Righty O then

Well I have managed to get myself along nicely in this fine town of Salzburg for the last few days and have been having a bit of fun making random crap in the kitchen. The wonders of getting bored and making Brownies or Choc Chip cookies.

Hell, if I had the right type of trays and things to use I'd probably be making muffins and possibly even cakes.

My first couple of days here I had off because they didn't know for sure if i was going to be coming, had the breakfast on the Saturday which was OK except for the fact that the lazy topdeck assholes left the majority of their plates on the tables, all 50 of them, and I was working my myself; a lot of people got free breakfast until I could clear all of the tables off and clean them down. The rest of that day was a bit of a nothing day... it was Valentines and being wonderfully single and not in the mood to go out and play the field it was a boring day - although I did get a message from a fellow single friend of mine, Jen, which lifted my day from a chore to just another day which at the time was an achievement.

Dinner that night was a breeze and the wonders of having to do breakfast the next morning was something that I was so looking forward to. The one thing I did do that night which was a little bit different was to make myself, and the two other people working, a roast chicken. It was meant to be a two hour chicken but the wonders of a fan-forced industrial oven cut that cooking time down to just under an hour and got rave reviews all around.

The next breakfast was another snooze, only had a couple of people come in, 15-20, and only had to break out the fry pan twice for the eggs so it made for another boring morning. The day dragged on and then I crashed out early so I could manage to stay awake through my night shift which I had the joy of doing.

Dragged myself down stairs after a few hours sleep at 11.30pm and headed into the bar where the reception guy was hanging out with the barman and the regulars. Two beers quickly disappeared and then I was on the job, didn't really do much for a couple of hours till the people in the bar finally fucked off and left. Then I setup the breakfast bar, chatted to random people on FaceBook and then decided to use the random baking supplies I had the foresight to buy the day before, no shops are open on Sundays.

At 4 am I made Choc Chip Cookies, and then at 5 am I got bored again and made a tray of brownies.

After dragging the last few hours the shift was over and I headed to bed at a bit after 8am.

The rest of the day was a non item and then the night came around... I had ten euros and some change to spend, had three beers here at the YOHO and then decided to go out and see if I could run into the random American girls at O'Malleys again. They weren't there but I got a beer anyway and got talking to a guy called Toohey (like the beer) and a girl called Amber at the front bar. One beer turned into two and then I headed with them to a live music joint where Toohey was playing, great little place and the first that I have managed to find that has beer that is cheaper than here at the hostel. Got a couple of beers, chatted randomly with a couple of cute local girls and then decided that my lack of money was a sign that I had better get back seeing as I had the breakfast shift that coming morning too.

Breakfast was another non item, then I got pro active and did a total stocktake of the kitchen from scratch, which apparently hadn't been done in months. That wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be considering what I was used to doing back at the football club. Then it was another slow night in the kitchen but no breakfast which is something I was grateful for... back to the repetitive monotony of work.

On this fine day I have finally been told the kind of hours I would be working and how much money I should be expecting per month.

-6 nights a week
-5 mornings a week
-1 day a week off with the following morning off as well.

around 40 hours a week and around 500 euro's a month, and that includes accommodation and some food as well so its effectively around 1000-1200 euro a month if you add those costs in too.

Things are starting to become a bit more solid which after so much variability is a bonus.

That and its only a bit under two weeks till I get to catch up with my old mate Sam in Paris...

Today's feature is an old favorite.



"Johnny I hardly knew ya" - Dropkick Murphys

... so a few words from me.

So I've finally managed to pull out that nice web cam of mine...



There's my little chat for now, you might have to turn it up after 20 seconds... I didn't get around to fixing the audio levels.

The random vid of the week is:



Eisblume - "Eisblumen"

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

I'm here

Another update here...when I actually get it online is a good question but I’ll worry about that later.
I’ve made my way to Innsbruck in Austria after my short stay in Frankfurt. Now that I have something to compare it too I can say that Frankfurt isn’t that nice a city, sure it functions and is a good starting point, it is in the end...boring....it is a collection of buildings and a fucking big airport. Good for a few photos but in what I was able to see in my short stay...not one to specifically go out of your way to go and see.
The nice train ride from Frankfurt to Munich was to be honest a bit dis -en-heartening (Word is telling me I’m making up words again) for the bulk of the journey my view consisted of either towns, light industry or farm land. I guess being an Australian I am used to being able to see vast stretches of empty land that has seen no use at all in all the time we have been there, it just came as a bit of a shock to see not one empty stretch. The only bulks of land I could see that weren’t in use were the occasional hilltop that was covered in a thick picket of local trees – pines I’m guessing. Fortunately the second train ride was, in some regards, a bit better. The surroundings did change significantly when I was heading towards Innsbruck from Munich, more snow and surprisingly a good chunk of random light forest or something like it...good to see...that and seeing so much snow was awesome.
Once I managed to get here, Innsbruck, I had the wonder of walking in the dark – it was only 5.30 pm and it was completely dark – and the walk wasn’t too bad, managed to find this abso-fucking-lutely awesome hostel that I’ve got myself into. I am so glad I managed to find this awesome place on the net before I left Frankfurt, its smaller, and just a better vibe than I think I would have had at the only other option that the internet told me I had.
After meeting a couple of the others staying here and dumping my shit I took my ass onto the street and walked about 50 meters to the local markets that are on every night apparently at this time of year, there were people everywhere and more importantly (especially compared to Frankfurt) they were almost all around my age, and god were there some cuties in the mix :P. Had a random dinner of sauerkraut, potatoes and sausage and a couple of cups of “Glühwein” (hot/warm wine) and then crashed out at the hostel.... I really didn’t realise how much the trains had taken out of me.
The breakfast this morning I get the feeling will kick the shit out of almost every other breakfast I’m ever going to get at a hostel. The Hostel/B&B is above a cafe which is run by the same people – breakfast was a pair of fresh-ish rolls, homemade jams, a bowl of cornflakes, coffee/tea/hot choc, and a slice of Cake. While most of that is standard for hostel...the cake... to die for, the cafe has its own section for selling cakes and an entire floor above it for making them. So yeah... I started with an awesome breakfast.
After that I plotted out the rest of my day...which was pretty much: go to the Olympic ski jump whilst also going to the Arbeitampt which was on the way, walked to both, got a list of jobs at the job centre and then made my way to the Olympic ski jump which they have here.... rather big drop that...gah....there are a few pictures and they are awesome.... great view of Innsbruck and the mountains. Had a coffee up there with an American and a New Zealand couple before heading down and going our different ways.
After all of that I proceeded to walk around town for around three hours....crossed two rivers and got a good bit of air, and also failed to find any free wireless... bugger. Eventually made my way back through town to near the hostel, bought some essentials – hair brush, gel, shaving cream – came back to the hostel and have been killing time ever since.

On a side note: I have managed to find both a beret and gloves over here.... pity they essentially cost as much as I budget for an entire day and then some....whoops.
Now I’m going to try and tally all of my expenditure up and see where I stand.
- CJ

Theme song for this post – “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” – Dropkick Murphys

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