Shopping and dinner.. November 26, 2009

 

Yesterday I posted that I will be going to for a shopping spree..it turn up to be a very rushed 30 minutes shopping spree… Even though on Tuesday night I went for the trial run at our new restaurant – Mezza 9 which serve 7 types of food and have 1 wine cellar and a bar.. which is why their name have a 9. Today in the spa section as they are short of one person, they called me up and asked me to come over for dinner to make up to the number so there I go again. Most people will say “Lucky you!” Yes in a way very lucky coz get to eat a lot of delicious food twice!

So this afternoon I went over to Macau to get the clip earrings again, coz I lost one. hehe.. well.. a perfect excuse to go shopping right? But hei.. I did not do it on purpose ok..As usual I did not only come back with the items that I wanted to buy but I also added one more item which I LOVE it so much.. so here is the things that I bought today 2 pair of earrings (kiasee – scared to die in translation .. just in case I lost it again), 2 long sleeve shirts, 2 long pants, 1 fluffy stockings andthe best of all one soft fluffy bathrobe! Its so comfy and soft.. very very nice! (Pics above)

Then I took a cab back to the hotel for the dinner. Since its a table for 4,it has been determined a set dishes that we have to order accordingly. But we have a lot of food. We can’t finish all of them and somemore, we are seating near to the sushi again (not by request this time as we requested it on the night before), my friend is one of the chefs there .. so.. hehe.. we got extra 1 plate of yummy sashimi…hush hush ok..  its so fresh and so its so delicious and today we have the Taro also! Its the stumoch of the Tuna and its so soft and nice; apparently its quite expensive and we also tried the sea urchin .. but most of us don’t like the taste of the sea urchin. Its too fishy, and the F&B Manager gave us a bottle of portugal red wine apparently cost about 2k a bottle, the wine is quite smooth but only I finish my glass. hmm..But overall, after having these kind of luxurious food for 2 days.. I think its too much for me and please do count me out for the next time.. Food is good but its too much and too rich. If this goes on.. I seriously need to sign up for the yoga membership, which I am planning to sign it up next month. Really wonder how some people can eat these every day! Not sure if its good life or not.. just I wonder.. hmm….

Cold? November 25, 2009

Before I come to Macau, I checked on the weather condition to see what clothes to wear. Then many says that the winter here is not so cold and lowest temperature is only 7 degrees. So I only brought some sweathers, one or two long sleeve T-shirts, 2 scalves and my gloves, just in case, the only thing i did not bring is long pants and my beanie.. how I need them..

Even when we were looking at houses, the agent told us that the winter here is not so cold, but i believe its because the air condition in the house, there is no heater function as some other units have that. Even though I like cold weather but I like to have a warm bed and warm showers too. So when the weather turns cold last week, its so freezing cold. The degree turn down to below 10 degrees and due to the humidity here, it makes it even colder compared to the those country with dry climate.

This is when I realize that the clothes that I brought is not really enough and its really cold at night. As I have the habit of turning during my sleep so whenever I turn, I will wake up due to the coldness of the other side. I hope I don’t need to train myself to sleep at one position like what I did when I was in my uni days in Australia.This really remind me of the my Uni days even more – cooking, buying of grocery and now the cold weather.. really make me miss my uni days. How fun it was then! Then the cold also reminds me of my holidays to the cold countries like UK, Europe and New Zealand! oh how I wish I can go for holiday again!! sigh.. Looks like I got to wait for next year.. my next destination? hmm.. maybe Japan/Korea since its cheaper to go from here.. ehehe… yes yes.. mum I heard you.. I will still save some money.. but can’t help it.. I like to travel and see the world..

Up till yesterday, I can’t stand it anymore and I bought myself a heater.. yippee.. However once I bought it the weather turn hot.. sigh.. just my luck and my lousy timing. Today the weather is at 20 degree! The changing of temperature is really funny and some of them said that this year November is the coldest that they ever had. hmm.. due to the global warming, I wonder? Hopefully it will turn cold soon! Well.. Its kind of a dilemma for me.. when its hot weather, I want my bed to be cold, and now that its cold I want it hot..really can not be satisfied.. oh well.. just see how it comes.. Since tomorrow is my day off, I might take this chance to get myself some long sleeve shirts and pants! so yes guys.. its shopping time again! oh.. I even might buy an electric blanket also.. just in case the weather turns colder.. then I will have warm and comfy bed for me to slip into.

Local delicacies… then drama.. then CHINA…. November 9, 2009

Oh well… last couple of weeks has been full of excitement and embarrassment for me. So other than I am doing something that I don’t really like but managing to stay on it which still a wonder for myself, probably I have not really done the tough part yet. Oh well.. Surely that day will come…hmm.. lets shall not go into that, shall we? Just last week our fitness manager, A brought me to eat some local food. We ended early since we went for the Hotel Expo and the Macau Travel Expo. So we decided to take the chance to leave early. However since we took the wrong bus, we ended up at the other side of the Macau.

Here she brought me to a local shop that sells noodles. Hei.. its not just any kind of noodles but its with pig’s brain. (Pics below)  Haha yes.. you heard it right.. Pig’s brain… as you  do realize chinese eats everything.. the entire part of the pig can be eaten! It taste very creamy and it goes with the noodles with chili. Not bad and its something new to try… but if its too exotic like turtle soup or snake soup or even monkey brain, that’s my limit. I will not go for that. Too gross and its too cruel especially when we heard about how they kill or prepare that dish.

The next day somehow, my stumoch is churning very badly, maybe its due to my monthly period that I fainted at work! yes yes.. i know.. what an impression and its so embarrassing. It all started like this. I was the hostess for the breakfast session and starting from the beginning my tummy to ache. But I thought I am able to stand till after the breakfast timing then I will go to the toilet and let the tummy finish processing as well. Little did I realize that it grew worse after 1 hour, that it started churning very badly. Therefore I hid at a corner near to the office and squat for a while for the pain to pass. But my error is when the pain pass, I just stood up and walked back to the hostess stand. That’s when I realize the entire place is turning around me and I held on to the stand. The next thing I knew, I was lying on the floor and I heard my colleague calling my name and running to get help.

When I started to sit up, the GC assistant manager, executive housekeeper, M and our training and development director arrived and helped me up and brought me to the office to lie down. Oh man..I felt so bad that because of me, they are now short of 1 person and so embarrassing. I was so touched that the concern that they gave me. M was arranging for some blankets for me and kept on checking on me. The GC manager called to my assistant spa manager, Y for some medicines and the assistant manager got me some sugar water. After resting a while and when I thought I am able to manage to, I went out to go to the toilet. When I came out, I saw our GM and he is very concern about me and M helped me to the toilet. My boss, Y and A also came to check on my status. Just because of me, created such a big fuss.. so touch yet so embarrassing. After that Y brought me home, however because of that she left her phone in the cab. I felt so bad for that. After resting that day when I went back to work the next day, everyone kept asking me how am I and if I felt better.. even when GM saw me after a couple of days, he asked me how am I! But don’t worry mum and dad, I will definitely take good care of myself so that this incident will not happen again.. geez.. once is enough!

As the GC is opening to public this week, we took the opportunity of going out for dinner on Sunday when it will be the last time where all the staffs will have the same off day. However, they wanted to go to Zhuhai, China, which I can NOT go!!! I have not receive my blue card as they canceled my previous application for another department and therefore they have to reapply for me. So now that I do not have it, I can’t apply for China Visa. So I thought that I will miss this outing and I kept grumbling and grumbling. Then one of my friends, maybe cannot stand my grumbling anymore just said that I am able to apply for the 1 day visa at the checkpoint itself. But have to pay over there. Hmm.. suddenly the sky gets brighter.. there is hope!!! So eventhough I had made plans with A to go out shopping again, but I hope she will understand.. So I met up with A in the afternoon and I got my new toy – Nokia E71..ok Ok.. yes mum i know .. I change phone again. But my previous phone kept on getting hang and its so slow. So after a few hours of walking around the city and the New Yaohan, I made my way to the checkpoint. Keeping my finger cross. I met up with 2 of the GSos who is going together. So when I got the the China side and I followed the sign and went to the office to apply for the visa. I paid about RMB160 for the 3 days visa and less than 30 minutes I have it! Yippee!! Now I finally able to enter into China! We went down to queue up to enter. Since there are a lot of people, I thought I will be taking a long time. But to my surprise the lane for foreigner is very short, I manage to clear it within 30 – 45 minutes! Cool eh…

After everyone joined our group we proceed to our next destination. We made our way to a chinese restaurant for dinner. Here we have to go and buy the seafood from other place and bring it to the restaurant for them to cook.. what a weird system. So anyhow, 5 of us stayed back and the rest went to buy the seafood. We had prawn, shellfish, fish, oysters, scallops and they are all very fresh and very delicious! They had some Chinese white wine, which I don’t like the taste at all.. We had fun gossiping about another colleague who did not manage to join us and we really had a good laugh as well.

The night continue with bar hopping. When we were at the first bar, a couple of us left. I stayed behind with the group. We went bar hopping till 5am and went for foot massage that we slept till 9am and only then we decided to leave and return home. It was a very tiring day but its fun! I reached home around 11 am and slept till 530pm. Then I meet up with 2 GSos to go for the food festivals, which is near the Macau Tower. They have a lot of food stalls there. Here we ate all kinds of simple food – Japanese sashimi, thai tomyam soup, fried chicken, Chinese fried buns, Crocodile satay, hot dog bun for main course, bread papa, chinese peanut and sesame paste and banana crepes for dessert and it end with a cotton floss which leave my hands all sticky! It was very nice and very very cold!! We were shivering while eating all the yummy food! But after that, we have to wait to next year to go for the food festival again!

An unexpected twist.. November 6, 2009

Sometimes you will never know what you end up doing, which is out of your league. Even though 6 years ago, I did some food and beverage stuff but deep inside I do knew that I am not food and beverage inclide person, however after 6 years later, by fate, I ended up doing food and beverages again!

When I came to Macau, all I thought I will be doing is in the spa, at the reception. I do not mind working late or do something different once a while but little did I expect that I will be hed to Grand Club for several months! This is all because the spa is not ready at the moment and there was a delay in the opening due to the design of the spa that was not up to standard. Well.. it was a totally mess… and all we can do now is do the best that we can.. which means I have to tolerate to be in the F&B!! Sorry nothing against it..  but its just not for me.. the tray is so heavy.. lucky last few days and today I was doing the hosting.. which means I just greet and escort the guest to the table. But I think tomorrow they will switch my place and I have to carry those heavy trays! urgh…which also means from tomorrow onwards my arms going to be paining!

Now I am also helping them to dry those drink glasses and cutleries after they wash it. We have to dry it as soon as its still hot as its much easier, as once it cools, it leave water stains and its hard to remove them! Then we have use hot water to re-wipe them and need more energy..Especially when you wipe the glasses, hands quite painful due to the friction and the heat. Even today one of the staffs broke some glass as one of the server tray fell on the floor as the trayt wasn’t placed on the table properly and she cut her hand while trying to clean up the scattered glass ! This really reminds me to be extra careful with the glasses and the tray.. sigh.that is my biggest worry – that I will drop the entire tray! urgh.. touch wood! hope not…. I remembered I broke my mum’s plates during one of the new year eve dinner, when I slipped while carrying a stack of plates..a total nightmare.. of coz also remembering my mum’s scolding for my carelessness.. I hope the history don’t repeat itself over here..

A total challenge for me and one that I need to handle and cope for the coming months! The first time I got to do a split shift – working at 0700 – 1100 then 1500 – 1900 hours. the middle part I came back to sleep!! haha.. but damn weird feeling.. oh well.. I suppose there will be more to come!