What did I do after I left my first job.

Introduction

What did I do after I left my first job?? haha..

I was quite silly back then, when I left my first job, I wasn't feeling sad or depressed, but more lost whether I should stay in this line as a graphic designer. Then Liza told me that her friend is looking for a waitress to work in a new Japanese Restaurant that is opening soon (that was back in July 2007). And so there goes, I called the person in charge and said that I can offer myself for this position for about 4 months, just to take a break from whatever that's bothering me & leave it to fate. Hahaha. Mana tahu.... this decision has changed my view in life, through the people I met there, and the stories I thought I could only read from magazines or books.

The People
Tomoe, that's the Japanese Restaurant I worked in. This is the first time ever I'm working with aunties & uncles, people from different races and also in different languages. I was quite happy that I get to meet all these people as I haven't met any like those throughout my 21 years on earth. So my first friend there was Susan, she's 2 years older than me, and have almost 3-4 years experience in the F&B industry. She told me a lot about her past, how many restaurants & cafe's she has opened, and her working history in Starbucks. There was another 2 waitress who came in the same time as me & Susan, was Jenny & Yap. Jenny is superb. Sometimes I always think if she is in a better environment she would go much further than now. A mother of 2, with that little income she's able to save money to bring her kids to have fun & eat McD. Sometimes by looking at their life I felt that I'm SO lucky that I do not have to go through this. Yap, at first I thought she was like the normal 'Ah Sam' that talks a lot with a loud voice, but it turns out that she was one of the greedy aunty who wants to get noticed & trying hard to get promoted. I guess that's because she's not young and she's not married ( I doubt that her so called boyfriend was a fake). I know it's very bad, but you just can't help it...haha xD

Then they introduce you to the kitchen staff... there goes another interesting chain of events.. Starting from the higher ranking people, there's this kitchen supervisor whose name is called William. All he knows to do is point n order. For your information, if you are a supervisor or a manager in the kitchen, you are SUPPOSED to know how to handle the materials you're about to serve the customers. He don't. He got the wrong names of food, he got wrong timing, always blame people for doing wrong thing (where did they learn from?), polish boss's shoes, & he thinks his english & japanese is so good that apparently he translated the wrong message throughout! Aih.. During that period of time, I wish so hard that I'm out of there. But getting to know the rest of the kitchen staff balanced his part, at least I get my share of knowing other interesting people. And then when they start cooking, you go like whoa... how did you learn that stunt?? hahaha.. it's very entertaining.

Ok, I do not want to admit this, but apparently when you are quite bored with the daily routines in the restaurant (cleaning & preparing & stuff..), the other quite interesting part is that you look at the people around you & you'll start to scan whether there are any potential ones that can move up to the 'partner' level. And so things start to happen. I know I'm not pretty but I somehow have become the one that attracts attention most, whether the higher position ones or the lower position ones or even customers. Anyway, their expression tells me that "hey, why are you here? are you supposed to be here?" But of course they didn't say that. OK, so after I scan through, hmm.. there's this one guy that feels ok, but as usual la, I did nothing just plain looking & observe & enjoying my time there. There was a lady staff who is very tomboyish, and later got to know that she's a lesbian, & then I Ching starts to tell me that she probably have grown interest in me or sth.. that really freaked me out a little.. I Ching is also a kitchen staff whom last time was my college lecturer in The One. She's very nice to talk to, a good listener when you tell her your problems & she knows how to organize your thoughts to help you see a better picture before making decision. Her voice is Super! I haven't actually been singing k together with someone who can actually sing ( I scream by the way..haha)

The Training
Here comes the training, before they launch the restaurant, we're supposed to practice the methods of serving, that's a skill.. during training I actually spilled mineral water on the 'customer'! aiyo that time I felt damn embarrassed & sorry for that guy, lucky it wasn't hot tea. Then there goes the discussion of how to serve in that narrow space that got the manager(M), assistant manager(AM) & workers into a 'hot' argument. Not my fault. I think it's the M & the AM who's very stubborn & didn't want to accept the fact that you should change the method because it's not logical. I guess they are born without logic. The M is a Japanese, the chief chef's wife, she was pregnant at the time, throughout her pregnancy, she still smokes as normal, jump as normal, & did not eat properly. But apparently nothing happens to the baby, almost 4 months old now.. She is the so called M, also in charge for preparing the beverage menu, sounds like she's very important, but she's really lousy in it. When you're in M'sia, so sorry to say that, you have to at least pick up a little bit of english to communicate with local workers, we can't be always guessing what she's talking about. That was still ok, I've got to know that her history back in Japan, as an "experienced bar tend-res" she should know what to buy and what not to buy for the things at the bar. The tray she got was so slippery it could not hold any cold drinks, she was supposed to get a juicer not a blender (the menu there's no ice blended drinks), bought expensive wines & sochu's but no proper storage to put it nicely, and the list goes on. I do not know why she's here, and to hire a Japanese is not cheap, as you have to pay for their accommodation, food, insurance, travel fees and other requirements the Japanese government set for their people, and of course if they work overseas, their pay naturally will be higher than what they are getting back in their country.

And now I start to think why am I going through all this shit? Then I told myself to look at the other side of the story, this is something I cannot force or change, they have been like this all their life, if they were educated they wouldn't even be here, that's because their brain can allow them to think this much and do this much, then the brain just stops at where it is before they can think about something that 'normal' people would have thought in a much shorter time. Jenny was the saviour. She was able to explain to me why do you have to serve this way, how to serve it, when to serve it, how do they eat, when do they eat, eat along with which sauce, and so and so. That I can say I'm actually learning what Japanese food is all about. Eating is a culture, especially Japanese, the taste, the sequence, the matching, with her telling me all these I feel more satisfied than actually listening to who's right or wrong or you have to do like this there's no other way to do it. Working life can be hard if the people you are working with are donkeys and cows.

The Fight
They hired a bar tender called Sky, he has been doing this for quite a few years. He was previously from another Jap restaurant in Damansara Utama. He was ok, got nothing towards him, but sometimes the things that he say may easily offend people, especially those who keep it at heart & will find a chance to revenge later. It was a bad decision for my brother to come help out at the restaurant. Due to the ongoing renovation of the restaurant, it is useless to do cleaning when constructi0n workers are still hammering, cutting, cementing...and so on. So my brother got so pissed off of that situation he actually confronted the AM about it, that it's wasting time & energy & also disturbing the construction workers doing their job. (who doesn't know?! Stupid management people)I didn't know what happened as I was upstairs mending stupid things, they went into a really bad argument that actually made the AM cry. Then Midori came up & ask me to pull my brother up & stop him from arguing (they almost fight I think). After I understand everything, they came up and went to the room to talk it out, I just watched & waited for the result. After that, I saw Sky walked out angrily & cursing the AM of her attitude. Sky was sacked; of the things he did not do, all he did was standing beside my brother & stopping him from punching the AM. As though things weren't bad enough, she told the Boss of Tomoe that Sky was a liar and cheated his money (this I will explain later), that made the Boss furious & decided to call Sky. Sky thought the Boss is a good person who will actually listen out his part of the story, who could have guessed, the Boss along with the AM's husband wanted to bash him up! He ran as fast as he could, even his gf who was working next door didn't show up later that night. The Boss was of course given one side of the story & not listening to both parties. Sky is also in the wrong because he gave fake details of his accommodation and did not use the money in a fair manner.
On why did Sky cheated the money, apparently Tomoe was supposed to provide shelter for workers, that was what they told him & Jenny & a few others. Sky left his previous work because they told him that they will provide hostel. Who knows that these management people say don't have means don't have, there goes more misery.. So out of this misery, the Boss actually loan him RM 1000 for him and another worker to rent a room, he was delighted, but he misused the money by bringing his gf to stay with him when his gf is not even a worker in Tomoe. Things goes on... people have to be responsible of their actions, if not you'll be sacked when they have a chance, even if you're not at wrong.

~end of introduction~

To be continued...