ICE.COLD.COFFEE

Today is my second day at Lobby Lounge, and it’s just plain weird. I made so many mistakes that I’m now immune to them.

First mistake: Dewi asked me to pass her a menu. I didn’t know what it was for, but I went to take it anyway. When I was walking towards her with the menu, a guest looked like he wanted to take the menu from me, so I thought she asked me to get it for him. I gave it to him, then walked away. After a while, the guest said “I wanted the bill”. Apparently, he had asked for the bill and thought I was going to give it to him. Super embarrassing cos Dewi also saw what happened.

Second: Ok. Nothing wrong happened here, same for number 3. Just that a super big accident could have happened if I were just a teeny weeny bit more unlucky. I was replacing a glass for water for a guest and I almost tipped it over. Probably like a repeat of what happened at Long John yesterday. Luckily it didn’t.

Third: I was getting the tea in the tea pot for 2 guests. There were 2 teapots. I put both, together with the strainer on the plate and went to the table. When I got there, I realised I didn’t know how to pour the tea since I needed 2 hands for it and one hand was holding the tray. Luckily, Viy came to my rescue. Then later, Terry, the manager told me that I should never carry teapots like that. Because...
---(1): Don’t take the teapot using the tray, if not you’ll have no hand to pour the tea.
---(2): Don’t take 2 teapots at a time. Cos I don’t have 5 hands…
---(3): Don’t stand the teapot in the unstable position on the tray. It could topple anytime. The teapots we use are called sleeping teapots. One position for brewing tea, one for draining the water, and also for show, since it balances only on one edge of the pot, and the third position for standing. I carried them in the draining position. When Terry demonstrated how unstable it was, I seriously got a shock. I would have died if I dropped the 2 pots of hot tea. And if I dropped them on the guest, I would have died a million times over. I’m so, so thankful nothing bad happened.

Forth mistake: I was getting the bill for a guest. He already paid using his credit card and I was supposed to let him sign and give him a copy of the receipt. But, I didn’t know he had to sign it! I just gave him his card and receipts. Then, he was quite shocked. “Don’t need to sign ar?” he asked me. Luckily Dewi came over just at the right time and put everything in place. Luckily that gentleman was very, very nice. He said something like “You must be new right? Don’t worry, everyone has their first time.” He was so, so nice about it, I was touched. I didn’t feel bad anymore. How nice it would be if everyone were so nice.

Fifth mistake: It was during the lunch buffet. The guests stood up to get a second round of food. And I said “thank you, have a nice day” cos I thought they were leaving. Super embarrassing! They just laughed it off.

Almost every time I finish my attachment, I feel very thankful and appreciative that there are nice people in this world. Like the guy I mentioned above. There was also this nice guy that took his own salad cos he loves lots of cheese (according to Lilian). He was very friendly. His friend too. I was preparing ceasar salad for his friend, who watched me prepare it. I told him that I’ll bring it to him later, but he said “it’s ok, I’ll watch. Don’t feel pressured by me. You’re doing great.” I think he could tell I was a rookie. But anyways, what he said made me feel good.

It’s nice to see such people. Sometimes, guests will just ignore you or not bother to say thank you and I feel really irritated. I know they paid for the service. 10% in fact. But it’s common courtest. Can’t you even say thank you? I always say thank you to people serving me when I go restaurants…

But this being my second day, I was also a bit more experienced. Dewi taught me lots of things in the morning when we were free. Like about the tea, the buffet stuff etc. Lilian taught me how to make Caesar salad yesterday, and today she put me in charge of it again. She called me the Caesar girl. Haha…

Ah Ming came to lobby lounge today. And he asked me if the pastry were arranged nicely. I said yes. Haha… He always has that blur look on his face. I think he’s a very nice guy.

I met 3 new people today. Elaine and Viy and Terry.

Elaine is a trainee too. She came here with Rui Juan from Oscar’s. Their second week here. Somehow, I don’t like her. She doesn’t talk nice to me, although I was nice to her in the beginning. She and Rui Juan are rather close. Rui Juan is fine, she still smiles and talks to me sometimes, although I still feel I can’t really connect with her. Elaine on the other hand, is very rude. She talks to me like I don’t know anything. Which is true, since she’s been here one week more than me. So can’t she forgive me for not knowing stuff? B*TCH! I seldom hate people so she must be really obnoxious for me to dislike her like that.

Viy (pronounced as the letter V) is a female manager. Her uniform is something like Lilian’s. Gold and black, but a little different in design. Only saw her for 2 hours since she started work quite late today.

Terry, the other manager. He’s nice too, but he doesn’t talk to me much. Except the time when he told me how dangerous it was to carry the teapots. He said he was frightened for me too.

I ended work at 5.06pm today. Aishu had already gone down for dinner – she’s working the later shift. I went to the changing room and you’ll never believe what I saw. There was a woman changing. We all change in the locker room, so it’s not surprising to see her change.

BUT… she was quite fat, and she was wearing a g-string! Gross!~ I tried not to look cos it’ll be weird. Then when she turned around, I realised she was Jasmine!!! Ahh… I didn’t say hi to her or anything, cos it was very awkward. I pretended like I didn’t see her and continued to do my stuff. She was talking to a friend anyway. After putting on a t-shirt and a pair of short shorts, she left. I seriously cannot imagine Jasmine in t-shirt and shorts, much less in her underwear. Oh my gosh…

Aishu came into the locker room very soon after she finished her dinner. I kept her company till the end of the break, taking about lots of stuff, especially all the weird stuff that happened today.

Quite nice talking to her, considering that I’ve never actually laughed heartily or had a nice conversation with anyone at lobby lounge the whole day. Maybe it’s because of the nature of lobby lounge. If we had nothing to do, we would stand outside, to see if the guests needed anything. Then, it would be weird to all crowd together to talk. If we were in the kitchen, we would most probably be busy and we couldn’t stay in there long enough to have a proper conversation anyway. Haiz…

I miss the times we had a banquet so much. It was the stuff we did that was more fun, and also the people there were friendlier. Not forgetting the bunch of us who went for the attachment together and always crowded around to talk. I miss that!