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Welcome to The Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong on . Local Time . |
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From the Club President |
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The Correspondent, January-February 2010, p2 |
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Dear Members,
The climb from the Pedder Street MTR station to the FCC is familiar to most of our members. For many of us, it is the only regular exercise we get. I like to think of that steep set of stairs between Wyndham and Ice House streets as the Club’s own Hillary Step – a final formidable obstacle before reaching the welcome summit of our Main Bar.
The next time you are at the bottom of those stairs, pausing to catch your breath before tackling them, take a second to note the small door to your right, under a faded old FCC sign.
For February is our unofficial Staff Appreciation Month, and it is through that easy-to-miss back door that our staff enter and exit the Club.
On February 6 the Club will be closed for our annual off-site staff party, an evening of fun, food and games also attended by the FCC’s 17 governors.
To those members who pride themselves on their prodigious tolerances, I promise that many members of our otherwise sober staff can probably drink you under the table.
They often trounce the governors at one of the party’s most important traditions – the drinking games. And we governors are hardly a bunch of lightweights when it comes to quaffing booze, although I must confess I failed the Board team miserably at last year’s beer relay race.
But back to that door. As our staff enter they pass by a small shrine to Mo Di (as in Man Mo Temple on Hollywood Road), the Han dynasty warrior and god of war revered by soldiers, policemen and triads alike. Less reverentially, there is also a picture of each governor hung on the wall.
If there to aid recognition, the pictures’ usefulness is distinctly limited. That is because most of the photos are the same ones we submitted for our first membership card. Let’s just say that most of us governors have become, over the ensuing years, considerably more, errr, “prosperous” around the middle.
My own picture there was taken seven years ago on the eve of my 33rd birthday, when my hair was much longer and less grey than it is now.
It bears rather more of a resemblance to Little Lord Fauntleroy than it does to my soon-to-be, sighhh, 40-year-old self. It is a wonder that the staff are able to recognise me at all.
After changing into their uniforms, our staff go about their often difficult jobs with their usual good cheer and considerable work ethic. Those labouring in the kitchen have it particularly tough.
Whether it is Chef George and his team, or Jimmy and the other dishwashers, all work in a very hot and small space.
Orders punched in at Bert’s, the Main Bar and upstairs Dining Room come in via a ticker, where they are read out to the chefs over a small speaker system. Remarkably, the chefs simply make a mental note of the fast flowing verbal instructions and execute them entirely from memory.
A small room by the Wyndham Street entrance provides a final reminder of how hard our staff work. Sweaty uniforms are deposited for washing at the end of every shift. For our lucky laundry company, it is very good business indeed.
So the next time you dash through our beautiful front entrance on Lower Albert Road, the door held open for you, spare a thought for our hard-working staff and wish them a great night out on February 6.
Tom Mitchell
Club President
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