The long awaited update...

Coming out of the closet

My sisters kept pushing me to update my blog... They even mentioned it in their blogs! You all can refer here and here.
Well, i've actually been taking such a long break from this blogging thingy... erm... after just 2 postings..heheh..
So, especially to ummivouge and oshkoshbgoshh; been dying for my blog's update huh? Hehee... dedicated especially for them, Akak and Adik, nah, bacalah puas-puas okay? Kalau tak puas baca sekali, baca 18 kali pun takpe... :)


My Trip To Singapore

Just got back from Singapore a couple of days ago. Went there for a 4 days business trip. Well, not actually doing business lah, I was sent there together with my working colleague, Kak Timah by the company to attend a HR congress at Suntec Convention & Exhibition Centre, Singapore.

It was my first time to the sunny city and for me it was okaylah, I mean, not so great, not so bad either, just so-so… The congress was very informative and fruitful. Really learnt a lot from the best HR practitioners throughout Asia. We met a few friendly Singaporeans, majority of them Chinese. But there were many expatriates as well. Singapore may look small on your globe, but you can see so many kinds of people here, not much different from Malaysia.

On the day of our arrival, we went straight from Changi International Airport to our hotel, Pan Pacific Singapore. The staff who checked us in is a Malaysian and she was really friendly. I noticed that the staff who’s responsible for the visitors’ check-in, will actually send them right to the elevator to show them how to get to the right floor, and sometimes they even send visitors right to the room. Wow, what a great customer service! I mean, I’ve stayed at Pan Pacific, KLIA for so many times, but I’ve never seen any services like that, even to the ‘mat salehs’ and other foreign visitors. I have to put two thumbs up to their very warm and friendly customer services, from the taxi drivers, hotel workers, right up to the sales assistants at the shopping complexes.

For example, we actually went inside a high class branded boutique at one of the shopping malls, even though we have no attention of buying or whatsoever, with our simple jeans wearing and tudung (that typical malay kinda look) we still get the warm smiley ‘welcome-m’am-what-can-i-do-for-you’ greeting and ‘thank-you-m’am-please-come-again’ from the sales assistants. I think, to them, every customer who walks in is a potential buyer, no matter how you look like, or what race you are. Try to do that at Star Hill KL, or Suria KLCC, or any other high class stores and boutiques in KL. They’ll surely have that kinda look on you and they don’t even approach you or anything. Or even if they do, they’ll come closer to you with that suspicious look like you want to steal something from their store. I think many of you have experience this kinda situation right? Especially if you are wearing plain simple jeans, t-shirt and tudung. But when they actually speak to you, their English is so bad that you could hardly understand what they say, or they’ll speak to you in Malay with that Chinese accent and start asking questions like, “Mau cari apa?”, “You tengok inilah, ini murah sikit, ada diskaun.” Sheesh!! What do they think? Downgrade us like we don’t have money to pay for the expensive ones? And who do they think they are? I mean they can’t even speak proper English, and can’t even speak proper Malay. I am so puzzled on how a Malaysian-born can’t even speak the national language properly. But then, that’s another issue. You may think that I’m making a general assumptions here, but I wrote this from own experience. And then I compare to the experience I had in Singapore. And than make the conclusion. And I’m sure I’m not alone. Alright, enough of that.

Oopss…gotta get back to work, maybe I’ll continue later.