Weird Encounters In The Service Industry

There are some weird goings-on in the food industry. On Tuesday I sat next to a lady with a weird request along with her order. Today, Sophia and I witnessed an interesting incident at California Pizza Kitchen at The Forum on Orchard.

I'm still not sure if the incident was borne of a possible miscommunication or misunderstanding, or if it was just a stupid policy of the restaurant.

A group of three office people came in for lunch. From their accent and conversations in Cantonese, I surmised that they were probably Hongkies. Anyway, the man in the group started raising his voice after the waitress got to their table and I was able to make out something along the lines of them wanting to split the bill three-ways and the waitress telling them that was not possible. At which, the man called loudly to see the manager.

Instead of getting the manager, the waitress got the cashier. And while the customer was grilling the cashier, the manager showed up. I couldn't really make out what they were discussing, just the fact that the customer was quite upset.

In the end, customer and manager somehow came to a cort of compromise and the group was allowed to split the bill individually. The weird thing was how that was managed. I saw the group of three break up and two of them individually sat at another table each. And the man who had complained said something to the effect of, 'Serve them right for such a stupid policy. I don't care if we have to split up into three different tables just to get our bill separated. It's absurd and there was no issue the last time I was here but if they want to make it an issue and do it this way, then we'll just do it their way."

So that was how the group of three at one table split up into three groups of one, each at a different table, just so that they could get separate bills on their lunch.

How about that for service?

Books Bought

1. Eyes Like Stars - Lisa Mantchev
2. Click: What Millions Of People Are Doing Online And Why It Matters - Bill Tancer
3. Through The Lens: National Geographic Greatest Photographs
4. Work: The World In Photographs
5. National Geographic: The Photographs
6. The Photographer's Eye - Michael Freeman

While I Was Eating Today

Lunch was a somewhat 'quirky' affair today.

I had a passable beef kuay teow soup, replete with beefballs and beef slices. I would have probably enjoyed it more except for the fact that not two feet away, at the table on my left, a Buddhist nun had vegetarian fried meehoon. As I was finishing up on my meal, a lady sat down at the table on my right and ordered her lunch.

"Can you tell the chef not to use oil in my laksa? I don't want oil, if possible. I don't want oil floating at the top of my laksa," she told the waitress.

I bit back a rude retort and stifled a smirk. Er, laksa with no oil?

What part of laksa does she not understand? You can't have laksa with no oil!

As my husband would say, "Damn stupid Singaporeans!"

From Warm To Cool

Finally! After a year of plodding through my books under dim yellow lights (the blurb on the bulb box says 'warm white' but don't be fooled) I couldn't take it anymore and chucked all the energy-saving yellow bulbs for white ones. Also energy-saving.

The blurb on the box, this time though, says 'cool daylight'. And it is such an improvement. It's so bright now that I only need to turn on one of the two lights in the dining/living room to sufficiently light up the whole area. Well, that and the fact that each light structure actually demands eight, yes, EIGHT bulbs to power up.

Can you imagine the energy cost if we didn't use energy-saving bulbs?

I'm now bathed in bright, white light, HALLELUJAH!!

I see the light.

The Difference Between You And Me

"You want to sit here."

"You eat rice."

"You play in the pool."

"I, baby, I."

"You want to go there."

"You read a book."

"I Sophia, EYE. I read a book."

"Mommy carry you."

"Me, baby, ME. Mommy carry ME. Mommy read ME a book."

"I have my cloth; I want to go there. I want strawberries. EYE."

Something's Gotta Give

It's crunch time. I've got to prioritise.

In deciding to pursue the photography bit more seriously and spend more time doing work (biz dev as well as take on more writing jobs), my hours spent reading has got to go. The decision's not a hard one to make; the books will always be there. They're not gonna grow legs and run away. It's just a matter of how much I want to read and when.

Besides, I'd like to spend as much time with the little monster as possible while she's awake. And while she still wants me around.

So my books are gonna have to take a backseat for now. Oh well....

Library Haul

1. How To Be Popular - Meg Cabot
2. Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances - John Green, Maureen Johnson, Lauren Myracle
3. Life On The Refrigerator Door - Alice Kuipers
4. Children Of Dandelions - Shenaaz Nanji
5. The Warrior Heir - Cinda Williams Chima
6. The Girl Who Threw Butterflies - Mick Cochrane
   
7. Looking East: Portraits - Steve McCurry

Accident

After I woke Sophia up from her daytime nap, I noticed that her cloth diaper had leaked onto my bed.

"Oh nooooo! Popiah (that's what she calls herself) wee-weed on mommy's bed!"

"It's OK, let's just take off your nappy and we'll put on a dry panty."

"Oh nooooo!"

"It's OK, babe. It's OK."

Cherries, Oh My Cherries!

The girl discovered cherries. Now the strawberries in the fridge have been shunted aside.

We've got cherry stains on the couch. She has cherry stains on her face. Her shirt's a mess.

Well, at least she loves her fruits. Our fridge is testimony to that; it's stuffed full of strawberries, apricots, cherries, apples, dragonfruit and kiwifruit. More than half of them are consumed by the little monster.

Photo Field Trip #2: The Zoo

Hubby, Sophia, Jona and I headed to the zoo. My objective was to shoot (with a camera) the animals together with the photo group and the family's was to try to enjoy and have fun (without me, of course).

This Saturday it was speed priority setting, what with trying to shoot animals. I still don't think I have it down pat but oh well, trial and error, as they say.

The tigers were sleepy at nine in the morning. It was as if they knew we'd be there and chose to showcase their backs to us. We spent 30 mins there and, failing to get any good head on shots, decided to try our luck with the baboons.

We got stuck at the baboon enclosure and never moved on. Let's just say there's much to glean from their behaviour and antics. I managed a couple of good shots out of the myriad I took. We'll see what the rest of the class thinks.

Two and a half hours can only get you so far at the zoo, which is a pity since it was a nice shady day. It was muggy though and by the time I met up with the rest of the family at the Splash Safar show, which was right after leaving the baboon enclosure, Sophie was already hot, sticky and sweaty. She apparently did not want to step into the water play area, opting for the playground instead. And to pacify her, daddy had bought her a Sesame Street ABC bus.

At least we got a picture together with Philip the sea lion, star of the Splash Safari show.