Philippine Travel Logs - Ummm...3 days before I leave I think...

Sleeping during the day can be interesting. If you forget to put on the “Do not disturb” sign you get woke up by housekeeping. The Edsa Shangri-La is a great hotel, and they keep me amused. Besides everyone knowing my name (how do they do that!?), my room cleaners leave me notes to “Ms. Jessica” asking me if the room is cleaned to my liking. People here are so polite…and it’s a genuine politeness. I had to try and throw away my hair dryer 3 times because they kept taking it out of the garbage telling me that I must have made a mistake in putting it there. The wake up calls are funny…never quite the time I ask for but they do wake me up so I am grateful for that. I asked for one at 6 PM, with a follow up at 6:15 PM. They came at 6:15 PM and 6:18 PM. But that was only once….usually they are within 5 minutes of the time I asked for. Also it seems that the messages that make it to guests do not always make it to the employees…which I can understand working for a huge international company. I received a typed note on my desk on very nice paper telling me that they were going to be painting the outside of the hotel today, right outside my window. There was no date on it and I didn’t know how long the note has been there. I called the front desk to confirm and the nice lady had no idea what I was talking about, they were not painting the hotel. So when I was woke up at noon by someone swinging around on a gondola outside my window I was a little startled. The kitchen staff is funny too. Since I eat dinner in the AM, I order off the Night Owl menu, which I am finding is relative. The menu says “served from 11 PM to 5 AM”…but unless it’s a breakfast food they do not really have it. I tried to order fried rice with prawns (which they DID have available at 8 am last week) and they didn’t have it. I did point out that it was on the Night Owl menu and was apologized to like 80 times...I felt kind of bad and will not be pointing that out again. I would rather they think I am rude for asking for dinner at 8 AM rather then make them feel incompetent. But I am not complaining. I have found the errors refreshing because the first week I was here and nothing was amiss...I was feeling too pampered. I like being pampered, but not to the 5 Star Hotel level. You don’t have to change my sheets every day. Folding my clothes is unnecessary. I can use a bath towel more than once. I do not need slippers. I will not be calling you to come take away my food cart…I can live with it in the room with me till I leave for work. No need to call me in 30 minutes to ask if the food was to my liking. I do not need a newspaper everyday (though I know some do, but I just throw mine away). No need to have the kitchen staff prepare dinner food for me on special request…I can eat eggs if it’s easier on you guys. They don’t even tease me when I say “good morning!” at 8 pm when I leave for work, and they always correct me when I ask for a pickup at 7 PM instead of 7 AM like I really need. I like the call center and all, but I think I might go mad if I had to be there for 23 hours straight. So after eating burgers and eggs for the last two weeks I decided to change it up a bit. Ordered a traditional Japanese breakfast this morning (before I went to bed so to me that would be “last night” but whatever). It looked safe because it was salmon, rice, Miso soup and Japanese pickles. I mean how bad could Japanese pickles be right? Well the salmon was good, and the rice was…well it was rice. Not a big fan of Miso soup, which I already knew. But those pickles…let me tell you….I can still smell those things. They were nasty. I didn’t actually eat one. I just smelled it. That was bad enough. The smelled stayed in my nose. It got to the point I had to take the rice and salmon and move them to a separate plate…and take the plate with the pickles into the bathroom and close the door because I was having trouble eating my food smelling them. Why didn’t I take them off my plate? I was not touching them. I touched one to smell it and my fingers still smell of Japanese pickle, and I have slept 7 hours, showered and went out for Italian since then. So what I am getting at is…I am not a fan of Japanese pickles. I was invited to go eat with a group here. Ariel (Process Lead) and his team were going to go have dinner and meeting here at 5:30 PM. I went to best at 9 AM this morning so I got in a good 7 hours before I had to get up. When I got here I turned on my computer and discovered it was 3:30 AM at home. WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING AWAKE??? I figure that means I got up at 1 AM! So most the team couldn’t make it so Ariel and I went to a nice Italian restaurant in the mall. It was fun, Ariel is a cool guy. I told him that all Italian restaurants must have the same decorating motif worldwide because this place was very similar to Johnny Carino’s/Olive Garden. They all seem to have an exorbitant amount of framed black and white photos on the walls. So now I am at work, albeit an hour early but that’s ok…I needed to update my blog anyways right? So “tonight” after I sleep I will be going to see The Last Airbender with some of the team, then work, then shopping, then dinner. I think. I might be messed up on the order. All I know is after work tomorrow I will not sleep until Saturday evening. Jessi might get a little loopy.