Usually test dummy end up smashed up on some simulated car crash.
Today our Thai Spa Manager asked me if I would be willing to test the Spa staff on the new treatments. I am willing subject for such pampering and so I blissfully enjoyed the Swedish aromatherapy massage for the 90 minutes.
The joys of working in my industry , Now I am just waiting for the new Executive chef to come hehehe.
Today I was able to slip in a rest day after 9 days of work. I left my place of my work and headed downtown about 30 mins drive
. I slip into an open coffee shop to taste what Vietnamese coffee was. Vietnam has yet to see a Starbucks but I saw Gloria Jeans Coffee in Saigon but that was about 686 KM away and I plan to taste the local food . Vietnamese coffee is pretty strong as they export a large amount of Arabica beans to the world.
Since it was a hot day with temperature reaching 32 C. I order a glass or iced coffee with milk rather the authentic Vietnamese Hot drip coffee . The waitress brought me a glass of iced tea. I took a sip, it was unsweetened tea with a hint of rice similar to some Japanese Green Tea in which some browned rice included.
After a minute my order of ice coffee arrived. Coffee was strong indeed but it reminded me of the coffee I used to usually have in the street cafés in Malaysia. You have to mix the concoction properly or you end up drink an overly sweet layer then a bitter black taste.
By mixing it you get a cool, mocha like drink.
I sipped my iced coffee and using the free iced tea to wash my palette. It was an excellent experience while I watch city buzzing around and Listening to chit chats in Vietnamese while drinking their own coffee.
As paid my bill of 10,0000VND or .77 cents US. I look forward next week to enjoy another morning there.
After a night of rains and strong winds
getting only 3 hours of sleep between Typhoon updates from the NOAA.
Joy is sitting down and enjoying a bowl of hot Tempura udon with Togarashi spice on the side.
A total comfort food for a chilly night.
I have made my decision, less than a month from now. I will
be posting my blog in another time zone. Leaving the place where I am right now is very hard. I had
wonderful group of staff and a great
boss , Things that sometimes take years
to find. As I leave this place I know and feel I have left a little of myself here.
But I sometimes you have to take chances in life or you end up not living life just watching it pass by, and that my friends I cannot do.
"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
I did not take either road i am making my own.
I spent the other night at the beach , the wind was blowing quite a bit bringing in some chills. But i was embraced by the warmth of the cooking grill in front of me. I was grilling a good 5 kilos of chicken wings, 1 pound of scallops and undetermined amount of sausages and We even had lobster .I haven’t cooked for sometime but tonight i wear the chefs hat. tonight I was serving my staff. they deserve it as they have been an excellent team.
That night was a send off party for one my staff .She will be leaving our hotel and joining the friendly sky by being a CC for Asiana Airlines.
Tears flowed as we all shared memories of the teamwork and camaraderie. But laughs also filled the air when we shared jokes. The jokes went beyond the language barriers in the group , considering we were 5 different nationalities yet we all laughed as hard as any one.
As they brought her to the airport for her flight.
I smiled away knowing she would be my 10th staff in my career to have joined the Airline industry and looked forward to new chapter in their lives.
I have yet to meet them in any of my trips in the air. But who knows….i might bump up to 1st class for free. and be greeted by "Hello Sir Garry"
There are time’s in one’s life you meet the fork in the road. Some forks tend to be parallel ie like should i buy a car or invest in this new mutual fund Sun Life has.
But then again you have forks that shows you the the initial path but the destination is unknown as each path leads to somewhere beyond the present horizon ie Should I move to another country.
We will see as I make a decision
This would be the 5th country I would be working in if i ever decide
to be continued
Between my regular work in the hotel which entails about 12
hours a day , I was able to squeeze in some reading that I am doing for the
Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Quarterly. They sent me 2 articles for this 2007 1st
quarter issue. You realize when you read this stuff the difference of a writer
coming from the academe and someone who is a hotel practitioner from the subtle
of the words they use to the practicality and application of their studies. Last
email I got from my editor seems that I am doing ok.
I usually read these articles either dead in the night about
1:00 am in bed with my portable breakfast in bed table cum home office .
I still prefer
printing the article in hard copy and doing my comments with my pencils. I cannot
get around that. I feel uneasy reading and editing on my laptop even if a number of people that I know who
can do that.
Call me old fashion but for me reading things on paper seems
to have more retention with my brain hehehehe.
Anyways reading a good article or a book relaxes me. Especially
with a goblet of red wine on the side hehehe.
I love
Japanese Culture.
A great
thing about my work is that I am surrounded by it. I work with my Japanese staff
, talk with Japanese guest, eat Japanese snacks , I even got to liking drinking green iced tea
with my lunch. I even got someone to talk about my Akira Kurosawa movies which
I watch and collect in DVD’s. Plus I get to brush up with my Japanese.
In my trips climb Mt. Fuji .
to Japan I already started to collect Japanese items I have a nice Kimono,
Happi coats and even Tabi socks. Hopefully this 2007 I get the chance to
In my 2nd
New Year here I again participated in the hotel’s MOCHITSUKI festival.
A Japanese
tradition of welcoming the New Year by making rice cakes called mochi. The rice
pounding Last year I only got to pound
and eat this delicacies but this year after pounding I actually got to make a
batch and man the mortar without getting hit by a mallet .
It was fun
sharing this festivity. Even the hotel guests got into the act along with some
US Navy personnel staying the hotel.
This is to
a prosperous new year to all.
I remember my highs school days when me and my friends coming off our COCC training on Saturdays and romping around makati in the old QUAD theater maybe watch a movie or have a quick lunch. But we would be always drawn to a Food Stall at SM .
The store’s name was Samurai Balls . we would pool our money and buy sets those delicacies . We would rush popping those balls into our mouth trying to get our share. These would be hot off the grill but this did not deter us from shoving down our throat . Out of bravado and perhaps greed we would have scalded mouths and throats and would laugh seeing each other face in anguish . We actually do this regularly heheh we were sick little kids.
Anyways I was walking towards a park in
Japan when I saw this food stall selling these Takoyaki Balls. HMM they had to be. Using all the Japanese I learned from my Japanese staff .
I said “nani kore desu?” (what is this ?)
She said “ Takoyaki desu”
I beamed a smile
I was able to buy and hold a simple conversation with the seller . She has been selling Takoyaki balls for more then 20 years in that spot.
The Takoyaki balls she had were about 4 times bigger then the ones I had in manila plus it had bonito shavings as toppings.
I paid for it about Y300 yen for a styro box for 6 balls . With my loot I headed to a spot in the park. They were great all I expected it to be sweet and saltiness comes from Tako (octopus) bit chewy.
As I ate my lunch (trust me 6 balls was a lot to eat). I remember the time when I was young .hehehe this time I had Takoyaki all to myself.
It has been
a bit of time since I last
blogged . Between my trips and additional work when I came back .I just had to blog , Some weeks ago I got an email that was asking me to be a reviewer . Sure I give my movie reviews online when I rent
out my DVDs at Netflix .But I was ask to be a reviewer for the Cornell
Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly .I was dumb founded I had to re-read the email and even had
to reply to make sure they did not make a mistake. It seems that they will give
me 2 to 4 papers a year to review and
give my opinion on the relevance , accuracy etc. (which I give for free to the ire of some people
hehehe).
http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/publications/hraq/
I was
honored especially having been a avid reader
of the CQ and knowing the high regard of
hospitality practioners for the said publication
.It was like a doctor being ask to review materials for the New England Journal of Medicine. Hopefully I don’t screw up hehehe . I
am happy to be a part of the Hospitality
industry and proud to be working in it for over the years . I hope to contribute
to it as much it has rewarded me.
