As I was having dinner tonight and watching the waiters and waitresses going about doing their job in the restaurant, I couldn't help but remember when I was a waitress....
While I was studying in Perth, Western Australia, of course I wanted money to shop... and the only way I knew how to do that was by getting a job and one of the easiest jobs to get while one is a student is as a waitress...
The first place I started at was an Indian restaurant called D'Tandoor restaurant. The chefs were really nice Indian guys and I would always take a big back pack to work because before they closed up the kitchen for the night, they would specially make for me whatever I wanted from the menu, put it into tupperwares and put it into my back pack for me. My favourite was butter chicken and garlic naan.... yummy.....
On my first shift there, in other words, my very first time as a waitress, I was carrying a tray full of yummy, hot, indian food....
I got to the table that had placed the order put half the tray on the table, picked up some of the bowls of food and because the weight was not balanced on the tray, the remaining 3-4 bowls of food fell... onto me... down my left leg!!!
Every guest at the table and me just gasped!
I muttered some kind of miserable apology and ran back into the kitchen.... When the chefs in the kitchen saw all the food down my leg, they just shook their head and quickly remade a new set of food for the table....
Ever since then, they told me to only clear plates.... I don't blame them...
Since I don't drink any form of alcohol, I don't know anything about it.. what kind of wine goes with what food, what tastes good, what doesn't... seriously no idea ok!
So when a table ordered a bottle of red wine, I proceeded to give it to them, served in an ice bucket....
I was then told by the head waiter that only white wine is served chilled... NOT red wine!
Yes, that is how uneducated I am about it!
After D'Tandoor, I worked at the Melbourne Hotel in Perth for a while.... They served the best chocolate cake there! Several times I remember going into the little staff room to find half a chocolate cake on the table, because I vaguely remember this ruling where they are not supposed to serve cake older than 3 days.... so they would just put it in the staff room. It was still ok to eat it.. so I did!
The last place I worked at was an Italian restaurant. I can't remember the name now. They served the best free after dinner mints, and I had a big pocket on my apron so I would always fill it up with the chocolate mints and eat them when I had a spare moment...
At the end of every shift, the chef would make us the best pizzas too!
And because I worked so hard to earn so little money (anyone who has ever worked as a waiter will tell you how painful your legs get), anytime I saw something I wanted to buy, I would calculate how many hours I would have to work to pay for it..
Example...
I was earning about 10 - 12 dollars an hour....
Jacket cost $100.... meaning I would have to slave away for about 10 hours to have the money to buy the jacket....
Yikes! That's a lots of plates I would have cleared....
This is why I still have a lot of things in my wardrobe which I paid for with 'waitressing money'. I haven't forgotten how hard I worked to get the money to buy them....
As a result, I never have and never will treat waiters and waitresses badly....
I was one of them....
(sorry, no pictures of me as a waitress!)
5 comments:
Hi Sha! I could relate to this post. I was a Banquet Waitress for 5 years and still continue to do so on weekends despites I had a 9-5 job back then.And yes,I bought a plenty of things eg my CD Player thanks to the banquet job.:)
The other interesting parts was you get to see&meet people + see nice drag queen/celebrities shows. My colleagues & I also are fond of Annuar Zain & Ning Baizura because they never failed to be polite and entertain us (regardless what our position were)+ whenever we pressed them for their autographs after their show. ;)
wah tak sangka banyak experience waiting tables ye. heheee...i worked as a waitress during semester break in a 4 star hotel and everyone took good care of me coz i was the youngest. we're like one big happy family!
shahsha..
was holding back my tears when i read ur entry. ur so modest.
tho i never have waitressing experience before i think i can imagine what it would feel like to be one. with having a small 5'3 petite figure. i dont have the body to do such jobs.
makes me realize how my dad always and always reminds and recall us with his hard days stories..things he did to earn money when he was a kid who came from a broken family. so i understand of his sorrow just by looking at his facial expression and eyes whenever he start telling us his ol stories..and how much he try to make us understand the real story of life.
may allah bless u kak shasha..murah rezeki selalu so that you can buy anything you want and so that you can give to others too who are in need too.
well,its very nice read bout ur experience as a waitress...bring back the memories when i once work as a waiter at zeta bar,hilton kl.i had the same experience like u on the alcoholic drinks,i never know the names of the drinks,which is why i always had problems when customer order from me,heheh :p cakes?we also got to eat the leftover cakes from guest birthday party...and after long hours of standing,ran around the bar,only god knows the pain!well,have a great day,and goodluck to u!cheers
Hi you,I used to study in Perth too..in Curtin Uni..my campus in Joondalup.
Hehehe..student dulukan..i also worked in Sheraton Perth Hotel..jadi tukang cuci juga..dapat gaji gi beli baju semua.Anyway nice to know this blog.
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