First of all since day 1 of this last cruise we've been busy. We constantly were overbooked because the manager wanted to make his target, and I think exceed it since we did. We could have closed the last 2 days and still made the target. I think he is pushing it since we have 2 extra servers that will leave in 3 weeks and then we will drop down to the usual reservation numbers.
I got my first haircut on this ship one night. I was curious as to how everyone of the crew got the hair cut. I asked around only to find that on some nights down on the B deck, the bottom of the ship, I could find someone cutting hair in one of the hallways. I searched but could find no one. I talk to my roommate who called the guy and told me to run down because he was almost done. So down in the bowels of the ship there sat a chair in front of a mirror hanging on a door with hair scattered all over the floor. I sat down and realized the guy cutting my hair was one of the vegetable cooks from the main galley kitchen. He used to work in a restaurant near a barber shop and went in on his time off and learned to cut hair. He did a better job than I have gotten at any chain place in the states, and it was only 5 bucks. The craziest thing was he used a double edged safety razor to trim the sides. I have never seen that before. And with my sweet new haircut I went back to my cabin.
The new chef has been really great so far. He likes to joke around and have fun in the kitchen, which I like to do as well. But he knows what he's doing and is very good at. There is a saying that is kind of a joke here and it is when one person says, "Why you like that?" the answer is "because eh". I think its funnier with the accents and the expression on peoples' faces, but I always find it quite amusing.
We have these random meetings sometimes called 5 minute trainers where the whole kitchen rallies in the main galley and listens to the sous chef talk about a different safety item. Well this week I came like two minutes early and one of the guys had his laptop on one of the stations and he usually listens to music, but not this time. This time everyone was crowded around watching something. The speaker accidentally went on, and I knew what it was. I started cracking up. I let you guess what they were watching. But when the sous chef came out of his office to start he saw it and yelled at all of them to, "Stop that, Stop that right now!" over and over again. It was funny.
We had the 4th of July here on the ship. It certainly wasn't the party that the Filipino Independence Day was. A crowd of people gathered in the Officer's Bar. Some decoration were hung and an American flag cake was on the table. It was nice just to grab a beer and hang out, but I was a little let down. No BBQ or Fireworks this year.
Today I was prepping in the kitchen when the Culinary Operations Manager or COM, came running through the kitchen yelling, "Zero, Zero....Zero, Zero!" This meant the Canadian Public Health Department was on board for the inspection. We rushed to clean everything up, and put things away. I had to hold off on my prep for an hour because of this. And as we patiently awaited our judgement, they walked to all of the kitchens. Guess what, they didn't come to our kitchen. All of that and they totally bypassed our kitchen. Well I am sure we did well. But that was just crazy.
Now I am just enjoying the free time I have before I must return to work. 8 weeks down and 17 to go. I'm impressed that I have made it this far already. A lot of the guys respect me a little more because I haven't left yet. Usually any "Westerner" that comes for a contract here leaves after the 1st or 2nd week. So they have welcomed me into their group. It definitely makes things easier.
No comments:
Post a Comment