Anatomy Of A Stupid.

Fuel.

The one dreaded thing other than rempits that the whole nation of Malaysia face together and a suffer or enjoy in the consequences of it’s unstable price.

A time existed when fuel was cheaper than mineral water at 1.62 for a km, where everybody enjoyed life, so to speak. Cars were blazing, not just from traffic but sales, and motorists were limited to the scum that ride the night and those who have a yearly income of less than RM10,000.00.

One day a rumor spread, of all that it had to be true, the price shot up by almost 30 cents.

We frowned and complained, but it appeared that life went on. Rice boys were still taking to the streets in their poorly modified Wiras and Civics. Flour was still RM2.00 a bag. Life still went on.

Then one gloomy day came.

Again.

This time, the rakyat was really angry. With the help of a disgruntled and vengeance driven ex-deputy Prime Minister, people on foot took to the streets. Like a foster boy in a luxurious toy store, they demanded and demanded.

Nobody understood that some part of the life that went on was from our own fuel being sold to others. Nobody would accept that we were the ones benefiting from, if not all, sales of our own high grade petroleum. Everybody wanted to believe the bad guys, everybody said it was all going to Mercedes Benz cars for ministers, for their fancy staff parties, expensive paintings on the walls of the office. If they didn’t believe it, somebody would eventually make them.

A small shed of light came a few days back.

But I can’t help but be more dissapointed than anyone mentioned in this post combined when I feel bersyukur (appreciative) that crude oil prices are stabling, but all I hear around me is..

"It’s only 15 cents decrease lah.."

Oh what we have become.

Am currently absolutely overjoyed from the revival of my 20GB 3rd gen iPod. Got the replacement battery from Longlast - same place where I got my e805 PDA battery replacement, also another discontinued product - and spent half an hour trying to pry the damn thing into half yesterday but now that it’s in, on and running.

I am ecstatic! I’ve always had a bond with iPods… then eventually I’d lose them, or they’re stolen like the Nano. But now I’m back with my very first white love! and the added bonus? The songs are still there! The likes of Daniel Lioneye, Disagree, ACDC, The Who and who can forget, Fountains of Wayne has never been more helpful during mis-en place for lunch services alone =)

Today I’ve learnt a very important lesson.

I was opening a bottle of Sassicaia 2002 for a guest when I found that the cork was very very dry and it was starting to act up on me. Not taking the risk of dropping the bottle infront of the customer, I flagged my senior, Din to come over and help me instead. Sure, it looked unprofessional but I’d rather look like an idiot than have RM1000 wine poured on the ground, AND look like an idiot at the same time.

Then a guest from another table requested the lights be turned up as he wants to take a photo and go figure, his iPhone didn’t have a flash feature, and you know how the stereotype that a fine dine joint has to be all dim and mysterious like it’s any aid to the overpriced mineral waters, so it was actually quite dark. Din took the instructions so he stepped over to the lighting panel, asked me to look out to the dining area and signal him when it’s bright enough.

Too bad, I never got the chance to tell him he was half way there until James, the sous chef came out and stopped him claiming it might disturb the other (two) guests from the table nearby. Din is a senior staff, but it’s just too darn bad that he’s still employed as a ‘waiter’ since there are no captains at Third Floor.

45 minutes later when Ariff came back, he calls us for a short discussion by the empty bar counter. He requested an explanation as to why the kitchen crew (in layman’s term, this means James)  was complaining that his service staff are "playing around with the lights" and why the wine ‘popped’, whatever that fucking means.

So what was the lesson that I learnt? Kitchen and service staff may be all lovey dovey during the staff picnics and all, but when it comes down to crunch time, these two elements are like the result of a toaster oven switched on while it’s in a water tub - shocking. Why? For starters, let’s just say if the guest who requested the lights to be turned up complained, who should be brought forward? Think about it, you have the guy flipping the eggs and pouring the sauce out to explain about the frickin lights!

Sassicaia. That’s a medium-bodied Italian reserve red wine for those of you who have yet to see one, I know I was like you just a few hours ago. Red and white wines don’t "pop", champagne does. Let’s just say we have the craziest miracle where the red pops, what’s there to hype about? Not like I blew up the bottle or anything, and popping is perfectly fine even if it happened, probably just Co2 build up from old wines.

I don’t want to keep this dragging for long, I’ve never really liked the kitchen staff at TF anyway. I’ll end this boring post with a quote from my manager just before he dismissed us from the meeting

"Kitchen staffs will never understand (the) service staff’s situation, but when they interfere with our duties serving a customer, that’s when you get to see an egoistic chef at work."