Friday, January 27, 2012

Where everybody knows your name

To be perfectly honest, the fringe benefits of getting up at 4:30 in the morning and travelling to a shala to practice yoga are sometimes elusive, but here's one: great customer service!

Not only have I come to know some of my fellow riders on that 5:15 streetcar (the two or three who ride at that ungodly hour), but I've come to know the various drivers as well. I don't always have the same guy (and at that time of morning, it always seems to be a male driver) but it seems to be a consistent group.

This morning, the 5:15 streetcar never arrived, so I had to wait for the 5:30. One of my favourite drivers was driving that one. I greeted him and he shared the gossip: the 5:15 had broken down and was waiting in the bay for maintenance.

As I was exiting at my stop, I noticed that I didn't have my gloves with me. With a sinking feeling, I realised that they had probably fallen onto the streetcar platform at my originating station - I set them in my lap when I sat down to wait for the tardy streetcar. I told my driver and he promised that he would look for them the next time he passed through the station.

A few hours later, I finished my practice and I headed back to the station. When I approached a supervisor on the platform, I didn't even need to tell him what I was looking for. He said: "Gloves?" I nodded. He retrieved them from the control room for me.

At any other time of day, I'll bet those gloves would have never made it back to me, but at 5:30 in the morning, the world is just a bit friendlier...if you know the right people.

Stuff like this makes my big city feel smaller and warmer!


Princess Fur Friday: This is the smirk she gets on her face when she wants to be fed and I'm not fulfilling her Royal Demands quickly enough.

Lunch, Your Majesty? Rowr!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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