Basket.

It's been a drab Sunday so far, and the skies are as grey as the day itself. We were supposed to catch Napola yesterday, but with only one showing and that at 9.15pm, it became kind of impossible. Result: I stayed home to rot instead. Home, where nothing interesting ever happens. Not that boredom is always a bad thing.

I've been following the public's hot topic of the moment: local service standards and what we ought to do to raise them. Because they sure as hell need raising. Why, last Tuesday I went to a buffet at a fairly posh hotel; asking for a cut of roast beef, I received a look from the chef performing the duty that suggested my presence was just about as welcome as the metaphorical fly in the soup. He proceeded to enquire about what I desired with a flick of his head - an extremely gangster-like gesture that I cannot fully describe but can show you anytime in real life. That way of treating customers sure as heck isn't going to earn him or his place of employment many service accolades anytime soon. I'll let them off though, because the meal was free anyway (couponscouponscoupons). Later that day, then, came the incident with the security guard at RJ, whom I did not let off the hook for reasons stated below.

I've had other experiences - from the KFC employee who yawned as she took our order and seemed utterly disinterested in serving us, to the female cashier at McDonalds' who eyed me with suspicion and pelted me with tart questions before she finally deigned to release to me the few packets of garlic chili sauce that was all I wanted. Of course I've had good experiences too, but far fewer. Generally I'm satisfied if the service personnel treat me with professional indifference, or at least make the effort, even if it isn't very well-disguised sometimes that they neither want to be there nor want me to be there. Unfortunately, too many don't even manage to give me this standard.

What I have to say though, in all fairness to service staff, is that the Singaporean customer in general is very demanding and very often rude. Many of them do take for granted service personnel and seem not to exactly treat them as the human beings that they are. "The customer is always right" carried too far is my assessment of how Singaporean customers treat the staff who serve them. I've never been on that particular side of the counter (and I don't think I'll ever be, god forbid), but I've seen enough to know.

How do we change all this? Well, it's already been tried, with the movement for a gracious society. But that particular buzzword is rarely mentioned these days. I think they just about finally realised it's been an abject failure. It's not easy changing mindsets and entire cultures. For better service standards, this has to be done - that is, we'll probably never see better standards of service in Singapore.