With the Head Chef off now for his annual weeks holiday after christmas (mine comes in a couple of weeks), I am currently in charge in the Kitchen at the hotel. That means that although I get to assert my authority, it also puts me under an incy bit of pressure.As an old colleague of ours used to say "Tense....so very, very tense." Mind he was a bit of a 50p! (In our Kitchen we are not allowed to say certain swear words such as C***, f+++, or s^^^ or else we are fined 50p which goes in a tin- the proceeds of which are divided up between the chefs at the end of the old year or the beginning of the new one. Hence the expression- he's a right 50p!!)
Ultimately for the next seven days the buck stops with me. Thankfully it's fairly quiet in this wind-down period though thats a double-edged sword! On one hand, it's a blessing because it means I have less things to stress about but on the other, it's a curse because when trade is quiet it is no good for anyone in the industry. We have already had one supplier go to the wall and now, at the end of the month, another is following suit. Thats two of our suppliers in three weeks who have gone up the proverbial swanney....
Which brings me to the title of my latest entry. On Sunday, one of the young part-time waitresses (we'll call her E) had an ickle accident. She was carrying a heavily laden tray and fell backwards. Nobody wanted to move her as she complained of pain in her shoulders and lower back so paramedics were called. Rather than being concerned, one of the other waitresses (whom I get on well with and I'll call J) instead just said "Well it was her own fault, I told her not to carry so much on one tray!" Oh well done you for caring...not!
I stayed out of the way because there were enough people fussing around E including a senior manager of our company who goes around like she's the Queen of Sheba or something. I've met her type before and it don't impress me much! Anyway, she came over being all patronising and, what to me, looked falsely sympathetic and I couldn't help feeling if I was injured, hers would probably be the last face I'd want to see! Still I suppose at least she was pretending to show some concern and, who knows, she might even of been genuine. It's just she has this smarmy way about her that I have never entirely trusted...
That was Sunday, then today I heard some of the function waitresses discussing what had happened. One of the girls (who, thanks to the afore mentioned Martin Abernathy, we collectively call the "dinner ladies") repeated what J had said the day before about it being E's own fault and I thought to myself "you weren't even there, how do YOU know what actually happened?" There was no "oh, I hope she's alright" or nothing just it was her own fault! Honestly those dinner ladies are like the witches in Macbeth, they really are. And I was very disappointed in J of whom I had thought better.
I quite like E; she's not much to look at and a quiet girl but she's very pleasant and always cheerful. I prefer her to some of the other part-time waitreses such as S who goes around with two chunky chips on each of her shoulders and a great big attitude....All of the part-timers are still at school so come with a goverment health warning (I believe the term is jail-bait) and, as you can imagine, the area of the Kitchen where they sometimes hang-out when it's quiet can be a bit like a school playground but E is perhaps the nicest of the lot and quite pretty I suppose in her own way. At the least, she is the only one of them who appears genuine.
This whole Blog thing is taking over my life at the mo- I even found myself making notes today in my split shift to help sketch my thoughts on here later. Must remember not to neglect DOOYOO and write some more reviews- after all, they pay money and this doesn't but I am enjoying it for now till I get bored and move onto something else....
see you laters alligators.... love Sparkyxxx
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