Sunday, May 11, 2008

The noises that Thomas hates

Okay, so I've accepted the fact that I am going to be staying in the same hotel every time I travel to Dubai this year. It's not the best hotel in the world, and it's not in the greatest location, but it's clean, the beds are comfortable, and since my company has a contract with this particular hotel there's really not much I can do about it in any case.

Every morning, breakfast is served in the hotel restaurant. It's the same food every day, and I could do without the bland, pre-made mini-omelets or the putrid instant coffee (seriously, the Middle East is supposed to be the birthplace of coffee, and they're serving Nescafe!). But some of the dishes, like the ginger stir-fried vegetables and the freshly-made hummous, are actually quite good, and since the breakfast is included in the price of the room, which is paid for by the company, I might as well take advantage of what for me is a free breakfast.

Except that the staff of said restaurant seems determined to make me not want to eat there. That's because they have a very annoying habit of playing these same six songs on a continuous loop almost every morning:
Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin, "Separate Lives"
Kenny Rogers, "She Believes in Me"
Phil Collins, "Against All Odds"
Klymaxx, "I Miss You"
Kelly Clarkson, "Because of You"
Lionel Richie, "Truly"
Quite frankly, I'm amazed that I'm able to keep my breakfast down while being exposed to that crap. Needless to say, on the days these songs are playing I have to eat as quickly as I can so as to limit the amount of time subjected to this hideous form of sound torture.

The amazing thing is that the waitstaff clearly adore these tunes. Especially the one Filipina waitress who stands at the servers' station, folding napkins and singing along to every one of these tunes, every time they play. I simply cannot comprehend how somebody could enjoy listening to THE SAME SIX CRAPPY SONGS over and over and over again, but, obviously, they do.

Which means that my breakfasts at the hotel restaurant will continue to be an unpleasant sonic experience for the duration of my time here in Dubai.

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