P.A.S.T.

People..
Always..
See..
That..

Still thinking about the present and future...

working

Man, working is really exhausting. Physically, mentally and emotionally. I never knew working would be SO hard, well maybe just my job. I mean, I know it’s hard but I didn’t know it’s that hard. How did I even get myself into this mess?

(and the hour hand on the clock turns …round and round…back to the past)

It all started on Thursday. Brandon and I went to Northbridge to look for my work. So kind of him. So we walk around and saw a few notices. But sadly, THEY WERE ALL CLOSED!!! Well most of them anyway. I didn’t know restaurants are closed on Thursday before. So, on Friday, I went to Northbridge alone for walk-in interviews. I left my name and phone numbers in quite a few restaurants, like Oriental, James St. Kitchen, some weird chicken rice shop (I was desperate). I went to Jade restaurant（皇朝）, you know, the high-class, grand-looking restaurant. I told what I wanted and they immediately asked me to come the next day for training. This proves two things:
i) they are really short of manpower
ii) they are smart enough to not lose someone like me to some other restaurants

The unnoticed notice - 'Hiring waitRESS only' and i went in

Anyway, that evening around 5 something, I received a call asking me to tryout at 5.45pm. I was like, ‘what the hell, I am 10kms away from the city centre (I was at Cottlesloe)’. But since I need a job real bad, I told her I would go. But, in the end I still called her and said I can’t make it. Thank god I still can go try out on Saturday.

Sunset in Cottlesloe

Saturday morning. I was late for my first work. I was a few minutes late and end up having to wait more than 20 minutes for the next bus. Bad start. I got there at around 11 (suppose to be there at 10.30) and starting learning all sort of stuff. Some of the stuff are:
i) how to hold four plates with bowl, teacup and saucepan on each plate on one hand and look fancy
ii) how to stack eights plates, bowls, saucepans, teacups along one arm and walk around and look professional
iii) how set a proper table for four, six and eight people even though no-one really care if the cross on the table cloth is pointing towards the door or not

James St. Kitchen

One interesting things I learnt was how to set the table for a Vietnamese wedding dinner. They put the settings on one table, put another piece of round wooden planks and put on the settings. They would stack up quite a few layers and when it’s time, they would ‘fly’ the table tops together with the settings to individual tables, and you will get a table for ten people. Cool huh?

After eating crappy food as lunch at around 4pm, I went to the state library. Not to study, you dumb. I cleaned up refreshed myself and went to the first floor to sleep.

Sofa where i rested

At 5.45pm, I went to James St. Kitchen（红屋小厨）I had my dinner at around 6pm. I didn’t eat much coz it was a bit too early and I just ate my lunch. The working environment here was better. The workers and the boss was better than those in Jade. I guess in Jade everyone’s too busy working and pressured. The first day in james, I got to eat fish, tofu and some other thing which I forgot. I also got a glass of iced milk tea. There so much stuff I had to learn:
i) Check on the prawns, crabs and fish and how to catch them.
ii) How to set the table (same-a lot of bunga-bunga)
iii) What to prepare when customer eat fried dimsum, steamed dimsum or soup as dimsum
iv) what to prepare when customers eat crab or prawn (finger bowl-to wash hands, plates to put the shell, a spatula kind of thing- to korek our the meat, a nut craker-or in this case a crab/prawn cracker)
v) how to scoop rice, noodle, or other expensive food (so my ‘si zay’-a very experienced lady says) using spoon and fork as thongs in one hand
vi) how to clean the table and stuff every plate, bowl, cup on one big plate and bring it away at one go even though you can do it separately

Bad demo- needs more practising

There was one thing I learnt, well not really, just that I never realize it was that important. Try to do as much as possible at one go. Get as much stuff as possible out (as in out from the counter) at one go (dishes, plates…), do as much stuff as possible before you come back (ask anything-refill teapot, change plates) bring as much stuff back as possible (empty plates, teapots, dirty tablecloth…).

Jade dynasty

Working in Chinese restaurants are quite fun. You call the chefs ‘sifu’ or ‘X go’ (Brother X). You call any lady in the kitchen ‘X zay’ (sister X). They call me all sort of name coz they still haven’t really know my name: ‘Ah zai’ (boy), ‘leng zai’ (handsome boy- a bit skeptical about that), or ah long (my name), david (my working name) for those who know me better.

All in all it was a pleasant experience undergoing training in these two restaurants even though I don’t get paid at all during training and when I start working, I will still get low pay. Well at least next year I can say I have working experience. Oklah. I guess I stop here. Will definitely blog more about my nightmare jobs.

多余的想法

后悔死了，早知道不要去，搞到现在心情糟透了。也不知道为什么心情无端端有这180度转变。前几天明明还好的，还在那儿赞颂上帝大发慈悲，让我可以摆脱已缠我数月的忧郁。岂知，一考完试就旧病复发。心里又开始充满憎恨、妒嫉。虽然已尽力克服它但还是无能为力。

跟他们一起，就不知道为什么有种陌生的感觉。是合不来，抑或是不想与他们合得来？就是讨厌自己想太多，下了一大堆伤害自己的结论。人家不跟我讲秘密，我就认为他们不当我是朋友。人家不以"外号"叫我，我也吃醋。真的不明白自己到底在想什么？

现在感觉到好象与他越飘越远。他依然与他的朋友玩。就是看不爽，讨厌他。年初他是我很好的知己。现在他和别人一起，我就对他超冷漠。看到也就纯粹点头问好，二话不多说。现在越离越远，自己的心又有被刺伤的感觉。就只能怪自己啦。当初是自己要这样的，现在只好自食其果。想起HC以前换时间表后与SE特别要好，自己心里也是酸溜溜的。可见我占据感很强。自己得不到，别人就不可以有。真是自私。现在不怎么讨厌（也不是讨厌啦，只是不爽）HC，因为SE也是我朋友，与两方都有来往，所以不怎么有遗失。可是。。。他。。。现在明白WR整天愁眉苦脸的原因。想起来，我好象更惨。暗恋，明明是很痛苦的；我，不是苦上加苦吗？短短三个星期就要离开珀斯了，不懂应该与他如何相处，到古晋又不知如何，明年又会怎么样？真的好怕明年又遇到同样的问题。问题在于我，应改变自我，但俗语说得好‘江山易改，本性难移’,叫我怎么改啊？
有时我在怀疑这一切是否只是暂时性的。可能是自己在还未了解自己的情况下盲目的下了这一个结论。可是，感情的事，自己不清楚，还有谁会清楚？

好困哦，明天还要起来找工，应该早睡了。剩下的来日再写。
(待续。)

my second post

Woohoo…my second post…well, this blog is a present given by someone special in my heart- myself…lol…I meant to give/receive this present on my birthday, but due to certain complications (read-exams), I can only start it a week later…so, ya, my blog…I always wanted to blog (sort of)…but just plain lazy to start one…
I am still thinking whether to tell the whole world about my blog…or just remain anonymous and let strangers to just stumble upon my blog and hope that they would continue reading it…
Actually why do ppl want to blog…it’s just a diary on the internet for public viewing…why let everyone know about your secrets or what you have been doing during the last 24 hours...are we in that much need of attention?...i guess when you blog you hope ppl would know more about you and this would, like one of my frens puts it ‘fill in the gap between you and your fren’ …well, who cares, it’s a source of entertainment for me (notice how boring I am)…and it’s good reading material…
So, I hereby end my second post and happy one week belated birthday to me!!