Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Cuppies for PING.SG

This is such an outdated post. But then again, when I think about it, my posts are always outdated. I've a lot of things that I wanna post, but whenever I turn on my lappie for the purpose of updating my blog, I end up watching a drama, read manga online, or my recent activity - reading, replying, deleting emails in my constantly-flooded inbox.

Anyways, 2 weeks ago I got a cuppie order from syls. It was for the anniversary of this online community that she's a member of. I almost rejected the request cuz the organiser wants it to be for the event which falls on Saturday and wants to take it like in the afternoon. As you noe, I got church on Sat and usually i stay in church the whole day cuz there's a lot of activities. Besides I was busy working too, so was afraid that I wouldn't have enough time to bake.

But in the end I took up the job, partly cuz syls my friend, and I always find it hard to say 'no'. Secondly, it was actually quite a new experience since it was the first time i bake for a total stranger, a community at that, called ping.sg. Usually I just bake for like a birthday party of a friend or friend's friend. So they're just casual party and they know I'm an amatuer baker, so they won't be mean if the cuppies don't turn out so well (altho I always ensure they turn out good (; )

So yea, baking for a community... it's like for a corporate. And I needed to really ensure the quality cuz my reputation was at stake. It wasn't just some baking favor that I do for ppl I know, where I can just bake for fun, you know I mean? So yea, was kinda exciting but was a bit apprehensive also.

I had to bake 64 cuppies and need to make some fondant letters to write the happy birthday thing. It's not hard to make fondant topping, but the thing is I only had shape cutters, not letters and forgot to buy cuz there were other things that I needed to buy and I didn't have much time. So in the end, I had to cut the letters one by one using an x-acto knive. A very long and tedious process. Spent a few hours just cutting those letters, such that I work into the Sabbath. Felt a bit bad about it.

But in the end, everything turned out fine. Well, great actually. I was really worried about what ppl would think about my cuppies. So i asked syls to gather their opinions. And my, I had such good reviews. Heheh.... so flattered. Thanks for all the comments!^^

The cuppies were rather simply decorated (cuz I spent most of my time on those damn letters). But I guess they didn't mind :)

People have been telling me that I should start a home bakery and market my cuppies. But I bake not cuz I want to make money (trust me, I don't earn much from my baked goodies). I just like baking. And it's always nice to see people enjoy eating my cakes and hear compliments from them. Besides, I realise from past experiences that I can't mass produce. I get stressed out if I get too many orders. Haha...

Anyways, here's a pic of the cuppies, courtesy of claudia. I've got my own pics, but not uploaded yet. Kinda lazy hee....

Monday, July 21, 2008

Why MPW and LTB might be useful

All of you might know how much I regret to be in SMU, particularly, how much I regret taking accountancy. Most of the modules really don't make sense to me, or rather, are of no interest to me. I'm the kind of person who doesn't even know how much I have in my account. I just spend whenever I feel like it and once in a blue moon, will update my passbook to check the balance. Haven't got an overdraft problem since I don't spend much. So... money matters don't really concern me, which means, accounting and finance modules are horribly dry to me.

Instead, modules that people find as nonsense are actually quite interesting to me, well relatively speaking - relative to the acct and finance mods that is. Mods such as analytical skill (eg. If all A are B, and all B are C, then all A are C), creative thinking, and the likes. And working in my current place, I realise that Management of People at Work (MPW) and Leadership and Team Building (LTB) can be quite useful, esp if I were to have my own business.

Ok I'm being quite long-winded in my intro, but actually I just feel like complaining about my boss. I think he's such a $%^&!$%#!*&*%$^! ass. Actually I've never really had any problem with him. He minds his own business, I mind my own. He comes and goes without acknowledging my existence. Never once had he said hi to me whatsoever. That's fine tho, so long as he doesn't bother me. He doesn't look like he's a bad person either.

But I often talk to the other staff, both the service and the kitchen, during lunch time or when we're quite free, and found out that he's not such a nice person after all. I shan't elaborate on what they told me tho. Since it's their story, not mine. But still, he's not a nice person. Then I start hearing him scolding vulgarities to the kitchen staff. The F-word is somehow quite popular among the ppl who work there.

Then just few weeks ago, because the resto wants to change their menu, they asked the staff to do food-testing. Then I was just talking to my colleague about sushi and sashimi and how a good sashimi depends on the quality of the fish and even the way the chef cut it and stuff like that. And I have not the vague-est how such conversation could offend anyone. But somehow it offended the boss. He was like showing unhappy face and saying stuff like "you all dunno anything lah, you're just wasting money. You think got such good chef in singapore meh? yaddayaddayadda..."

I was like "Huh? What are you so mad about?"

It's just my speculation but you see, the business has been rather slow nowadays, and some say it's because our quality has dropped and stuff. So maybe, just maybe, he felt offended cuz he thought I was talking about hte chef. Ceh... such an easily offended person.

Then today was so busy. Busy like hell. It was full house and even had people waiting to be seated. Never had this occured before in my 4 months working there. So anyways, it was so busy that the kitchen ran out of rice. Which is why the staff had to ask if it's okay for the rice to be changed to udon, at no extra cost (usu. got extra charge).

So neways, there's this one table that had their rice changed to udon. But thing is, I wasn't the one handling hte table and I didn't know they had their rice changed. Then 2 of the orders took quite long to come, and the cust kept asking for it. So went to the pantry to inform the kitchen. Boss was there telling that there's rice now, and told me to ask them if then want rice or udon. Yes, that's exactly what he said "Ask them if they want rice or udon?" that's all.

So of course I had to ask what their order was, so that I know what the problem was, because i didn't even know there was no more rice in the first place. But he just raised his voice and hit the counter-top and said "JUST ASK THEM IF THEY WANT RICE OR UDON?"

What the $%^*! And there was other staff around. You know, scold me is bad, but scold me in front of people is worse, man. Pai seh ar. KNNBCCB!

Dude, I know it's busy and all but no need to shout and I had to know the problem right and need to explain properly right. That's called quality service. Even my supervisor agreed with me. Actually the rest of the staff are quite pissed that the mgt want everything to be done rapido while compromising the quality. No wonder biz has been bad. Today's an exception tho, maybe cuz of the feng shui master he brought in last week. But that's another story.

Oh and one more thing. He doesn't look at the people in the eye when he's talking to them. I feel like telling him, "Hey your mother never teach you is it? It's basic courtesy to look at the person you're talking to in the eye, stoops"

I seriously think he doesnt have any people management skill whatsoever. Thru MPW and LTB, at least I know that it's really impt to have a good attitude if you were to be a manager. Or else, you'll have people cursing at you behind your back. But him... pfft.... bad-tempered, scolds vulgarites, get angry for no rhymes or reason, easily offended, rude and like Thes also add at the end... STILL ALIVE SOME MORE.

Actually I've been having this thought. I wonder if I should tell him how bad a manager he is the same time that I resign, which is not too long from now. I mean, I've got nothing to lose. I won't be working there anymore. Not like I will ever go back and mayb, he'll change his attitude. I'll be kinda helping my colleagues to have a nice boss right? Haha... the thought somehow excites me. But then again. it might be too troublesome. We'll see...

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

How Do I Hate Thee, Let Me Count the Ways

"How do I love thee" was one of the cheesiest poem I had to recite in my secondary school days. But since the whole class had to recite them, one by one of course, the experience wasn't that bad. Quite funny, in fact, since some people just can't put emotion into it, including myself. haha...

But if you were to ask me to recite my own version, called "How do I hate thee!", I can do it close-eyed, with full of emotion easily. And I tell you, my version can take hours to finish. So, obviously I'm feeling an intense hatred towards a certain someone currently. But then again, I feel hatred towards that idiot most of the time since I was an innocent little girl.

Honestly, I think some people do enjoy pissing other people off. They never think how their actions would make other people feel - wait, maybe they actually do, that is how their actions would piss other ppl off. They always look from their own point of view only. They are a bunch of irritating, selfish, unreasonable, conceited, absolutely detestable creatures and most annoyingly, they won't leave you alone.

Why, oh why, are there such creatures in this world? This world would be a gazillion times better place without their existance. But unfortunately, I have to live with one of them. Poor me :(

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

There are a couple of reasons why I wanna work as a waitress despite the long working hours, hardwork and pathetic pay. One of them is due to my love for food. The other is because I get to meet interesting people, which sometimes can be amusing or irritating.

And many interesting people I meet.

This happens last week. Well, actually I dunno if I should classify him as interesting or just plain stupid. What happens was like this…

I was doing my usual duty as a waitress. So he called me to take his order. He inquired about the lunch specials (basically value-for-money lunch sets). It’s ok to inquire; many customers do that to ask for recommendations and to verify. But then he pointed to the first line on the menu which says “Chicken Katsu Curry” and the line after that which says “Rosu (Pork) Katsu Curry” and asked, “Umm, may I know what’s the difference between these two?”

I thought I heard him wrongly. So I asked him, “The difference between these two, sir?”

He said, “Yea, what’s the difference?”

I almost rolled my eyes. I mean, how difficult is it to decipher what those lines mean? Obviously one is chicken and the other is pork. It’s not like the menu is written fully in Japanese, you know.

I was so tempted to say, “One is chicken and the other is pork. DUH!”

But of course, I couldn’t do that and have to smile and answered him, “Well sir, the difference lies in the type of meat. This one (pointing to the first line) is chicken and this one (the other line) is pork.”

He nodded and looked like I just solved a really difficult problem.

Then he flipped the pages and stopped at the “Katsu Curry” section and the “Half-size Curry” section. But then he asked while pointing at the Chicken Katsu at both section, “then what’s the difference between this chicken katsu (pointing at the Katsu Curry section) and this chicken katsu (pointing at the half size one).

Seriously, I had to make a conscious effort not to slap my forehead. I mean, the headlines on both sections are pretty big, you see. So it’s hard not to see. Besides, the prices are different, with the half-size one being cheaper obviously. I wanted to say, “Goodness me, do you even know how to read English? Obviously half-size means smaller portion lah.”

But of course, again, I couldn’t say that. I had to pretend like it was indeed difficult to know the difference between those two chicken katsus and that his questions made total sense and answered, “Well sir, the half-size one is smaller in portion.”

Then he said, “Oooh, ok then. I’ll have this….”

Oh I forgot to mention that he was with an older man and I can swear that man was looking at him as if he couldn’t believe that guy just asked such a ridiculously stupid question. I pity him. I wonder what kind of conversation they had during their lunch.