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Monday, October 13, 2003
One place everywhere
By J.A. Bacalso
“I think we maybe all rely too much on one place. And I’d be happy and fulfilled in one place” -Tracy Thorne and Ben Watt, “One Place”
And if Karl Hudson were to draw a line of where he’s been, it would go through sea and sky, as the song will tell you.
Cebu City Marriott Hotel’s spanking new general manager arrived like a rock star, displayed a flair for comedy, and works like a horse…all this evident in a span of a few weeks. In a dark navy muscle shirt and European-cut pants, the strapping England born New Zealander cut a fine figure at the lobby the day he arrived. At his official welcome, a few days after, Karl surprises everyone with a comic skit. The punchline revolved around what a good hotel manager would do with a cigarette butt flicked by God knows who on the lobby floor.
“Mr. Good Manager”, his fourth version, bends down, picks the stub, lights it up and proceeds to smoke it, mouthing in between puffs … “A good manager knows that every little thing counts.”
“The act was something I stole from someone,” he jokes on a pre-breakfast chat. “Apart from sleeping, I love golf.” And his handicap? “Work is my handicap,” he offers back with a laugh, quick and easy. He’s in between rounds, this early in the morning, looking snug in a business suit. Despite humorous jabs at it, the job is something he doesn’t kid around with.
From catering in Antartica to various hotel positions in Japan, Australia, and China, Karl finds himself on our little island, the ninth country he has come to live in. Finding the familiar brings us to one shared passion: music. “Love Me Tender, Blue Suede Shoes...I grew up singing Elvis Presley songs,” Karl confesses, adding also that several careers ago, he was a disc jockey playing old-school British rock. He’s a connoisseur of sorts for karaoke clubs around the world, too. “In Japan, it’s all computerized.
You choose your songs and order drinks and food all from one remote control. In China, everything is coated in gold.” And lest you date him unfairly and hang him up with the good old oldies, Karl is pleasantly surprised when I sing him a few lines of Sway; he is a big fan of Bic Runga who has native Kiwi roots.
“But I like to be wherever I am,” Karl offers. And whenever he finds himself traveling, he is never without his digital Toshiba camera, the better to keep memories close. “And my Montecristos #2,” he says with the air of a man who knows exactly what he wants, be it in the matter of cigars or career.
Karl will not have a difficult time easing into the ebullience of the Cebuano. Even his family is Filipino-sized. “I’m the oldest among seven: three younger sisters and three younger brothers.”
And even the appetite is Filipino-caliber: “I cook for two for one because I eat a lot.”
And how does the Everything But the Girl song end? "In the end if you take care, you can be happy or unhappy anywhere." So who needs just one place now? “Ka shi kom arishita,” concurs Karl, in an Oriental language he has learned to speak like a native.
“Yes indeed.”
(October 13, 2003 issue)
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