edges of the tissue to the right angle. (Not just to please me, Mrs Bell would say,rapping her pencil on the desk, but to show that care has been taken in preparing the Global’s bathrooms; what’s the watchword, girls? Customer Care. One new girl had been sacked, ostensibly for uncleanliness, but really for suggesting Mrs Bell’s watchword was two words.)
Or, simply, unromantic unadorned information like how each member of staff received a piece of paper with a room chart on it in his or her pigeonhole every morning at six which told them which guests were staying and which weren’t. This would have been of some use to Deirdre perhaps, or how the trick in Reception, when no bosses were around and it wasn’t too busy, was to answer the phone saying Good evening, Global Hotels, can I help you? Just one moment please, I’ll put you through to Room Availability , then to push button 9 (which relayed Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 23 through the receiver into the listener’s ear), lay the phone on the desk, wait as long as you dared, push button 9 again and say into the same receiver, in another voice, as if you were another person, Room Availability, Global Hotels, can I help you ?
Or how, when you work in a hotel, whatever it is you do – whether it’s smiling at guests on the front desk or spitting in food in the kitchen, stripping beds of the smells of people or smoking against the rules out on the fire escapes, whatever – presses you hard, with your nose squashed and your face distorted and ugly, right up against the window of other people’s wealth, for which employment you are, usually quite badly, paid.
All of these things, countless more things like this shewould have loved to hear, found useful to know, if only Lise had been able to remember them. Certainly making an effort to think about the hotel at all had brought something back into Lise’s head today, for instance. But she couldn’t quite get to it. It was something about baths, about a bath, something to do with a bathroom, and instead of it, in front of it in her head, was the voice of the TV-advert bottle of bubble bath singing along to the pictures of the bathtime children and their joyful mother. Your Matey’s a bottle of fun. You puts me in the bath. I’m fun for everyone. I’m always good for a laugh. And while they splash in the tub. Your Matey gets them clean. So you don’t have to scrub. No matter where they’ve been. There’s one more thing to tell. Your Matey gets things right. So I cleans the bath as well. There ain’t a mark in sight.
The singing bottle was shaped like a sailor. He danced around superimposed on everything Lise was trying to think. There were added s’s on put and clean , to make the bottle’s song sound more like real sailor’s idiom. Remembering this made Lise, lying still and dizzy in bed, feel comforted. There were things after all, even minute details, that she still knew perfectly. She smiled, wan in the wan room. She wondered if the Matey song would be any use to Deirdre. Perhaps she should write it down for her. She would find the pencil. Singing bubble-bath bottle. That was something. She would write it on the form.
Sitting in a chair We need to know if you have any difficulties sitting comfortably in a chair . By sitting comfortably we mean without having to move from the chair because the degree of discomfort makes it impossible to continue sitting. By chair we mean an upright chair with a back, but no arms . Please tick the first statement that applies to you. Tick one box only .
I do not have a problem with sitting
I cannot sit comfortably at all
I cannot sit comfortably for more than 10 minutes ,
without having to move from the chair
I cannot sit comfortably for more than 30 minutes ,
without having to move from the chair
I cannot sit comfortably for more than one hour ,
without having to move from the chair
I cannot sit comfortably for more than two hours ,
without having to move from
Or, simply, unromantic unadorned information like how each member of staff received a piece of paper with a room chart on it in his or her pigeonhole every morning at six which told them which guests were staying and which weren’t. This would have been of some use to Deirdre perhaps, or how the trick in Reception, when no bosses were around and it wasn’t too busy, was to answer the phone saying Good evening, Global Hotels, can I help you? Just one moment please, I’ll put you through to Room Availability , then to push button 9 (which relayed Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 23 through the receiver into the listener’s ear), lay the phone on the desk, wait as long as you dared, push button 9 again and say into the same receiver, in another voice, as if you were another person, Room Availability, Global Hotels, can I help you ?
Or how, when you work in a hotel, whatever it is you do – whether it’s smiling at guests on the front desk or spitting in food in the kitchen, stripping beds of the smells of people or smoking against the rules out on the fire escapes, whatever – presses you hard, with your nose squashed and your face distorted and ugly, right up against the window of other people’s wealth, for which employment you are, usually quite badly, paid.
All of these things, countless more things like this shewould have loved to hear, found useful to know, if only Lise had been able to remember them. Certainly making an effort to think about the hotel at all had brought something back into Lise’s head today, for instance. But she couldn’t quite get to it. It was something about baths, about a bath, something to do with a bathroom, and instead of it, in front of it in her head, was the voice of the TV-advert bottle of bubble bath singing along to the pictures of the bathtime children and their joyful mother. Your Matey’s a bottle of fun. You puts me in the bath. I’m fun for everyone. I’m always good for a laugh. And while they splash in the tub. Your Matey gets them clean. So you don’t have to scrub. No matter where they’ve been. There’s one more thing to tell. Your Matey gets things right. So I cleans the bath as well. There ain’t a mark in sight.
The singing bottle was shaped like a sailor. He danced around superimposed on everything Lise was trying to think. There were added s’s on put and clean , to make the bottle’s song sound more like real sailor’s idiom. Remembering this made Lise, lying still and dizzy in bed, feel comforted. There were things after all, even minute details, that she still knew perfectly. She smiled, wan in the wan room. She wondered if the Matey song would be any use to Deirdre. Perhaps she should write it down for her. She would find the pencil. Singing bubble-bath bottle. That was something. She would write it on the form.
Sitting in a chair We need to know if you have any difficulties sitting comfortably in a chair . By sitting comfortably we mean without having to move from the chair because the degree of discomfort makes it impossible to continue sitting. By chair we mean an upright chair with a back, but no arms . Please tick the first statement that applies to you. Tick one box only .
I do not have a problem with sitting
I cannot sit comfortably at all
I cannot sit comfortably for more than 10 minutes ,
without having to move from the chair
I cannot sit comfortably for more than 30 minutes ,
without having to move from the chair
I cannot sit comfortably for more than one hour ,
without having to move from the chair
I cannot sit comfortably for more than two hours ,
without having to move from
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