CHERYL

i've an hour left till work starts so i guess i'd start blogging now :-) anyway, it's my 11th day at work today at nakhon kitchen! 

yup, i haven't properly introduced my workplace yet but i'm currently working at this thai restaurant as a part-timer. 

it hasn't been long since i started working but it feels like i've been here for a year or something because i'm getting very used to the working pace and the staff :) honestly i wouldn't say work is fun hahaha it's more like tiring. indeed, the first day of work was still the most tiring up till now even though there were more exhausting days than that. 

{ i've so many things to update about my work life here and i think it's going to bore you so bear with me if you want to continue reading. } 

the best thing about working here at nakhon kitchen is definitely the lovely staff here. i don't think i can ask for a better bunch of colleagues because they are already the nicest and the funniest people to work with. :") bryant, the manager (there's no work title here and he didn't greet himself as the manager but i treat him as one because he's like a supervisor to me) has taught me a lot of basics and has guided me along during my first few days of work and even up till now, he offers me tips and gives me advices (though i must admit, i'm pretty scared of him because he can either be in a really foul mood or a cheerful one; and it's pretty drastic.) but i know he's a really good guy even though he might not have the best temper (honestly who am i to say, when my temper myself isn't very good either). he told me things about his life & i'm certain he's a down-to-earth kinda person and definitely someone with a mind of his own. he's pretty scary at times but everything's great when he's in a good mood. on my 9th day of work, bryant asked me whether i had a godbrother out of the blue and then asked whether i could be his godsister and i said "why not!" well i already treat him as an older brother since he has always "been there for me" well, sort of. he said he wouldn't allow anyone to bully me or else they would get it from him :") he had a painful past and comes from a broken family but at least he has braved through almost all of it alone already and i really admire him for that. when he told me how he much he had to scrimp and save on himself just to support himself and his niece whom he takes care of, it made me feel helpless because i couldn't do anything to help sigh. 

mariko or iko in short, is the "jumper" in the restaurant and she was thrilled when she knew my friend and I was joining the staff when i went for the interview. she's a really nice person hehe she doesn't like to comment/scold anyone or any new part timers because she's afraid of hurting their feelings (yes, that's how nice she is). she has been really patient in teaching me how to serve and how to "jump" behind the counter between the kitchen and the orders. because of her, i've also finally mastered the art of carrying four plates of rice with just my left arm within 6 days of work! i can carry a maximum of 5 plates of rice with both hands now & i'd definitely work my way through to become like jason, who can handle 8 plates on a single arm.............

also because of her, i've learnt how to manage takeaway orders, adding orders, making drinks and desserts, getting the bill and so much more. we even agreed to go out together with bryant sometime during our off day :) to a trip to JB and also a badminton session together since bryant's a badminton coach.

jason's a really strong guy and i'm still amazed at the number of plates he can carry with just an arm & how strong he is because he can stack so many heavy plates on just his left arm. he's literally my life-saver when i've too many plates to clear on the table especially during peak hour because he can just "swoop" everything to the kitchen in a go & i'd probably have to make at least three trips to the kitchen to finish clearing by myself. even the chefs are all nice and fun to work with! they joke around with each other in the kitchen even while cooking hahaha it's just feels so happy when you see them laughing happily inside. the dishwasher is also nice hehe and she's always bickering (casually) with the chefs and i'd laugh at them whenever i return the plates to the kitchen. the auntie who's always drying the plates (of whom i think is the boss's mom) is always asking me whether i'm used to the job and whether i'm tired. the bosses here are really nice too hehe carol buys drinks for everyone after work on every sunday and she also buys some snack over for us. boss would also give me a ride home or even to starbucks for my interview when he's leaving the restaurant and they would give my family free dessert whenever they dine in :) and the staff would always insist that i've to order something from the kitchen to bring home to try. 

all in all, it's really fun working here especially because of the staff even though work can be a real dread sometimes when you visualise the crowd in your head & realise how busy & tired you'd be. everyone treats each other so nicely and they are totally full of smiles! it feels as if we're all one big family and bryant told me that on my first few days of work and it feels exactly just that. :") honestly i wasn't expecting having such a close relationship/bond with all the staff but they are all just too nice that i can't help but to feel thankful for. 

not forgetting to mention about some incidents i came across during work, because i think it's fair enough to share them here since i'm always updating about my work life on dayre everyday. i've met some nasty customers already and no doubt they really pissed me off and made me lose patience in some cases because they were really too demanding and the way they spoke wasn't exactly nice either. but on the flipside, i've met some lovely customers who i'm grateful for. on my third day at work (i can still vividly remember it's the third because on the second i met some nasty uncle) i met this family who was dining at the restaurant and this uncle who was about 60 years of age came up to me and complimented about my looks & it caught me a surprise because i was just busy clearing the plates and then the woman suddenly introduced herself and the guy that was sitting next to her and she told me she'd come visit me at work again soon just to "see me". i didn't really take her words seriously but she really came the next day so i was really surprised! but glad to say that that was my first "customer friend" i made at work. :) a middle-aged couple also passed me a $4 tip (which i think is A LOT) when i was cleaning their table and commented on the good service. some customers were also really nice because they tried to make a conversation with the staff here. i mean, it's really nice if customers actually talk to you on a friendly basis. :) well, there was also one customer who wasn't aware that he dropped his money on the floor and said he was just "testing me" when i picked it up and returned to him. 

having said all of these, i really feel like i've changed after i started working. i've never minded/cared about how important my response is to whoever's serving me at a restaurant or a cafe and at times when i was in a foul mood, i'd just show attitude to the waiters. but don't get me wrong, i'm not the kind of person who doesn't say thank you to the person who serves me my food or clears my plates. i've always had a habit of thanking someone for serving my food & drinks to me (that is, if i'm not engaged in a very serious conversation). i've realised that not everyone would actually do so but there are still a fair number of customers who'd thank me when i serve them food. 

and guess what, your parents were right when they told you that money is hard to earn. i mean i know that money doesn't drop from the sky but that sentence doesn't really get to you until you experience it on your own. nowadays whenever i contemplate whether i should get something, my brain would automatically figure about how many hours i'd have to work just to buy that. i don't know if it's a good thing to become thrifty, but all i know is that it's scaring me a lot because it's so not me and i'm slightly worried about becoming a penny-pincher....but anyway, i'd just cross my fingers now and hope for a good future ahead and with a pay that's enough for me to spend. 

also, i promised my grandparents i'd treat them to a meal with my first pay so i've finally gotten my first pay last sunday so i'm going to treat them to a good meal soon. :) grandpa was really looking forward to it hehe and it actually felt weird after receiving my first pay because it just didn't felt like i was the one earning the money myself even though i've worked so much sweat for it. 

by the way, if you've ever been to nakhon kitchen to eat, i'm pretty sure you'd know it's a really exhausting job. especially on sunday nights when the queue is never-ending and you'd just feel like taking your life away when the hours just doesn't seem to tick by but your soul is already on its way to the deathbed. 

gordon's coming back to work on friday and i can't wait to meet him! he's coming back to work part time since he's on a break (i suppose) in NUS. jason's also finally coming back next week so i guess work should be quite fine! thomas's also a really cute guy because he's shorter than me and doesn't even look like his age at all! and not to mention that he's reaaaaaaaally nice heh i secretly wish that he was a full-timer instead because he's really easy-going.

by the time i edit this post, I've already met gordon! well he's such a chill guy and we are already talking and teasing each other even though we've barely met for four hours.

-- alright, enough about my work and back to my social life!! -- 

anyway i met kina last week before she left for bangkok for breakfast at eastpoint because i wanted to pass her my camera! i thought we weren't going to meet until after she's back but thank god we found a chance to meet before she flew off that night :) we talked for about 2-3 hours straight while eating breakfast (actually it was just 90% me telling her about my work excitedly) and it was really non-stop chatting until the minute we said goodbye. yes, that's how much we have to talk about and i miss this girl already :( always having endless conversations to talk about and i'd never feel uncomfortable sharing with her everything and anything about myself!

and then i had to rush home to get changed while she had to rush home to prepare herself for her flight. got changed and then i took the train to tanjong pagar because i've made plans with sarah that day :) was kinda lost at tanjong pagar at first because it was really my first time there & i was pretty lost. eventually google maps saved our lives and we found our way to duxton hill! was initially planning to visit DOC department of caffeine but unfortunately it was closed for that day :( just our luck......but at least we managed to visit Littered With Books and found out many things in tanjong pagar (such as authentic korean food everywhere along the streets). eventually settled our late lunch at Group Therapy! feeling pretty impressed at the number of cafes which have healthy options in their menu......so i ordered the muesli/granola with yogurt! which costed around $12? 

unreasonable price because i'm sure it would cost less than $6 for the whole thing. well, wasn't really expecting much from a cafe standard so i'd just say it's a so-so! sarah ordered the pumpkin pancakes and she said it was nice, though it was expensive i feel - $19. it was a great meet up with sarah and i hope to see her again soon with the rest :-) so excited to meet all of them hehe but it's so hard to accomodate everyone's schedule and pick a day since we're always travelling & working on different days.

after i left tanjong pagar at about 4pm, i met haiqal for dinner at city hall and we spent 80% of our time shopping for my earrings because i told him i wanted to get new ones and we walked all the way from city hall to marina square then to suntec. & then we both got something from factorie and i got a palm tree top for my brother too. we stopped by llaollao at marina square since it was his first time trying and he bought for me one sanum even though i said i didn't want it because i didn't have the stomach for it after a late lunch. honestly does anyone agree with me that llaollao's standard dropped a lot? that was my third time eating llaollao and i feel that the taste of the yogurt has changed drastically and maybe i should say, plummented a lot too. i remember their yogurt had a distinct milk taste to it but they taste like ordinary frozen yogurt now. yoguru still has my heart.

well it was a pretty good day because i met up with three people within the span of 12 hours and it was great catching up with them! i have many many many delayed plans with so many people & it's making me feel so guilty because i can't afford any time for them now that i've started working. :( 

on the side note, my maid returned home few weeks ago for a short trip home so no one's there to do all the housework now. because of that, all three of us (my mum, bro and i) are back to shifting responsibilities to take care of the housework at home. usually when i have time before work, i'd hang the wet clothes and fold the freshly laundered ones & distribute them to their respective wardrobes. and also sweep and mop the entire house, make my bed and "clean up" the living room and also the kitchen area. after doing the housework, i'd leave the house for work and only to reach home at almost 11pm and only hit the sack past midnight. 

doing housework isn't exactly such a chore as i thought it would be, especially since i'm not used to doing any in my entire life. i'd say that i'm having a bigger responsibility now that i'm finally living like a "real person". these responsibilities have made me feel that i've grown a lot more mature even though it has only been a while. :") i mean i know, who says that of herself but I CAN FEEL IT. 

last friday i finally met jiaying after her japan trip and we had late lunch at a cafe called pop de culture located along arab street (i think). to cut the long story short, she was late for more than an hour so i was stuck at bugis alone roaming aimlessly. we wanted to eat at artistry since we couldn't the other time but the kitchen was already closed by then. so we headed for symmetry but in the end we walked out of that cafe because the food there is just too overpriced -- around $15 just for a bowl of truffle fries?and their main courses were all over $20 so it was like........really unreasonable. so in the end we settled at pop de culture after seeing their menu from the outside. ordered the platter for 2 and bacon surprise! 

well i wouldn't really recommend this cafe because the service is really bad - the staff is okay but the waiting time for the food is seriously the longest i've waited for, about more than 30minutes? it was kind of ridiculous for a meal which only consisted of scrambled eggs, baked beans, bacon and mushrooms which could easily be done in fifteen minutes. i felt that the bacon surprise was overpriced too because it was just ordinary bacon muffins - just bacon wrapped around baked egg :( and it was $10.50 just for 3 bacon muffins so.....wouldn't recommend this cafe at all but i guess it would still be a possible alternative if the other cafes are fully packed. 

we went to st games at bugis+ again after our lunch! by the time we left the cafe it was already 5 plus. we picked the songs we haven't danced the other time and it was really tiring. danced for an hour before leaving that place and then we got drinks from gongcha & finally took a train to simei. walked over to my condo and then we went to the mama shop to get alcohol hehe & we decided on rum because i dislike whiskey & jiaying dislikes vodka :( anyway, rum tastes worse than whiskey so i guess i can only stick to vodka now. but i don't exactly fancy vodka either, so i'm certain that i just don't like alcohol in general. it's only the "high" feeling that's super addictive.

that night we talked for a super long time hehe h2h talks at night are the best :") we were at the swimming pool side from 7 all the way till 2 the next morning HAHA yup that was how much we talked about.....we ordered a variety box from pizza hut which had two personal pan pizzas, hashbrowns, popcorn chicken and honey chicken wings! and then i ordered 20pcs nuggets from macs wheeee it was like a party night....with just the both of us.

 i would trade anything in the world just to have h2h talks because it's the best feeling ever :") so thankful for this girl because she's always there listening to my stupid rants and comforting me. that night really reminded me of us a year or a two ago when we did exactly the same thing, and now it reminds me of our friday night dinners after our ccas during sec one. come to think of it, we've went through a lot together and i'm at a loss for words how thankful and grateful i am for the people i've met throughout my life, be it good or bad. & pigu if you're reading this right now, thanks for everything. really.

eventually this girl left my house at around 2:30am that night and i woke up as early as 7am the next morning because i had to visit the old folks home for an event at 9. i signed up as a volunteer with my mum's company so i participated the event as a "staff" for that day and helped them with the games and everything that was planned for that event. we played bingo with the old folks and sung & danced with them. and then more games and we prepared & served them lunch. in the end we wrapped up the event with presenting them gifts - a mug and a pillow! during the whole time there i was sitting beside an auntie and an uncle because i had to help them with the bingo game. the auntie -- no wait "grandma" (who was 80 y/o) was really nice and she kept telling me stories about her life excitedly and couldn't stop bragging about her children being succesful in life; etc. she told me she has a son and three daughters, and that all of them works in a bank & one of them is even a CEO or something. but it kinda broke my heart when i asked her whether her children still visit her regularly & she said "only sometimes..." and we all know that it isn't very often.

and the uncle whom i was also sitting beside with, was also a really cute "grandpa" because he kept dozing off during the games -- he said he was sleepy because he woke up too early today. i'm still feeling hella guilty from the remark i made when i first saw him because my mum told me to take care of both elderly and i told her that the uncle looked scary and i'm kinda scared; but after talking to him for awhile i realised that i should never be so critical towards someone at the first glance just because he looks scary or anything. and i also found out that he couldn't see so he has difficulty looking at the camera when we took pictures with him. i didn't ask where his children were because i'm pretty sure that they haven't visited him for a long time. it pains me to see the number of elderly at the old folks home and seeing how lonely they look over there even though they have lots of company for each other. & i couldn't help but wonder why their children had to put them in a home when they are still around and capable of supporting their parents. 

the "grandma" whom i was with the entire day told my mum i was pretty and she told me to wear "longer earrings" next time so that i would look more beautiful and before i left, we hugged and she even gave me a kiss on my cheeks and told me that i couldn't forget her. the uncles said that we are all welcomed to be back to visit them again & i left the place feeling heavy hearted and thought of how much i could help them.

but on the side note, it was my first time visiting an old folks home that day and it was truly an experience! visiting an old folks home has always been on my bucket list but i guess it shall remain unchecked until i contribute something to them. really thankful for such opportunities & i hope for more in the future.
even went on to their website and there's a page on the donation info but i think that this old folks home should be pretty stable already so i think i'm going to donate to other homes that need more help!

finally met jo on wednesday since it was my only off day in the entire week -- working full shift everyday this week & it's so tiring :( we met at katong for lunch at around 3 and we headed to penny university. also, we realised we haven't went out since 15th november - which is about one month ago!! can't believe i haven't seen her for so long :( but great to know that she's still doing well and totally enjoying her holidays travelling everywhere. it was a great catch up session and we had so many things to talk about since we haven't seen each other in a long time. but back to penny university first -- well all in all, i regretted going because it sucked overall. never knew i was gonna say this since i had high hopes for this cafe, so i'm sorry to pour cold water on you if you also had the same initial sentiment as me. firstly, the service was really bad because none of the staff attended to us even though we entered the cafe and everyone was just doing their own things in the cafe. even the staff was pretending to be oblivious to the customers who have just walked in. so we had to find a table for ourselves and also had to clear the table on our own because none of the staff did it for us. and we even had to take their menu from the entrance & serve water ourselves! order also has to be made at the counter so we ordered egg's benedict ($15) and a full english breakfast ($16). paid $8++ for the egg's benedict instead of the usual price because i redeemed the sugar coupon just before i ordered. (if you didn't know, sugar is a free app for you to redeem free food coupons online) overall the food was disappointing because....it wasn't anything special and the egg's benedict totally sucked. but maybe because it was my first time trying the hollandaise sauce & i really didn't like it, so i can't exactly blame them for this dish either since it could have tasted the same elsewhere. but i really didn't like hollandaise sauce ew now i finally understand why akina doesn't like egg's benedict and why sarah opted for no hollandaise sauce for her poached eggs when we were at group therapy............

the egg's benedict was two poached eggs in hollandaise sauce, atop of two slices of turkey ham and then a thick toast, with a side salad. i wouldn't ever pay $15 just for this because 1) it sucked 2) it wasn't anything special 3) it's overpriced. really hate how overpriced cafes' food are and that their standards are just not up to par lately. 

the full english breakfast was something similar to the platter for 2 i tried at pop de culture & at least it was better than the egg's benedicts. it consisted of two spicy sausages, two sunny side-ups, truffle mushrooms, hashbrown, bacon strips and thick toasts; which was more reasonable to me (for pricing wise). nothing special too :( 

starting to hate the idea of cafe hopping now because the standards are really bad & it really disappoints me a lot especially if i have expected a lot more from them (no wonder they say that higher expectations lead to bigger disappointments.) & the thing is, the food there is always overpriced! & not to mention that their food portion isn't exactly very huge compared to the price either HAHA i guess i would just visit nicer cafes for now.....well, or maybe not at all haha

went to parkway and got a lot of things from cotton on because they were having such a big sale!! & then got myself my first pair of superga black classics. i still want my nike air max sigh :(

left parkway aft that & went to grandma's for dinner! bought durian ice cream from scoopz for them heh my first gift with my pay even though i always get something for them when i go over. haven't seen my aunt and cousins in such a long time too really miss family time :( on the side note, work has taken away a lot of family time because i'm always working on weekends and i barely have any time to rest let alone spend time with my family.

xi min came all the way to my workplace to look for me during my lunch break hehe. we were supposed to meet waaaaay earlier and we had plans for me to go over her house to play the piano and bake for one full day but it's so hard to find a day when we are both free :( she's always travelling and now that i've started working, I've no time to go out sigh :( but i was so touched when she said she was willing to come all the way down here even though she wasn't sure where my workplace was.
We had tea break at percolate! it's this cafe that's only few shops away from my workplace and i think it's the only cafe here in bedok.




finally done with blogging YESSS

can't wait for aus this coming tuesday hehe finally a break x

take care and bye!!

cheryl