A true story___!
One stormy night many years ago, an elderly man and his wife entered the lobby of a small hotel in Philadelphia. Trying to get out of the rain, the couple approached the front desk hoping to get some shelter for the night.

"Could you possibly give us a room here?" the husband asked.

The clerk, a friendly man with a winning smile, looked at the couple and explained that there were three conventions in town. "All of our rooms are taken," the clerk said. "But I can't send a nice couple like you out into the rain at one o'clock in the morning. Would you perhaps be willing to sleep in my room? It's not exactly a suite, but it will be good enough to make you folks comfortable for the night."

When the couple declined, the young man pressed on. "Don't worry about me, I'll make out just fine," the clerk told them.

So the couple agreed.

As he paid his bill the next morning, the elderly man said to the clerk, "You are the kind of manager who should be the boss of the best hotel in the United States. Maybe someday I'll build one for you."

The clerk looked at them and smiled. The three of them had a good laugh. As they drove away, the elderly couple agreed that the helpful clerk was indeed exceptional, as finding people who are both friendly and helpful isn't easy.

Two years passed. The clerk had almost forgotten the incident when he received a letter from the old man. It recalled that stormy night and enclosed a round-trip ticket to New York, asking the young man to pay them a visit.

The old man met him in New York, and led him to the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. He then pointed to a great new building there, a pale reddish stone, with turrets and watchtowers thrusting up to the sky.

"That," said the older man, "is the hotel I have just built for you to manage."

"You must be joking," the young man said.

"I can assure you I am not," said the older man, a sly smile playing around his mouth.

The older man's name was William Waldorf-Aster, and that magnificent structure was the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The young clerk who became its first manager was George C. Boldt. This young clerk never foresaw the turn of events that would lead him to become the manager of one of the world's most glamorous hotels.

Nice story!

:cat: Good morning S60 R.

Thanks for your remarks.

I'm always interested in these stories.

The experience certainly rings true when you think that Philadelphia is the 'Land of brotherly love'.

Cheers :right:

Well, except for our current record high murder rate....

:cat: Hi there S60 R

You are not alone with the high murder rate.

We've got that now in seriously big numbers. Believe it or not, children under 5 years of age are coming into hospitals now with seriously terminal injuries. This is very new for us.

This is the results of drugs like Ectasy and P. Once the drugs take over the parents-the children are in for a bad time. In many cases, the relatives are no better. In one case, a 47 year old man did nothing when a three year old child was:

swung around a clothes line in a baby carrier until she fell out and hit the ground;

had wooden sticks thrown at her while she was on the roof of the family house;

was put in a clothes dryer for half an hour.

Mercifully she died when the life support systems were turned off.

So, I live in a green coloured water saturated country which is trying to deal with the effects of drugs in our society. I assure you S60 R, you have very little to live down by comparison with us.

feel-good story. :clap: just goes to show that it pays to be nice and friendly. :thumbsup:


__________________
early Christmas wishlist:
- volvo head gasket
- a paint job in green.. or pale pink ^_^
- volvo headlight wiper blade

:cat: Hi there pennylane.

Thank you for your remarks.

It is the feel-good aspect which appealed to me and that is why I posted it. :)

Cheers :right:

And there was me thinking of taking a look at NZ with a view to moving there full time to get away from this country :haha:

:cat: Hi there big_ben.

STAY WHERE YOU ARE!!

New Zealand is not the progressive country the politicans tell you it is. We have major problems here.

I'll give you the serious statistics:

Our Police have shot and killed 23 citizens in the course of their duties.

Our citizens have shot and killed 19 Policemen in the course of their duties;

since 1840.

In 1990, we shot and killed two Policemen in that year!

Those statistics reflect a violent society.

We have just taken the Taser stun gun off the Police. We let the Police have them for a year as a trial. Whether we give the Police the Taser stun gun back is yet to be decided.

Stay in England-you are far better off.

Cheers :right:

Interesting! You obviously feel pasionatly about the way your society is going, much the same as we do here. In the last few months we have had an 11 year old shot dead whilst he played football in the park, some guy killed in the street because he had the cheek to confront a man who threw a half eaten chocolate bar in his car, dozons on men from 30years plus kicked / stabbed to death by gangs of youths causing problems in residential areas.

Drug problems going through the roof is another one.

We also have a police force that is so depleted and tied down with paperwork that they are virtually useless, and a prison system so full that the scum is being let out early or never put away in the first place.

Your property is only your own until someone takes it, if you defend it and loose out then you are a fool, if you defend it and give the filth a beating then you WILL see the Police, as they come to get YOU so the scum can take you to court for compensation.

Its all gone mad

We are taxed from all angles, yet if you work the chances are when things go wrong and you need support there will be none available. If you choose to sit on your backside you are looked after as required, knock a kid out at the same time and you will even get a nice big house whilst the rest of us are turned over with crippling debts and tax's

We pay for pensions but are told not to really expect anything usefull by the time we get to needing them.

Dont even start me on our National Health "service"

Anyway...what do you like about NZ? You appear to have a staggeringly beautiful country (as we do here) but a much smaller population for your land area (unless you head for the Scottish highlands we seem to be "infested" with humans). What do you think of your quality of life over there (housing/ wealth/ leisure time etc)

Sorry, i'm going very :offtopic: