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My 3 months of grueling training is finally over!!
Joanne, breathe... breathe..
The funniest thing is when i'm working, i'm dreading to go to work.. thinking how many kids will come today to play when i'm in Adventure Zone; how many hours of standing in the lounge or bar when there is no customers; how long to finish up vacuuming 7 floors. The last day i'm working (21st of March) i was quite thrilled by the thoughts that i would never have to come back to Golden Sands and work anymore, but a part of me felt.. empty. "Now we have nothing to look forward to eh?!" quoted June, which is true.
I wouldn't say i enjoy my training entirely like some would tell you how much they love their training, but i would say i very much enjoy working with the fellow employees in Golden Sands Shangri-La. Next time you see those worker that sweeps the corridor and hallway in the hotel please pay some respect and don't look down on them, i've tried their job, i know how bad it can get. Especially public area, you'll never get the hotel clean. They've taught me a lot of things and throughout the training they have been very patient with me with my sometimes stubborn behavior. I would say i'm quite pampered by the employees.. "Ah, tak payah, aunty/uncle buat, kamu tengok!", "Kamu buat bed saja, tak payah tolak, kak tolak."
You know how freaking heavy the bed is?! *salute*
I always love kids, so our first placement in Adventure Zone really suite my taste buds. Kids all day long, most of them are manageable.
Our favourite brothers.
Just a few that is sometimes possessed by demons, they can be quite a hard ass to handle. June hate that place. :P
2nd month i'm in bar and lounge.
First day i was at this bar called Kuda Laut, situated in the middle of the swimming pools. Guests will order drink while they are sun basking, total blissfulness. I learn how to make heaps of drinks that particular day.
Most of the time i will forget the recipe, i don't have a very good memory to start with. But after a few days, bartender Zahari feel it's safe enough to leave me alone and make drinks. After that Mosses and Adam came along, oh, they are bartender, not someone related to Jesus.. June and I have plentiful of red-face hour! if you know what i mean... don't know? we drink. Sometimes June got so red we scared she'll get busted. It was fun to steal a bit of drinks from the leftover. When you get the chance don't blow it, drink. Drink as much as you can.
I was transferred to the lobby lounge after that. It was so hot during the day, even just standing there in the lounge with 13 fans spinning vigorously i still sweat like a pig. Perspire, Su Fen corrected me. Sometimes you'll meet nice guests and they will leave you some generous tip for your service. But most of the time you'll be standing there... stand... eat some peanut when the camera moved away.. some cookies when you're hungry. I always have a partner in crime, June Chan Chooi Yii. Pilferage, is something unavoidable, i totally SO understand that.
Dzul is another someone that we love dearly, this skinny malay dude that knows how to speak hokkien is someone i will remember. He is another hilarious lad with a lot of stupid humour, always confuse my name with June. He ended up calling June, Jane... Tarzan and Jane. Hao Siao la lu!!
When i get the 5pm to 1am shift, i have the most fun with bartender Sunny. A 50 year old tak-tahu-malu man who always kena cheated by women(or so he said, like i trust him). He is the God of Lottery and Number. Every night there will be a bunch of bartender, waiter, waitress, chefs from kitchen come to look like the hideous looking piece of paper. First i thought they are looking at some x-rated photo until i saw a row of 4 digits written neatly on the paper. Cool. But working with him is one of the fastest passing time period i have in bar, he always make silly jokes. His sarcasm towards me sometimes makes me laugh even harder, he will also squeeze a smile at the end of his lips. I said goodbye to my most-pilferage days in the FnB outlet and head to my next department - Housekeeping.
In housekeeping department, we've all experience a unflavorful of people like S**R**E. She's a full time bitch. Totally. We just hate her, a lot. Apart from her, the rest of the staff are lovely people. We were all sent to all the sub-departments, namely Linen, Turn-Down Service, Rooms, and Public Area.
Linen is easy and boring. All you have to do is to count the soil linens, give staff their uniforms, and that's about it. Linen is at the basement of the hotel, which i don't really fancy working underground... breathing takes up a bit more effort. Then i was sent to do Turn-Down service.
Turn-Down service is by far the happiest sub-dept i got in. All conducted by the Indonesian trainees from STP Sahid, they are very experience and they don't need any guidance. They are like permanent staff already in fact. I was told to follow Robby the first night. He was very quiet at first, after a few rooms he taught me how to do the turn down, he has open up a bit more. he started singing and whistling, making stupid faces and tease me whenever i yawn. The second day we finished at 7pm, we still have another 4 hours to go. He found a vacant room, lie on the bed and fell asleep. I turned on the tv, guess what's showing? High School Musical! i watched the tv while he is soundly asleep. A call came asking us to deliver ice and i went alone, when i came back he is STILL sleeping. PIG.
The next day he request me to work with him again from the supervisor, it's my last day doing turn down service. We did 3 checkout rooms and a Arabian room. HUH!! Their room is no difference with what happen after a terrible hurricane. Clearly why they are the least favourite of hotelier. Messy, Dirty, Stingy, Rude, you name it. There's an Arabian couple that i met, they are the total opposite of the norms, very polite and speaks very good english. The lady is a dentist and the husband is an engineer, WHOA!!! honeymooners. Lovely couple.
I was then sent to Public Area, you know how friggin' big is the hotel??? honestly i couldn't stop complaining when i got to vacuum 7 floors. I think June feel sick of me at one point. Then the rest of my jobs involving walking around, sweep, walk sweep. Got a cloth? wipe every possible things that u can get yr hands on, wash toilet.. easy. We learn a lot in Public Area, from techniques to chemical. There's one day June and I wipe the wood frame glasses in Sigi's, a restaurant by the sea.. we keep wiping until the security guard came over, took our cloth and taught us how to wipe it properly, at the same time he gave us some science related information. June and i stare at each other in disbelieve "WHOA", genius in disguise. Security guard teach us how to wipe glass, people use newspaper because it contains carbon. The hell?? i don't learn this in college!
In housekeeping department you'll find the most interesting people. My last dept is the room, 13 to 14 rooms a day. Really, you need a strong backbone, those aunty really can work it man. My back hurts for 4 days because of public area and rooms, killing me. Can't sleep or sit straight, can't bend cuz it hurts, understand my pain. I exchanged my 2 last days of room with Tini whom is doing front office. It worked out wonderfully. The night before at the club we've break the ice with most of the front office staffs, so learning is a bit easier.
Our training ended with a farewell party at the hotel's restaurant. Touching speeches made by the staffs that love us trainees a lot.
Overall the training in Golden Sands Shangri-La is an eye opening experience. I had a crush on the FnB manager.
I'm staying at the place call Eden Seaview, it's a condominium located on top of the hill. So imagine my routine everyday, walking up and down the hill, measuring about 1.5km to go to work everyday. So basically i walk 3km everyday.
It's an excuse to exercise after all the food load i had in the hotel. Without fail everyday all of us will walk despite the distance sometimes is really a nightmare for all of us. Those permanent staff normally gasped when we told them we live there.
Most of my off day i'll go to buy groceries or just stay at home. At night on occasions we'll go out for dinner. Sometimes we'll head down to the Feringghi Night Market for a walk. We'll watch a movie together when all of us are at home.
I think after all this 3 months, i'm going to miss those little things that happened at home. Nana and June's hysterical laughter when they watch the s'porean drama; Reagan's puppy eyes wanting massages; Shannon's diva like attitude and childlike 'Joanne!! Back pain!!"; Atika's OH MY GOD; Su Fen's bed time story; Eugene's umm.. sleeping on the couch?
June got the most crazy things i have to experience and witness with my own eyes. Especially when she gets sugar high and her pissing dog. Sometimes she'll stick to me on the bed so close that i almost fall off the bed. On my left will be Su Fen telling us her grammar-ous bed time stories. Croissant...
We celebrated Chinese New Year in Penang
June's Birthday
Atika's Birthday
Nana's Birthday
The election
We went clubbing in Slippery Senorita to celebrate Rachel's 21st Birthday.
Time to go home.
* i will edit this post
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