Coffee for “a very silly person”

Made coffee for Michael Palin today.

Just thought I’d share ;)

It was amazing the lengths the higher up people went to to organise everything, all without giving us, the cafe, the full run down of what was going on. You know, so we could organise and prepare for it better. We were simply asked to reserve three tables in the corner.

Palin arrived with a couple of people, they sat down, chatted, and left. Fairly low key.

Suddenly the chefs arrive with special food for afternoon tea, fussing that we ddin’t reserve enough tables and should have saved one for them to set up the food on. Would have been nice if we’d known there was going to be special food coming up to start with. We all figured he’d left for good. Hell, we’d even taken away the half empty bottle of coke he’d left.

Next thing Chef’s asking for a bunch of drinks, which of course have to be dealt with immediately. Never mind that it’s a busy day in general and there are quite a few customers waiting for drinks. To make things worse, it was at this very point that we ran out of pretty much everything. Cups. Tea pots. Milk jugs. I set up enough tea pots to go through the wash to cover the current orders - but they got diverted to the Palin order. And no more teapots came through for me. Customers were left stranded. A couple even pointed out, when informed that there was a wait on tea due to a lack of teapots, that two had just been sent over to Micheal Palin.

Ah well. It just got annoying, the lack of communication and general break down of efficiency.

Was still fun, knowing he was drinking my coffee.

November 14, 2007 | Filed Under General | 4 Comments 

Drowning

I nearly drowned when I was quite young.

We were at the public pools, and I was swimming along in the shallow end fine, and had a floatie board to help me stay up. I couldn’t swim at this stage, so I was forbidden to go out of my depth. Dad was watching over me, making sure I was alright. He asked if I’d be ok if he went to do a few laps. I’d have to make sure I stayed in the shallow end, and my brother would be around to keep an eye on me. I told him i was fine, I had my floatie board.

I developed this kind of game where I would swim with the floatie board, and then kind of push myself under it, propelling under the water, and coming up further down the pool. I was able to get what seemed to be quite a bit of speed up. I kept pushing myself further and further until -shit.

I couldn’t touch the bottom this time. My board was out of reach. And I panicked. I started floundering, splashing around, trying to reach the board. I succeeded only in pushing it further away.

Dad couldn’t hear me calling, of course. Apparently, neither could anyone else. My brother appeared on the edge of the pool. I asked him to give me the floatie. He wouldn’t. He didn’t realise what was going on at first. He did figure it out, but I can’t remember if he did give me the board or not. It’s a bit hazy. He went away. I couldn’t believe it. I was getting tired, and sinking more and more often below the water. I was scared.

Suddenly, I was lifted out of the water. Turns out Nic had gone to get Dad after all. Needless to say, Dad was mortified. He took my too the changing rooms. I was weak and in shock. I vomited up lots of water. It was a fucking close call.

To this day, I don’t like swimming. Wading is fine, but I really don’t like putting my head under. I find it difficult even to put my face under the water in the shower.

The other night Jordan suggested going to the pool every now and then, maybe weekly, to swim lengths. My initial reaction was a straight out ‘no.’ But then I thought about it - maybe it’s what I need. Push myself, get myself to swim again. Again, the idea seems ok, until I realise that the pool will probably go out of my depth. If I could stand anywhere along the length, I think I’d be fine. But I doubt that will be the case. I’ll have to push myself. But it’ll be good for me.

Or we could just play tennis. That might be easier. It’s exercise too, after all.

November 14, 2007 | Filed Under General, Thoughts | 4 Comments 

7 random and/or weird facts about me.

Shannon tagged me, dammit.

The rules of are:

1) I have, until now, refused to do all kinds of “meme.” I just don’t like them. First of all, what does that word even mean? And how is it supposed to be pronounced? It’s all too confusing. Shannon emotionally blackmailed me into doing this one. Cheap shot.

2) As much as I rant and rave about good coffee, I cut my teeth at Starbucks. I fucking worked there. I remember my first day, as they were teaching me to make god-forsaken frappacinos. Or a couple of days in, when one girls tried to show me how to steam milk. She showed me pretty badly. It smelt horrible. But it still got used. Until I worked there, I hated coffee. Then I started drinking it, because it was free. They do offer plenty of mega-sweetened drinks for the uninitiated (And truth be told, the caramel macchiato was pretty damned nice, if made properly). But as I got to enjoy coffee, and began to realise how shit it was at starbucks. Not just the quality of the drinks being made, but the quailty of the actual coffee. It’s inispid and bitter, no matter how perfectly you extract a shot. It got to the point where on my breaks I would get coffee from the Mojo cafe next door.

3) Have you ever tried spaghetti bolognaise ice cream? It’s a crazy invention. Had it in Germany as I was travelling around Europe. Don’t worry, it’s not flavoured like spagbol, it just looks like it. They put vanilla ice cream through a spaghetti maker, top it with a jam or other sweet red sauce, and top it off with white chocolate shavings (for the parmesan cheese, of course). How does someone come up with this sort of thing? Was bloody good, but a little disconcerting that it was based on a pasta meal.

4) I had a bowl cut to the age of 16. Not that my hair was deliberately cut like that, it’s just how it grows. In fact, right now, as I write this, my hair is pretty much in a bowl again. It’s gotten long, and has no product in it. Must change that before I leave the house.

5) I sometimes dream of being a rock star. But then, don’t we all, really? There’s just something about that moment in a song where the guitarist rips into a mind-melting solo I can get lost in. Sometimes I let my imagination take over, and I’m transported to an alternate world where it’s me up there playing… fun times. Till I come back to earth and suddenly feel very clumsy around my guitar.

6) The closest I got to Rockstardom was at age 8. Oh yeah, true rockstar styles, I was a part of the support band for the gatekeepers of the Ray Charles concert at the Mission in 1994. Picture me, eight years old, dressed up in my black and whites, holding my tiny violin, playing with a group of 10 or so at the gates to the concert as people entered the Estate. No idea what we played. Probably wasnt overly good either - groups of kids that age playing violin is rarely a pleasant experience. But hey, it got me and mum free tickets to the concert. Dad had to buy another one. I don’t remember much about the actual concert, apart from the big piano on the stage and seeing Ray come on stage and wave. The rest of my memories are about running in the hills around the Estate and playing with those light sticks that people sell everywhere. Fun times.

7) I just wrote a massive one, then decided it was a little bit deep, and too good, to be part of this. So let’s go with something a little more light hearted. People who see me use a computer often say “Holy shit, you’re left handed, I never noticed!” I use the mouse with my left hand. The only reason they’d never noticed it because I write with my right hand, and do everything that would be expected of a right handed person with my right hand. I’m not one of those natural lefties that was forced to use the right hand. It just goes back to when we got our first computer. The tech who came and set it up told us that if we could learn to use our left hands for the mouse, it would eventually be much more comfortable and better for us, less cramped. This was at the time where arrow keys dominated. Now, for gaming anyways, everything is WASD, so his theory got the boot. But hey, I still use my left hand.

So, tagging time. I’m only going to do four.

Some Go Softly of, well, Some Go Softly

Bone from A Big Guy in a Big City

Bio from Of Horses and Hell

Mr President from Textual Relations

November 10, 2007 | Filed Under General | 9 Comments 

Happy Birthday Shan…

You’re now a .com ;)

http://www.leafprobably.com

All in time for the fort building madness of tomorrow.

November 9, 2007 | Filed Under General | 3 Comments 

PSA

Please do not order an espresso and assume you will be getting a cappucino.

You will not.

You will be sorely dissapointed voir intimidated when a double short black (or, if you’re lucky, a long black) arrives in front on you.

If you want a cappucino, that’s fine. Just order it. By saying, oh, I don’t know… “Cappucino please” usually works.

Let’s work together to stop the confusion.

November 5, 2007 | Filed Under Bitch, Coffee | 5 Comments 

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