Session Retreat TWO

My morning call never came! Good thing i have set my own hp alarm that morning and promptly woke up. Found out from Eld Boon later on that he too didnt receive the call. Questioned the staff why did they miss out, only to have them asking him, "Are you sure you placed a morning wake up call request?".........argh......bad bad service. And guess what, Dr Tow didnt ask for one and he got it.... at 6am the next morning!

Morning breakfast was sumptuous.... but i took my usual two slices of bread and an extra omelette during holidaying....hee.... It was great coz i had kaya and peanut butter for spreading!

We started morning session at 9am. Btw, there was still no sign of our group name outside the meeting room. It was a small matter to me. Eld Goh was upset since the day before and i kept telling him to cool down and brushed all aside. I penned down all those grouses and have decided to email to the Singapore office when i get back.... But a horrid incident happened during break and changed my attitude completely.

Of all the 4 tea breaks we were going to have, this was one i so looking forward to......because there was PUTU MAYAM!!!!! I ate that when i was a little girl and missed those times. It is so hard to get this in Singapore now. At 10.20am, i made an inspection at the tea break setting and found everything ok. Food was there and just couldnt wait to sink my fingers into the Mayam! 10.40 am came and i was the first to get to the food. To my horror, some men were eating our stuff and drinking the coffee and tea!!!!!!! Where were they from? Mitsubishi electronics something... they were having conference at the room opposite to ours..... which happened to be the Maharani suite that we longed to be in (with a patio that housed their own refreshments). Why did they walk over to our side and take our food? Because no one was eating and they had to peel the plastic and start? The Mayam.......2/3 gone!!!!! I was upset. I was angry. I was about to scream.

I blurted out, "This is our food!"

They stopped eating and stared at me. Our people began to stream behind me.

I said, "Why are you eating our food?".

One man replied, "Oh sorry, no one told us."

I replied immediately with a louder voice, "Didn't you know how to ask?"

More men replied, "Oh really sorry.... sorry...." They started to put down whatever that was in their hands.... Mayam, tea, coffee, jelly, goreng pisang...... and left guiltily.

Our people, the men, remarked as they left, "Oh it is ok, never mind"

Me???? It is not ok......sob sob.....my Mayam is gone!

I had the right to be angry but thank God i didnt shout or scream. I just said my share, not without emotion, though.... haha..... Hong Kim went over to their refreshment area and peeped at their food. Reported they had the usual stuff like mee goreng and mee siam. Perhaps they were like me, longed to eat Mayam and pisang...... Anyhow, i felt those were awfully greedy men who were not satisfied with theirs and had to look for food elsewhere. Just because we ended late and no one appeared, it didnt mean they can touch our food. If only the banquet staff took initiative to put up signs at our refreshment table and outside our meeting room, all these would not have happended. Sigh..... :(

I had to complain to someone and hopefully get Mayam replacement. Could not even locate one banquet staff. This was it.....i needed to shoot that email out. I didnt know who i can tell, as in managerial position in this resort and so i had no choice but to send to the Singapore sales office. Listed all my points and typed the email in a hurry (actually it was over lunch, ate and typed in the restaurant). Didnt even read thro the second time and clicked send.

Rushed off with Eld Goh to source for durians for supper, booked the Chicken Rice lunch for Fri and bought a tub of Vicks Rub for Eld Seah. Apparently, he was still nursing a cough and Hendrick suggested a remedy...... rub the vicks on the sole of your feet and your cough will go away......LOL! Btw, as Eld Goh drove off from the carpark, we heard a loud thud sound hitting his car when he braked. I told him he needed to investigate....was it a loose golf bag or box or what? He came back laughing away and said i could never guess what it was. True enough... i never did. Can you? It was a watermelon!!!!! He forgot all about it. Remember he bought it at the resting stop prior to meeting us? Hahahaha......

No one came to refill our water jugs in the meeting room and Dr Tow had no water to drink that afternoon. This happened when i was out sourcing for stuff. Told myself to list this down for second email complain.

It was a fruitful session but ended very late... just in time for dinner at Qing Palace. This time, we arranged to sit all in one big table ...15 of us and selected our menu. There were Shark's fin soup, Smoked Duck (their no 1 dish), Scallops, Prawns and some more... couldnt remember now. Dessert ordered was Mua Ji.... yummy.... ate this in Taiwan and was really great.

Dr Tow, at the prompting and reminder from Mrs Tow, announced his 54th marriage anniversary that night... 17 Jul 2008. They were wedded in 1954, add 54 to this year and you have 2008!!!! Amazing! We congratulated and sang "He Leadeth Me" for them (Eld Boon went to the meeting room to get 5 RHCs). I began to arrange for cake to surprise them. Lo and behold, we were not aware of the pleasant surprise we were about to have.

Noticed a caucasian man standing near our table but still at a distance. He was patiently waiting while our conversation went on. Then Brehme... the restaurant manager called me out and said this is his GM and want to speak to me. Oh..... he stood 3 heads taller than me and i felt sooooooo small..... He started apologising and apologising. He did joke a little with this line, "I am 4 weeks into this job and already losing my hair. And i am only 21." Hahha... he looked late 30s or 40s to me.... not 21. Maybe my hearing was bad but no one to verify with. Anyhow, he was very sincere and he told me to order any food (not restricted to one type) in the menu and it would be complimentary. Whooooo.......anything?????? I was a little overwhelmed at the gesture and turned to look at the rest for approval. They were soooooooo happy, grinning from ear to ear......(probably overheard the free food conversation).

Brehme passed me the menu and i gave to Eld Seah & Eld Boon to make their selection. Guess what they chose????? We were talking about the famous dish "Buddha jump over the wall" on Wed night, as in how expensive it was and seemingly delicious. And now, they had the opportunity to order this! Instead of giving one bowl to one, we ordered 6 bowls to share. One bowl for Dr & Mrs Tow and the other 5 for ourselves. Also ordered the pancake dessert. And the cake.... can you imagine how FED we were that night? We ate till we could eat no more.... but that was not all..... our durian seller was due to arrive at 9.30pm and time checked was 9pm. How to digest within 30 mins and start eating again? I wonder............

Look at the satisfied look....ignore the bulging stomachs :)

P.S. When Eld Goh paid the bill, he was given RM210 cash vouchers to spend in August! Another compensation...Wow! One more thing, F&B manager came down to apologise too. I was glad the management started to show us some attention and was sincere in their gestures :) Now i know Pulai Springs management are aware of our presence in their resort and will not ignore us. Haha...