Letter #3

Especially when you work in the morning shift. First thing when you come, you have to open up the whole place, collect the float and start cleaning all the crap that the night shift people left behind. And when people order food from you, you got to go down the stairs into the kitchen to prepare the orders, which means leaving the bar unattended. So when you finished preparing the food and went up the stairs to the bar, you would normally find a few customers waiting for someone to serve them. That's me. And I'm serving someone else.

Most of the time, two or three persons would come and take over the afternoon shift. Sometimes there would be a lot of customers, sometimes not. We could be so free that we would be chatting around, testing some cocktails, or so busy that we had to run here and there. It all depends on the flights coming in at that moment. Soon after I joined, two colleagues that I had never seen before quit the job, leaving three of us on the job. To say the least, we were a bit shorthanded. The learning curve was pretty gentle to me but I had to learn quick. I had heard that my two seniors had intentions to quit also.

So one new guy was brought in. He was quite a burly and pale fellow. I cannot remember much of him, except that he was way too nice I think, and easily taken advantage of by other people. Or so I believed. He was shorter than me and bespectacled. The onus fell onto me to teach him the ropes though I was on the job for less than 3 months. Well, God willing that he was willing to learn and I was willing to teach. It made it easier and in lesser time than expected, we had another capable employee on the roster, making our lives easier without customers breathing fire down your neck everytime. However, the upper management had balls for brains, and he was soon transferred to another side of the airport where there was an Indian restaurant there. It was short-staffed too and apparently, they need him more than we need him. So there he went, wasting time and effort. Sometimes, he did drop by with some Indian food. We all thought that was mighty nice of him.

In between that period before he got transferred to the Indian restaurant, two more new staff came to join us. One was a butch, which I thjink I'll reserve my comments. I have nothing good to say about them, except that the first thought that came to mind was "Mother Nature gone awry." Yeah, I sounded like a conservative right? But go and think about it. We guys serve national service. We went through hardship and God knows what else. And you butches went through what? Huh? Louder? Binding your breasts so that you look like a guy? Oh, anything else? Try serving in the army for God's sake. Then call yourself a guy. If not, don't bother. It totally turns me off.

The other new staff looked promising at least. She was qualified to turn heads. Really, believe me, whenever she walked past the transit hotel reception, heads would turn. She's not hot, but pretty cute I think. And well, it was comforting to know she was gonna be my colleague. At least I won't be bored.