Since I’ve joined Facebook last year, I’ve been addicted.  I constantly check to see what my FB friends are up to, and once in a while, I will find some old friends, that I haven’t heard from in ages.  Cindy, was one of the first people I added to my FB friends list.  Cindy were best of friends for some time between grade 5 and 6, when we attended Gledhill P.S. in East York (Toronto).  Although I never lived in the area, my dad worked on the steet that Cindy lived, and while I was waiting for my dad to take us home after school, I would spend many hours playing at Cindy’s house.  That’s about all that either of us had remembered.  Actually, the picture below was taken at Cindy’s house. 

The year I “graduated” from grade 6,  my family moved to Scarborough, and my parents put me be back into the catholic school system.  At that point, I lost touch of all my grade school friends.  I have a few friends that have criticised the whole concept of FB friends.  They have argued that if we were actually good friends, we would be still friends… no need to search for each other in FB.  I disagree with that totally.  When my family moved, I was not permitted to contact old friends by phone.  And at age 11, it’s not like I could take the TTC to go see my old friends that are about a 20 min drive away. (there may also other reasons why one may lose touch with their dear friends)So.. until FB, Cindy and I had not spoken to each other in about 20 years.  I was excited when I got the FB “Add”, and since then, we had traded a few FB messages.  I found out that Cindy ended up attending U of T, and went on to become a CA,  working with one of the Big Four.  So.. actually our paths could easily of crossed again, but hadn’t.  I knew people at her firm, and she knew people that worked at my firm.A couple of months ago, Cindy wrote to me to ask me about travel tips about coming out to China, as she was planning to take a trip to Taiwan, and wanted to visit the mainland as well.  Since she was travelling on her own, I insisted that she come and stay with me while she was in Beijing, and she had agreed.  Over the next month, I was excited about her upcoming arrival, but at the same time.. a little nervous.  I mean, a lot could change in 20 years.  In fact, I found out later, we both felt the same type of anticipation and nervousnesses.  I mean.. really.. we are both lucky that neither had turned out to be ax murderers..  At the same time, there was something that told us both, that things would work out ok. And this reminds me of an earlier post this year.  http://p3wong.com/?p=214

Friends will come and go…   It’s amazing though how with some friends you can just pick up where you left off, no matter how long has passed.  Also interesting how other friendships never get off the ground… no matter how or when you try.Rachel reminded me recently:  I do have some AWESOME friends!!   And I really need to remember

that!

Cindy and I had an awesome time while she was here.. and sometimes I feel sad tat we missed out on 20 years of each others’ lives.. At the same time.. perhaps that’s what makes the little time shared that much more valuable..  

The Boys were in Hangzhou and Nanjing last month….

Happy Chinese New Year! Gong Xi Fa Cai, Gong Hei Fat Choy!  Sorry I’ve been MIA… was away for a week.. in South Africa.. will finish my 5 Star hotel service rant soon. (YES.. believe it or not.. there’s even more to the story!!.. )  And then will try to post some of my trip details..  I LOVED South Africa.. had a great time, and just a great way to start off this exciting year!  Hope you are all enjoying the year of the Rat as much as I am!xoxo 

I really hate to beat the issue of bad hotel service to death, but I really cannot NOT rant about my friend’s conatinued bad experience at one of the world’s renowned hotel chains.  On the morning of her wedding banquet, I showed up in the her makeup room, only to find that she was hardly ready.  When I asked her why she wasn’t in her dress… she sighed “don’t even start me on it… they don’t know how to do breakfast here” huh?  

So here goes the story:  The night before the wedding, the bride calls from her honeymoon suite to the reception and says that she would like to have in-room breakfast for the next morning. After long explanation about what she wanted, and some transfers between the restaurants and in-room dining, somebody from the hotel managed to call the room back to take the breakfast order, to arrive at 8:15am the next day.  The next morning, the in-room service didn’t show up on time, and after several phone calls, and several “I don’t know what room service is”, “I just arrived on my shift, I do not know anything about your in-room service” speeches, a gentleman showed up at the door to deliver the breakfast.  –With no dining cart.  Just a PAPER BAG that contained a bowl of toast, a couple of coffees in STAINED PAPER CUPS, and some kind of food in PLASTIC CONTAINERS. He walks in, puts the cups on the table and thus stained the table as well. The bride asks, “Where’s your dining cart?” The innocent man looked at her and said “I’m sorry, I just arrived on my shift, so don’t know anything. Someone just asked me to deliver this”. The bride thus sends him back with the canteen style delivery, and called the poor Director of Events, who has been taking care of the wedding banquet and asked if this was how a so-called luxury hotel did their in-room service. He apologized and promised a proper in-room breakfast ASAP. At 9am breakfast had still not arrived. Finally someone called at 9:13am to explain that the breakfast would be ready in a minute and that would be complimented a fruit platter to compensate for the morning’s unpleasant experience.  Well, after some harsh words from the bride (understandably at this point, since she was late for her makeup appointment on her BIG day) in-room service does show up…with two cups of coffee, two glassed of orange juice BUT ONLY ONE plate of eggs and sausage.  I suppose the hotel wanted to make sure the TWO guests of their HONEYMOON SUITE could enjoy the romantic joys of sharing breakfast for one??

My dear friend Ashlee got married last month, and has moved to Shanghai. After her wedding banquet in a couple days, I probably won’t see much of her. Ashlee is an old middle school friend of my old university friend Candy. When I moved to China permanently in 2002, Candy gave me her contact details, and we have been good friends since she came out to meet me, I remember the first time, in the bar at Red Capital Club, where I worked. We’ve both grown heaps, through jobs, bosses, clients, boys, friends, business, apartments, offices, partnerships, you name it - good and bad.  When she first told me above her move to SH, I thought about the episode on ‘Friends’ where Monica decides to move in with Chandler, and breaks the news to Rachel.  At first Rachel doesn’t really believe that it will happen.  But when she realizes the move is for real, she bursts into tears claiming “It’s the end of an era!”.  I cannot tell you how I felt exactly the same way. It’ll probably take me a little more time adjust with life without my confidant. In some ways Ashlee has seemed to be the wild and crazy one. But in fact, she’s been the girl that’s kept me in line all these years.  Thanks Ashlee, for keeping me grounded.  I’ll miss you dearly.  And of course, her optimism is something that I should definitely try to share.  As she pointed out quite bluntly, “What are you talking about?  It’s not the end of an era! Just the start of a new one!”   

CONGRATS ASHLEE AND LOKE, WISHING YOU ALL THE VERY VERY BEST!!

Hi there, sorry everybody!! A few people have been asking what happened at the 2nd tasting menu tasting! I’ve been swamped though, the last couple of days…

Well.. let’s see.. where to begin.. I don’t think I’ve met so many important hoteliers from one hotel at one time! It was a little bit daunting though, when when there were 5 of us sitting in a conference room, with 4 or 5 Chinese boys waiting on us, two to three waiters, two other boys in suits that looked liked supervisors. Then, we meet the Executive Assitant Manager F&B (who I’m told is the same level of Director), the Executive Chef, and Sous Chef, and Pastry Chef. (of course, the Director of Events was doting on us all the entire night, and the Director of Sales and Marketing dropped by to say hello).

Overall, as much as the entire team tried.. in all honesty, I was still disappointed with the results. I’m actually not a picky eater, and so, if I felt the meal was mediocre, I think there’s a lot to be said about the food quality of this “top notch” hotel.

I’m not going to go through the dishes in detail.. except that food was overall cold, and the soup was incredibly salty. Really, i LOVE msg, and salt.. but as one of our friend says, it wasn’t a soup, but rather a sauce that should be lightly drizzled on something. The chocolate dessert was heavenly, but unfortunately my friend opted NOT to include it in the menu, because it was TOO sweet (but just right for me), for older and Chinese guests… :S

What I found absolutely UNACCEPTABLE though was… WHY the food came out cold, as the Sous Chef later explains to us. The kitchen we were told, was on the other side of the banquet hall. Since we were doing our tasting in one of the breakout rooms on the other side of the hall, the food had to travel some distance to where we were dining. With THREE foreign chefs working the kitchen that night, NOBODY realized until just before dessert that all the dishes travelling about 200 meters or so from the kitchen to the breakout room would get COLD?? At RBL we had food covers for the food to travel about 20 meters.. from two flights of stairs!!

Also, when we left, we found several nails and a small razor blade, on the carpet outside the banquet hall.. clearly left over from construction workers. Not only was our food travelling all that distance where it was subject to room temperature, it was probably also subject to construction dust, and probably sneezing or coughing (or spitting) by construction workers.

How appealing.

Last week, I went to a reputable and newly opened 5-star hotel (in SH receiving multiple awards for service excellence) to attend a menu tasting for my friend’s upcoming wedding banquet. This hotel group in other cities has been known for providing spectacular service. However, while some employees in this Beijing location seems eager, they just lack the attention to detail that one would expect from this brand. On the one hand, having worked in Beijing for the last 5-6 years in the hospitality business, I can understand the challenges that the entire service industry has. On the other hand, after the experience, I can only sit here and wonder how the rest of Beijing will deliver, when the Olympics begin in 207 days.

Before our tasting, the group of us joked about whether we could eat 8 dishes. Apparently, no need for concern, as both main dishes were practically inedible. To start, was an asparagus/watercress/smoked salmon, which was actually my favourite dish of the night. Mostly because I love asparagus, watercress, and smoked salmon. My only silly complaint, was that I thought that it was a little bit over chilled. It just felt like it came out of an industrial size refrigerator. The next appetizer was a seared alaskan scallop on risotto. Only problem was.. if they can’t afford to provide decent sized Alaskan scallops, they should just get Dalian (local) scallops. Dan (at RBL) used to have a great scallop dish that used Dalian scallops, and they were twice the size! We had two soups.. Asparagus and Lobster. Both were quite tast enough, except one came out cold, the other lukewarm. As I mentioned the two main dishes were horrifying. The trout was over-cooked.. my friend claimed that the dish looked like they should be in the display case in a Japanese restaurant. After eating a slice of egg, I had to agree. I spit out a piece that SERIOUSLY looked/felt and tasted like a rubber band! As for the veal, besides being visually revolting. Here’s a picture of it (you can use your imagination as to where our dinner conversation turned to), and even less appetizing.

We made our complaints to the Director of Events, on the spot, who was quite courteous and concerned, but the Director of Sales and Marketing (the contact person for my friend’s banquet) was gone for the day). The next morning, the Executive Chef called my friend first thing, to apologize, and offer another tasting. Within the next few hours, he had sent an email with the updated offerings. Meanwhile, after two letters of complaints over the next two days (one about the menu tasting, and one about the process of signing the contract) to this five-star hotel, my friend has not received any response from neither the Director of Events nor the Director of Sales and Marketing (it’s been 4 days since the tasting). I suggest that she forward the email to the GM directly, and see what happens.

Stay tuned for more! We are attending another tasting this week.

2008 is finally here!!  I remember waiting for the results of the Olympic committee vote (Toronto was a contender, remember??)… and hearing that Beijing won the bid.. thinking how far away it seemed.. Actually.. when I moved to Beijing in 2002.. 2005 (when Disneyland HK opened..) seemed far away.   For the first few years, when people would ask me how long I’d be here, I’d always said “2008.. at least”.  I stopped using 2008 as the invisible deadline a long time ago.   It’s been quite a run, but I don’t think any of the past few years will be quite match up to this one coming up!  

Three days into the new year, it’s been blue skies throughout, and that’s only part of why I look forward to what 2008 holds.. However the chips may fall, I’m sure it will be a great year!  I already know that I will see a few friends find greener pastures elsewhere.. I’m sorry to see them go… but it only means I have a few more places around the world where I’ll have a place to stay.   And I’m looking forward to meeting new people and making new friends!  

It’s going to be a year where things happen!!   I really can’t wait!! 

I think that for 2007, I really have to be thankful for friendships.  

Through the years, you gain some and you lose some.  But in the end, there are those that you can always count on.  Sometimes, these may be people you haven’t spoken to in years..  and others that you don’t really pay much attention to in the past, but unexpectedly come through for you when things gets tough.

In 2008, I’ll need to appreciate the true friendships, and stop trying to please the people that aren’t true friends. Hopefully, 2007 has taught me enough about knowing the difference…. 

Thank you for being there guys!!  Wish you could all be with me in Beijing :S
Hugs and Kisses,  To a Prosperous New Year!!  
xoxo  Phoebe 

I finally bought a humidifier yesterday from good ‘ol Walmart.  I have NO idea why I never picked up one before..  I always thought it would be a huge investment (-it wasn’t, 148rmb each).  Anyway, I used it for the first time last night.  Can you believe that my room ‘drank’ about 2 L’s of water overnight?  The thing is.. I still got up feeling dry and dehydrated.  No wonder I’ve been going through a bottle of moisturizer once ever 2 weeks or so!  Probably could have saved a lot of money on moisturizer just by using a humidifier..  hmm…