Dear all,
Thank you so much for following this blog. I have migrated my blog to a new domain. Check it out at the new home of CALL ME JACKIE!
Lots of love,
Jackie
T.G.I Friday’s has always been my favourite restaurant. The one that I frequently visit is the branch in Subang Parade. Exceptional service. Even in my previous post about Dome Cafe, I mentioned that I like the service in Subang Parade branch. I can’t explain why but it is possible that the people they hire in that location are more effective than anywhere else.
In my experience, T.G.I Friday’s has been consistent with their friendly and warm service. There were times when the service was slow and orders getting mixed-up especially during peak hours but I tolerated all that because of how friendly and well-mannered they were. Of course, if they strike three with ineffective service like Dome Cafe in The Gardens Mall did, I would feel it’s about time to bring it to the attention of the management.
Today’s incident T.G.I Friday’s was different though. Although it happened for the first time, it upset me enough to want to share it here with all of you here. I went to T.G.I Friday’s, The Curve for dinner around 7.00 p.m with my partner. When it comes to orders, I always make myself clear with what I want and I don’t mind repeating it once or twice, then confirming it when the waiter/ waitress repeat the orders. I ordered a half servings loaded potato skins with Waiter M (I know his name but for his sake, I won’t mention it here).
Next thing I know, a waitress brought us a plate with full servings. I told her that I asked for half servings. She apologized and took the plate back. Then Waitress B (I didn’t know her name so I just refer to her as B) came to us and asked if I ordered potato skins. I said, “Yes I did but I ordered for half servings.” She nodded and walked away. Waiter M then came and insisted I ordered full servings. I shook my head in disappointment because he put the blame on me. I said firmly, “I did not mention the word full.” He was trying to put words into my mouth. He walked away, seemingly upset.
Then he came back with half servings of potato skins, placed it at our table without saying a word. My partner and I were unhappy with the rude treatment. We totally lost our mood and appetite. I felt especially uncomfortable because Waitress B kept staring at me as if I was some kind of criminal. She probably thought that I gave her colleague a hard time by denying the order they thought I made. When we finished our potato skins, she came to the table, grabbed the plate and walked away without having the courtesy to ask first.
When we were ready to go, my partner asked for bill with another waiter. He is not a local. I asked him for Waiter M’s name because I want to make a complaint to the management. This friendly waiter asked if we wanted desserts. I told him that we lost the appetite for desserts after the rude treatment, he smiled and said that if he showed us the menu, we might get our appetite back. I appreciated his effort to cheer us up. He even apologized on behalf of Waiter M when we were leaving. This is the kind of person T.G.I Friday’s known to hire and train, not someone like Waiter M and Waitress B.
I vowed not to visit T.G.I Friday’s The Curve anymore until I receive an apology from Waiter M.
Heard of this phrase before from a new friend you just met? If you have, wasn’t it a good feeling having someone said that to you? If you have not, let’s try this little trick that I’ve tried a couple of times and it worked. They might not necessarily let you know that they feel like you’re an old friend but at least they will become comfortable enough with you to be sharing their personal stories.
Most of the time when we meet someone new, either at seminars or friends’ home parties, our brains are actively searching for topics to keep the conversation flow to avoid the awkward silence. Some of us are even struggling to fight off shyness. When we do that, our reactions become unnatural as if we’re pretending to be interested. We will appear to be insincere and it takes only seconds before our supposedly new friend realize our discomfort.
When you know you’re attending events where you’re most likely to meet random new people, visualize that person you’re going to say hello to as a long-lost friend you haven’t seen in years. Now that you see him/her across the room, you get really excited. You have so much to catch up. When you’re at that state, go up to him/her and introduce yourself.
Of course you’re not going to say something like, “I’m so happy to see you again.” or “What have you been up to lately?”. Remember! You’re just putting yourself in that state, I’m not asking you to pretend that you know that person or trying to convince them that you both are old friends. Just be in that same state you would be if you were to really meet an old friend whose friendship you cherish but lost in touch over the years.
The best part of this little trick is that when you tricked yourself into liking this person like a long-lost friend, you will naturally start to like this person. They will also like you because of the warmth and sincerity they felt coming from you, you know, it’s like they’ve known you forever!
Youth development is one of my life missions. In my first company, I was involved briefly with some youth-related projects but I have not got the chance to take it further. Instead of waiting for the opportunity, I thought I should create the opportunity instead.
In December, I read a book called The Power of Small: Why Little Things Make All the Difference by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval. I had an Eureka! moment and I was inspired to start something. If you haven’t read this book, I strongly recommend you to get it and read it. Read it often for it serves as a reminder for you to appreciate the little things that could make a huge difference in your lives and the lives of others around you.
Anyway, I was at my office at that time with my business partners. I took out the camera and started asking them to make the hand gesture that connotes “small” or “little bit” and I snapped the photo. For the next few weeks, I’ve been going around, taking pictures of people, posing with the hand gesture. My initial thought is to create a collage of pictures for this awareness project but I thought it would be better if I can ask these people to share their thoughts and experiences. So I created a form for them to fill with some questions to answer.
When I collected enough pictures for me to post it up, I created a group in Facebook. I call it the Potential of Small (POS). I substituted the word Power to Potential because youth these days are all about potential. Besides, it goes along with the mission of my team, Unleash Your True Potential. In the Facebook group, I uploaded the pictures along with their sharing. You’re welcome to join Potential of Small Facebook Group to be part of the project. Basically what you need to do is the following:
1. Take a picture of yourself with the signature POS hand gesture of “small” or “little bit.” Take a look at the pictures at the end of this post and you’ll get the idea.
2. Email your picture (preferably hi-res jpeg format so it’s easier to edit).
3. Proceed to fill up the form and answer AT LEAST ONE or AT MOST TWO questions.
4. Once I receive your picture along with the completed form, it will all be uploaded in Facebook. You can tag yourself there if we’re not Facebook friends.
POTENTIAL OF SMALL TALK
For those who are in Klang Valley, I would like to invite you to attend an upcoming talk on “Potential of Small” on 11 January 2011, starting at 8.00 p.m. at Amcorp Tower, Petaling Jaya. If you would like to attend the talk on Potential of Small, please REGISTER considering that the seats are limited. The deadline for registration is 10 January 2011.
2010 was a great year. I’ve achieved most of my goals and everyday was an adventure.
I became a President of PN Health Club in the beginning of the year. To live up to that title, I became obsessed with fitness and health. I started to go to gym almost everyday, played sports and organized health outings for the health club members and my friends as well. I changed my meal consumption to healthier diet. Becoming a vegetarian, slowly but surely, also helped a lot. My intention to become a vegetarian was not so much about being healthy, it was part of the movement to stop or prevent cruelty against animals.
Speaking of fighting for animal rights, I finally managed to overcome my laziness to become a volunteer, helping out at our National Zoo and also at the SPCA animal shelter. To further create awareness, I also posted a few PETA videos in my YouTube. Although I do encourage people to become vegetarian or eat lesser meat, I have nothing against meat-eaters for I was once a meat-eater myself. I think it’s a choice we make in our lives.
In Platinum Networkers, I was excited to participate and graduated from D.W.I.T Workshop. D.W.I.T stands for Do Whatever It Takes. Although I’ve been in the business for a year, I learned a lot from this workshop because it was a comprehensive guide and learning to kickstart our business. Another new support system we launched this year was Platinum 10 CAN, where we train our networkers to improve their communication and marketing skills, at the same time, generating results along the way.
I didn’t travel much this year. I went for a diving trip in March with some close friends and went to Bangkok, Thailand for a short vacation. I managed to meet up with a Facebook friend which was really awesome. I love meeting up Facebook friends but I haven’t done much of it. Maybe it’s something I would like to do more in 2011. In 2010, I was basically busy with other activities like futsal competitions, cheerleading competition, Securities Commission family day and some random hang-outs. I felt like I was back in university years.
It was really an awesome year except that my granny passed away in December, which was a real shocker. I miss her occasionally but I don’t want to think too much of it. She will always be in my heart. Inspired by her, I have a new cause I would like to fight for. Basically, it’s a fight against elderly abuse but I don’t want to focus on the negative, so I rather encourage people to love their parents instead.
Now I’m totally ready for 2011, a new decade! Bring it on!
I have nothing against the older generations but as a millennial a.k.a Gen Y, it frustrated me that some of the older generations tend to stereotype us as unwilling to work hard and take responsibility, give up easily, too demanding, too playful, too lazy, and the list goes on. It doesn’t matter anymore now. What matters most is whether or not we’re willing to unlearn and relearn.
So what if one has 20 or 30 years of experience in something? The question I would like to ask is if they really have many different experience in that 30 years or they have on year of experience 30 times? I’m not intimidated by experienced people. They may be good at what they do but I’m also very good at what I do. I admire only those who are willing to unlearn the old ways to learn new ways and to relearn certain fundamentals when it’s necessary.
Being in the training industry for years, I’ve seen people who are so arrogant with their perceived knowledge that they are not willing to listen to anything else you have to say unless you have more experience in terms of years compared to them. To me, experience is not measured by the number of years but the number of exposure. It’s useless holding on to past knowledge that is no longer applicable now. The world is moving forward at a real fast pace and if we don’t make the effort to chase after new knowledge, we’re by default moving backward.
I’m writing this post with the intention to create an awareness towards elderly abuse. I read about it before but I never thought it would happen in my family. As angry as I am with the recent passing of my granny due to domestic abuse, I do not want to channel my energy into negativity and hatred. I do not want to declare war against elderly abuse as I will be attracting hateful energy rather than peaceful and positive energy.
The fact is…my granny is gone. We just buried her a few hours ago. There’s nothing we can do to bring her back. But what I can do now is to share my family’s story to let you all know how painful it is to have our beloved granny suffering in silence. We knew she was unhappy at home but we had no idea it was so bad to the point that she was depressed. My mom did ask her to come stay with us but she refused to. Typical of granny. She just didn’t want to trouble us.
Photo: Me and Granny (1930-2010)
The last time I saw her was earlier this year when we celebrated her birthday. She was so happy. I want to keep this memory of her. Mother Teresa once said, “I was once asked why I don’t participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I’ll be there.”
I don’t want other families to go through the pain my family is going through now, so together, we need to educate people to be more loving towards the elderly. Start small from home. Love and respect your parents and your grandparents. Remember! Without them, there’s no you.
They raised you up, loving you unconditionally. The least you could do is to look after them when they are physically frail. That’s when we know it’s our time to be a parent to our parents. Like a child you were once before, they just want you to pay just a little attention to them. It’s not too much to ask.
Anyway, I would like to share with you this video on an old father, a son and a sparrow.
The sad fact is our parents love us unconditionally but most of us tend to love them with conditions.
