Dobel's Fantasy World

Many many things happened during this missing period. Though they took place in a smooth and peaceful way, who could imagine, even if in half a year ago, that all this would happen to me. Maybe I should say that I am settling down in this country now. As a matter of fact, I even had a thought of buying a property here. The problem of surviving always haunts me. I am really tired.

Suddenly I become homesick. I was so sentimental that I actually broke down in the middle of my phone call on the New Year's Eve night. Apparently my sister in the other end didn't notice it because the line wasn't quite clear. I miss mum.

David asked on the air whether I would be acting as the spokesman for the small group of Stirling staff who were suddenly trapped in loads of troubles. I have no choice but to take that role especially when both Max and Kat are off today and tomorrow as well.

Lying in the couch I could not help but pondering what I should speak if I actually get a chance to discuss with Paul, the manager superior to Delphine whose acts and words are not understanding to me.

The first controversy comes from the alternation of condition about transportation. Over the past 16 months, we have been getting paid for the half of hour spent on the way back home. Last week, however, Delphine abolished this policy by simply sending us a so-called reminder via e-mail. The fact is that none of us was aware of this in the first place. Personally I think regard it as a fundamental modification of terms which was supposed to be consulted with us beforehand, and to inform us as early as it takes into effect.

We find it very difficult to understand and get along with it because in general we are doing much better now than the time we just started. But as a result we get less paid. And this change of policy is obviously opposite to Hotel's plan to motivate staff by recent pay increase from which the incremental wages we can obtain are overwhelming offset by this negative alternation. I have to say that it is very domotivating and because of it we feel that we are punished for some reason which we would like to know if they do exist.

This is our main purpose of this meeting. i.e. to seek a reasonable explanation if this change has been justified already by the management. The other issue we wish the management to be aware of is relative to the time of signing out as well.

Recently there have been a few occasions where we were asked to sign out earlier than the sheduled time. A problem would occur if the taxi company was too busy to come to pick us up at the time just decided by the headwaiter. For exmaple, the taxi is not able to come till 20 minutes after we signed out. According to Delphine's, we Stirling staff cannot get paid for this 20 minutes simply because we are not working.

It is just too unfair. We already suffer loss in the sense we were expecting to earn more than we actually made because of the shortened shifts which we think result from managerial misjudgement. We are absolutely sorry for this and show our undertanding by agreeing to sign out earlier. The supply of transportation is the keystone of our contract otherwise no Stirling staff would come to work in Gleneagles. If there was anything wrong with the taxi, the Hotel should take the responsiblity to sort it out and we Stirling employee should be free of loss incurred since it is only in cases of changing finish time where delay of taxi will possibly happen. As far as this issue concerned, we think our sign-out time should be the time when taxi comes.

I have been thinking about this letter for more than a week. First of all I apologize for my selfish decision to discontinue the study, and for all the trouble I have brought to you.

Recently it has been increasingly difficult for me to motivate myself to reach the goal you might have expected me to get. On the other side, the desire to go for accountancy as my future career has swallowed me, which has been in my mind since the first day I started.

Before further into reasons, I would like to thank you for offering me a chance to imagine a life that could be completely different. I also wish you know how much I am grateful to your tolerance in my incompetence which I will remember for ever.

If possible can I have a short meething with you for saying good-bye.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AFP) - China's Liu Xiang set a new 110 metres hurdles world record on a stunning night in Lausanne.

Liu scorched to the finishing line in a time of 12.88sec, beating the old mark of 12.91 that he shared with Britain'sColin Jackson and which had stood since 1993.