I've just woke up from a 10 hour sound sleep and have the next three days off.... relief! I have no plans what so ever, which is completely unusual! So catching up on some blogging before I go find something to do.
Starting where I left off, I said that my friends and I were going to go to Florida mall... we were too tired in the end so I headed to their hotel, we laid in the sun for a bit then headed to Hooters for a lot of food and cocktails :) After that me and Holli went and did the CSI thing on Idrive which is complete crap for the amount of money they charge but after a few cocktails we found the whole thing hilarious. Went back to the hotel and chilled for a bit longer before I needed to leave. Was pretty sad to be leaving my bestie so I had to just not prolong them too much or I would have been crying all the way back up Idrive, not ideal! This holiday will definitely be memorable for them as on the plane flight home, Iain proposed to Holli!!!!! He didn't have the proper engagement ring, instead he had a stand in.... a mickey shaped ring with a cut out love heart in the middle. So happy for them, can't believe my best pal is getting married!
After all that excitement, it was time to get back to work for my food running week. I was scheduled to work 6 days of food running from 12pm until at least 10:30pm every night, then straight into a 8:30am start for service core training and then working from 11am-close for the next two days. Needless to say, this is more than slightly excessive! You don't realise how exhausting food running is until your actually in the middle of it, and with food and wine going on, the restaurant has been a lot busier.
After a couple of days I was utterly knackered and completely sick from the amount of caffeine I'd been using to keep my energy up. It was my arrival groups 6 month anniversary and we had booked a stay in a Savannah view room at Jambo House at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I was expecting to be working till late so had brought stuff with me. There was three food runners that day so I asked my manager if I could leave a bit earlier... he said I could go right then if I wanted! I wanted to earn a bit of money so said I would stick it out until 8pm but by 3pm I was fading quickly so he pretty much pushed me out the door! I went home, had a nap and then headed to the lodge to meet everyone. We brought a load of booze with us but actually didn't do much drinking, instead we went to see the animals, had dinner and then all fell asleep watching tv haha! The next day I packed up my stuff and headed back to work, feeling totally refreshed! There was five food runners scheduled for the Saturday, so I got given an ADO as well for that day :)
Sunday was a very early start with our core class starting at 8:30am. Our lovely trainer Laura arranged a taxi to pick us up from housing at 7:15am, and stopped by Panera Bread on the way there to buy us breakfast :) Got to work and we went through all the stuff we needed to know to begin serving tables, like the different sections, spieling, order of service and a bit of till training. Then we helped to set up the kitchen and went to pre-meal, which is where all the servers gather with the managers and chef before the restaurant opens and goes through information we need for the day. My trainer for the day was Stuart and I watched him serve a table and then took over and served the other tables in that section for the rest of the lunch shift. He kept close by at all times and would help me ring through the orders and watch me put through the million and one different types of payment accepted at Disney! Then we banked out and that was us done for the day.
The next day Zoe and I got there for 11am and had our wine tasting class. Basically it meant that we tried each of the wines that we sell while our trainers told us about them. Slight buzz to start the day off! I had Abbie training me and again she would watch over me serving tables and frequently stop me to ask what I was doing, and then would tell me if it could be done in a better order, etc. Had our lunch break and then we came back for the dinner shift. It was pretty busy, and apart from having a cockroach fall onto a little girl at one of my tables (the dangers of an outside table in Florida at night!), it all went well.
On the Tuesday, we headed in early again, with our Lasses hangovers (yes, despite being utterly exhausted, I still managed to go to Lasses!!) for another core class. This one involved a lot of note taking, and learning all about the flavours, etc of the different wines and whiskys that we sell and about upselling. This is what was previously needed to pass the written service test, but at the moment they are using a pre service test paper for the service class. Ridiculous, as it means you are pretty much doing the same paper twice. It was good to do the class though as it made me feel a lot more confident about what we are selling. I love upselling, especially when it comes to alcohol, so I enjoyed it. We had a long lunch break and then headed back for the PM shift. Scott was my trainer and I had an outside section that was mostly filled with big tops. I had expected to be manic busy but it was actually completely chilled out and my big tops pretty much took care of themselves. We were KD that night, which basically means being last out as we have to check off that everyone's section is clean and their sidework is done before letting the servers leave. So it was quite a late finish.
I had Wednesday and Thursday off, on Wednesday I went to the outlets and finally spent some of my hard earned cash! Bought a bunch of new clothes and then headed back to housing to lie by the pool for a couple hours, as the weather is unseasonably hot right now. Like over 30 degrees and sunny all the time! Went out that night to downtown Orlando with a small-ish group of people and let my hair down, knowing that I could enjoy my hangover the next day! On Thursday I just chilled, studied, and made a trip to Walmart. I also finally got my rank bathroom floor replaced... and I slept through it haha! My roommates were a little bit shocked that I could sleep through that, as it was pretty noisy, I was just so tired! I had a new roommate arrive early on Tuesday morning... very early. Of course she walked in the door to me, hungover and trying to sleep after Lasses... she may as well get used to it. She is Japanese and is friendly, but extremely timid and her English isn't great. I have to keep telling her to make herself at home but she still will ask if she can use crockery, knocks the bedroom door before entering, etc. Hopefully she settles down after a while.
Yesterday was the big test day! Had to be over at Epcot for 9am (another early start, eugh) and went to do my written test which was freaking the life out of me. I hate written tests!! Thankfully it was not as horrific as expected and I passed! Yayyy! Then I headed over to the Rose and Crown to do the other half of the assessment. At the moment we aren't doing a test table (where a manager, chef and core trainer sit at a table and you need to treat them like normal guests). Instead you just work a section and a trainer and the managers will observe you. I loved my wee shift, all my tables were nice and even though I got triple sat (by accident, the assignor didn't know I was being tested), and had a table with a million allergies, it all went really well. So I passed!!! Yay!! Newest server at the Rose and Crown :):)
Everyone was hungover from a big night out the night before so there was nothing going on last night, instead I just chilled out, had a nap, read my book and then slept for what felt like eternity! My friend Lesley is arriving on Thursday for a two week holiday, more excitement!! I've managed to get some time booked off so I can't wait!!!!
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