retail boutiques & eateries will fetch more rental income for the hotel. anyway, as i walked around, i could still see the old pillars that are more or less the main structure of the hotel. many memories, i had an old friend (geraldine lin) who worked with me as telephone operator and i had another old pen-pal who worked at the front desk. after i got the job, i introduced them there and we all worked very happily while we waited for our O level results. i remember splurging half of my first pay cheque on a SONY walkman. it was the first ever slimmest walkman with matt material. so damn cool.
buskers need money.
No comments:
Post a Comment