What a hunk!

The road to Kuala Lumpur wealth, affluence, and fame is not an easy road to traverse, and is one often filled with broken deals, hardship, disappointment, and outright failure. Those who made it are able to scratch and claw their way out of the ranks of the masses to realize their dreams are few.

Kuala Lumpur, by and large, is charming, friendly city, where people smile at each other and occasionally greet each other on the street, as is somewhat common among the West Malaysians. I have adopted similar outlook in life after leaving my hometown, a laid back little town, couple of years ago.

Struggling to keep up with the stride of the achievers, I worked relentlessly to improve my status in an ever-changing of the hotel industry. I attended functions, held by the government departments or embassies, entertained journalists for afternoon high-teas at the executive lounge of the hotel I worked; participated in many tourism trade shows; climbed some of the tallest buildings in the city to make courtesy calls to big corporations; all for only one cause, to get ahead in the game.

That morning, the city was bustling with activities of all sorts. I buzzed the intercom at the entrance gate of the American embassy building located at Jalan Tungku Abdul Rahman. A middle-age Indian "jaga" (security guard), peeped his head through a small window with no nonsense demeanor. "Ada buat temujanji?" ("Have you made any appointment?")he asked in Malay. I told him I have an appointment with the secretary of the US ambassador at 9am. My visit to the embassy that day has nothing to do with me personally. It was part of my routine job at the hotel to make a monthly courtesy call.

Call it my lucky day or was it? I was heading for the secretary's office when I stumbled upon a gentleman in the elevator. He was young, handsome and athletic build. For a second, I thought I saw Richard Gere but I when I did a quick mental assessment, he could be over 6 feet tall. So it can't be him. I couldn't help but just admired his well structured physique and charming look. Too engrossed, I did not realized I dropped few copies of my promotional material, which I had prepared earlier in a folder, on the floor. "Excuse me, you dropped some papers on the floor" said the gentleman. He bent down and collected them for me. I thanked him and was about to make an exit from the elevator when he spoke up again. He requested a copy of the hotel brochure from me and I gave him one with my business card stapled on it. I went on my way and he continued to his floor.

Later that evening at the hotel, while typing my press release, the hotel telephone operator buzzed me. "Miss Jessie, there is a call from Mr David Holly for you. Do you want me to put through his call?" she asked. Nonchalantly, I said yes. My focus at the time was on my last paragraph of the hotel press release. I was preoccupied and seriously wrecking my head trying to come up with a closing slogan for my Food & Beverage promotion.

"Hello, Jessie Mambasal? This is David Holly. We met in the elevator this morning," said a man with an American accent. I immediately dropped everything I was doing and just awed in bewilderment. Oh my God, oh my God, that hunk! Yes indeed, that same hunk I was admiring that morning!

To make a story short, he invited me for a drink at the Mirage near Ampang Point that evening. I gladly accepted his offer and 3 years later we became Mr & Mrs David Holly.

ends.