Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Tea lady!

"Do you need a tea lady?"

Gawd knows how many people I've asked that question recently. I've even asked the door-guy who looks after the apartment building *grin*

So it shouldn't really be that much of a surprise when someone actually took me up on my offer and made me into one! *lol* I'm now a proud employee of Yumchaa :)

My first day's been mixed. Everyone was full of encouragement - even when I was partially responsible for a customer spilling his espresso on his suit... In front of the Boss Lady *cringe* Five minutes later, my sausage-like butterfingers soon followed up on the faux pas, when they let slip a cup full of ice. I essentially threw ice cubes at the customer... Again, all this under the eagle eyes of the Boss Lady *double cringe* I never realised before how much of a klutz I am. Sure, I occasionally trip over my own feet. However, I'm fast learning that the rest of me is pretty uncoordinated too :P

I'm kind of surprised actually, that not only am I still employed as a tea lady, but that I was given my share of the tips at the end of my shift (all 1.70 squiddies of it *lol*).

It's been an interesting day, as I suddenly started equating the cost of everything to how much I had to work to earn it. A coffee? That's close to half an hour's work. Two coffees in a day suddenly seems like a luxury. Something that seemed like a drop in the ocean before, now looked more like a bucket in a bathtub.

Another interesting thing for me, is that I'll be working with a completely different set of people than what I'm used to. For starters, I must be Rondon's oldest tea lady. Though, except for my supervisor, I don't think any of the others I met today realised this due to my youthful-looking, well-moisturised skin *grin* So it's kinda hilarious when the young ones look at me sagely and dose out some advice for the newbie. One youngen, gave me a lengthy explanation on why her method of grilling foccacia was better than mine as she thought I would be upset about being corrected. Aah bless :) It's more likely to take a fat angry man to make me cry. Besides the point - it's a freaking foccacia! Who cares how it gets grilled as long as it gets grilled??

I'm really looking forward to my tenure at Yumchaa :) A long time ago, I use to say that I wanted to open my own coffee shop. This is just one test on whether or not opening my own cafe is something I can be passionate about in the future. I'm planning on writing up some reviews on the teas in the shop to help me with my
customer recommendations. They smell and taste sooo good! The tea that is, sniffing the customers is probably a sackable offence :P

Boss Lady - If you're reading this, I may have chased away potential regulars, BUT at least I didn't break a single thing today :) Does that mean you're not going to dock my pay? ;)

Everyone else - Come visit me in Soho, and remember to tip!

1 comment:

Beckster said...

I'm planning to come visit in Thanksgiving. If I promise to tip HEAVILY (I live in NYC, the land of excessive tipping after all), can I please bunk on your couch for a few days? :)

Love your new gig chickadoodle.