Wednesday, July 05, 2006 at 1:35 AM

If I went to a fortune teller, I'm positive this is what I would hear from him.

"Hmm... Not bad not bad. You have an affinity with customers in the month of July. From the look of it, you will bring prosperity to your work place."

Nah. Maybe not so much on the prosperity part. But I seriously don't know what's going on nowadays! Every day seems to be bustling and the cafe is bursting with customers! Ok, maybe not to the point of bursting but I did have to reject customers due to lack of tables these few days. A lot of walk-ins. And they all come in together at the same time!! Tonight at around 8pm, a few tables came in together, only one of them was a reservation. And drats, I charged that table wrongly!! I'm so.... ARGH!! If I hadn't charged wrongly, we would have been able to hit our daily target for a normal weekday (not a normal week night alone!). We were running a full house! Oh no, now come to think of it, I suddenly fear that I billed another table wrongly too. Forgot if I had added in 1 set dinner or not.. Shucks. Ok, though sales was important, I was also concerned about our staffing. These few days we were seriously under-staffed due to the sudden surge of crowds which caught us off guard. Honestly, there is no way to predict the trend of the influx of customers. So I don't know how to go about adding more staff. In any case, I've told Mabel that we shall see how tomorrow goes. If it's still the same, we will put in 1 more staff. Don't worry, we are not slave drivers ok? :) It's just that we really didn't expect the crowds to come in like that, so we couldn't prepare in advance. We know the staff all had a hard time these few days..

Talking about wrong bill, that table was actually my seniors from my secondary school CCA. A few of them lah. But I didn't go up to acknowledge them or anything. Call me anti-social. I'm like that. Somehow I don't really like my CCA and those people there. Except for a handful. Other than charging them wrongly, we also had a tough time cleaning up their mess. But well, it's our job. It's just that I wished customers would be more 'paiseh' when they actually caused incidents, and not just act non-chalent. They are not exactly non-chalent, but they are not very apologetic either. Anyway, let's not talk about this and them anymore.

It was so busy tonight that I didn't have much chance to serve my regular customers AGAIN. I am praying very hard that we will not lose regulars and first-time customers due to low service standards caused by lack of staff. Fortunately, most of the walk-in tables were very understanding upon knowing our situation. They seemed like they've enjoyed the gaming still. I certainly hope to see them come back again...

Uncle Ng commented, how come work with me so busy one (recently)? Weiwei told me I have a lao2 lu4 ming4 (a life full of toils and hard work). 3 days in a row, 3 days with full house (or almost). Except for Monday night, it was level 1 full only. But still, it was busy! And definitely much more busier than our normal weekdays and Sundays. I wonder if it's just my luck or the rest of the week is going to be like this as well. I joked with Uncle Ng and Weiwei, saying nobody would want to work with me in future already, if every shift with me is going to be this busy with just 2 staff. Lol... Fortunately Doreen was down today, so I could get her to help. If not, I cannot imagine the worst.

To think I actually had the same thinking from Sunday night till last night, and everything happened against my thoughts (not wishes, mind you).

Sunday night: "Whew... Damn tired... Lucky tomorrow Monday, won't be so busy."
Actual situation on Monday: Full house in afternoon and level 1 full house at night.

Monday night: "Oh man... Really exhausted... Why is it Youth Day today?! Calendar never indicate, then I never add staff!! Never mind, tomorrow it's Tuesday... We only operate half-day from 6pm on. Tuesday nights usually quite quiet, at most 1 level full when it's busy. Should be able to catch a breath le.."
Actual situation on Tuesday: Full house AGAIN!! Ok, almost lah. Only left 3 small tables (2 for 2 people and 1 for 4 people) empty.

So..... What kind of thinking should I have tonight? Haha... "Tomorrow is my OFF DAY!!!! YAY!!!" Though it's only a day T_T And I have to go shopping with Waiyin again... No money and stamina le lah. Please don't let me see anymore nice clothes. Anyway I don't think I'm in the shopping mode recently. Too shagged to be engaged in the mood of GSS. Wonder of wonders. I have yet to participate in the GSS after 1 whole month since it started. But still, I think I'm going to look for some decent skirts for school wear. Then again, we are going FEP and Zara tomorrow, I don't think they have much of what I'm looking for.

rhapsody in blue.