Letter #8

Forgive the lateness in posting. I had been too tired when I reached the safe haven of my own home and too engrossed in reading. My mind wasn't simply set up to delve into the intricacies of the internet.

CI is full of fun-loving and friendly people, like all my managers and colleagues. They are just like my friends. We could joke and fool around with each other. But with the managers, sometimes when it's work, it's work, no fooling around guys...

My colleagues? They vary from age to age. There are poly students, like these two guys and two babes that just joined us recently. And some others. Then there is the other polarity, like J and H. J is married with two kids and well, for H, I'm not that sure. But on a whole, the CI staff kick ass for sure!

I was working as a full time bartender in CI til recently. Let me show you the pictures of CI when I have the time. Perhaps there will be a photo blog? That was when I was waiting for university to start. Now that it has started, I have converted into a part-timer like most of the people there. The pay is not very attractive as a whole, but the tipping there is good. It is even better at our sister restaurant, Brewerkz. I heard that the most tips one person got there was four hundred and fifty bucks a day. That's like freaking half a month's salary to me!!

Talking about tipping, I guess Singaporeans have to be enlightened about tipping. Forget about the service charge. The waiters and waitresses normally don't receive the ten percent service charge you heard about. Yes, it was implemented to eliminate tipping, but its an unspoken truth that the frontline staff don't get it. Yes, we don't get it too, so don't be too surprised. I have heard that in some restaurants, the service charge goes into the insurance or the salaries of the waiters. Come on, it is supposed to be an extra incentive for the person right? Truth be told, if tipping is practised, well, Singaporeans would receive a helluva service. We look upon it as a reward for good service. Tip us if we serve you well. Don't tip if we didn't. If tipping wasn't practised, we wouldn't have that much incentive to give you good service anymore right? Like today, I think this table received near to excellent service from us. Another colleague and me served this table of around twenty persons. They spent more than two thousand bucks. I'm not boasting, but I think we really provided good service. And we were rewarded for it. Fifty bucks in tips for us. See? There's the motivation.

Sad to say, most Singaporeans don't tip. Those who tip are usually the people that have had worked in the food and beverage industry or as waitering before. And how many Singaporeans have done that? Not a lot I think...

Back to track, as I'm now working as a part-timer, I double-up in my roles, sometimes as a bartender sometimes as a waiter. I'm proud to say that I can multi-task quite well.

As far as I could recall, Abbas fell sick today. So well, I was left with another guy to work with. This guy is a little of the bats I think. Makes a good friend, but not as a working partner. He's not that reliable.If you know what I mean. The day's sales was quite poor. There was simply no crowd today and by the witching hour, there were only a handful of people left relatively. Don't know what happened. Perhaps all decided to go clubbing.