Inside the Service Industry: Customer Profiles!

Working in a restaurant is pretty interesting; some days it's an absolute hell to go through but other days I actually kinda like it. Most of the people I work with are fantastic and even though my feet are killing me at the end of the day, it's nice to cop a (free!) drink and cigarette and whinge about the day and our customers. I've noticed some trends in the type of people that walk through our doors though; some we love and some we love to hate. So, who are you? ;)

The Couple
Always requests for the best table; whinge a little when they don't get it but often sit down and shut up. Nice to get in and out as quickly as possible. Usually bad tippers unless they want to impress their date. Always fun to watch the guy awkwardly pull the chair out for the girl.

The No-Show & Last-Minute Cancellation
The group of 15 who cancel their reservation half an hour after they were due to arrive with little or no apology. Slightly less annoying are those who show up an hour late, already drunk.

The Drunken Louts
Usually groups of four or more; order a lot of Gin Tonics in quick succession and make life hell for everyone. Always assume that the waitstaff have nothing better to do than flirt with them, and enjoys making rude, pointless comments loudly. Never looks at the wine list.

The Suits
Arrives in groups of threes with suitcases and stacks of papers for a 'power-lunch' or 'business dinner'. Will sit and discuss serious issues and drink a lot of wine. Often good tippers because they don't look up long enough to notice the difference between good and bad service. Card of choice: AmEx, platinum or black, thank you very much.

The Cheapskates and 'Cash-Onlys'
Orders the cheapest thing on the menu or requests 'specials' and sits for hours, drinking only tap water. Proceed to pay in EFTPOS or in cash with change that falls all over the counter. Will not vacate the seat until they get their $1.45 change back. Equally annoying are those who pay for $1000 bills with stacks of cash.

The VIPs
Nice to have; stressful to serve. Will order bottles of the most expensive wine and champagne on the list as well as 6 complicated cocktails at once. Handle with care or leave to the manager.

The Big Party
Hen's nights, birthday parties, corporate dinners or family reunions. Always dressed to impressed with big cakes in tow. Makes frequent trips to the bathroom. Will stay well past opening hours and attempt to order another drink from the bar as they stumble out. Occasionally throw up all over the bathroom and try to sneak out before anyone notices.

The FOBs
Will come armed with strange food requests, no reservations and demand loudly for the good tables and complain when they don't get them. Drinks tap water like their life depends on it and never tips. Always seems confused when spoken to in English and likes to take pictures of everything.

The next time you're at a restaurant, try to remember that the person serving you has probably been on their feet for the last 3-8 hours, has 20 other orders to remember and truly intends to provide you with the best service possible but is just too tired to care that you don't want ice in your tap water. Or that you didn't realize sashimi is served raw. We're only human and doing our best, so cut us some slack and show some love (by tipping well)! :D

Schizo Weather, Tons of Bugs, and a Non-Beach Party

We apparently had 40 degree Celsius weather a few days ago, which would kind of explain why I felt like I had woken up in an oven, rolling about in my own sweat in bed and kicking my boyfriend's limbs off me. Oh, to have air-conditioning...or even a fan would have done the trick. I could put a bag of ice in front of it...

So off I trooped to my nearest and most beloved shopping center, Broadway. Surely between Kmart, Target, Coles and Harvey Norman, there would be a fan around right? Nuuuuuup! Fully sold out for another two days!

Grrr. Foiled.

I decided therefore, to make the best of what has been given to me and get up at the crack of dawn and head to the beach. Who would have predicted Mother Nature to have a sudden change of heart, and give us cloudy skies and 25 deg today though? No one! So here I am at home, blogging, wondering if I can be bothered to go to the gym instead so that I might actually look decent in a bikini...

Foiled again.


That aside, I spent the weekend with my housemates driving around, checking out far flung areas of Sydney that we would never have gotten to by public transport or on foot. We drove up to Elizabeth Bay, sat a small park and watched kindly old gentlemen fish and young women dipping their feet in the swirling cold foams; found a small patch of beach near Vacluse and watched a couple eat cheese and drink champagne under an umbrella, stopped for fish and chips at Bondi and drove up to a hill to watch the sunset and go crazy like overgrown kids in a children's playground. Australian summers make you feel young!


But...no one ever tells you that Australia is full of bugs. Oh yes, they have the world's most dangerous snakes and insects and spiders, etc. but they seem to forget to mention that mosquitos, gnats and other little buzzy-flies appear in swarms the minute summer arrives, and attack any piece of fruit, leftover pizza or flake of cheese that may be left sitting around the house. I spent one balmy night out at the beach and my back was literally covered in bites from sand bugs within an hour -- not the most attractive beach look.

Hey Aussies, how do you do it!? How do you keep them off without constantly spraying the air with repellent?!

Spiked Drinks & Lost Phones

I had a pretty horrendous evening yesterday. What started out as a fun Tuesday night gathering with friends and a way to welcome our new Italian housemate quickly turned into some hazy, 'maybe my drink was spiked' affair and a missing Blackberry. It wasn't one of the better things to have happened here in Sydney but I think it's important for me to describe it so others are aware.

I was at the Clock Hotel in Surry Hills with a group of friends, and I had already made the decision not to drink too much since I had to work the next day and study for upcoming exams, so I had about three small glasses of wine, with a relatively large dinner. Anybody who knows me knows that there is no possible way that I can get drunk off three glasses of wine. Believe me, it is impossible.

I went out on the balcony to talk with friends; my boyfriend brought me a beer that I barely touched. I put in on the counter next to us (but our backs were toward it and it was out of my line of sight) and at this point I was feeling totally and completely fine and not in the least bit drunk.

I think I started feeling ill within about 10 minutes of my last sip of beer. I was literally standing there, and suddenly started feeling a warm tingly sensation starting around my knees and working it's way up to my head, and I felt like I was going to black out. It wasn't a regular 'drunk' experience (which I've also had plenty of, so I would know!) which is why I thought it was completely bizarre. It all happened very quickly and I knew I was going to pass out, so I excused myself, grabbed my phone -- my logic was that I would call someone if something happened to me -- and went to the bathroom.

Between the first and second door to the bathroom, I must have passed out because I woke up without my phone and slumped in the corner. I felt incredibly nauseous and crashed into the toilet, threw up, and passed out again (and had some really bizarre dreams). I have no idea how long I was in there; my friends say probably about 20-30 minutes. I got up, threw up again, but each time I tried to stand up all I felt was that warm blood-rushing-to-head sensation and couldn't see anything. I was also breaking out in cold sweat; literally rivulets running down my face which would start up whenever I tried to get up.

I finally got back to my friends, feeling all right at this point, and thus began a manhunt for my phone, and I took a cab home with my housemates. Everything was ok, I felt totally fine in the cab, but started passing out and feeling nauseous again the minute I started walking. My boyfriend ended up carrying me into the house and put me to bed, along with constant reminders 'not to die' which even at that point I thought was pretty funny...

Anyway, I wake up today with a bit of a headache but totally ok otherwise. To be honest, I'm a little more than traumatized by this experience...if my drink really was spiked, then that is totally messed up, but I can't say for certain that it was because the Clock Hotel doesn't really seem to be that kind of place. But I can't think of what else it could have been if not the drink; maybe it was the pub grub, but to my knowledge food poisoning doesn't happen in a matter of minutes and I didn't have any other classic signs of it so it can't have been. The only other option is that I had a bad combination of something (red wine + fish & chips + coopers beer?), but that wouldn't really explain why I felt 'drunk' would it?

I feel that my experience matches this description taken from Fazed.com about Rohypnol:
"The initial pharmacological effects of Rohypnol appear 15-30 minutes after intake and include impaired memory and judgement, drowsiness, loss of fine motor skills, dizziness, and confusion. The victim may feel intoxicated. Eventually the victim may lose consciousness thus becoming vulnerable to attack. The effects reach their peak within 1 to 2 hours after intake and continue for an average of 8 to 10 hours."

If anybody has any idea what my 'symptoms' sound like, and whether it was due to a spike drink or something else, please clue me in! I think I'm going to lay off the alcohol for a while and watch my drink all the time now. I know Australia is pretty (in)famous for drink spiking but never really figured it would have happened to me while in full view with a bunch of friends... who knew?

And whoever stole my phone, you are a pretty horrid person to be stealing a cell phone off someone who's passed out. Just remember: Karma's a bitch!

Gainfully Employed

I got a job at Kobe Jones, the first proper restaurant I went to when I first arrived in Sydney! It's serendipity, I tell you. :)

I'm a hostess, which basically means that I have to seat people, walk a lot and get the bills. It's pretty straightforward work, but it's not exactly 'easy'. Try sorting out the tabling for 100 tables on your own during dinner service on a weekend and you will understand why people in hospitality really deserve to get tipped (something no one ever seems to do here, much to my annoyance). I also work most evenings, including all weekend, so there goes my social life....what little there was left of it after exam season!

Anyway, it's still nice to keep busy and have things to do. The weather is warming up and it feels so good to finally get out of the house and lie in the sun! Beach season is finally here, hooray!

People throw out TVs in Spring

We found ANOTHER television on the street! This one is huge (probably over 45") and works perfect! So we're down to selling the first television that we found on the street -- does anyone want it? We're willing to let it go for cheap! You can take a look at my Gumtree ad for pictures and details.

I know I have said this before, but it is simply ridiculous what Australians throw out.

Anyway, I'm sorry for not being more consistent with my blog but I'm finally getting a chance to scribble something after lots of school projects. I completed my RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol) which is mandatory for anyone who wants to work around alcohol -- waitstaff, bartenders, etc. I got it done with THINQ for only $65 which is a great deal and one of the cheaper classes in town. Basically, you sit in a room for about 6 hours and listen to someone babble on about how you should never serve alcohol to minors or people already drunk, and all the ways that you can attempt to explain to a drunk person why you can't serve them any more booze. It seemed like a total waste of time to me but no matter; at least now I can legally work in any restaurant, hotel or bar that I want! The next thing I want to do is take some bartending or cocktail-mixing classes... anyone interested in going with me? :)

Today Chris and I also went for our first salsa class at Latin Motion, an 8-week course for only $90. FYI, you need to book these things in advance. The beginner class was jammed to the max and it's only an hour long, but the instructors are very specific and clear with their lesson so that was good. You also get to move in rotations so you're not constantly dancing with the same person -- great if you like to meet people, not so great when you get Mr-Two-Left-Feet who is
trying to be cool and fling you around!

By the way, SPRING IS FINALLY HERE! And not a moment too soon either; the weather is gorgeous, the sun is out, and it's time to lose some weight and hit the beach! ;)




Some random pictures from campus.... minutes before one of our marketing presentations.


That's pretty much it -- I wish I had more interesting things to share!

Pictures of food... again.

In lieu of an incredibly rainy Sunday that ruined all my plans of going to the Australian Beer Festival, we stayed at home and cooked a lot of food, and ate... a lot of food. Like pigs. As usual.

Croque Monsieur... but nowhere near as good as Mme Choula's in Lyon!


Vegetable lasagne with some extra bechamel sauce on the side. The pictures doesn't do it any justice.


And finally, profiteroles (or cream puffs)! I couldn't believe how easy they were to make. Here are the pastries just out of the oven.


...and after the addition of homemade creme chantilly and some berries for fun.


In case you're inspired (or just hungry) for more, you should definitely check out my best friend's blog here; she writes kick-ass posts on fashion and food and she's an amazing chef. :) I love you Jo!

Parklife 2009 - Empire of the Sun, La Roux, Crystal Castle A-Trak and so much more!

An overdue post on Parklife 2009 from over two weeks ago! It was an overcast, slightly drizzly sort of Sunday but the rain held off, thank God!

We decided to skip the early sets in favor of a few beers before inching our way through the thick crowds. 45 minutes of standing in line, stomping about in an increasingly muddy Kippax Park ensued before we got in. Disorganization much?

We hopped from stage to stage (there were 5), trying to catch all of our favorite bands. The music was trippin'; the alcohol not so much. $10 for a miserable vodka-redbull that I'm pretty sure didn't have any Smirnoff in it at all... what a shame. We were trembling from all the ingested sugar but certainly nowhere near drunk enough to enjoy standing for 8 hours and being shoved at.


That aside, I have to say that my favorites of the day were A-Trak and Empire of the Sun. I couldn't stop dancing to either one of these and I thought they put up a damn fine show, particularly since Nick Littlemore has gone AWOL and Luke Steele had to carry the show all on his own. Instead of backing down, he gave it his all with a troupe of incredible (and insane) contemporary dancers leaping and twisting around him. I couldn't even see A-Trak in action because the crowd was so dense -- there must have been something like 10,000 people at the stage.

And just look at that headpiece. No messing around there.



La Roux, the last act we caught of the night, was pretty disappointing. She said she was sick so I guess there wasn't much to be expected from her but I still felt the music was lacklustre. Maybe after jumping around for 8 hours, I just couldn't care anymore. The rain also decided to arrive and dampen the mood, and there were used condoms littering the field... guess some people had more fun that we did!

It was a fun experience overall; a great way to spend a day outside with friends, some alcohol and good music. There are tons of huge music festivals and concerts all the time in Sydney which is fabulous, but not exactly good for my wallet...!