Past Two Weeks
6/5 - 11/5
The week went by smoothly! With Helen around in the mornings, it's been much easier to handle the morning crowd with Winter and I both on the bar. If needed, Winter will help with the cashier and food, since Helen still isn't too familiar with the drinks and the orders. With a whole bunch of office workers, some of them are slightly peeved that the auntie can't take their order properly, while others smile and try to speak slower, saying one modification at a time. (Modifications as in skim milk, or adding an extra shot.) You can really tell the difference between the gentlemen and the snobbish. It's quite interesting actually.
Jake can't work shifts on some days, so Winter and I still had to do OT. But as usual Winter will put herself down for more days, instead of splitting it evenly.
Sometimes when Winter, Helen and I do opening and Jake does mid-shift, Helen and I will go for break together so we'll talk. And I'll steam a cup of Sobe soy milk for her haha. She says that she drinks cold cow milk and hot soy milk hahaha. Once, she will holding my arm for warmth (the aircon is freezing sometimes) and she exclaimed that my palm is very 'thick'! Hahaha she kept going on about how I am blessed, that I will earn a lot of money in future, hahaha it was quite amusing and cute. xD From then on she liked holding and squeezing my arm. xD
Winter's been training Jake on his B2 station, pushing his speed. And he's getting there! He's just not too fast on his B1 yet. Linda is kinda jealous of the 'special attention', you can tell. She thinks that being deployed to do B2 is a sign of 'pro-ness'. Truth is, we tend to assign the newer staff to do B2, those who have potential but lack practice. As for those with lesser potential, they only can practice during off-peak hours. At Anson we just can't afford to put a slower staff on B2. When some customers see long queues at the bar AND cashier, they'll run off. :( Once, Winter called Jake to do B2 for an order, and Linda tried to intercept, and I accidentally raised my voice to stop her. :(
On Friday, Amanda and Simin agreed to come and visit me after work! ^^ I mean, I was doing opening so I stuck around inside until 6 (because Winter went for a meeting) then I took a seat outside and read The Timekeeper. Simin came around 6.30 so we talked! Never had such a long chat with Simin alone before, it was quite nice listening to her talk about her job as an admin staff at a hospital! While waiting for Amanda to come from USS, Winter came back after the meeting! So I went in to talk to her. :P The upper management decided to close Anson on Sats again, so Winter and Linda will go to Katong on weekends. By the time Winter left, leaving Jake and Linda to do closing, Amanda had reached! So we decided to go Hans for dinner. ^^ Chatted about our jobs, got to hear about irritating colleagues and experiences serving tourists on Manda's part and about the nice heart-warming Jiejies on Simin's part. Went home around 9pm.
On Sat, Vinny and Jake did opening at Katong, while I came at 1 and Winter came at 3pm. It was sooooo crowded inside the store area, because I'm already used to having just Vinny, Faz and I. The next day was Mother's Day, so it was quite busy and we were all squeezing past each other to get from one station to another. I can't remember how we could fit Ceny, Hilda, Faz, Adri and I into Katong. 0.o Winter and I had no idea how Faz settles cashier at Katong under the new system, so we kind of reverted back to Anson's style, closing the cashier only after we stopped receiving orders. The only thing was, there were groups of people who would come in and interrupt us, so we just accepted their orders. And we couldn't sweep or mop the lobby area with so many customers around. In the end, we closed the cashier at 10.50+ (instead of 10) and finished closing around 11.15pm. Crazy hahaha.
13/5 - 17/5
This week, or at least Mon to Thurs, made last week's schedule look rough hahaha. Loon came back to work on Tues! With him on B2, Jake on B1, Winter and Helen at the cashier and Linda on food, it's like I have to actively find something to do! All I could do was wait for a cold drink, which is like once every 10 orders during lunch hour, more during the tea-time crowd.
I think on Tues or Wed, I needed to get an Eco-bag (a tray to carry 4 drinks at once) for a customer so I had to get some from the cupboard. I couldn't reach so Loon kneeled offered me his knee. I declined of course, too embarrassed. I totally should have, because next thing I know, he lifts me up from behind, just within reach of the Eco-bags. :X Manz. Then on Thurs, Loon and I went for break together at 2.25pm because the morning shift people were leaving in 35 mins, leaving Jake alone with us. So I brought him to visit one of the aunties at International Plaza, the one whom I talked to about getting my A level results. After that, we bought Old Chang Kee and just sat by the pavement and talked. He advised me to cut down on work, after I admitted that work is becoming my idol. :( It's nice to have a brother-in-Christ at work, especially one whose faith is so straight-forward and simple and pure. After closing on Thurs, he brought me to Lao Pa Sat for dinner. Oh lol and Winter came back again after Thur's meeting to prepare for the new chillers. She's too good an employee, seriously.
Friday was... Hectic. During lunch. I came at 12pm for closing shift. Today we started our sandwich promotion, selling our $5.80 sandwiches at $2.90 if they buy a drink with it. Of course, our main selling item are the new Lychee and Longan Chillers. (Keep getting mixed up between the two fruits. -.-) Loon and Jake just kept doing sampling while Winter prepared their trays, until lunch hour started and Loon and Jake took turns to prepare their own tray of samples. After a while, the crowd got just too much so Loon did sampling, I prepared his tray and Jake did operations. I had no idea what went on, who did bar and what not, all I know is that every single time, Loon's tray will empty out faster than I can make the drink. I think he did at least 10 rounds of sampling before we decided to stop due to the lack of ice HAHAHA. We barely had enough for operations. That is, until we had an order for 19 drinks, of which just 7 were hot drinks and the rest were the new chillers. (Before this, our management staff came and ordered 5 large chillers too.) So guess what, just before we could complete the last cup, we ran out of ice!!!!. And there were chiller orders after that big order too. -.- (Winter gave them cups of water to buy time, that's good service.) Siew Choo and Loon had already went to buy ice but they were taking so long, Winter sent me to buy ice too. So I ran. Turns out 7-11 and Cheers don't sell ice! Out of desperation, I went to the shops at Tanjong Pagar Exchange hahaha. Bought a plastic bag full of ice for $4! ^^ Manz they took soooo long to decide on how much to charge me. I reached back even before Siew Choo and Loon, to find the other team mates redoing the hot drinks of the big order because they had turned cold after 45 mins. Then Winter and I went to deliver the remaining drinks to the company's door step. Turns out that we have quite a few regular customers in that company, according to Winter, and Winter and the old Marketing Director had even done coffee tasting (sampling the different coffee flavours) in that company! Siew Choo and Loon had reached by the time Winter and I came back haha, turns out they were trying to take a cab back. -.-
Did closing with Linda.
The week went by smoothly! With Helen around in the mornings, it's been much easier to handle the morning crowd with Winter and I both on the bar. If needed, Winter will help with the cashier and food, since Helen still isn't too familiar with the drinks and the orders. With a whole bunch of office workers, some of them are slightly peeved that the auntie can't take their order properly, while others smile and try to speak slower, saying one modification at a time. (Modifications as in skim milk, or adding an extra shot.) You can really tell the difference between the gentlemen and the snobbish. It's quite interesting actually.
Jake can't work shifts on some days, so Winter and I still had to do OT. But as usual Winter will put herself down for more days, instead of splitting it evenly.
Sometimes when Winter, Helen and I do opening and Jake does mid-shift, Helen and I will go for break together so we'll talk. And I'll steam a cup of Sobe soy milk for her haha. She says that she drinks cold cow milk and hot soy milk hahaha. Once, she will holding my arm for warmth (the aircon is freezing sometimes) and she exclaimed that my palm is very 'thick'! Hahaha she kept going on about how I am blessed, that I will earn a lot of money in future, hahaha it was quite amusing and cute. xD From then on she liked holding and squeezing my arm. xD
Winter's been training Jake on his B2 station, pushing his speed. And he's getting there! He's just not too fast on his B1 yet. Linda is kinda jealous of the 'special attention', you can tell. She thinks that being deployed to do B2 is a sign of 'pro-ness'. Truth is, we tend to assign the newer staff to do B2, those who have potential but lack practice. As for those with lesser potential, they only can practice during off-peak hours. At Anson we just can't afford to put a slower staff on B2. When some customers see long queues at the bar AND cashier, they'll run off. :( Once, Winter called Jake to do B2 for an order, and Linda tried to intercept, and I accidentally raised my voice to stop her. :(
On Friday, Amanda and Simin agreed to come and visit me after work! ^^ I mean, I was doing opening so I stuck around inside until 6 (because Winter went for a meeting) then I took a seat outside and read The Timekeeper. Simin came around 6.30 so we talked! Never had such a long chat with Simin alone before, it was quite nice listening to her talk about her job as an admin staff at a hospital! While waiting for Amanda to come from USS, Winter came back after the meeting! So I went in to talk to her. :P The upper management decided to close Anson on Sats again, so Winter and Linda will go to Katong on weekends. By the time Winter left, leaving Jake and Linda to do closing, Amanda had reached! So we decided to go Hans for dinner. ^^ Chatted about our jobs, got to hear about irritating colleagues and experiences serving tourists on Manda's part and about the nice heart-warming Jiejies on Simin's part. Went home around 9pm.
On Sat, Vinny and Jake did opening at Katong, while I came at 1 and Winter came at 3pm. It was sooooo crowded inside the store area, because I'm already used to having just Vinny, Faz and I. The next day was Mother's Day, so it was quite busy and we were all squeezing past each other to get from one station to another. I can't remember how we could fit Ceny, Hilda, Faz, Adri and I into Katong. 0.o Winter and I had no idea how Faz settles cashier at Katong under the new system, so we kind of reverted back to Anson's style, closing the cashier only after we stopped receiving orders. The only thing was, there were groups of people who would come in and interrupt us, so we just accepted their orders. And we couldn't sweep or mop the lobby area with so many customers around. In the end, we closed the cashier at 10.50+ (instead of 10) and finished closing around 11.15pm. Crazy hahaha.
13/5 - 17/5
This week, or at least Mon to Thurs, made last week's schedule look rough hahaha. Loon came back to work on Tues! With him on B2, Jake on B1, Winter and Helen at the cashier and Linda on food, it's like I have to actively find something to do! All I could do was wait for a cold drink, which is like once every 10 orders during lunch hour, more during the tea-time crowd.
I think on Tues or Wed, I needed to get an Eco-bag (a tray to carry 4 drinks at once) for a customer so I had to get some from the cupboard. I couldn't reach so Loon kneeled offered me his knee. I declined of course, too embarrassed. I totally should have, because next thing I know, he lifts me up from behind, just within reach of the Eco-bags. :X Manz. Then on Thurs, Loon and I went for break together at 2.25pm because the morning shift people were leaving in 35 mins, leaving Jake alone with us. So I brought him to visit one of the aunties at International Plaza, the one whom I talked to about getting my A level results. After that, we bought Old Chang Kee and just sat by the pavement and talked. He advised me to cut down on work, after I admitted that work is becoming my idol. :( It's nice to have a brother-in-Christ at work, especially one whose faith is so straight-forward and simple and pure. After closing on Thurs, he brought me to Lao Pa Sat for dinner. Oh lol and Winter came back again after Thur's meeting to prepare for the new chillers. She's too good an employee, seriously.
Friday was... Hectic. During lunch. I came at 12pm for closing shift. Today we started our sandwich promotion, selling our $5.80 sandwiches at $2.90 if they buy a drink with it. Of course, our main selling item are the new Lychee and Longan Chillers. (Keep getting mixed up between the two fruits. -.-) Loon and Jake just kept doing sampling while Winter prepared their trays, until lunch hour started and Loon and Jake took turns to prepare their own tray of samples. After a while, the crowd got just too much so Loon did sampling, I prepared his tray and Jake did operations. I had no idea what went on, who did bar and what not, all I know is that every single time, Loon's tray will empty out faster than I can make the drink. I think he did at least 10 rounds of sampling before we decided to stop due to the lack of ice HAHAHA. We barely had enough for operations. That is, until we had an order for 19 drinks, of which just 7 were hot drinks and the rest were the new chillers. (Before this, our management staff came and ordered 5 large chillers too.) So guess what, just before we could complete the last cup, we ran out of ice!!!!. And there were chiller orders after that big order too. -.- (Winter gave them cups of water to buy time, that's good service.) Siew Choo and Loon had already went to buy ice but they were taking so long, Winter sent me to buy ice too. So I ran. Turns out 7-11 and Cheers don't sell ice! Out of desperation, I went to the shops at Tanjong Pagar Exchange hahaha. Bought a plastic bag full of ice for $4! ^^ Manz they took soooo long to decide on how much to charge me. I reached back even before Siew Choo and Loon, to find the other team mates redoing the hot drinks of the big order because they had turned cold after 45 mins. Then Winter and I went to deliver the remaining drinks to the company's door step. Turns out that we have quite a few regular customers in that company, according to Winter, and Winter and the old Marketing Director had even done coffee tasting (sampling the different coffee flavours) in that company! Siew Choo and Loon had reached by the time Winter and I came back haha, turns out they were trying to take a cab back. -.-
Did closing with Linda.