The Rose and Crown, study and Cowboys (yee hah!)

Well, I'm now done with Chippie and podium. I start food running tomorrow and it is disturbing how much I'm looking forward to it. It's not just the fact I'll be getting closer to becoming a server, it's not all about the money, I'm really excited to be doing something different. On Tuesday I'm bar training which is worrying because I can't pull a pint to save my life! Still, guess I'll learn.

Last night was the last night at Pleasure Island so a group of people went to PI. The other half of us went to Cowboys. I was in the latter group. Cowboys is a nightclub that plays jazzed up country music. All the regulars seem to know the dances so we all line danced to various songs. The dances were really tricky, they involved alot of turns and if you didn't move fast enough, you got trampled underfoot. The only one of us with any kind of skill line dancing seemed to be Colin who is apparently born with rubber legs! The guy is really good. Still, everyone tried which I thought was amazing. I gave it a good go but due to the fact I'm rhythm retarded, I didn't do too well. On the way home, we stopped off at McDonalds but the line was really long so we went to Wendys instead. It was weird to be eating a burger at 3.30am. The hours I keep out here are crazy!

Today was my day off and Lauren P asked me to help her with her menu learning. I let her borrow my study cards and we went to The Rose and Crown for lunch. It was so much easier to actually see the items we have to spiel to the guests. We ordered stuff we were having difficulty with and then we dissected it. It was hysterical, we were poking around going "right, well, this has this green stuff and then the pork is topped with this...." It was a brilliant way to learn though and I'm now pretty confident that I can picture any menu item and describe it. Lauren P is also ready to spiel to managers. We spoke to Jamie but to my surprise, Lauren (one of the most confident girls I know), just seemed to lose all confidence when faced with a manager. It was annoying because she KNOWS it, we've been working on it all day and she can spiel any item to me with no problem but she seems to get tied up trying to describe everything to other people. It's almost like she's convinced herself she's not going to do well and therefore she doesn't. It was almost painful to watch because I know she knows it and if she relaxes a bit, she'll do really well. I'll head over there in a minute and cheer her up.

Right, well, it's getting late (again!) and I'm at work tomorrow as a food runner (yeah!!). Talk to you soon!

Spiels, Pleasure Island and packages from home

Hey Guys,

It's been a really busy few days and I'm really sorry I haven't updated in a while. I only have fifteen minutes to do this as my bus is due soon so here goes.

I spent my last two days off learning the menu until I felt comfortable spieling any item. Then when I got into work, I went into the kitchen to find a chef to spiel to. I found all three head chefs and asked who was available and they got me to do all three at once right there and then in the kitchen with everyone staring! It was pretty nerve racking. Bill and Brandon smiled encouragingly at me whenever I caught their eye but Amber was just expressionless. I couldn't read her reactions at all and her stone faced expression really scared me. I'm not sure she knows how intimidating she can be. Still, I got to the end and answered the questions set to me and they told me I'd passed. YES! I then spieled to Yvette one of the managers and she passed me too. I now have a date for service (28th!) Brilliant! I feel like the fun starts now. I'm really looking forward to getting to know our guests and entertaining the kids with my magic tricks (because, after all, kids is what I'm qualified in!) It's gonna be great!

I worked in Chippie last night from 4pm to 12.30am! It was a long shift but I had a great closing team (Rhys and Lynda) and we all had fun and time passed really quickly. Sometimes Chippie isn't completely soul crushing. Sometimes....

I went out to Pleasure Island after work one evening. They're closing all the nightclubs there soon so we wanted to go and check them out before they vanish forever. It was a really good night. we were at PI until 2am when they kicked us out so they could close, then we carried on to IHOP (International House of Pancakes). Only in America can you sit eating pancakes in a crowded restaurant at 4am! We walked back from there and I finally got to bed around 5.30am! It was excellent!

I just got a phonecall from the main desk here at the Commons. I have a package (Yay!) so I'm off to pick that up.

Bye for now.

Gore and catgut available at the Rose and Crown!

I haven't blogged for a while but it's only because I've been pretty busy. I've been working and when I'm not working I've been trying to learn the menu. I've already taken the pre-service test (and passed) so now I have to spiel menu items to three managers and a chef. It means I need to know every one of the items we serve and what goes with it and descriptions. I like studying (which is fortunate) but I'm really struggling because I'm working to a timescale. I've told management I'm ready to spiel on Thursday which gives me two days off to learn everything. I can now do all the appetizers and most of the entrees. My way of remembering things isn't exactly PC but it really helps. For example, our herb roasted lamb is marinated with garlic, olive oil and rosemary which I remember by thinking GOOR (gore). Also, I think of CATGUT when I'm describing the chicken because it helps me remember Canola and olive oil with whole Garlic cloves and Rosemary and Thyme. It was originally COGRAT (Canola, olive oil, garlic, rosemary and thyme) but catgut makes me laugh and I remember it better. If Disney knew I'm describing their menus with words like gore and catgut, goodness only knows what they would think! Still, if it works, I don't see any problem with it!

I've been ER'ed the last two days I've been in. That means "Early Release" and it happens when we have too many people at work and not enough to do. I probably shouldn't have taken todays as we don't get paid for ER's but it is so tempting. Imagine working in a 90 degree heat where you're standing on your feet the whole time and there's very few guests so alot of the time you're just standing there. Now imagine someone says, "hey, do you want to go home?" Trust me, even though the little voice in the back of your head is saying, "you need the money", the rest of you is picturing a cool blue swimming pool and the chance to jump in it! I think today will be one of my last ER's though as I had something I actually wanted to do (menu study). I need to start realising money has to come from somewhere so if I don't have any plans, I need to work. Still, we won't get ER'ed once we're in service so I may as well enjoy it while I can.

I'm heading to the bank in a little while to arrange online banking. I'll be taking my "cheat sheets" with me so I can study the menu on the bus. I've made some cards with the menu items on so I can carry them around and learn "on the go". I should definately be ready for Thursday at this rate.

The only other bit of news is Hurricane Ike. He is a massive catergory 4 hurricane and right now he's just to the south of us battering the hell out of Cuba. He's been a bit erratic and last night, people feared he was going to come barrelling through Florida. They called for a mandatory evacuation of the Florida Keys and Bush declared a state of emergency for Florida but it looks like we may be lucky this time. As my little map shows, he's going to bypass us and head off into the gulf but nothing is certain with storms as dangerous as these. Everyone is keeping a very close watch on Ike, as well as all the other storms that will form behind him (at the moment, Josephine and Kyle). I know alot of people are excited to witness a hurricane and I've actually had people wishing for Ike to come our way but they have no concept of the raw power in these storms and the damage they can cause. I'm hoping they won't have to find out but it's a very active season this year. We're not even at the height of Hurricane season yet (that's next week) but we're already up to the letter L (that's 12 named storms this year). Well, all we can do is wait and see and deal with things as they happen. I personally think Ike will miss us (though I pity Cuba) but they'll be others. Don't worry though, I'll keep you up to date.