I think I saw a smile of proudness on my dad's face when he glanced at me as I was stretching my tired legs.
(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.
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.