The Weekend

I’ve had a pretty good weekend so far. I went out with a couple of people from work when we finished on Wednesday night, which was a good time. Afterwards I went in search of some sort of snack, I had a real craving for fish and chips or a kebab, and figured I could find one somewhere around Leicester square. That venture came up empty and so I thought there must be something around Piccadilly. Again, nothing. Finally my steps lead me around the theater district into SOHO. That is a place I never want to be past dark again. As bad as that place is during the day, it is so much worse at night. Creepy I think sums it up best.
Up until Saturday things have been pretty eventful. I did go out and pick up an international calling SIM card for my phone in case I need that. I only had to pay for the minutes on it, so it was pretty cheap. Little bit more shopping and that’s about it. Saturday was fun though. I’ve been working on the top bar at the Chandos for the last couple of days. Its pretty much identical to the one downstairs only its less busy and we do hot drinks there. I actually find it somewhat boring after working downstairs where it can get pretty hectic. There are a lot of tables and couches for people to sit on so they don’t really crowd in all the much. It’s a nice break, but I think I’d rather work at the bottom bar more. The days and nights go a lot faster. That, and screwing around with the coffees is really annoying.
I had a really interesting lunch on Saturday. I was talking to one of the girls who works up there, Caelly, who is Russell’s girlfriend. We were talking about different foods from our respective countries and she invited me along to a South African bar that afternoon with her and Russell to watch some rugby and try some of the stuff she had described. The bar was actually pretty cool, it was more or less a long tunnel underground. There was also a little dry goods kind of shop on the first floor. They bought some, I guess you would call it jerky, called baltin. Its spelled something like that. Its really similar to jerky, but its cut a lot thinner and they left it more chewy than I’m used to. For the meal we had a South African sausage that was amazing. The sausage itself was pretty much a bratwurst, but with more spices in it. It came in a crusty roll with fruit chutney on the top. It was so good. Definitely need to check that out some more.

Random thoughts and observations

-It’s really weird to be living with all the people I work with. When I get up in the morning to go get a cup of tea, or a bowl for some cereal, right away there is one of my bosses getting the kitchen in order for the day. I’m constantly around the same group of people all the time. It’s weird because I don’t find it that wearing though. Even though we all spend a significant amount of time together, we really don’t get to talk that much. When we’re working we don’t have a chance just to sit around and pass the time. There’s always something to do.
-People here, and by here I mean my coworkers and the general population, are really laid back. First of all, there doesn’t seem to be any aversion to swearing, anywhere. People will come up to the bar, ask for a drink and when we don’t have it respond, “F****** hell. What the f*** do you have.” Not angry in any way, just swearing. Same thing with the people behind the bar, to ourselves and to the people we’re serving. It’s a bit of a culture shock really.
-Americans are so obvious everywhere we go. I don’t know what exactly it is, but I can pretty easily now pick them out walking down the street or walking into the pub. I don’t know if its just something about the way we carry ourselves or what, but we stick out like sore thumbs over here.
-Americans also pretty much exemplify every stereotype that there are about us. I hate to say it but almost all the American tourists act exactly like the clueless people you see in movies or on TV. They’re the people who don’t know how to use the money wherever they are. They walk around with big bum bags or a very obvious passport pouch, which to me seems to defeat the purpose of having either on to begin with. Once someone sees you with one of those, they will immediately know you are tourist and you become a target because if it.
-Continental tourists aren’t much better though, if that’s some consolation. Some of my favorite lines are when someone will come up to the bar and ask for a beer. I don’t know if that’s supposed to mean something where they’re from, but walking into a pub just asking that is, for me, akin to walking into a grocery store and asking for food. I know you’re in the right place and all, but really? They also just expect them to conform to their way of doing things. At least most Americans will have the decency to ask, but the Continentals just sort of do it.
-British people are so ridiculously polite. When I’m serving them and ask if they want ice, almost without a fault their response will be followed by a please and/or a thank you. If I screw up an order, whether through fault of my own or theirs, they try to bend over backwards to make it alright. It just amazes me. One day in fact I was working the bar by myself and I did something wrong with someone’s drink, I think there was too much head on it for his liking. He gave me this rather terse response and told me to fix it. Here, he was just joking around, back in the States that sort of thing would have been a much bigger issue.
That’s it for now. I’ll keep a running list going if I think of anything else.

My Weekend

It was a busy weekend here. This is apparently the start of the busy season for pubs around here. According to my boss from here on out it will just start to get busier as we go. It won't be so bad now that we have a full staff again. We picked up some more people at the end of the week so that should help out a bit. That will mean less hours for everyone else here, but I'm of two minds on that. While the extra cash would be nice, I also won't mind not having to work the crazy hours. So whatever happens, I guess. 

But, back to the fun. So Friday night was pretty busy. We had a good crowd all night and so we were all well occupied. At the end of the night I was going through and cleaning the floor. I was picking up the empty glasses, rubbish and whatever else happened to be lying about and then cleaning the tables. I walked over to one of the corners to find a guy passed out. I tried to get him up a couple of times and he would just open his eyes and then he was out again. So I called over the manager and he tried to get him up to no avail. He would pick him up and this guy would just fall over. So finally he tells him he was going to call the cops and the guys books. Just far enough though so he passes out in front of the pub. So my manager tries to get him up for about half an hour, until finally we called the Accident and Emergency Room to come and pick this guy o he wouldn't get to cold in the night. 

Saturday we were pretty busy again for the first part of the night, than it calmed down quite a bit. It was actually kind of nice. While working, we have to scan all the bills we get under a UV light to check for a special mark because they have such a problem with counterfeiters over here. I grabbed a 20 from a guy, put it under the light and no mark. Called my manager over and he took a look, and yup, fake. So I told the guy that bill was no good and I needed to hold on to it. He at the point proceeded to freak out and start yelling at me. He seemed pretty legitimately, pissed, more so that he got caught than anything else. He ended up storming out. My boss told me later that he was pretty sure the guy was going to jump the bar. That would have made the night a whole lot more interesting....