civilized ku # 55 ~ antithesis, or, oh, the tragedy
Monday, September 10, 2007 at 01:43PM 
MAtthew's smiling but feeels like a turd • click to embiggenIn an tourism antithesis event (see urban ku # 102 ~ a tourism "nightmare", this past weekend the wife and I stayed ( a return visit) in a hotel. In fact, in Canada's #1 rated hotel - the Auberge du Vieux-Port in Montreal.
One of the reasons that we return to the Auberge du Vieux-Port is Matthew, the valet. The entire staff is excellent, but if this guy can't make you feel warm and welcome, no one can. He always seems to be there in the lobby, right outside of the elevator, full of greetings, banter and helpful information. His sense of humor and timing is exquisite and everything about him seems utterly genuine.
Upon arrival, he greets you at your car, unloads your stuff and gets you to your room. After that he parks your car. Upon departure, it works in reverse and therein is the tragedy. Due to a quirky series of circumstance surrounding a marthon nearby, Matthew delivered our (brand new) car for departure complete with a nasty gouge in the front bumper. Matthew was beside himself (if only my kids could at least appear as crest-fallen, remorseful and contrite as Matthew).
The hotel, of course, made everything right but Matthew seemed so out of sorts that we gave him a really big tip to help him snap out of it.
Reader Comments (1)
The first shot has excellent light throughout even though the ambient lighting must have had some big differences (especially in the room at bottom of the stairs vs the top). It's the kind of shot you see in books that show how to place a hundred lights to bring up the ambient enough for a good exposure.