(very dry post of what happened at the BWPS bbq&chalet)

Washed the car at noon and didn’t wax it yet, thinking it would rain. Sis helped mom with the mee fen and after a dota game to burn time, I went downstairs to wax the car and brought down my sling bag and tripod first. Upon finish waxing, the sky darkened and I went back upstairs to take the mee fen, almond and canned longan. Carefully navigating my way towards Pasir Ris, I went to top up petrol first at Tampines Ave 1’s Caltex before continuing towards Downtown East. I reached at 5.10, there were a lot of lots available in the open air parking and I was 50 cents short of $4 for full-day parking.

Deng Kai and Gilvin came to help me take stuff and I waited at the main entrance after dropping the stuff off. Nobody was there and I was afraid my instructions of “main entrance at downtown east” weren’t clear enough. After a while, Charis, Xin Ying and Chuan Li came (after several calls about where to go) and we went in.

Gary, Jie Fang, Johnathan, Jasmin and Serene were busy with the fire. Deng Kai, Gilvin, Jasper, Kenneth and Daryl were slacking around and helped out now and then. After a short while, I went out to meet Shi Min and Mdm Pang. Further into the night, Joel, Lionel and Yen Lin arrived. Total of 19 people including me!

Hmm we chatted around and ate, updating each other about what we have been doing. Then they got bored and started playing “monkey”. Kenneth was hit in the specs and he bled a little at the spec’s rest area.

Johnathan and Jasmin decided to play ‘zong ji mi ma’ to clear the food and the person who ‘kenna’ the number would have to eat. There were a tray of mee fen, sushi (brought by Mdm Pang), some satay and otah to clear.

I had my first taste of wasabi, though I chewed a little only and kept my tongue away. Felt nauseous for a while in the chest before it finally went away, thanks Jasper for some mint sweets.

Went upstairs and talked a little with Xin Ying, Charis and Jasper. Xin Ying gave me a nicely wrapped present, which she later revealed to be chocolate from overseas.

Went back downstairs and talked with Gary and Kenneth. Lionel exclaimed that he did so badly for exams in poly that he had to repeat a year, thanks to dota.

Obtained Melvin’s number from Deng Kai, had lost his contact since graduation. I asked around and found out that Gary saw Xue Mei and Shin Rong often and asked him to help me ask them for their numbers. With this, my contact list will be complete (excluding the three Malay girls who never hung around us).

Nearing 11, Shi Min wanted to leave and I decided that I would leave to and drive her home. Gary, Daryl, Charis and Gilvin tagged along. The whole drive was smooth, except for the part where a driver left the bus stop he was at, went into the lane to my left, cut across my lane and then into the filter lane on the right before turning right.

Fortunately I breaked in time and sounded my horn, otherwise I’d have collided with him. It was something like a Honda Stream or Toyota Wish, with provisional license.

Although it was not my fault at all, I apologised to my passengers for the scare. Damn that driver..

Reached home at about 11.45, slacked around for 45 mins before going downstairs to move the car to take my dad’s car lot (he was going out for work). After a shower and more apologises through sms to the passengers earlier, here I am writing this post.. and finishing it.

Oh the irony, I used to think that no one would group with the slackers cuz they're, well, slackers. In the end, I'm the one left without a group while they have, cuz.. they have friends. Jason and Clem won't split from Uma, Lian Wei and Zai, although the former know that they'll do most of the work. Joshua and Ameen don't mind working with Zi Jian and Michelle, although they rarely talk, and they choose Andrew over me, cuz they're always joking around.

How did I spend Christmas yesterday? Dota-ed the whole afternoon and blogged while listening to Kavin Hoo at night.

I've always wondered about why I'm not like most people. About why my interpersonal relationships are so bad at the moment. About why I *never* receive friendly calls or sms to chat except from two people. Probably cuz I myself have never put in much effort to maintain them except for a few.

Watched Bolt with she-who-shall-not-be-named. It was an entertaining movie where puns worked out fantastically. 

When my elder sis and mom got home from praying at Bugis and shopping at Phoon Huat, the latter commented that my dad's face was 'black'. I simply can't understand why he reacts this way every time she goes out. What the f* is wrong with you? It's not like she's gonna have an affair.

For procrastinating physical training until now, and thus not in adequate condition for napfa yet.

Upon meeting up with my 2nd sis for the lunch I mentioned, I realised that I over-reacted a little in my previous post. I am still upset at her about the things mentioned (she obviously doesn't know) but not to the extent where I'd cut off relationships with her, she's still my sister. Here's the thing, if I bother to talk to her about those things and give her a wake-up call, she'd probably change.

Going to Changi Airport's Crystal Jade or 'Dian Xiao Er' for lunch tomorrow. My 2nd sis will be joining us, but when my elder sis asked whether she'll split the bill with her, her reply was (translated from Chinese) "you ask me to go de what". That was an excellent reply.

Almost wanted to go back to sleep again when I woke up but I managed to pull myself up to go to sch on time. Communication Skills for Business (CSB) was ordinary and ended with some homework to do over the holidays.

Reached sch an hour earlier and played psp until Data Mining (DMDW) lecturer arrived. Found out that she told the class to pass me the Market Basket Analysis (MBA) question but no one did.. There was no tutorial after that so we could go. The rest went to slack while I found a lab and finished the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) practical in an hour. There was supposed to be ERP practical from 12.30 to 3.30 but the lecturer was unavailable. I wasn't gonna wait until 12.30 for the lab to be available like the rest were going to, so I used another lab instead.

Called my mom once I woke up to see what time she could leave work. After washing up and browsing online a lil she called back and I was off to pick her up. Immediately went to the carpark wanting to wash the car after dropping her off and there was a Malay lady dressed in a black full-body dress. Who washes their car in a black full-body dress?

Not bad, as written in my previous post, I got around to doing some work, only watching a few episodes of yu-gi-oh gx instead of a dozen, wrapping my books and practising guitar (after the post). It's a start.

National Heart Centre's (NHC) appointment's at 9am but I reached at 8.30. Another doctor did the echoscan for about 20mins (15 on heart, 5 on throat and stomach) until Dr Tan came. After a rushed statement that my condition is the same, I paid for it and left. Only upon reaching the bus stop did I remember the questions I wanted to ask her. So I called NHC which directed me to SGH and left my number with her.

- Repair jigsaw puzzle, trip to Plaza Sing needed.

Had recovered from Tuesday's cold by yesterday morning after a night's sleep and panadol for cold. Felt perfectly fine during work, or even better. However, the journey home yesterday night probably triggered it again and woke up this morn near 9 feeling ill and fatigued all over again. Sms-ed William to MC myself today in order to recover for tomorrow's 130-people buffet, better to MC today than tomorrow. Spent the whole day playing dota until I felt sleepy and took a nap, although I'd be unable to sleep until a later time. 

My head hurts like a migraine now, probably cuz it was a long and hot day at work.. and cuz I'm emo-ing now. Either I write this post to express myself or I'll probably get so stressed that I'll move the dong fong to a position directly downstairs the kitchen window and jump down.

I realise I haven't posted for 6 days, probably cuz days have been ordinary.

If I'm at work, it's the same routine. If I'm at home, it's usually dota, browsing around or listening to music.

Some notable things though:
- Thurs noon, John was on MC and we were expecting 120 customers for the buffet. With all the other staff reluctant to be food runner, I went to do it instead. Fortunately the head chef of Laguna National was around to help me garnish and prepare condiments for the food, otherwise I'd have gotten (for lack of a better word) f-ed cuz there were a lot of alacard customers too.

- Wed night, me and John had brought down 72 cooler boxes and filled them up with 2 100+ and 2 aqua mineral water each. On Thurs night it was me (again) and Hadi who brought them up.

- Thurs night, I drove Hadi to Tanah Merah MRT, I had previously decided not to drive any colleague cuz I'd have to drive the others as well but since he was so nice when we were collecting cooler boxes..

- Wed night after work, JC came to pick me up and we drove to the airport to send Ada off to London. I talked to her aunt who used to be a cardiologist and after explaining my condition she recommended me to see a specialist as soon as possible. Then after we chatted a while more we headed down from Popeye's and she went in.

Reached City Hall MRT at 11.50am and Ada was already there. We walked around first while waiting for JC and she bought Danish bread. After JC arrived at 11.15 we decided to eat in Din Tai Fung. In addition to xiao long bao and some sort of prawn fish cake, each of us had a bowl of soup noodles.

We chatted about our times back in Summerhouse, Pan Pacific. Black jackets - June, April, Jude, Frankie, Janice, Rathi and Daevid. Room service - Michelle. Other regular staff - Asai, Nicholette, Adnan, Sarah, Zhu Hui, big Ahmad, small Ahmad, Cheryl, Mia, Fadilah, Chen Wei, Firdauz, Luke, Mun Hou, Teng Siang, Thanesh. Chefs - Wei Ming and Ronnie. The list goes on, just a recollection off my head.

After receiving glares from the waiting crowd and waiters (as we had finished the food but still sat around), we went to settle the bill which came up to $55+. I thought the food was ordinary so I don't think I'd go there to eat again.

Next we went to Chanele for dessert and each of us ordered an ice cream. Although they were $8 each they were indeed "high-quality" ice cream. We continued chatting about stuff like whether Ada will stay in SG after she graduates, what kinda guys she likes, why I'm still single, mine and JC's condition etc.

Afterwards we went to Marina Sq for Ada to do some shopping, she bought two tops and a skirt from Mango and Zarra respectively. It was a bit awkward for me and JC to follow her into the women's apparel shops, other than the fact that it seemed like she had two boyfriends or we were her bodyguards.

We went to meet up with her 'dai gor' who is also working in Pan Pac and after passing the bags over both of us went into Pan Pac for a walk. We saw Michelle at the bakery and Zhu Hui at poolside, then we went up to the 22nd executive floor as JC wanted to visit his ex-colleagues. The view there was good, we could see clear skies, the construction of the IR, the dam itself and the CBD buildings.

*written between 4.15 and 4.30 before meal was ready*

Everyone's in a bad mood today, probably cuz of the new part-timers. As they don't know much, all they do is clear plates, give menus, serve ice water and give cold towels. Any order taking and cutlery setting etc. are still left to the seniors.

Then again I hope it's not cuz of the mistakes which I have made, whether I realised them after or not. I have indeed been making more mistakes than usual - forgetting to set the cutlery after taking orders, forgetting garnishes for stall dishes etc.

In addition, some intentional actions such as not helping in stations when they can manage and having a neutral stern face instead of mild smiling face may have caused a negative impression.

Just like how Summerhouse became an unpleasant place to work in, this is becoming one too.

It might become a situation whereby seniors who are friendly with each other talk about staff whom they dislike as they did something wrong or did not do something.

Yesterday, I asked Bernard to let me work on days which I'm on off, now I don't wanna work instead.

After break time I talked to Bernard about my thoughts and he enlightened me with this statement "you may be my colleagues, but you may not be my friends". He also said that it's more important for one to focus on his own work, instead of taking what others say or do seriously.

Once again I realise how judgemental and cruel this world can be.

Tues, 2 Sep 2008

Yesterday night I slept at 3am+ as I was playing dota. Hadn't played for a while as for the past 2 weeks after I got home I either studied for exams or blogged. Dota isn't just a game, I've learnt some things from it too - such as to be more patient (as much as leavers, noobs or irritating people have pissed me off) and to accept things the way they are. Just like how I used to play neopets, battlefield, runescape, maple, aruarose and cabal, dota is just another way for me to de-stress and in a sense, escape from reality.

When I woke up thanks to the 20+ planes which could be heard flying past to the RSAF show, I pretty much spent the whole day dota-ing until JC called to say he'd be going to Comex at 7pm. I did reach there on time and as expected he was late by 20 mins, but he was taking a bus to Suntec after all and traffic jams were no surprise. It was crowded like no tomorrow and after finding his dad and girlfriend at 4th floor Samsung and 2nd floor respectively, we went up to look at cams. As he was deciding I went up to 6th floor to visit Creative, talked to Sharon and found out that the other guy whom I talked to was Raymond Tew. Their Gigaworks T40 had been sold out already and there was even a person who bought the Inspire/I-trigue display set. She also mentioned that the external soundcard X-Fi Go was selling well.

After walking around I went back to find them and JC was checking the camera contents. He bought a Samsung cam at $199 and a printer at $179. The cam itself was bundled with mini-tripod, extra battery, charger, extra memory card and usb adapter, deals which you can only find at IT show/PC show/Comex. Many booths were slashing prices to clear stock, eg. a Samsung cam went from 599 to 499.

After JC's dad collected the extended warranty we went to the 6th floor again as they wanted to look at WII games, dragging the printer through the crowd. They didn't buy anything so we went back downstairs to collect a free wireless headphone bundled with the printer. The headphone makes use of 4 AAA batteries.. which smart person came up with this design?

JC's dad left by bus and he and his girlfriend went upstairs to grab a bite. Fortunately majority of CityLink's crowd was going towards the MRT instead of Suntec as compared to earlier when I went and I reached the MRT quickly. Fortunately (again), the North-South line train didn't come else the East-West line I was taking would've been packed.

Reaching home, I talked with my maple mei about her work attachment the next day before dota-ing. Then I went to shower and headed to sleep, near 3am again.

-continued from previous post, 29 Aug 2008-

Actually I don't wanna continue about the remaining of yesterday's work, I shall talk about what happened after I got home.

As I was saying, my sis bought the keyboard and mouse + mousepad (instead of mousepad only). I didn't have much trouble adapting to the ergonomically-designed keyboard (meaning the keys are curved to suit the inward slant of hands), in fact these two posts were written using it without much typo errors.

As for the mouse, of cuz I like it as it emits a blue (my fav colour) light through the scroller and sides and the overall feel is better, but if she called me before she bought it I would have asked her not to so that I could choose between it (Diamondback 3G), Copperhead and Deathadder. I understand that she wanted to surprise and make me happy, as I spent 2-3 hours thinking before finally deciding to buy the mousepad only.

-30 Aug 2008-

The drive to work was smooth but there were two accidents in the opposite lane. The first one near Bedok interchange seemed as if the van had changed into the other's lane and didn't or couldn't stop in time. The second one nearing Laguna National seemed as if the car had lost control while turning and went straight into the railing road divider. The damage was so bad that the front hood was crashed totally. In both cases traffic police were already there.

Work-wise, shall not write much about lunch as it was ordinary and manageable considering that there were 11 staff. The thing that pissed me off was that at one time 4 were at the bar, another 4 in the kitchen, 1 was missing and 1 was wiping the cutlery, leaving me to handle 7 tables (7x4=28 people). When I was in the bar I noticed ants and lifted the sugar and milk jar underliners, turned out that there was a lot more underneath but I couldn't bare to kill them so I left the underliners aside and let them move away, hoping someone else would not kill them before they did. Then there was an order of chicken rice with the customer asking for chicken backside meat with bones, I was like..

Before my 2nd break from 5 to 5.30pm it looked like it was going to rain. As I was eating it did rain and when I went back up there were a lot of customers. There was this group of 8 customers whom I took order for, all familiar faces. The 1st thing the guy said was "can you speak mandarin?" and I answered with a "ke yi". After the food was served he waved at me and asked "da ge ni de ming zi shi she me? bu ke yi yi zhi jiao ni da ge". Fact was that he's several times my age, about 50-60+? Anyway I replied that my Chinese name was "wei jie" and he asked "xing she me? and I said "wang, san zhi wang".

Was kept busy for the rest of the evening and night until I went downstairs to collect 34 cooler boxes from the golf cart area at 7.34pm. I finished in about half an hour and Bernard had merged tables and prepared ice water for the 30+ people who were coming.

They came separately in groups and were only seated at 8+. Bernard and Suhaime took care of their orders while the rest of us continued with normal operations. As I expected there were more people than planned and they merged more tables. I had filled up the ice water container at the station with instructions from Angeline when Bernard asked me to pour ice water for the new tables. Cuz the glasses were at the station, I didn't think of getting ice water from the bar instead and got it from the water container instead, which I had just filled up and would need to fill up again. Guess I was tired to the extent that I wasn't thinking straight already.

When the food began coming out from the kitchen (which got spammed) we had to sort through them before serving to the appropriate tables. The system which Bernard came up with was brilliant, the orders were taken from a few people instead of from everyone, then other than the usual table numbers there was also their names for reference. So we looked for that particular person at the table and asked him or her who to serve to. I thought it would be a big mess but thanks to him things turned out okay.

A regular customer (with his family) had ordered mee goreng takeaway and another coke light. I was helping Bernard with the 40+ people (and was exhausted) so I simply put away the coke light receipt when it came out, thinking I had served it already when I didn't. In the end he was so pissed that Suhaime had to tend to him and apologise, after Angeline had already been told off that he didn't receive the coke light.

For the same reasons, I overlooked the other stations and the already-bad-mood Angeline shouted aloud "hire you for what? stand around then forget the other stations". Sigh, she can complain to all the other staff about my "bad performance" all she wants, cuz I know there are times when I'm more alert and hardworking than full-timers like her.

Earlier at noon Bernard was telling me that his laptop given through subscription of a particular telcom's plan was fixed. The motherboard and lan adapter had been changed and without warranty it would have cost over $800. Then he said about how he had certs in website design, basic programming and another two IT ones from his previous studies back in Malaysia and I told him although I'm studying similar things, I'll only graduate with one cert. He also said that the 1-year e-learning diploma/degree in IT security from a renowned institution was gonna cost him $6000, no idea whether he's gonna leave the restaurant and take it up.

Like I told him previously, since he has interest in and is competent in the IT areas, he shouldn't withhold himself within the restaurant. His reply was that he could always make a few calls and get another IT job, but he was "lazy". In other words I guess he was comfortable in his comfort zone and wanted to remain there since as a captain his pay is higher than regular staff and he does not have to do as much.

Anyway after he declined my offer to help by staying after 9 I went off. As I was walking past Hadi and the other staff (who were waiting for the company bus) he was like "woah don't drive me to Simei, hope you crash". He's good to hang around and work with, always making laughable jokes and relatively hardworking. However that was.. unnecessary.

After more brooding about how I could have chose the Deathadder (which is right hand ergonomically-designed) or Copperhead instead, I finally realised the irony. I had come up with this quote "I am grateful for both the things I have and don't have, are you?" a few days ago. Yet I already have two Razer mice (Krait and Diamondback 3G) but still wanna trade the latter for another. I really shouldn't be asking for so much when people in 3rd-world countries barely have enough food to eat daily.

Shall take good care of my keyboard and mouse and use them till the end of time.

Thurs, 28 Aug 2008

Woke up at 10+ and studied exam hints lecturer gave. Also played a game of dota before leaving for sch. Reaching early, I kept my mind at peace while the rest continued talking about what might appear, what they studied etc. The paper was 20 marks MCQ and 80 marks open-ended case study. In the end the MCQ could be managed by simply reading through all the slides and the answers to the case study were exactly the hints.

This paper (consisting of 50% of final marks) should be no problem at all. I was worried that things other than the hints might come out as I didn't study the rest at all. When I read the paper during reading time, I smirked as the risk was well-taken.

Throughout the exam someone's phone kept vibrating, calls not sms. Either the caller really wanted to reach that person badly or he was receiving several calls. It continued for over 10 times but fortunately the two lecturers present (one of which taught us the module and gave the hints) did not find out who's phone it was.

Afterwards I went to Comex 2008 at Suntec and as expected it was very crowded. Shall not go into details about the show itself as there're too many.

Anyway, for my sis' friend, I bought a Maxtor 160gb external harddisk at $99. My sis specifically wanted Seagate as her own one is Seagate but I couldn't find them even after walking around in circles several times. So I asked Convergent (who is the supplier for Seagate) and they pointed me in a direction but I still couldn't find them. In the end I went back to the entrance to look at the floor map, turned out that I had walked past Seagate a few times. Seagate had merged with Maxtor and in their banner above it showed the word Seagate in smaller size than Maxtor.

Then I wanted to buy the Microsoft Comfort Curve keyboard and Razer Goliathus mousepad but decided to think about it at home over the next two days (I have to work) and buy on Sunday instead. If I didn't buy my current Razer Krait I would have bought the Razer Diamondback 3G (free Razer Goliathus) with no questions asked. However if I wanted to buy it I would have to sell the Krait off. Not that I don't have enough money, just that it'd be lying around anyway.

As I was walking someone tapped me on the shoulder and it was Gonaidi from my year 1 poly class before the concentration split. He was working for one of the companies (can't rmb which), as were Deon and Ian who were at HP. After a short chat I continued walking and collected more brochures.

Went around Comex for around 2+ hours before going home and got around to calling a sec sch mate whom I consider as a good friend. He was like "are you sure you've called the right number?". We talked a little and decided that we would chat again on Sun as he was having dinner with his family at Bedok.

I brooded over whether or not to buy the keyboard, mouse / mouse + mousepad, soundcard and speakers all night. My final decision was to buy the keyboard and mousepad, not buy the mouse + mousepad as I already have the Krait, wait until Creative has better 2.1 speakers and wait until the drivers for the Creative Titanium series' drivers to stabilise.

---

Fri, 29 Aug 2008

Didn't drive to work today as my dad wanted to use it to go to his friend's place. I was designated stall runner and quickly asked John what condiments to put for each of them - wanton noodle soup/dry, prawn noodle soup/dry, laksa and chicken rice. Eg. Laksa has to be accompanied with sambal chilli and laksa leaves. The chefs at the stall were Elang and another Chinese. I had never spoken to the latter before but after chatting with him I learnt that he's 2 days younger than me. Then again with that mischievous face of his I have no idea whether I should believe him.

The thing about the procelain bowls used is that from the tray, there is no way to take it up to put on the table except to come into contact with the hot porcelain. I had no choice but to get scalded bit by bit with each order..

When I called my sis back (she had miss-called me) she told me she bought the keyboard for me and the mouse + mousepad I wanted. I replied that there were another two mice which cost a bit more and I may have preferred them. Nevertheless I guess I could exchange it on Sunday with the receipt and packaging un-opened.

Shall write about the rest of the day when I get home from work (it's Sat now).

Didn't sleep well at all last night for no apparent reason, kept waking up at irregular intervals.

There were few customers for lunch.. until it rained. When the "it's gonna rain" alarm rang, all of us were like "yea we're gonna get spammed!" cuz all the golfers would stop playing and come to the restaurant for a break. True enough we did get spammed and we were all glad it was over by the time the crowd left.

Hadi and Myanmar part-timer A had gone to restock on drinks and other stuff like straws, coffee powder and milk. Poor Hadi had gotten sick last weekend due to the cold weather. The trolley they pushed back was so heavy they could barely lift it up enough to climb the single short step which separates the restaurant and washing area & kitchen. The chefs naturally went to help and eventually managed to by going handle-side in first.

This happens everytime we take stock, I was "fortunate" enough to experience it myself last year when I worked. In fact there was once when the lift (which is supposed to be able to handle 10+ people) didn't gave the weight warning after we pushed it in, but when one of us stood inside it did. In the end we pushed it in, hit the 2nd floor and ran up the stairs from the 1st to 2nd floor to retrieve the trolley again, it was hilarious. Most of the time we ended up unloading the trolley to make it lighter first before pushing it up that irritating step.

Before meal time Pauline told me to be food runner for the night. My instant reaction was "don't want la" cuz depending on the food, it has to be accompanied with condiments such as green chilli, papadum, red chilli, sambal chilli, tartar sauce or calamansi. I didn't know what the respective condiment for each food was and asked Bernard to tell her to get John (a full-timer) to do it instead. Fortunately John was up for it.

As there were few customers for dinner, meaning I had few drink orders too so I stood at the station to help out. Then Suhaime (assistant manager) asked aloud who was the bartender and I said I was, and he told me to stand inside the bar. Come on, it wasn't like I forgot about my drink orders, I still looked back to check the bar counter regularly. Sure I'll go look silly by doing nothing in the bar and standing around since you said so. John was laughing at me by repeating Suhaime's words "go stand in the bar".

This AM is so damn inflexible. The other time he reprimanded Li Xue for helping out in the stations when she was supposed to be up the stairs welcoming customers. What was wrong? We could barely manage and it was only right for her to come back down to help.

Earlier for lunch he mistaked table 14 for 12 and I ended up bringing dessert to the empty table 12. Fortunately I noticed that table 14 had just finished their meal and that the dessert was most probably for them. I served it to them as I was right. He also forgot to enter in "no-ice" with a watermelon juice and the customer rejected it when I served it. William then had to remove the ice before I served it again.

In both cases it wasn't like he was busy taking orders, setting tables or serving items cuz we were the ones doing it. He only did so when all of us were caught up and there was no one else to respond to the customer, so why the mistakes?

Anyway further into the night Fuurin, the japanese restaurant located right beside us was full and Bernard asked me and John to go in to help out. I didn't even know the table numbers while John had worked there for 1+ months before going to Lakes Cafe. He would be going to Pine Valley in early October, the rotation is cuz he's in Singapore for 6 months as part of attachment by tourism course in Philippines. All I did was help clear plates, serve some food (after I learnt the table numbers) and push the full trolley (of used plates to the washing area across Lakes Cafe). Other than that, I remained in the small clearing area most of the night to empty the other staff's tray of collected used plates into the trolley and bin.

I also took two orders, the second one messed up as what the customer was served was not what he wanted, although I wrote down exactly what he had pointed at. Meaning he pointed at A and told me A, then I wrote down A but he thought A was B and rejected A when it was served.

I also found out that one of the full-timers was pregnant when she was bending down to put used plates into the trolley. A chef had asked me to do it instead and said so. She was the one who handled my second order and I had apologised profusely to her about it. On a smaller note, one of the cashiers is pregnant too.

Lakes Cafe itself had few customers for dinner and they were relaxed while me and John remained busy in Fuurin. Near 9 we went back to Lakes Cafe as most of the customers in Fuurin had left and they could handle it already, slacked the rest of the night away before driving home.

Saturday

Woke up late (at 11+) and decided to go shopping next Sunday instead. Spent the whole noon playing Need for Speed Prostreet to dominate the rest of the races. Managed to unlock the Speed King as well. Summarised Project Management slides into 1 single page to bring to work to study at night as I knew it wouldn't be crowded.

Monday

For work, I was to take care of a station instead of being beverage runner (John was) and I knew I couldn't hide from taking orders, learning how to set cutlery depending on the food (chopsticks + porcelain spoon, fork + spoon, knife + fork or fork only)and settling bills anymore. So I asked Bernard to teach me and he did. Then I also learnt how to place the chicken rice dishes on the eating tray. It's like this:
-------------------
| vege chicken |
|soup rice sauces|
-------------------

The lunch crowd was manageable. Our procedure is this, when customers walk in greet them and guide them to seats, then give them the menu and wait for a while before taking orders by serving them ice water. After taking orders, ask them whether they are members of Laguna National, if so get their card to attach to the order paper (15% discount) and give to a senior to enter into the system (as I don't have the password). Lastly set their cutlery. I kept forgetting the ask whether they are member part after I took orders and had to do so after passing the order paper. Shall remember this when I work again on Wed.

Near evening Bernard predicted that there was going to be a hot barley jug order as he had seen the customers up the stairs. He said that all 10+ times they came to Lakes Cafe previously they ordered the same thing. And Bernard was right. Then there was another prediction of a lady and her son who would order a Ice Lemon Tea and he was right again. Fiona then predicted that the old man who just walked in would order tea and she was right too. These are what I call regular customers.

The 'new' part-timer called Denise from Myanmar was very hardworking (qin lao) as well. I didn't see him at all last week when I started work, but he said he had worked for 3 weeks before.

Other than these dinner was ordinary. I had driven to work again and during the drive home a Mercedes flashed his lights at me for being too slow. Sorry, I can't help it cuz this is all the horsepower my Dong Fong has. If there's one thing I look forward to in 5+ years time, it's to change this Dong Fong to something *I'll choose* and not my dad. Anyway thanks to the distraction I missed my turning lane and almost had to go through my sec sch to get back home (there're shorter routes of course but I only know that detour). It was like this:


The pedastrian crossing was right in front, meaning I had little distance to turn into the -> lane to the right 2 lanes away. Fortunately there was no traffic so once the car in front of me moved, I did the turn. This'll teach me to pay more attention to the road.

After double-checking the route to drive to work last night, I was confident about it this morn and I did drive to work. Might try another route as this one which passes through Bedok and Tanah Merah MRTs simply has way too many traffic lights. I took about 23 mins to get to Laguna National and told the security guard I was a part-timer. I got changed quickly and went upstairs to help at 10.45 instead of the usual 11.10 but fortunately they had enough staff for morning shift and there wasn't much left to do.

During the usual staff briefing with William at 11.15 he said that if any staff wasn't performing well he would not hesitate to remove them. Most of us had the Myanmar part-timer in mind as his Eng isn't good enough to handle orders at all, least to say answer customers' demands.

I had forgotten to remove the dessert receipt and when Li Xue served the longan w/ shaved ice (which another chef made thinking it had not been done yet) it was rejected as the customer already had one (which I served). I haven't apologise to her yet, will do on Mon when I work again.

The fruits for juices were stocked for a few good days as Li Xue had prepared a lot of fruits for juices before Fiona took over as bartender. Fiona seemed unresponsive when I talked to her and I asked her whether she was unhappy or tried. Her reply was that "ren dou you cheng mo de shi hou", meaning that there are times when people are quiet (she was emo-ing).

When the lunch crowd started coming in I went to help clear some plates and accidentally spilled some chicken rice chilli sauce on the table. 1 of the 3 customer's cap placed on the chair was splashed with a bit and the situation wasn't good. I informed the seniors (Bernard, Debbie, Suhaime, William) and went to wash it. The customer said that he wanted a replacement but the F&B manager who was around said that unless it directly stained his belongings we wouldn't compensate him. After some washing with plain water the stain remained and Suhaime advised me to use some soda water but it still didn't work. In the end I resorted to lots of washing detergent and the stains were gone, almost as good as new and I heaved a sigh of relief. After updating the seniors I offered to hang dry the cap until they returned from their golf and it was resolved.

Thanks to the sudden rain and the fact that it was a weekend, the lunch crowd was crazy and I was barely able to handle the drink orders with random people helping. William had to go into the bar to make drinks and let Fiona (who was supposed to be bartender) go out to help. Two staff from Pebble Beach came up to help also, one washed the glasses while another cleared plates.

Time passed quickly as we were very very busy. As I was clearing up plates I overheard Li Xue talking to William, she was almost in tears. What I heard was that she got scolded again and it was the second time. Afterwards I asked Bernard what happened (convinced him I was trustworthy of telling as Hadi and Debbie had told me about their little secret too), I learnt that Suhaime (da fan shu) had told her off for helping the stations when she was positioned up the stairs to receive customers. Then when she replied that she didn't know where the ash trays were when Suhaime asked, she was told off again.

Li Xue and William disappeared soon after and when she came back, her face showed that she cried quite a bit. I find what Suhaime did unreasonable. It was only right that Li Xue helped out in the stations after the lunch crowd came in as she couldn't simply stand upstairs. She, as well as all the other staff could still watch out for incoming customers and receive them. Then we were all so busy that no one could even clear unused ash trays from tables.

I was talking to Michelle and Debbie about this, when I said that Li Xue felt "yuan wang" (wronged in Eng) they both replied at the same time that it wasn't that, she felt "wei qu". After being back for almost a week, I know who the hardworking ones are and who aren't. Like I mentioned in my previous post, Li Xue was the only one who could be bothered to clean the fruit blenders to that extent. She has been nothing short of hardworking either.

Feel like talking to Suhaime about this and getting him to apologise, "bang Li Xue chu kou qi". He can pick on me all he wants after that, I can always find another job. However it may cause more discomfort between them or affect other people so I'll stick to comforting Li Xue.

Even after lunch hours there was a steady flow of customers due to an incoming second round of rain. When it did rain, the cafe almost filled up instantly and people from banquet (3) and pebble beach (2) came up to help again. In my haste I accidentally dropped a fruit juice glass containing hot barley when I knocked my tray into the chicken rice/laksa stall and it shattered into tiny bits. Imagine, a big glass broken into pieces about 5mm each. Ironically the sound of it breaking was soft due to its thickness. I took a while to sweep what I could see up while the rest served drinks.

As I seemed concerned about a particular table's ice cream orders, one of them from banquet (who seemed like a senior) asked me whether I was a captain. I told him no and he said I should go downstairs to work for him instead. This was the second time someone tried to poach me from Lakes Cafe. The first was by a Fuurin Japanese Restaurant (just beside) senior.

Anyway I was concerned as the Caucasians from that table had been very polite and had ordered 2 bottles of white wine (near $100). Hadi poured the 1st bottle and Bernard taught me how to pour the 2nd bottle. White wine bottles is the one which needs ice in the wine stand, red wine doesn't. White wine bottles can be opened simply by turning, red wine has a cork.

Dinner at 5.30+ (instead of 5.15 as there were still a lot of orders) was good. There were whole fishes and friend chicken, other than the usual fruit (watermelon), water (diluted bandung) and vege. I went back up quickly without resting further but they could have managed fine by themselves as the crowd had left.

There was a customer who knew his membership number but didn't bring his card. After checking with the cashier I asked for his IC to verify that the membership belonged to him in order to enjoy discounts. It reminded me that I had lots to know about the restaurant such as customers' cutlery setting for food and condiments when serving.

Then there was a table of 2 male Caucasians, a lady who seemed local but had an accent and their 3 kids (2 boys 1 girl). The kids were running around and I was afraid they would trip and fall, but when the lady wanted them to sit down, they did. This is a good example of still being able to handle kids although they're given the chance to explore and "fa zhan". When the little girl hesitated at walking down the stairs, the F&B manager who had appeared from nowhere and carried her down.

The rest of the night was ordinary and we cleared up quickly. Bernard told Li Xue and Fiona to rest inside the back office as they worked split shifts for the day (6-3, 5-9) and still had split shifts tomorrow. When the clocked was near 9 we all left, me and John were so happy that we weren't working tomorrow, although I'm still supposed to study for my project management exam on Tues.

I had a good drive home and took a little over 20 mins, reaching home at 9.30+ instead of the usual 10.10+.

(1391 words)

(Shall try to be less detailed as I wanna sleep soon.)

Before work, I polished my black shoes using the liquid wax (kiwi) and it started to rain when I was about to head out. So instead of 3 char siew buns which I originally planned to buy and eat for breakfast, I had 3 pieces of bread with homemade kaya instead and played a little Need for Speed until it was time to leave.

At Bedok interchange I realised my black shoes had white patches due to the kiwi so I went to the washroom to wipe it off. Upon reaching Simei I went to Bata in East Point to get shoe padding so that my soles wouldn't hurt from standing and walking too long during work.

At the changing room I re-polished the shoes with black wax this time and put in the shoe padding, it felt much more comfortable. Once in Lakes Cafe, I noticed that there were a lot of plates to wipe dry, the morning shift must have been so busy that they didn't have time even until then. I can't imagine how Li Xue and Debbie survived the morning.

The lunch crowd was manageable until me and the bartender (Li Xue) got spammed with drink orders again. She told me I should call someone for help and she was right, there were orders of 4 coffee + 1 latte + 1 cappuccino and 5 coffee with more to come. In the end the Vietnam part-timer whom I asked to help me only sent a jug of Carlsberg.. William himself had to help make the drinks while I continued serving them until the rest served a few too.

After the lunch crowd left and as we were keep the buffet counter, I learnt that Debbie was taking up a beauty course and her exams were next month. With Hadi also having an interview with another company this weekend, I thought that Lakes Cafe was about to lose more of its better staff.

I asked Bernard and Pauline whether they considered changing jobs to something with better prospects and pay, Bernard said he could do anything and Pauline didn't answer the question directly. I was telling Bernard about the shoe pad I bought at $3 and he said he bought his at $8 from Bata too and it was torn after a single week. Anyway

The fact is that lower-end jobs in the Food & Beverage (F&B) industry like waiters are left for those who can't find the job they want, have little qualifications, are from overseas or just wanna work part-time.

Two people came to repair the waffle-making machine and after changing the circuit board, it still wasn't hot enough to successfully make good waffles. Liang Yong had to scrape off the waffle mix which had stuck onto the pan as the previous chef forgot to spray the non-stick thing. After several hours they're just gonna replace the whole thing. I heard that this brand was recommended by the Managing Director (MD) and thus Rahim (Operations Manager) emphasised that they had better fix it perfectly or replace it totally. I helped Liang Yong (who is from China and knows little English) translate his words to the Myanmar and Indian repairmen.

It started raining during makan time. There was curry chicken, dou ya, hor fun, white brocolli soup, diluted barley and the usual white rice, I considered it above average. I called back Justin (our FYP supervisor) and told him honestly who did work and who didn't. I ended our conversation by stating that if he were to call the rest and if they were honest, what I said would definitely be coherent with them.

The dinner crowd was crazy. There was a single group of 24 people and they got all of us frustrated cuz they ordered food and drinks one at the time instead of together, which would be much easier for us to process. A smart-ass even wanted to move the smoking and non-smoking area divider so that they would have more space. Other than that, when Li Xue sent the food, someone would claim it as his and then another would say so too. That led to her simply leaving it on the table and walking away as there was no way to resolve it with them being so undecisive. She was pretty much screaming to me and Bernard about those people. I comforted her by telling her not to get so worked up over those rich old brainless guys and that they were not worth it.

After the organiser Peter shouted out everyone's golf scores and commending the ones who scored highest, we were glad that the 24 left and cleared their tables quickly. It made me wonder how many of those there were real friends and who were the ones who showed up just to give him face or have a free meal (as he footed the bill).

For the rest of the night there were barely any people and I spent it cleaning the bar after Li Xue went in to tidy the kitchen. She had splashed water into the area underneath the bar counter and there was a big mess flowing out. It really looked like it hadn't been washed for 10 years as there were black pieces of charcoal-like junk, I took a while to wash them out using the pipe. Should've taken a photo as evidence.

Li Xue had washed the fruit blenders thoroughly to the extent that they were almost new with all the stains gone, I applaud her for taking the effort as the rest of the staff who have been bartender, including me can't be bothered as long as they're relatively clean enough.

Today was Swee Kean's last day at Laguna National but she wasn't at Lakes Cafe but another place. I thank her for her patience in teaching me some bartender stuff on Mon and Tues. All the best Swee Kean!

Saw Dean's sister on the bus home and she even sat beside me with her boyfriend. Dean was a good friend I had in lower pri and I still remember how he looked, don't think his sis recognised me though. Two nights ago on the bus home again, I ran into my pri sch classmate for all 6 years Stephanie but we didn't say hi, not sure whether she noticed me as I had turned my head to the side. Another pri sch mate was on the same bus, I think her name's Shu Ping, can't remember exactly.

Didn't post yesterday night as I had to study for Visual Basic exam. In the end I merely ran through my notes, past exam papers and obvious hints which the lecturer dropped and went to sleep after playing a bit of Need for Speed.

Yesterday at work, there was another new part-timer and it was her third day. Rest of the staff included Bernard, Pauline, John, Hadi, Fiona, Li Xue and Debbie. As usual there was a steady flow of drink orders until I got spammed till the extent where even William (the restaurant manager) had to help serve drinks instead of standing around. As compared to last year when I worked, there are a lot lesser Carlsberg jugs and jug of juices nowadays, which is good for all of us.

After the lunch crowd left I talked with Liang Yong, the dessert chef who alternates with Ah Qing (the other fierce chef). I asked him why hadn't he gone to a skincare palour to improve his face's skin condition. His reply was that looks are only superficial, I said that unfortunately looks can mean quite a lot in the society today and he answered that it still depends on your personality. He also enlightened me with this statement in Chinese, 'hao chi jiu chi duo yi dian'. Lemme add another phrase in English, 'and be grateful and appreciative that you have food'.

Anyway, Fiona, Li Xue and Debbie's shift were till 3 only and after they left I kept myself busy in the bar and by helping John fold the cold napkins again. I was ready to go for dinner (and a much needed break to rest my feet) after checking with Hadi that I could go for the 1st break (4.15-4.45pm) when Bernard came back and told me that I would be going for the 2nd break (4.45 to 5.15pm). So John, the part-timer and Hadi went ahead while me and Bernard remained behind.

There were 3 Japnese ladies who shared a ice kachang and had a chendol each. Bernard was chatting with the cashier and I was behind the bar when they took quick steps in walking away without paying and with our glasses. Bernard chased after them and I followed suit, after much confusion as their English was poor, one of them gave her husband's membership number and it was settled.

As I was walking to the canteen I ran into Chester and Brandon, twins whom I used to work with. Chester was like "ehh f*** you" and I replied "f*** you back". I didn't know we were on such good terms that we were greet each other like that. Chester was the one who taught me how to serve drinks (as in straws, coasters, beer pouring etc) when I joined last year. They were working for Furrin tonight as there are buffets on Wed and Thurs.

After I went back to the restaurant, Pauline returned from her split shift (11-3pm, 5-9pm) break and was still trying to remember my name as her nephews were called wei something as well. She told me that her uncle or auntie had 7 boys before they gave birth to a girl and that they now have 10 children.

In the evening the China girl selling mooncakes upstairs from the restaurant waved at me and signaled for me to follow her. As I thought there was a customer who didn't know Chinese, a local one at that. After explaining to her that he was looking for mooncakes without egg yolks and 2 only instead of a box containing 4-6, she went to get 2 snow-skin mooncakes from another place and I chatted with the customer (Hadi was like "oi what are you doing up there"). When she got back the cashier wasn't around and he had to wait again before it was done. He left the mooncakes with me as he was going for a swim and I left them on the bartop. I went out of the bar to attend to a customer and they disappeared.. Hadi had put them in the fridge for me. I added a note saying "DO NOT TOUCH. CUSTOMER'S MOONCAKES" as there were other mooncakes around for staffs' consumption and if someone ate the customer's ones..

After closing the bar with the fact that I didn't break any glasses for the day, I went to the office (behind the restaurant) to slack a little and Hadi and Pauline were there. Hadi asked me how to fix his internet connection. In summary his desktop and laptop were fine, it was the router and he'd have to troubleshoot it by calling Linksys or simply buy a new one.

While walking downstairs to change after we left the restaurant, Pauline shared her tidbits with me and she was saying that she used to eat it often when she was young. Like I said all the minor small talk with other waiters, chefs and dish washers actually mean something to me.

After reaching home my sis let me see Creative' brochure for Comex, which hasn't even been printed yet. A pair of soundcard and speakers seemed like a good bundle, shall consider again during Comex itself.

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Today, I intentionally went to sch earlier to be able to take my time in walking to the Visual Basic exam venue upstairs Macdonald's and revise. Joshua realised he didn't check his seat number and used his handphone to check it. After logging in (took some time to enter his long password) he couldn't click on the exam schedule link, probably cuz it's a menu extender which uses more complicated coding than HTML. When Ameen arrived he said that his seat number was 133 and I told Joshua mine was 131, so it was highly likely that his would be 132. He also reminded Joshua that he could also use his PSP's wireless. By the time Joshua was done entering his password we could enter the classroom and he ended up asking our lecturer for his seat number.

After several reminders to switch handphones to silent or turn them off someone's handphone still rang, I was like "sigh who is it this time". After someone went up thinking it was his phone as the lecturer picked up his bag but it wasn't, the real 'culprit' owned up and 'turned it off'. After a few minutes the same phone rang again, this time I was like "twice? how smart are you to be in poly?" Things people do (and fail to do) never fail to amaze me.

The paper was easy since I had been paying attention in class all along and done the practicals and tutorials. On the MRT home I called Sharon to cancel my working for them during Comex and told her Zai can replace me if she still needs someone. Then I passed Zai Sharon's number, and Shu Rong's as he had a job lobang as well.

After getting home I played Need for Speed Prostreet all noon, finished off the Grip King and Drag Queen. All that's left is the Speed King and I shall keep trying to break records in order to challenge him. This is gonna take a good while.

I was dozing off while playing and decided to take a nap at 5, with handphone's alarm set at 6. I only woke up at 8, my hand had probably instinctively reached to turn off the alarm like it has for a few times already. This is why I don't turn on the air-con when I have to wake up early for sch or work although I have no problem getting up after I wake up as I don't laze around in bed. The problem is that I might simply oversleep or fall asleep again after waking up and I'm not taking chances, although it only happens once in a blue moon when I'm really tired. Besides, I wanna lower the electricity bill as my desktop must be consuming quite a lot of electricity.

Been taking my own sweet time in blogging after I finished dinner.

And happy birthday to she-who-shall-not-be-named. =)

(this post is 1352 words, the one on 18 Aug is 1829 words long)