Shmeng Backlog Date Friday, April 19, 2024 - 12:20 AM PST Topic Experiences I've been having a pretty shmeng free time recently, but it looks like it was just saving itself up to whammy me when I was least expecting it, and talk about a backlog! Last Tuesday, I think I had the worst day possible. It was around ten things started going wrong. A man came into the restaurant and said his friend had put some ice blocks in our freezers yesterday to cool from the scorching sun, could he please pick them up. Martin, the chef, brought some out, and was told they were not his friend's. David, the head chef, then yelled at Martin for getting it wrong, and arrogantly dismissed him, saying he knew which blocks were which, bringing a different set out. The guy took them, and walked off. No more than ten minutes later, another guy came in and said he had left some ice blocks with us, with the name "Morgan" written on them. Funnily enough, I couldn't find them anywhere. David, luckily, had vanished by then so it was Martin, muttering "arse" to himself in the classic way that only he can, that set off down the campsite to find the original blocks, leaving us with no chef. Joy. Quarter of an hour later we finally reunited the first set of blocks with Mr. Morgan, and had to apologise sincerely to the other people for losing their blocks - we still haven't located them. The restaurant where I work - Eddy's - is right down on the beachfront, and at about twelve a lady came in, and just looking at her made my stomach turn. She was a nervous wreck, shaking, crying and barely able to form a sentence for the worry over whelming her. Her fifteen-year-old daughter had been surfing and while the woman had nipped away for five minutes to change, the girl - a novice surfer - had vanished. After spending the better part of an hour looking for her, the lady had come to us. We called the coast guard while my mother, the manager of Eddy's, tried to console her. The rest of us milled about out of earshot discussing other people who had underestimated the currents at Llangennith and were now six foot under as a result. People who hadn't been found till two weeks later, when the tide brought them back, or just hadn't come back at all. It was a rather downcast mood to be working in, a stark contrast of the glorious weather, pathetic fallacy only happens in films. An hour later the girl was found. She'd been swept down the coast a fair way, but was luckily alive. A couple of pre-teen boys came in next, and made a huge fuss about, well, everything. The table was dirty. The place was too hot. The food took too long. There was too little choice. Things were too expensive. The last straw was when one brought his burger up and told me it had a hair in it. I fetched my mother, who wandered over to the kids' table with a sugar sweet smile on her face. I almost felt sorry for them. When she asked what was wrong, she was told "My mate's eaten half his burger, and now he's found a hair in it," accompanied by giggles from all of them. She turned on the kid, grinned and said "Yeah, but the other half was nice wasn't it?" and escorted them outside. I clocked off at three o'clock, and just sat in the front of the restaurant till my mother was ready to take me home. That lasted all of about half an hour until the girl who took over the till after me was having problems. Firstly the till was telling her she was performing an illegal operation, which was sorted with little difficulty. However, when faced with an irate customer, demanding a refund and not knowing how to refund anything, she did panic slightly. David doesn't want anyone knowing how to refund money because they could then take advantage, and take money for themselves. Cue me, back to the till to refund the money for the customer, while trying to be helpful to the girl on till, yet not show her how a refund was put through, without making a big deal of not showing her, lest she ask why and I had to explain that David didn't trust her to handle the money. Next, I went upstairs to my mother's office to find her in a fury because the owner of the restaurant had shown her a petition from some of the staff that either she quit, or they quit. This was a result of her not giving one of David's pet waitresses - Jess - a raise when she turned eighteen. This girl was already paid minimum wage for eighteen year olds when she was seventeen, and as she's absolutely useless mother was loathe to give her a pay rise. David, however, is a friend of her family, and therefore Jess can do no wrong in his eyes. This issue had been discussed with Gareth, the owner, and he, David and mother had agreed that Jess should not have a pay rise. That didn't stop David from stirring up Jess' friends, suggesting that they complain to Gareth. This is a guy who will smile and compliment you to your face, then complain about you the second you turn away. I've heard him telling mother in hearing distance of other waitresses that Jess is "a waste of fucking space", the scorn in his voice evident, and then telling Jess that same day that she's doing a great job - all smiles and niceties. Finally, to add insult to injury we got to the car, all ready to go home and veg out in front of a film, only to find the battery was flat. The lights had been left on, but in the blazing glare of the summer sun, we hadn't noticed. It was one of those laugh or cry situations, so mother and I just ended up collapsed on the wall, laughed hysterically till mother summoned the will power to go and ask David - the root of most of the problems that day - to help jump start the car. She smiled at him through gritted teeth, got the car running and then left without looking back. This article comes from Shmeng http://www.shmeng.com/ The URL for this story is: http://www.shmeng.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=720