Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Back & Yack

I have returned from my little jaunt, and in my absence Scott of the Money Blogger Podcast has posted the interview I did with him recently. If you'd like to hear the dulcet tones of Madame X rambling on and on... and on... you can download the podcast here. I haven't listened to the interview yet myself, which I'm sure will be quite an odd experience, but all Scott's other podcasts have been great and I really enjoyed talking to him. (The only other person who has ever interviewed me was a French policeman, which was nowhere near as fun.)
Anyway, they say some people have a face that is made for radio... I hope that isn't the case with me, but let's also hope I don't have a speaking voice that's made for writing!

What other news? As usual, whenever I return from a business trip, there are receipts to be sorted and money to be counted. I usually get everything organized in an envelope, but then I tend to stick it in my desk drawer and forget to file an expense report for a few months!
Here is my other observation: in my last post I was grumbling about my hotel a bit. It wasn't a lousy hotel, but it seemed a bit expensive for the level of service, and all my colleagues also had issues with it. The funny thing was how much everyone complained about not getting enough soap. They didn't like it that when they opened the medium-size (not teeny weeny) bar of soap provided by the hotel, the maid didn't immediately give them another one. One person said "I had to use the same bar of soap the whole time we were here!" So by definition, one bar of soap must have been enough, right? It's funny how we demand overabundance sometimes, and see a perfectly reasonable amount of something as being stingy.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is so true. When I was doing my consulting gig and living in hotels for weeks, at first I would hoard all the toiletries. I had a whole stash of shampoo and conditioners and those little shoe shine cloths. I would use a new bar of soap every night and get my bed done every single day along with new towels.

By the end of a year of doing this, I would bring my own shampoo, and not use anything except for 1 towel and 1 bar of soap until it was gone. I started leaving the 'DND' sign up all day so the maid wouldn't have to do my bed and try to reorganize all my toothbrushes.

Anonymous said...

I stay in hotels a lot, and it always bugs me if the staff lets the shampoo or conditioner run out before replacing it. But I would never expect to get a new bar of soap every day! Think about how long a bar of soap lasts at home. Even the smallest hotel-sized soap could last a week.

Anonymous said...

....then they should pay the extra bucks and stay at 4 Seasons -- they replenish the soap daily!

I can't access your interview on the link provided. Clicking on the link brings up a photo album program I have. Any ideas?

Thanks. Keep up the nice blog!

Single Ma said...

Welcome back! Missed you bloggin.

optioned unarmed said...

It's a sad sign of our culture that people would want a new bar of soap every day. It's become acceptable to throw away so much. Everything is cheap and disposable, and most people never wonder what happens to all the junk they discard.