Samuel Yeoh

There’re still some people with a heart in this world.

Awhile back, I mentioned excitedly my first personal tip from an elderly Japanese lady – a tourist who would visit her daughter in Singapore from time to time. Just two days back, she visited my outlet again. This time, she was almost leaving when I started my shift.

I was a little upset that I didn’t get to serve her, however, I managed to catch her attention and bowed to her. Pleasantly, she remembered me and returned my greeting. To my utter surprise, she started rummaging her handback, and fished out a few dollars for another tip!

This time, I protested as I did not even serve her, but she insisted as she backed her way into me, trying to stuff the tip into my apron pocket while smiling at my manager and pretending all was well.

Unable to do much, I could only receive the tip and thank her profusely (and discreetly) for it. While I do not know her exact reasons, I am grateful for her unnecessary gesture of kindness, and it only served to pain me even more that I could not have provided her with any service beyond a greeting.

The previous tip from her remains unspent, tucked away in a secret corner. And now I add the new tip to it, a reminder that there are still hearts of gold out there, and the kindness that I should some day pay it forward.

Alright! Website’s been finally revamped, with 3 sub-sections now. Check it out!

A little something to kickstart the New Year.

From a technical perspective, there are so many things wrong about it. But somehow, I just love this candid.

It’s been two months since I started work in the travel industry, and I finally had my first business trip this week. Funny how a non-traveller like me would end up in this industry, just like how a non-consumer of media like me ended up in mass communications.

Regardless, the trip was indeed an experience. And by trip, I meant the flight. I hardly had any time to enjoy my stay in Frankfurt. It was a quickie – touch down, check into hotel for the night, full day meeting the next morning, and the evening flight back. But but but, the flight itself was nothing short of magical! Seated in First Class for 12 hours to and 12 hours back, what more could a travel virgin ask for? I was spoilt!

Read the rest…

Finally started my first real job. As usual, first day there’s pretty much nothing to do, since no one’s ever fully ready for me anyway. What’s more, both my immediate superior and the girl whom I’m taking over were on leave, so I was pretty much left to my own devices.

What really struck me though, was that they weren’t kidding when they categorised our positions as senior officers. Here I am, a fresh grad, and I have people way older ‘reporting’ to me. Whether they actually do so or not in the days that pan out is a totally different story, but even in theory, I’m still finding it somewhat hard to swallow. And chatting with the two studio staff, I sense a slight tinge of bitterness but mostly resignation there.

Another thing I found really interesting at least on paper, is the potential for me to influence budgeting and purchase decisions. Maybe I’ve just never taken on the role of full time staff before, but I find it intriguing and tantalising that I will be able to propose and buy stuff that I feel are necessary. There’s a photo studio gathering dust in the office that I intend to revive. Hopefully I really do get such influence in the day to day work.

So here I was, on my first day of work, ready to be run to the ground and worked like a puny office grunt, running errands around the level. Instead, I’m told that I will be taking charge over two regions (there are six, two to each staff), and that all materials from those regions will have to be cleared through our office, and, I assume, me. Kinda huge expectation switch there. I was expecting menial labour and brainless shit, but now I have to contend with thinking jobs and real responsibility. Woah.

There are a lot of things that turned my expectations around, and I can’t really begin to express them all. But hey, it’s still just the first day. Maybe it sounds all glamourous on paper, but as the days go by and I get into the groove of slogging it out, I may still be the powerless menial labour boy I was expecting to be. But then again, nah. I’m already looking forward to the power and challenge of managing what I imagine I will be doing. Scary, no doubt, but exciting too.

Yes, I’m alive. Just been really busy… …enjoying my last strands of freedom.

Officially start work on Tuesday, and will become another lifeless corporate drone. Interestingly, my employment contract has a no-blogging clause.