There were shouts behind me, as i stood by the lamp post. “Just GO AWAY! GO AWAY! FUCK OFF!” screams a woman, her speech semi slurred by her drunkedness, semi slurred by her voice which obviously was not used to screaming at the top of the voice.

11 p.m, and i am out on the streets, waiting for linxy to pick me up. Feet aching, mouth dry, body aching… oh what a day, and what a night.

For reasons unknown even to to me, i woke at six this morning, not totally refreshed, not very tired either. From there, i was going to bum till monday, since that is when i officially does have work, as according to my roster. so i was just playing lineage 2.. gaming, reading books. boring stuff that i normally do each day, so that i don’t spend as much money as compared to if i do go out.

The tendency to spend as i window shop.. is terribly high.

“meow!….” went my phone at 4.15pm… it was Don, my night manager. “hey Cheryl, how are ya?”

“Good good, bumming around, what’s up?”

“you think you can work tonight?”

*money flashes all across the eye* “sure why not? what time do you want me in by?”

“how’s 6 to you?”

“awesome, see you then.”

“sure”

and just like that, i broke the perfect party up, with my potential “e-husband” for Chronicle 4, and just went for work.

Upon reaching, i can see why they needed me. Saturday, busy night, lotsa customers, yet Josie, one of the regular girls, called in sick. with one trainee and 5 girls, it just wasn’t enough. they even pulled a kitchen staff out to work with us, helping us tick off the food and giving us the table number.

2 trainees to clean up and man the food running, 5 to take orders, not a bad thing.

except, a few days ago, during a chance overhearing, i know Wan was inviting Josie to her birthday party. which was… today. and while we are “part-timers” if we are sick, we are still entitled to our salary, under sick pay. of course, if we aren’t rostered, we aren’t paid.

Guess what happened.

except, i won’t tell anyone about it, because it is just retarded to talk about such things. besides, i have no proof. i am not one to tell on my colleagues anyways, also, coz i am likely to do it myself just coz i need the break from work every now and then, but i still need the money.

Years ago, i was working with a call centre. it was a job that started out initially farely fun. people were nice, people were fun to be with and i enjoyed it immensely. we had great relationships with our superiors, and no matter how boring the call centre may be, the superiors had try to make it less of a bore.

Behind every pretty scene though, there are cracks, and there are the bitches. It is so in most workplaces, it is just how one deals with it that makes the difference. i chose ignorance. however, as time goes by, it can get terribly lonesome and a huge task to even bring myself to work.

Boring work and bitchy colleagues weren’t a good equation for a conducive and encouraging work environment. and i am not one to push myself. by the second month at work, i started coming up with all kinds of illness not to turn up on fridays. it was fairly obvious, and they didn’t like it. However, with official documentation, all they could do is just hint at my lack of enthusiasm and get upset about it.

After all, in my opinion, why push yourself to be what you are not? that was, anyways, a part time job that i knew was not going to last. at that time, i was preparing to work for something else instead. something that pays me better, and loves me better.

I am not saying that the job and company i am in now is bad, mean and cruel. the truth is, food and beverage is a tough industry. every job is, but i believe that food and beverage itself is tough just on the physical side alone. At the end of each work day, for me, i am drained. i want to hit the sack and permnanently stay there. It’s not something i intend to do for the rest of my life.

For all the pay though, i am willing to take on this burden now. just so that i can pass through this hurdle. Despite all the crap the little babies give me, throwing vegetables at me for fun and what not, this will come to pass.

i am not judging josie, rather, i know i would probably do the same thing as she did too. it’s a tough life being a waitress.

have fun josie, i know i would.

aside from the fact that i might have to part with my ibook, nothing else is very wrong in my life.

ever since i first came, i have been trying to stay home for the most part, just to save on spending outside, because i know my parents can’t afford it. my few indulges therefore, actually lies in eating out and playing games. games of course, last for ages. my cs lasted me for about 3 years before i truly started playing the game, and even so, the fun lasted for more than a year. the same goes for l2.

food wise, i often tried to eat out after my initial year here. as i have mentioned before, food at burgie sux. there are times, when i feel that they actually deliberately made it bad so that they can save the money towards… whatever they want to do with it, rather than actually feeding us.

trying to shrug off the sadness of a possible departure with my ibook, i went off to have lunch at work today, seeing that i would be able to get it free or something along that line. the great part about eating at your work place is that you immediately feel at home. you can chat with those people like they are your family.

of course where i work, they have a long standing background of treating their customers like we are family anyways, thus the reason why we kept on going back, aside from the good food. still, it was a relief to be back at a nice “homely” place. funny though, since i have only worked there for 4 days officially.

upon arrival, i was told my tax forms were filled wrong and after my luncheon, i should go fix it up so they could pay me properly >.< i knew that was going to happen. i happily sat in my little corner though, just right after the entrance, but tuck behind the first set of stairs, so i am not easily noticeable and can enjoy my meal slowly, read slowly and drink lemon lime and bitters slowly.

they treated me like a queen, talking and chatting to me, calling me by name. treating me like a customer yet a colleague all at the same time. i feel so warm inside

if i ever get the boot from australia though, this would be what i would be missing. i was told a branch might open in singapore soon. the thing is, the F & B scene in singapore is completely different from here in australia. no matter where i go, there is always a sense of relaxation here, in the kitchen or as a customer.

in singapore, the culture dictates that the waitresses and the guests draws a firm thick line between each other. while one may be courteous, it’s a little tough to go beyond that to being warm and affable. even when i serve my customers here now, the initial reaction is often putting up the wall first.

it’s not that i meant it, but years of drilling took away that “i want and need to be close to my customers” kinda mentality from me. i still do see from their point of view… just that goddamn wall.

damn cultural shit.

not that i mind it that much, because i love the fact that i am different yet the same, but i would love that damn wall down.

anyways, turns out my afternoon manager likes to read fantasy books too… mmmm… we should start comparing our booklist. Robert Feist. i should start reading his books really, after all these years of being told to read books by him, i have no idea why i haven’t started earlier. it’s great when people have similar interests as you…

mmmm….

fantasy……

(yes i know the title is feeling down, and that’s exactly how i am feeling. 3 grand is a lot of money to be in debt with, especially when u were not expecting it.)

the drawbacks to working in a restaurant often is, if you have forgotten to it prior to work, u would drool at every dish that comes out, which often results in an unhygenic mess. of course, it doesn’t necessarily happen often to me, but yer, still sucky. i actually planned on eating at work before i start working today. only to find that while i was trying to nap, i was hungering and growling and dreaming of food.

i gave up and ate some cookies and got too full to properly enjoy a meal at work. -.- therefore… plan failed >.>

anyways!

got to work, trainer ain’t there today. she forgot my name tag too, so i am still Nameless of the company. met the new girl as well, whom seem pretty nice. despite whatever they say, it seems most of their recent recruits had some form of experience. she had some bar training before, but apparently didn’t get some stuff right.

of her, i just felt a little jealousy. she was learning to do all the waitressing bits since my trainer aren’t around on most of the days that she is working. so she learns from someone else who quickly takes her right into the waitressing bits, such as how to take orders, what to introduce, what would be go substitute. she was only newer than me by one day.

on the good part though, i don’t feel as stressed if i don’t take orders. as if i take orders, and i fuck some orders up, i might get all the shit from customers. *shudders*

i was also told, after i left last night, apparently the woman came back or stayed on till the night manager came back from his long walk. the one who’s chicken she claimed wasn’t cooked. she actually cried while whining to him about how bad the service and chicken was, and how terrible her experience was. she wept and wept.

seriously. it’s just dinner. and it’s just chicken. i am not defensive of my company, i know when they are in the wrong, but that chicken was WHOLLY WHITE. wtf dude. and she’s like in her 40s, and weeping over “uncooked” food. there were people who didn’t even get their meals for an hour, and they just got pissy. but to weep over food! maybe that’s why she couldn’t see that it wasn’t cooked!

in case you are wondering, no she didn’t even EAT it. she just kept on cutting them up and mashing them up with her fork and knife.

the bossy girl on friday is back today. and she somewhat pisses me off. let’s just call her Wan, since i am more likely to talk about her from hereon than most of the other girls. right from friday i never really liked her, coz she never introduced herself as anything more than someone who has worked at that place more than me and some other girls.

infact, she told someone off since she personally feels that she’s more experienced than him since she has already worked for 3 months or something like that. the other guy was handling both the bar and the floor, i am not sure if she knows the bar. so when she came in today, i was like, “oh no.. more being bossed around.”

personally, i don’t like being bossed around, but on the first few days, while i am trying to learn, i usually can’t be bothered. but i don’t like her condescending tone, and i-am-better-than-you glare, and her slacker manners.

ok so i was supposed to be taught how to be a slacker. she should have taught me, coz omg, she was just capable of looking busy most of the time. ok so she does take orders, occassionally bring out food and clear the tables, when obviously the rest of us are too busy to entertain her. however, when she obviously had the free time, instead of showing us something constructive, she had be like “i want you to clear as many tables as you can in the next 4 mins. gogogo.” and they were all in her section, 5 tables.

i know we are short handed tonight, and i am in charge of cleaning and food. but it IS cleaning AND food. between attending to carrying out food and cleaning tables, it is impossible to do that in 4mins. and one of them was supposed to be cleaned by her a few seconds ago, asked by the store manager. yet she had come all the way to the back, and told me once i was done with one of the plates i was going to serve, to go clean and set that table in her section.

i barely managed to clean it before the customers came. -.- and all she was doing was just standing around the micros talking to another girl and looking at her birthday floor plan lay out, wondering if she should call her mum to change the layout or some shit.

what finally drew the line for me when she was telling me not to help take orders for anyone, especially since each one is already assigned their own sections, and they would prefer knowing what the customers ordered, rather than me inputting the orders directly myself, i should tell them. i understand what she said the first time around, and i understand the complications. Sometimes, i have to tell them twice though, and after yesterday, i do get a little jittery when customers’ orders aren’t immediately inputted. and the one who taught me how to input the orders was the store manager.

then she was like, referring to the store manager, “those who just serve the door, wouldn’t know how it is on the floor.” complete with a superior sneer on her face.

the hell. i want to see her telling that to the manager in the face then ordering him around. -.- little freak.

near the end of the night though, something funny happened. well funny in my eyes. while i was clearing plates left and right, a customer near the end of the restaurant called me over. so i was prepared to take more orders, “yes how can i help you? ”

“ah you see, my friend here,” points to a guy at the end of the table, facing the wall,” he’s a little shy, he wants to know if you are single.”

…

!!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

“huh?”

he repeated what he said, while the poor dude turned beetroot. so i laughed and was happily saying, “no sorry sir, i am taken. ^_^”

and everyone went awwww at the table while the poor guy dug another hole under the table.

lmao