UEFA 014 – Call home

During the training days, I did made phone calls back home to my wife and children in Singapore, but, the calls were expensive, if originating from Switzerland.

Therefore, my wife and I made arrangements for her to call me at Hotel Heerbruggerhof, only at 12noon in Singapore, which will be about 7am in Switzerland. That was the ideal time, because I just woke-up to get ready for breakfast, and the housekeeper, Anne, is ready, to call me.

Heerbruggerhof is a family-run hotel, where ‘hof’ means ‘house’. As such, there were not enough facilities in the room.

Telephone calls can only be made or received from a public telephone at the first level.

For incoming calls, Anne, wife of the owner or her children will run up the stairs and knock our rooms, to inform us of the incoming calls. I think their bedrooms are at Level 4 or 5.

Therefore, it would be too much trouble for them to attend to incoming calls at night. Morning was the only perfect time.

Only in case of urgency or emergency, I allowed my wife to call me at 12 midnight in Singapore, which is about 7pm in Switzerland. During my stay there, it happened only once.

In the evenings, Heerbruggerhof was very busy with groups of old folks. They were playing cards and chatting in the restaurant of the hotel. Once, I saw there were about 30 of them. The cards they played were narrow and long about the size of 3 ice-cream sticks join together.

Due to language barrier, I only managed to give courtesy smiles, while watching them playing.
They seemed to be fond of my presence and interest. I was then 33 while they were all above 60.

On the walls of Heerbruggerhof were paintings of the old images of the Heerbruggerhof and the vicinity around it. I learned from the paintings that the present pedestrian tunnel had replaced the surface railway crossing.

========will be continued=========
~drafted on 07.12.2006
~edited on 19.03.2007
~at Woodlands avenue 5
~21:30 hrs