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:: Posts ::
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
yesterday work was a bore... only did 22 covers for the entire dinner. one bloody rich guy spend 200 plus for a dinner by himself. he've liquor, wines, champagne to go with every course of his meal. i admired him not because of the money, but he's his "seen it all" aura within him. he has this air of calmness and he looks as if he had tons of experience and wisdom. he's old by the way and he read a book while he's eating. hmmm.. u could see how boring the day went since i'm describing someone instead of talking about what i experience and learn. i realise i did some stupid stuff yesterday. some engineer or technician called and asked if there's a blackout but at that point of time i don't know singapore is experiencing a major blackout,(four seasons isn't affected by it) so i told the person there's isn't a major blackout but there's quite a few fused bulbs and tell him that he can come and fix it... hmm.. i think that guy is laughing at me at the other line once we hang up.
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 11:15 PM
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Tuesday, June 29, 2004
"you're not smart and cunning enough to survive in this industry" those words realy hit me today, courtesy of karen. now knowingly i got her scolded by the manager because she juz left with gigi without informing anyone where they gone to. hmm... i so wanted to shoot her in face," we're not playing SURVIVOR here.. i'll prove you wrong... i'm gonna use sincerity to survive and thrive in this industry!" being smart and cunning and can get you what you want in a short time but it'll be taken away from you sooner or later. i believe sincerity is the key. my respect for her is completely taken after what she said. i admire her straightforwardness but it's used in the wrong manner.
the restaurant had a exhaust pipe broken down today so there's no dinner service. so basically we just do the mis-en-place for tomorrow's breakfast. its kinda boring but i gotta know a few Jiang nan chun people better. so i gain something. i also learn what is a "lazy susan".
Together
Everyone
Achieve
More
this what i observe at JNC today.
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 2:15 AM
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Monday, June 28, 2004
got back home bout 1am last night.. worked 13 hours yesterday and amazingly i still feel quite energetic after closing the restaurant... though sunday brunch this time is much more relaxing i'm glad i came much earlier to experience the running of the whole event. my bonds with morgan and kurt grew. we did closing today and talked over dinner. Kurt always has his trademark"no part-timers, no kurt" quote. he knows almost every part-timer in the hotel especially the girls.. he told me already gone steady with so far 2 of the whole lot. met one of my senior from the same course today. she's annmarie from concierge. its kinda heartwarming to meet people who seems connected some way. after working more than 2 weeks, subconsiously i always got this phrase into my head,"what goes round, comes round."lots of incidents caught me and it always boiled down to this phrase. So i always giving and doing my best in what ever stuff i've do cos u never know when you are going to clear up the shit you might have leave behind while you are doing. one more week, i'll have to be transferred to the banquet department. heard that its a gloomy situation over there. the managers over there don't look too friendly too.. *gonna cross my fingers*
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 10:32 AM
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Sunday, June 27, 2004
hmm...its like 3.45am already.. damn i'm still quite awake.. strange.. must be the excessive coke i drank while at work... worked the graveyard shift today and come to think of ti i enjoyed it. the hotel's tranquility could be felt when its 1plus2. when i walked out to the alfresco area, wow... those night breeze, the ocassional car whizzing could be heard. i felt so at peace with myself. today i got to know more indepth about my colleagues. vijay i realise isn;t tactful with his words and i think his temper and his way of putting his ideas across will lead to unhappiness among the colleagues.. he possess this "heckcare" attitude in him which is quite disappointing as i thought he's quite a responsible person. sometimes i feel that he abuses his authority and like to stamped on it too. however i found myself to good pals which i totally respected. Kurt and Morgan. they are friendly and always out to take care of me. they empowered me and encouraged me on the way and teach me little stuff on the way.. thank you guys.. the little gathering we had our we finished setting up for the sunday brunch was so "enlightening". vijay told us about his adventure in geylang.. guy's explicit talk... i'm glad i felt quite well in the restaurant but sad to say i'm bound for the banquet department after another week.. how i wish i could skip banquet and rather stay at one-ninety. i really enjoyed working with this bunch of guys... i volunteered to work at 11am tomorrow cos i know sunday brunch will be a damn busy event. suppose to start at 3pm though.. so will be working 12 hours straight.. woh.. i like... just imagine the number of guests i'm gonna interact. my respect for ivan grew today... realise he's quite a good motivator and knows how to crack his staff up. he's also got this charisma in him that make people willing to do things for him. i'm honoured to be working alongside him.. hope one day we'll be rub shoulders when he become a director and me becoming a manager..heez..
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 3:37 AM
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Friday, June 25, 2004
been working like a cow this couple of days.. working overtime without getting the pay but i gain something. i earned my colleagues' respect. they never thought a trainee will be so actively participative in the operation so i draw quite a few praises. I gess working at Outback steakhouse and training in Saffron really comes in handy.. however i got put down by this female colleague. "lucky you're only a trainee" because i did something wrong or should i say i did something not to her liking. this phrase really fired me up and damn i'm gonna make her swallow her words. I'm gonna create a impact so much that they'll miss me once i leave the restaurant after a week more. feeling this way i vowed to myself next time i'm not gonna treat a trainee this way. training a trainee is like teaching a baby to walk. they need to be encouraged not put down. they fall, but encouragement will give them confidence to stand up again and walk the path of life. i'm glad i'm made to do shitty stuff as i will get to understand internal trauma i will go through so next time when i'm given the baton, i'll know how to deploy my resources so everyone share the shit,rather then stuffing the shit into just someone's mouth..yucks~
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 10:24 AM
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Wednesday, June 23, 2004
there's damn lotsa of hard labour involved in working at the restaurant.. especially the restaurant turn over from one session to another, woh.. the amount of stuff and effort to make it look different was enormous.. no wonder i was wished good luck by the others.. was a food runner today and mostly what i did is to observe. could see the corre standard set by the top management is too rigid which causes most of the staff to be like robots.. the hierarchy system is too strong and don't allow much communication and discussion between the managers and the staff.. i think this results in the monotonous working environment and lower the staff morale and causes the service standard to drop. Had a 1 hour chat with one of the assistant managers, Yana, and she do agree and feel the same way cos she's juz joined 6 months ago. realise we had the same wavelength so its easy to talk to her and discuss. we talk about what's good service, how to exceed expectation and the robotic antics of the staff and how to change that... we agree that a few can't do much to change the strong culture set in the restaurant so we gotta just take a step at a time. we need new blood..
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 10:06 AM
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Tuesday, June 22, 2004
it's my last day i'm attached to One-Ninety Bar yesterday.. Its going to be a brand new working environment today at 3pm.. this time i'll be doing the restaurant's operations. all the staff all said the same thing to me yesterday when i said i'm moving to the restaurant, "GOOD LUCK!" hmm...that isn't encouraging for a start.. had a sneek peek into the culture over there during lunch yesterday..woh..the politics was rampant man! those bagua ladies, more like aunties bitch almost about everything.. they will make good actresses.. hope everything will go well for me... hmm...nono.. i shall say i'm going to make everything go well for me in my 2 weeks stinst at the restaurant.. i'm going to change what's rotten inside there into something good.. One-Ninety, here i come!
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 12:07 PM
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Sunday, June 20, 2004
One-Ninety was damn bloody busy today... my legs and ankles are hurting from the extensive walking..Got several compliments that keep my spirits up and still go on even though my legs go numb at times.. its more of a mind over matter thingy... Did lotsa of labour work today, make me realise that's there's lotsa of hard work working in there.. Exceeded some guests' expectations today so its rather heartwarming to give a sincere and warm smile and thank you in return... will suggest to ivan on methods to exceed expectations... 1. include buffalo wings in complimentary tidbits 2. empower staff to make guest a happier guest once they step into the hotel by giving them an amount of money and they can do whatever they want to please the guests in a legal way of course..
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 10:18 PM
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i touched Louis 13 today.. damn, the bottle is magnificient. Came early to work and met Nirzam.. realise he know almost everybody in the restaurant.. he was chatting with Harry,the indian bartender who's in his forties.. their conversation was hmm... explicit.. boobs, on the bed antics and lotsa of words you don't want to hear. ok, its guy's open talk. its hilarious listening to them.. went KUTULA for dinner and met Fong and mIchael. realise there's politics in the bar.. serious shit.. but i juz act blur and listen.. i feel much more confident while i'm serving my guests.. i'm able strike up conversations easily, serve with more flair and take orders.. even now me sittting in front of the computer, i'm still rather hyper.. the more guests i served, the more energetic i become.. gonna have Sunday Brunch tomorrow.. its gonna be a rather big event since its father's day tomorrow.. will brace myself..
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 1:50 AM
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Saturday, June 19, 2004
worked till 1am last night... wohooo... first time i worked in a real bar and until such a late time.. its been a fruitful experience.. learnt tremendous amount of stuff and i'm happy i not a liability to the bar staff. Made some good conversation and and service and had many warm "thank you"s.. Realise Ivan, the manager is more of a business person compared to a people's person. I have a feeling his main goal is earn as much revenue as possible, in the process might neglect the staff welfare. however he's a fast thinker who think out of the box and a good speaker. Realise the service standard at the bar don't allows much flexbility to exceed guests' expectations... will talk to ivan about that when i've the time...
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 12:53 PM
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Thursday, June 17, 2004
ended my orientation officially yesterday.. somehow i think it ended with a bad note.. ealmost everyone was really tired and zapped after all the lecturing so everyone left without bidding a proper farewell. then i experience something unexpected too. had the concierge department coming in to give a lecture on what they do and its suppose to be the chief concierge to do so, but in the end the assistant came. and they came up with a worksheet where they ask questions about the vicinity like " how much does it take to mail a postcard to America?" or "How long is the trip is from here to Changi Airport and how much will it cost?" The class all answered the qns we all know and some questions are like we don't know at all. so i called our concierge desk and the cheift concierge picked up. hmm... aren;t he suppose to come down to welcome us instead of the assistant.. nvm... then i start asking him 2 questions we are not sure about. he answered the first one professionally and when we reach the 2nd questions, He purposely give me wrong answers and at the end of it he said rudely to ask us to go find the answers ourselves and abruptly ended the call without saying a bye.. What the hell is this? its a disgrace to have the CHIEF CONCIERGE behaving in this manner. our philsophy is supppose to be "treat others the way you want others to treat you." MR. Edmund Tan Failed. My respect for him is gone as a four seasons staff and i wonder what he is gonna do to earn it back... I always wanted to parked permanently at te concierge to learn as much as i can at that department but what he did totally disgusted me.. wait till the 27 sep when i'm posted to that department and see how it goes...
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 11:01 AM
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Tuesday, June 15, 2004
first part of the day wasn't what i expected today... was suppose to be oriented about the restaurant but the CEO and founder of 4seasons is doing a walk through in the hotel so me and lulu is being put into childcare at the HR office. we and ivan the tp bit intern shredded paper together..damn.. there's lotsa of it.. however its a fruitful task i guess.. while i'm shredding the paper, i came across lotsa of the hotel daily reports and came to one section called the GLOW report. its a guest relation report.. daily events of memorable guest interaction either small or big is being recorded in this system and being evaluated and access. also found from the director that this report are sometimes used as case study for interview and workshops.. realise alot goes round the hotel.. minor hiccup occur here and there without expecting it will happen and the important thing is that i learn the different ways and method the hotel goes about solving them. i believe this is what build up experience. i shook Mr. Isadore Sharp's hands today.. he's a charismatic and good speaker judging from the general staff meeting we had today.. Was posted to the bar today. realise their procedure are not too different from Saffron so its a good things. made lots of friends today from the restaurant and the bar.. the more memorable ones will be sook hui, the one who brought us to lunch, david, the uncle uncle joking bartender who taught me all the bad stuff of the bar and my buddy clara. realise the 3 of them are from different nation. malaysians, PR and indonesian.. found out there's lotsa of malaysians working there too.. did quite abit today compared to lulu cos basically the job for the both of us today is to juz observe.. so i shall wait and see what comes up on thursday or friday where i officially start work..
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 8:45 PM
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Monday, June 14, 2004
its the first day of work today...had orientation today had realise that other me and sooling, there's 8 more staff going through the orientation with us. make friends with the 8 of them... there's the motherly figure jane, pastry helper virginia, audio guy nirzam, banquet captain fairuz, IT boy ivan, and 3 from the US. Keiran in the rooms, he's the Ex-GM son, Kristina from the club, heard she's related to some of the corporate office people and Lulu from Washington DC. She's staying with the GM now cos she knows the GM's daughter. SHe;s be in the same department with me juz that we will be alternate from the restaurant and the bar. i'm heading to the bar first. Orientation overall was rather ok, juz that abit dry and boring cos of the nature of the topic --occupational safety.. they teach u how to carry a boz properly..hmm... anyway i feel a sense of pride that i'm working for this hotel. i'm proud to be working there. almost everything seems just right.. will see tomorrow... i'm going on job orientation with one ninety restaurant and bar...
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 9:32 PM
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Wednesday, June 02, 2004
my mindmaps were a success.. she's impressed and she likes it. she's gonna use it as a model copy. those late nights finally pay off.. got another assignment though, have to do a mindmap for the housekeeping aunties to read.. this is a toughie but i'm sure i'll be able to do it... i'm working towards my legacy...
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 3:21 PM
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