Back to AM days

Dear all

These past few days, I was rotated back to desk, covering AM duties. It was kind of a much-needed break, with the whole day concentrating solely on handling guests check-ins, check-outs or special requests.

Wanna highlight a special moment which happened on Tuesday. Was checking in a well-mannered male caucasian guest when I noticed that he's holding on to a few Singapore old currency notes. And I really mean old notes, the S$1, S$5 and S$10 notes which was no longer in circulation. Seeing this, I commented to the guest that it must have been a long time since he's in Singapore and I further advised him not to spend the currencies but instead to collect it. His reply was that he's recently in Singapore last year but he was actually born in Singapore before migrating to Australia. Both his parents met while in Singapore after World War 2. His father was an engineer for the British empire and was actually imprisoned by the Japanese when Singapore fell.

On the way to the room, he was sharing his childhood experiences of playing at the Padang, entering the many colonial buildings surrounding the Padang without being stoped by the Gurkha soldiers or Indian guards then and sharing stories leading up to Singapore's independence. He further mentioned that last year, when he tried to enter those buildings which he had played around many many years back, he was stopped by the many guards and police officers.

Just before entering the room, I mentioned to him that he will like the view from the room. True enough, he stopped and admired the view for a while. Overlooking him directly was the Padang and the buildings which was his childhood playground many many years ago. At that split moment, I can see in his eyes all those happy memories many years ago.

Thanks

Helmi