I hate gal robots answering my call.
Similarly, I hate the counter gal @ Long John Silver reminding me of such.
She wore the expression of a wife having yet another sexual intercourse, on a rainy Thursday evening with a burly husband approaching their fifty-year anniversary. The activity feels just like another train ride to downtown Orchard - no feeling at all.
Her eyes as deadpan as the fishes in Seng Siong, and she spoke as if she was not into it and wanted to get it over with, fast.
-WelcometolongjohnsilvermayIhaveyourordersirr?
I felt I was yet another passenger in the traffic she got to patronized, which is actually quite accurate to say that, but I was intrigued as it was my first innocent trip entering this fishy store with a net at Nex.
-Huh? Wha? Got What?
She then, slowly and deeply, suck in, her breath. Ostensibly sucking in all the strength needed to muster another sentence, but now it all came out slow and clumsy as though she was pulling out a long shaft, in agony.
-May-I-take-your-order-sir.
Oh. Embarrassed, and especially so since I was new to the scene, I tucked my hands into my pants pocket, seeking something hard to grab. I felt blood rising, surging, pumping, on the coastal of my earlobe. I ordered the usual (1 fish and 1 chick) and obediently settle to a quiet corner with long stretch of mirror panel at the side. Voyeuring other people, biting fries, sipping straw, reading Norwegian Woods to feign intelligence and, more importantly, utilized it as a shield to cover my flustered face. .
I dun remember I commit such a horrendous crime back when I was manning the frontier at Starhub, Cuppage Plaza.
All I could recall was joy and exhilaration on my customer faces, even though I was totally exhausted at the end of the day, and in serious need of private space to maintain sanity.
I made people their day. Men, women, young and old. Even married men with three children, I managed to made it worth his trip and totally satisfied about the service I gave him, without waking up his child in the cram or alerting his insecure wife.
And they wrote numerous positive feedback forms, raising my status within the ranks, and am a ripping red apple in the eyes of my immediate superior (I guess).
How? Because I do it like I meant it.. I gave more than my job responsibilities, even though I am not obliged to do beyond tapping words on the keyboard and keeping my heads up.
Usually I stretched the servicing time for a quarter to one hr or, if he wants a quick one, just five minutes. That is, if everything else were well-lubricated and the device on his hand functioned properly.
Too bad the Starhub store at Cuppage Plaza was demolished shortly after I left.
I never rang the gratitude bell when I walked out of LJS. I rather went Seng Siong and steam.
