Where have I been of late?

Ok, once again it has been far too long and just a little bit has happened.

I was in Salzburg for quite a stint, and funnily enough on the day I decided to leave I was offered a semi permanent position in their kitchen five days a week, I was a bit floored by that but left the offer hanging for a bit to see if I could manage to scrounge up something a bit different or different in one of the other destinations in one of the towns I was aiming for.

With that in mind I moved on to a ski town called “Bad Gastein” where there was another hostel with a possible position that I could have. I got there and the manager, as so many are, had a degree in being vague when it came to whether or not the position actually existed. The position in question being running the hotel/hostel’s second bar which they had yet to open this season, if I was going to take the position I would be essentially the only person running the bar along with marketing it; which while daunting was something I was looking forward to taking on as a challenge. But after being left in the lurch for two days doing a whole lot of nothing I decided to enjoy the fact I was in a ski resort and started snowboarding with a lesson and it went well and even with the copious amounts of pain involved I made what was good progress.

Day 1. Lesson
Day 2. Practice/bunny slopes
Day 3. Blue runs
Day 4. Blue and Red runs
Day 5. Red runs and a bit of off piste

And it kept going on from there for a few days before I finally pulled the plug on that spot and made a move to my next ski town and possible job in “Kirchberg.”

Getting myself to Kirchberg was easy enough and I got chatting with a guy from London on the train who was heading in the same direction as I was. When I got to the hostel, which had lost my booking, I ran into him again and it turned out he was staying there too. The guy was great and the next thing I know he’s letting me use his spare snowboard and bindings for the time I'm there which is great for me, good reduction in the rental cost for me. I snowboarded for the next few days before my Lift pass finally expired and I didn’t feel like shelling out for another one, €140 for 4 days, so I moved on to Munich.


After missing a train by 1 minute I and waiting for an hour for the next one, and then another hour for a connection to Munich I finally managed to get to the home of beer in Bavaria. Got here and got reasonably drunk with the manager here that night, then the next night I went on a beer tour and then went drinking (plus other things) with a few people I met in Bad Gastein who work in the hostel next door – I got messy, messy drunk; probably the worst I’ve been in Europe.

But who said that something like that could stop me... the next night I went out again... and controlled myself a little bit more than the previous night. I started slowly on the Saturday night and then moved venues at least four or five times and then it gets hazy, but I am sure that I got in around midnight on the Sunday night... and then slept well... it was a good party session. Not something I could do every weekend but definitely something I could do again.


An awesome time and it makes me glad that the offer in the kitchen at the YOHO was still there and it’s only 2 hours away by train if I want to drop in and have fun with the guys.

and the feature of the week...


"E-Talking" by Soulwax

Jobs a searchin'

It’s time for another update, I’ve made my way to St Anton which is a ski resort in the Alps, and it is the awesome. Yesterday I spent the bulk of the day walking around to different hotels that had advertised vacancies only to find almost all of them were closed, bit of a piss off but I can manage. I was going to catch the train last night to Zürich or where ever the train would take me...but once the sun goes behind the mountains it drops another 5 degree’s and the wind starts – it was already a nice 0oC when the sun was out. Found myself a cheap hotel and got a room...nice enough, staying here again tonight and possibly another night after that...

Today I woke to it snowing and it still is; great thing to be able to see out of your window in the morning. I’ve dropped my resume off at two different places and am hoping to get a response from at least one of them.
I was assuming way too much back in Oz in thinking I could step into a job but I will persevere and something will come up... the season hasn’t really started anyway... once it does apparently the amount of jobs around will go through the roof. Meh, after writing this I’m going to the net cafe to chuck it online along with a couple of pictures and then I think I might look at one of the ski schools....I’m here so I may as well start learning now...

Till next time...when I hopefully have free wireless to leach off.

-CJ


Theme song for this post – “Until The End” –Breaking Benjamin

A status updade

With the count down until I leave this fair country of mine rolling ever closer to that fateful day I know that I must place another status update into the system, even if I do doubt if I have very many followers at the moment.

I can say for a definitive fact that I now have my tickets and my passport. I have yet to officially acquire a job but my tentative contacts appear to be moving in the right direction which is a reasonable start.

The one main problem I have been having is a distinct lack of money... about three months ago we had a “management adjustment” which to all that actually live in the real world, unlike our CEO, is better known as the venue manager getting pole axed. Since that fateful event took place my hours dropped to a pitifully low amount, I was averaging 35 hours a week before the change, I dropped down to 15, which is barely enough to live on, let alone save the thousands that I intended to have before I leave.

Fortunately this is beginning to change back to the positive, I managed 35 hours the other week, and the week ending Sunday I managed to score my largest week to date – a Massive 56.25 hours, that is 10 hours more than I have ever managed to get before and is going to make my bank balance that little bit nicer.

Now comes for the fun bit, the description, my last week was a combination of bar shifts which are always fun....and for the most part preparation for a massive end of season/grand final celebration for a local sports team.

The entire inside bar was going to be a members area which could attract up to a thousand people if they all turned up, the outside section had four beer outlets and a wine/spirits station along with two pie/pasty/sausage roll van’s and a barbeque/ hot-chip outlet.
This is mostly shown in the picture below.

For all of these nice venues that we were putting on we got a little bit of alcohol and other drinks.
This is better known as:
_
• 7 entire pallets of beer, with a pallet holding about 80 cases and a case holding 30 cans

• 2 pallets of spirits, not certain on the numbers, but they were flat packs which held 24 each and there were at least 110 flat packs in all.

• An entire pallet of soft drink cans, 30 cases of Coke, 20 boxes of PowerAde, another 16 cases of other assorted other soft drinks.

• A separate pallet of water which was picked up from the supplier after the fact, which was a solid 60 cases.

• An additional 20 keg’s of our ranges of beer, on top of the roughly forty we had sitting spare already and the 17 already tapped into the system.

It should be noted that none of this includes the alcohol that we already had on premise which was quite significant.

But I was still kind of freaked out that I signed for about $50,000 - $70,000 worth of stock over the course of three days.

The big day came on Sunday and it was a long day for me, starting at 8 am after finishing a 10 hour day at 9 pm the night before. As per usual for a day like that all of the massive things had been done already so my morning jobs consisted primarily of small run around jobs that needed to be done, four hours later I was done for a while and had a break for an hour and a half. Upon returning I was quickly put to work with my offsider who is getting primed to take my job and we rearranged a couple of the outside venues and then moved the mobile cool rooms into place, after that (two hours later) we slowed down and took the chance to watch the game that was being televised, we WERE playing well at that point, we did some more run around and then they were playing like shit.

Then the fun times began as our external staff began to arrive and we had the joy of priming them on what to do that was specific to our venue. I took this time to go to MY canteen and get it ready to run, even if my staff were half an hour late. I delegated the role of cook to the first person to turn up and ran it from there as my staff quickly turned up over the next 15 minutes, only including one person who I had worked with before. Got them running and then I did what I had intended to do the entire time... I walked away to go do other stuff.

The night dragged on, the team lost and the ten thousand that we had catered for on the chance that they were going to win, turned into a fucking pathetic two and a half, we ended up closing half the external venues early. Eventually the major presentations and the bands had done their part and we closed all of the external venues sorted it the way we wanted and did what we could elsewhere....it was now 11.30 at night and the day was over. I got a stubby of beer and left, I had to be back at 8 am the next day –another day another dollar.
In all it was fucked, almost all of the beer was untouched and had to be brought back and unloaded today, I don’t even want to think about how bad the wages for the night was going to end up, while inside may have done a booming trade...the outside was a fucking joke and a money hole.

Glad I won’t be here if it happens again next year...

Tired and drained but still raring on.

-CJ

Now to the real thing

Eventually care of YouTube as a host and blogger as my outlet this will become a full fledged video blog, but I get the feeling that won’t happen till I’m a little closer to leaving this fair country of mine. For now all you can get is text and the occasional picture.

Who am I? I’m CJ, my friends call me a host of things but for the most part that’s what people know me as, what do I do with myself...I’m a barman... and have been for a few years so far and to the looks of it I will be for some years to come.

My opinion of Hospitality...you know the barman thing....it sucks...

• the hours are shit
• the customers expect the world
• you get next to no credit for anything you do
• you eat shit
• you drink too much
• your social life goes to shit unless you put so much effort into it that it’s not funny.

So often I have heard the joy that is hospitality described as a gateway job, the same way weed is a gateway drug, it’s a stepping stone to something else, whether that’s a uni degree which you’re working through or just another field that you need job history to get into.... unless you absolutely love the industry you don’t stay in it forever.

For the most part people like it for two reasons....

1. the money and,
2. the people you work with.

The money in this job is awesome compared to so many of the different jobs that are available to those with little experience, as a junior (under 18) I started on $12 an hour roughly...a far cry from most of my friends working at KFC and Coles; supermarkets and fast food joints, starting at a pathetic wage of $6 an hour.
(this is in Australia at least, I know that in other countries their governments don’t enforce the minimum wage rules, like America where the wages for waiting tables is abysmal)

Now that I’m a full barman I get $22.25, before tax at least, which is an awesome wage for someone who has no specialization training etc. The money is a major part of what has kept me in this trade for this long.
The other thing that keeps me here is the people I work with... in no other job that I have ever heard of is the dynamic and broad spectrum of people that you work so massive. You can chat to the patrons and the regulars...but in the end they are always customers, not friends. When you are forced to work with some of these people in such massive and at times high pressure environments the bond and friendships that you form with your fellow workers is huge. Not to mention that these are usually the people you have one or five beers with after your shift is finally over.

The people I work with vary from the 15 year old glassie to the 55 year old bar wench who has been here for years and I can say with some confidence that most of them I can consider friends.

On the same token however...there are always people you work with who will drive you fucking insane, whether they be management or fellow pleb’s there is always someone who will drive you up the wall. But like so many situations you just have to bear through it. It usually ends up better for it, if you can put up with some of the idiots you have to work with you can put up with anyone.

Now to take a slightly different look at it, and to change the subject....

Where do I work....

I won’t say a specific name while I’m still here and working stupid amounts of shifts, but I will say that it’s in Glenelg, Adelaide. It’s recently had MASSIVE renovations; it has a function centre and three other rooms that can be hired for all manner of random functions. It has a gaming room, a main bar and a bistro which is pretty awesome. It also has a rather large chunk of green stuff that people, some of them paid, play aussie rules football on.... now with all those hints I’m almost certain people can figure out where I work....but I’ve covered my ass when it comes to being liable and all that pleasant stuff.

The items to come in future issues could include:

• the Golden Rules
• the 10 commandments of Waiting
• the big list of DO NOT DOs

-CJ