Could have ended earlier.

Work ended slightly earlier today at 3.45 pm instead of the usual 4 pm.



Today, during work, I was able to take some snap shots of a few recipes from the recipe book in the bakery when I was left alone on my own devices while the rest of my colleagues went to buy ingredients for lunch. It was cool though, being left in the bakery alone, not so much about "borrowing" the cake recipes,  the phone in the bakery only rang like once and I didn't pick it up, but it was a bit annoying because it kept ringing and ringing, so much so that I went to the toilet to hide for a good 15 seconds before realizing how ridiculous that was, it's like the person on the other line decided to just let the phone ring until he or she got the....

"The person you are calling now is not available, please try again later."

I'm not the person you are looking for so call again later, I'm too new to know how to take a customized cake order. Probably might start promising things the bakery can't deliver.



"A dozen cupcakes within the next half an hour with fresh multicolored roses for decorations? Yeah we can do that."


'Oh gluten free cupcakes? Yeah sure we do that." <- Probably one of those bullshit people who are trying out the gluten free diet because it's trendy, so I will just skip that gluten free part out and probably get a lawsuit for the bakery afterwards because the person who ordered probably died from gluten poisoning or something. 



"You want to have a real life leprechaun seated on a cake with a fondant basket filled with gold dusted coins? Yeah I will just call the Irish central kitchen to delivery it via the Rainbow Express."




So I managed to take a few recipes down and can't wait it try it at home soon, using good quality ingredients because the bakery, for financial purposes I guess, skimps on the ingredients they use, the baker that I was working with on Sunday told me about it and, like me, didn't really like how the company was doing that to save money.




Apparently in the past, they used to use Valrohna Chocolates but because the boss wanted to save money, they decided to just get their chocolates straight from Phoon Huat.  Not to say Phoon Huat has horrible chocolates, I've eaten horrible chocolates my Father bought from China before so I have a pretty high benchmark of how terribad chocolate can get and whether or not they are real chocolate is questionable, but going from Valrohna to Phoon Huat, there's definitely going to be a drop in quality. The kind of butter and vanilla extract they use, there are definitely way better brands out there.





So when the other bakers came back from their ingredients shopping spree , the sous chef decided to let me off early, told me I could leave right after I had my lunch because there really wasn't anything left for me to do, the cakes were fully stocked and the butter cream were overstocked, in fact the entire fridge was so pack they couldn't put any more stuff inside, and that was partly thanks to my repacking. I made sure the fridge was slightly tidier and more organized, which in turned lessen the available spaces inside that I think at one point, the head chef had to reorganize it again to free up some space so the other bakers could put their crumb coated cakes in.






While the sous chef was preparing the lunch, I decided to be a good Samaritan and asked the other baker if she needed any help, and she asked me to help her measure out some ingredients for a recipe she was going to prepare later, and of course I was more than willing to help because I'd much rather be measuring out ingredients for her then wander around the kitchen looking at pots and pants like they are the most interesting thing I have ever seen. After measuring and having my lunch, decided to linger a while longer to look as if I was way too hardworking of an employee who needs to be chased out of the kitchen by the head chef otherwise he'd be working the night away...  but really all I did was take a cloth that was within my reaching distance and started wiping the table that was already clean to begin with.



While I was pretending to be a hard worker, I noticed the baker whom I had helped measure out the ingredients prior started walking up to the white board and writing out her to-do list, which included 4 different cake recipes, one of which I had already measured out and put aside to let her do later... when I am on my way home, the problem though was that she doesn't write her to-do list on the board, only the sous chef and I write our to-do list on the board and the sous chef was way too busy with his own work to be able to help her prepare her recipes... the damn list she had written down was meant for me.




That was when the sous chef decided to ask me to prepare all the recipes written on the board, conveniently forgetting that he had told me I could leave right after lunch 30 minutes earlier. It was a depressing half an hour before I finally got over it and tried to churn out the batter as fast as I could, it was a really messy affair, the cake started rising like crazy in the oven and volcanoed all over the baking tray, it was really ugly.




After doing 2 of the 4 recipes, and re-measuring out the ingredients for the final recipe because of some last minute changes I was informed of, the sous chef decided to let me leave early. It was probably because I was messing up the recipe, I don't get why they don't want to get a damn ice cream scoop and instead want to rely on a pipping bag, it's so much hassle and extremely messy because we have to re-use the pipping bag to save money.






One thing I have found out recently is that most of my colleagues are very similar to me character wise, they are all quite reserve and don't really initiate a conversation with the new guy... and during lunch, if the new guy is around, rather than start a conversation topic only they can participate in like when their close friend and ex-colleague "Sally got so drunk she went to the beach and starting selling seashells" , they would rather keep quiet so no one will feel left out, everyone will just become friends with the awkward silence.

Every time I go out to have lunch with them, whenever they decide to take out their smart phones to surf their Social Networking Sites instead of actually trying to start a conversation between the people who are actually there physically going, I keep thinking of that picture.



I sort of understand their plight, since I also have trouble trying to include new people into a conversation when I have other friends I know around but the last thing I will do is to take out my phone and start surfing the internet, it's like you aren't even trying to be social with the people you are with ... well the last thing I will do is probably the take the butter knife and stab my neck so I can get out of this lunch choked with awkwardness.





Kudos to people who actually managed to become my friends.

Ruined Sunday

Had to work on Sunday as well, so that sucked, the upside was that work started at 12 noon, so I didn't have to wake up early, the problem with work starting at 12 noon though was the fact that there wasn't any proper time for me to actually have my lunch.



I'm not the type who will leave the house an hour earlier so I can go have my lunch at the food court near my work place, I would much rather spend that hour at home surfing the internet. So I decided that instead of skipping lunch all together, I should just order a McDonalds Breakfast set and have them deliver it to me before I leave for work, that way, I have no need to get out of the house an hour early to have my lunch or skip lunch or brunch ,the latter being a more likely scenario since I am really lazy to make any unnecessary movements, sometimes when I am using my computer and want to take a bath because I am starting to feel sticky and grimy, it will take 30 minutes for me to actually convince myself to get up to take a bath... because that weird smell that's wafting around the air is definitely coming from me after the fan has decided to blow it back at my general direction.



So I got myself a Breakfast Deluxe Supreme and changed the drink to a Ice Latte to fancy shit up... and hit the $10 food delivery quota, but mainly to make the meal look more fancy because I think Latte is a fancy accompaniment to a McDonald breakfast. Gotta have something that sounds like a proper breakfast drink to go with the onslaught of pancakes, eggs, burger and bacon.



The awesome plan I had in my mind was to get my meal 30 minutes before I leave for work, that would give me sufficient time to finish up my meal. I had an hour before I had to leave, so 30 minutes for them to deliver the food to me and 30 minutes for me to deliver all that unhealthiness into my stomach. It was stated on my confirmation email that the meal would arrive in 30 minutes, and 90% of the time, it's always on time, sometimes even earlier.



So after 45 minutes of waiting, I decided to call McDonalds to ask them when my order was arriving because it was suppose to have arrived 15 minutes ago,. It's already too late for Plan B, if I were to make instant noodle now, it would only give me 10 minutes to finish my meal, plus I had already paid via credit card for the McDonalds Meal, can't let it go to waste.




The lady on the phone did some checking and told me it would arrive in 10-15 minutes due to some mess up in the kitchen. I was so pissed off and told her I had to leave soon to go for work, and obviously she couldn't give me any solution because she was only paid to answer relevant questions regarding orders made by the customers, not hear someone complain about how they might be late for work because of sloppy kitchen work, because why should she care, she doesn't have to worry about being late for work, she's already at her desk working.



Of all the times McDonald could have screwed up my orders, they decide to do it on the day I was rushing off to work. After 5 minutes I decided to just fuck it and left the house, mood completely ruined by McDonald's shitty delivery service and as I was walking out of the lift as I hit the first floor, lo and behold, the McDonald Delivery guy was right outside the lift, about to enter as I was coming out to make his way up to my unit to deliver the brunch I was suppose to have started eating 30 minutes ago.




I just let him go up and let my maid handled the order, but seeing him go up made me even more angry, honestly, couldn't have picked the worst fucking timing, it's like one of those super cliche movies where one guy walks out of the restaurant while the love of his life that he has been searching for for years walks right into it, I'm the guy and the love of my life was the McDonald Breakfast that could have been the fuel for my 8 hour day in the bakery.




Next time when I am rushing for time and decide to make the mistake of ordering McDonald again, which I will probably do again, i am not going to pay by credit, instead do it by Cash On Delivery. I'm not gonna pay until I see the item with my own eyes.

Love Durain Cake.

It's the third day of work and so far everything is going well.



Frosted about a hundred cupcakes today, which was initially quite fun but that joy quickly went away after the 3rd tray of 24 cupcakes, my attention span  is rather short so that's why I get bored really quickly, but I'd rather do that than Interior Designing that's for sure, it's better to start out excited and get bored gradually than to start out bored and then suffer a slow and painful death by boredom afterwards.



After frosting was more baking, and I baked about a hundred vanilla cupcakes. Was suppose to make 2 batches but I was so slow that the sous chef just told me to finish up 1 batch and leave the next batch on hold for tomorrow.I really don't like to fuck my future-self by giving him more work but I didn't want to work overtime, so I happily agreed and was able to leave the bakery by 4.15 pm, 45 minutes earlier than my first 2 days..





One of the perks of working in a bakery is the free bakes I get to bring home. Asked one of my colleagues how the bakery's food tasted and she told me she would make extra tarts so I could bring them home to try.

Free Stuff.

I didn't think she would actually do it because the orders that we have to complete everyday are usually quite large, but she did make some extra so I was very grateful. The Lemon Meringue Tart barely survived the onslaught of a journey in my bag pack on the way home as evident from the scraps of meringue smeared on the side of the tupperware but the Caramel Tart made it home safely. 

That pistachio nut belonged to the other tart.

So I finally got my birthday cake, 5 days after my birthday. 

I always ask my Mum to get me a durian cake for my birthday because chocolate cakes are so overrated, I eat them when I am hungry so that one doesn't feel special and I need a cake that will feel special. Was originally going to get Angie The Choice but decided to get the one from Goodwood Park Hotel instead.



There was more durian mousse than cake and usually I hate cakes that have more mousse than actual sponge cake but because it was made with fresh durian pulp, I decided to embrace the ginormous layers of mousse.


I was a bit stuffed when I ate the first slice though because prior to that slice of cake, I was busy stuffing myself with the free tarts so I didn't get to enjoy my birthday cake to it's maximum potential, but tomorrow morning I shall give it another go and hopefully experience durian cake induced euphoria.

Work Work Break...

Today is my day off from work for the week, I'm currently working on a 6 day work week which means I will be working this Saturday and Sunday since I've already used up my off day today, which at this point doesn't really bother me since I hardly go out on the weekends.

Work starts at 8 am in the morning and last until 4 pm in the evening. I woke up at 5.45 am on Monday, my first day of work, not really wake up, more like get up from bed because I was literally up all night just rolling around in bed trying to find a comfortable sleeping position, so I got up, showered and made myself a cup of tea to hopefully get enough caffeine into my system to prevent me from falling asleep at work while I am mixing batches of cake batter with the industrial size stand mixer, wouldn't want the red velvet cakes to get their red from the blood spewing out from dismembered body parts.

On the first day at work, I was briefed on the bakery's operations and my job scope by the sous chef and the whole time I was there, I was so afraid I would get super drowsy and have difficulty doing what I had been instructed to do, wouldn't be leaving a good first impression that way, but luckily, my adrenaline was pumping so I was able to stay awake and absorb the necessary information that was given to me by the sous chef for the entire 8 hours,

Had a lunch break in-between shift and decided to grab a cup of coffee to go with my lunch, thinking that introducing more caffeine to my body would work because apparently the effects of caffeine last longer on people who don't really drink a lot of caffeinated beverages and I don't drink coffee that much so it will probably have a longer lasting effect on me and keep me awake longer, I read up that information the night before on my phone via Google when I had trouble sleeping.



It was only after I bought the cup of coffee did I realize that I don't fall into the category of "people who don't drink caffeinated drink often" because I am guilty of drinking a cup of bubble tea everyday once a long time ago, now it's like more once or twice per week, and it's actual tea and not those fake "Lychee Ice Blended with Pearls" kind of Bubble Tea at Sweet Talk or one of those sub par bubble tea shop that sells really bad bubble tea, half of the items on the menu don't even contain any tea. 

I would like to consider myself a Bubble Tea Connoisseur, so when I hear people drinking a cup of KOI or Gong Cha and saying it taste similar to the one sold at some run down shopping mall operated by Aunties who has probably never drank a cup of bubble tea in their life, I start to question the validity of any opinions they will ever have in the future. 

" There's a cockroach crawling up your hair" 

Not going to trust them, what if it's not a cockroach, what if it's a cat? I mean they can't even differentiate the quality of a good cup of bubble tea from a sub-par one, what makes you so sure they can differentiate a cat from a cockroach. I take my bubble tea very seriously, if I am craving for bubble tea and see Sweet Talk around the corner, that craving is going to have to be satisfied another day when Gong Cha or KOI is around.

Anyways, on my first day of work, I did a few rainbow cake layers and frosted a few cupcakes, which was really fun and also made me realize how bad I was at pipping because the sous chef kept rejecting my pipped frosting by dumping it back into the huge mixing bowl of buttercream and asking me to try again, which I happily did because I love pipping even though I am bad at it.

The day did felt a bit long though, like when I thought 4 hours had passed in my mind, only an hour had went by, but that's normal, all first days always feels very long. The first day of school, the first day of camp, the first day of enlistment,which was probably the worst one in my opinion because no matter how long the first day felt, it's not going to beat having to wait for 3 weeks to pass before I can go home again. The army was a good experience and I wouldn't trade it in for anything, but I wouldn't want to relive my BMT days, my days in the Airbase, I probably wouldn't mind reliving the last few months because those were the best months in my whole army experience.

The second day was a bit better in a sense that time did not feel as long and also the fact that I managed to get some shut eye the night before, went to bed at 8.30 pm to make up for the lost sleeping time, but there wasn't as much cake decorating as I would have liked. Made so much cake batter, it was crazy, the amount of cake batter they go through everyday, the only issue I have with the bakery would be the fact that they don't use an ice cream scoop to portion out their cake batters like most cupcake shop would, they actually fill it up in a plastic pipping bag and pipe them out and then when the bag is empty, they refill the bag again and repeat, it was really really messy for me, my hand was constantly covered in cake batter. Life would be so much easier if they had decided to just buy some ice cream scoops, I would probably work a lot faster that way as well and not have to work an hour overtime, which I have been doing the last two days.

Tomorrow will be my third day and I will probably have to work for 9 days straight before my next off day, guess that beats working at the design firm on the first 2 weeks without any break, doing something I have no interest in, surrounded by the worst group of colleagues I could have asked for in a company. That's what I am going to think of when I start feeling unhappy with or tired of the job, something I do in the army when I was assign to the airbase, just think of the worst case scenario I could've been stuck in but  lucky enough not to....so maybe I will also think of people who work in restaurants for an average of 12-16 hours daily, 6 days a week, that's something I definitely won't be able to do. I love baking but I am not that obsessed with it to the point that I can do it for 16 hours a day everyday and not develop a phobia.

Second Chances

I actually having nothing to blog about regarding my life so far, so I'm just gonna talk about the shows I have been watching this past few weeks that I've spend sitting in front of my computer, playing Warframe and awaiting a call from my boss to pass me my work schedule.




So I've pretty much been spending all my available time at home watching a few TV series and movies, and by available time I mean all the time I have that's not spend sleeping or playing games. First show I decided to download, which was a few weeks back, was a little gem called American Horror Story which I watched from Season 3 to 1.  I watched it backwards because the stories and characters for each season is different but the actors are the same so that's pretty cool.

Season 3

Season 2

Season One

In the order I watch them.



The show isn't as scary as how the posters makes it look, I've actually watched Season 1 before when it first came out and thought it was a bit too boring for me to handle because I'm impatient like that, usually when a show doesn't grab my attention within the first few minutes, I just stop the video and delete the file or just switch channels, like when I'm talking to someone and I'm not interested in what they are saying, my mind will just switch off, it has done that before but usually the person is too self absorbed to actually notice that I am no longer paying attention so everything works out fine in the end, it's bad if it happens during job interviews though, which it did before ... halfway through, I will just be staring at the person's moving mouth and really not be absorbing anything that person is saying at all, and then when I realize I am doing that, I will perk up again but usually it will become a struggle to be present mentally. I can only take a dry and boring company introduction for so long.




"We handle clients who want to redecorate their houses,  and we believe in making clients feel comfortable with us  and really it's all about making a connection with the client and the way they like to feel at home...."

*mouth moving* *mouth forming different shapes*


 Oh shit, what did she say in the beginning?  Pay attention brain!.


"......so we will head down to roadshows to pull in the clients by hook or by crook and take a look at the floor plans, then we will talk to the clients and talk about the style they want" 


*mouth moving* *notices mole on lip* *keeps staring at mole*.


"Ok so do you now understand why I am still single and the company is my only reprieve for my sad and lonely life ?".




I have a really short attention span so if anything sounds mildly boring to me, don't expect me to be able start a conversation. So anyway, American Horror Story was really good, I actually watched all 3 seasons within a week, I had to start from Season 3 though because that was about witches, which I was really interested in, and that got me hooked with Season 2 because I started to like the ensemble of actors and then it was Season 1. It was a very pleasant surprise.




Then I watched a few movies that were nominated during the Award Seasons. Movies I normally wouldn't watch unless I was in camp because anything you watch in camp is interesting, anything you eat in camp suddenly becomes delicious, the normal saltine crackers I eat at home when there's nothing else left to eat and I really have no other choice suddenly becomes the most delicious saltine crackers that has ever graced my tongue, the tongue that has been exposed to so much junk food lately it's horrifying, I want to stop but I am always so lazy to walk across the road to Subway and get the healthier option that I'd end up calling McDonald instead... and I have also stopped jogging, it's horrible, I'm literally becoming a waste of space at home.




One movie that I watched recently that was actually really good if you watched the entire movie was 12 Years A Slave....

Normally for a movie like 12 Years A Slave, I would go read the book first, but because I am at home, I don't read no books at home. Watched it once and got bored so I closed it, but after realizing that one of the actress from American Horror Story was acting in the movie, decided to give it a second chance, plus the first time I watched it, I did not get till the part Lupita Nyongo's character appeared.  It was a good film and how I know it's good is when after watching it, it leaves an impression. 

I watched Species yesterday and that movie did not leave any lasting impression, in fact after watching it, I felt like the movie was a bit of a waste of time, it was entertaining but you kinda wonder why that kind of movie even exist after watching something like 12 Years A Slave. Then again, I am the kind of idiot who would pay money for tickets to watch films like Species, although when my brother had free tickets to The Lion Men, I rejected his offer to watch it with him....as much as I enjoyed Ah Boys to Men, because I could sort of relate to it at that time, I usually don't care much about any Jack Neo's film. 

So I've been playing a lot of Warframe lately as well.

I've played it a bit before in the past as well and I didn't enjoy it at that time because the frame rate was horrible and I was getting a massive headache from all the jumping and running on the walls and acrobatic shit that was going on in the game when I decided to play the game at a setting much higher than my computer could handle.

Now I have learned to not overestimate my laptops processing power and decided to play it at a much lower setting, which increased the frame rate dramatically and also stopped with the motion sickness I was getting from the jerky frame rate. Spend so much money on this F2P game, that's what happens when I own a debit card, and I haven't even started work yet.

Last month, I was just getting my "income" from Red Packers from Chinese New Year, this month, hopefully the first half anyways, will be from my Birthday, really hope to be able to start work by next week.





My 24th birthday is coming soon and like all the birthdays I have in the past, it's gonna pass like another day in the calender. All I really need is a good yummy cake and money on my birthday,although sometimes I do feel like I am not capitalizing on my birthday enough.


Some people I know always throw huge parties when it's their birthday, valid excuse to spend a shit load of their parent's money, they get a suite at some fancy hotel, invite a shit load of friends over and then have a great time, which sounds really good and fun, but for me, it's like getting that amazing portable dryer you see people use on those television shopping network but then realizing it's really a piece of shit when you actually buy it and use it at home, if I were to throw a huge party, I will probably get a huge anxiety attack from the amount of people I have to entertain.



But let's not get ahead of ourselves, because in order to actually throw a huge party, one needs to have a lot of friend and I obviously don't have that many, a packet of Doritos, a 1.5L bottle of sprite and a monopoly board game is probably enough to keep all the guest full and entertained, until people start screaming at each other 1 hour into the board game and then I lose more friends.



The most ridiculous one I have seen that was not on Super Sweet 16 was of this girl who's like 15, throwing a huge ass party in a swanky 5 star hotel in Singapore, holds her party at the ball room and everything, it's like she is having a wedding for herself and herself. It was so over the top ridiculous, she's not even 16, she's fucking 15,that's not any special age significant whatsoever unless that's the age the mother gave birth to her, makes me wonder what they are going to do for her 16th birthday, probably be like the Oscars, where after the actual party, they will have an after party, and for her 21st birthday, they will treat her like a deity, everything she says happens, she wants hummus, she gets hummus, she wants a car, she gets a car, she wants everyone to bow down and worship her, people who know her bow down to her and worship her, everyone else who doesn't know her runs up to her and burns her before she lays eggs.

Accepted

So I've been on a roll lately with getting arranged for job interviews, the last one I got was when I was in a bus on my way to an interview.



That interview call up I got on the bus did not go so well though, the lady on the phone actually called me when I was on a relatively crowded bus, my definition of relatively crowded would be all the seats are taken up and there are like 10 people just standing around grabbing the poles and trying not to fall over when the bus jerks, and normally, I don't like talking on the phone when I am in a room of people, so having a pre-interview on a bus filled with strangers was helluva uncomfortable, I am really paranoid when I am on a phone in a crowded place, I always think people around me will eavesdrop on my conversation because I tend to do that to other people, sometimes I will even lower my music volume to listen if it's a couple or family fight on the phone, that being said, I don't do it all the time, sometimes it's not my fault, sometimes they just talk so loud I can't help but overhear it, although to actually understand what they are talking about would require me to actually get past the heavy accent of the PRCs.



The people on the bus are all seated relatively close to me, so they eavesdropping on the conversation wil happen whether they want to or not, and usually interviewers like to go "so tell me more about yourself" and I really don't need to share the story of my life with people whose face I probably won't remember when I get off the bus... luckily the interviewer did not ask me that question, but instead jumped straight into the job scope, which was not what I had applied for, and asked me about my expected salary , which I thought was already confirmed in the job listing because they stated on their listing that it was $2200 per month, which is a lot of money for an entry level baker... normally I would ask questions regarding the job scope, what I would do and wouldn't do and obviously the pay because that is the main reason why I even applied for a job, but because I was on a relatively crowded bus, I just agreed with whatever she was saying and also agreed with the interview timing she set for me at 10 am in the morning, which was a horrible timing because that would mean I have to take the bus during morning rush hour... and the whole issue with my body clock being all screwed up.





It was only after I got off the bus and into the train did I decide to send her a message telling her I had some things I wanted to clarify before actually going down for the interview, because from what she had described earlier to me about the job while I was in the bus, the position she's offering me kinda sucked. It's like working in the restaurant all over again, except this time I have to help out with the hot kitchen as well, so I gave her an estimated time I would call her and she agreed, really all I wanted to tell her was that I only wanted to stick in the pastry kitchen, ask about the $2200 monthly pay stated on the job listing and also the oppurtunity they are offering for inexperienced workers to go for diploma courses sponsored by them, I mean the latter 2 are really very enticing, and because I was busy texting her and waiting for her reply, I actually missed my stop and was late for the interview I was going to that day.





So I got off at my stop after taking the train back and went to look for the bakery/ shop /whatever it's supposed to be that I was about to get interviewed at. Walked around in circles at the shopping mall for a while because I was a bit lost and I have to say it wasn't really a good timing for an interview at that time as well because it was during lunch time and the shop was located on the same level as the myriad of eateries that were available to the class of working adults.




When I found the store, which was more like their central kitchen, a very disorganized looking one, the lady boss decides to lead me to another shop that did not belong to her to hold the interview. It was really uncomfortable for me because the store she brought me to was wide open and people were coming in and going out and there I was sharing my passion for baking with the lady boss... plus it was super noisy outside because it was lunchtime.  After I shared my story about how I found my love for baking, which really just boils down to me rambling non-stop about things I can't remember, she decides to ask me about my work experience, so I told her about my restaurant experience, which was a nightmare to work at, I didn't literally said it was a nightmare but she got my point,  and how I also have a professional certificate, but apparently those don't count for anything because when she asked me about my expected salary, and I gave her the figure of what the other bakery had offered me, which was already very low, she said everything about my resume looked good but the only issue was my pay because she felt that I didn't deserve a pay that high with my level of experience or in her words, "lack of any actual work experience".



$1400 per month is not high at all, that's like $7 per hour and I am applying for a full time position , the restaurant I was working at was paying me $7 per hour and that was only a part timer's pay, the central pastry kitchen was offering me $8 per hour for a part timer's pay as well. Anyways, after the interview, she just said it will take a week for her to get back to me and honestly at that point I really didn't want to work for her company anymore because from what I have seen when  I first entered the shop, it didn't look like a job one would take to further his career, it looked more like the kind of position a student would take during their holidays or a housewife would take when she wants to earn some extra cash.




So I left, hoping the other bakery will call me up and offer me a position because that bakery was telling me about how competitive they were in terms of offering hiring new employees and matching the salary of what other bakeries were offering their own employees , and lo and behold, an hour or so later the other bakery really did call me up and offer me the position with a $1400 monthly pay, which is pretty low although I did ask them for $1600 initially which I knew was way too high. Accepted it right away and cancelled my interview with the other ungodly hour bakery interview... that lady was nice when I turned down the interview, she wished me luck and everything, I mean I have cancelled interviews before and the people just don't respond like that shit Interior Design firm that wasted my time so many weeks ago... fuckers didn't even bother to apologize wasting my time.




I accepted the job on Friday, the boss told me she will get back to me with my schedule, it's already Monday and I still haven't gotten a call yet. It's like my "almost work" experience in the Lady M Central Kitchen. I tried their cakes a few days ago, it wasn't up to my standard, and it's not spite speaking, I just really don't like how their crepe cake had this intense smell of butter, like a stick of butter, which to me always smells like a pair of sweaty sock that has been left to dry in a cold dark place... I love using butter in baked goods but I have never liked the smell of a cold stick of butter and that's exactly what the crepe cake smelled like to me, and because of how it smelled, I couldn't enjoy eating it without feeling like I am eating layers of crepe smothered with softened unsalted butter. Personal preference I suppose.

Anyway, random video because I thought this was fucking hilarious.

Bakery Interview

One day after sending out my resumes for possible positions at different bakeries, I've managed to get responses from 2 bakeries to head down for an interview, one of which I went for yesterday.




It was actually located near the design firm where I used to work at, like a walking distance away but the design firm has moved to a new office the last time I checked their website, think it's located at some industrial area now.




So anyway, since I have went there multiple times before to get to work like half a year ago, that short three weeks that always made me feel a tinge of regret and bitterness, I thought I would know the place pretty well and be able to get to the bakery on time for my interview, I was wrong. Turns out the bus stop I was planning to get off at wasn't a bus stop the bus I was riding on was able to stop at, I had to back track half a kilometer yesterday to get to the bakery... according to Google Maps, it was 600 meters, it didn't feel very far but the afternoon Sun made the walk a real bitch.





 As I reached the bakery, I receive a text from the lady boss asking me if I was on the way because I was like 4 minutes late, she was really friendly and the bakery was a really small shop located at some really hidden area facing a basketball court or something, which I actually liked because I really don't enjoy too much human contact, but no bakery's interior is able to beat the one at Plain Vanilla Bakery in my humble opinion, really wish I could work there but they aren't hiring, I tried to apply when they were actually hiring but my qualifications weren't up to standard, they have really high standards.





When she started the interview, she decided to bring along the two co-founders , both of whom I assume are the main bakers of the bakery, into the interview as well, to sit in and I guess just listen and judge me silently like I do with everyone I meet in real life, be it the Aunty on the bus who is giving up the empty seat on her right to her handbag or the dumb sisters in the cinema who won't shut the fuck up when they thought that "Princess Fiona is SHREK!" after she transformed into an ogress for the first time on screen... and they kept shouting out loud that Fiona is Shrek.




Kids.... so innocent, so stupid, so fucking noisy. They must really feel like fools now.




Now I know how the clients feel when I was sitting in on a meeting with them and the senior designer during my 3 week stint at the design firm. The boss wanted the newbies to learn the ropes, so she made us sit in during client meetings with the senior designer where all we do as newbies is just listen, learn and not talk... at all, we are introduced to the clients as workers of  the companies but other than that, they don't really know who we are or why we are even there. Even I felt uncomfortable just sitting there and it's even more awkward when the senior designers have to leave to grab some material samples to show the client, that awkward few minutes when everyone tries to avoid any sort of eye contact until the senior designer comes back is gold... look anywhere but in each other's general direction, I like to look at my phone and pretend I am checking my busy schedules by scrolling through my empty calender.






I digress, so then, the lady boss of the bakery asked me the few common questions a boss of a bakery would ask a potential employee.... "why do you like baking" and "what is it about baking that you like", questions that I can answer because I actually have answers for them. During my interviews at the various interior design firms and furniture shops, I had to think a lot and make shit up as I went along because I really didn't have any answers to any of the questions they asked me that was interior design related,  I wish I could just stick my Diploma Certificate in their face and ask them to hire me because I am paper qualified-ish... but I couldn't, so I gave them very unconvincing answers. probably why I didn't hear back from a majority of them... by majority I mean all except one whose offer I later rejected because as it turns out, I didn't really want to be an interior designer and wasted the boss's time, 2 months of my own time job hunting and finally the save the best for last, 3 years of my life studying to get a diploma for it.




After the routine questions, she started asking me the "Strength and Weakness" question, which I hated so much because I always don't prepare for it and I know it's going to sound super cliche when I say "I think my strength is in my seek for perfection." , and then when they see me actually working, they will realize that my definition of being a "perfectionist" isn't their definition of being a "perfectionist"... and I will probably get scolded for messing things up, which will probably give me more stuff to blog about... so anyways I tried to avoid using the word perfectionist, but instead gave them an example of how I would work...

"When I bake at home and my bake goods don't come out the way I want them to, I will throw the whole lot away and keep doing new batches until it's up to my standard."

Now that I read that through, I probably made myself sound like someone who have no qualms about wasting ingredients, someone who might be incurring monetary losses to the company if hired. Crap, should have just said I have a very high standard for myself in the baking of cakes and the way they taste, that sounds so much better.



And then they asked me to describe myself, so I said I was a quiet and reserve person, an introvert who doesn't enjoy going out during his free time and won't get close to people easily... all that fun stuff that makes employers want to hire me straight away. When I said I was an introvert, I felt like one of those people online who feel the need to suddenly share an article about...



"10 Signs you are an introvert" or " 5 Things your Introvert Friends won't tell you"



... on their Facebook wall and then update their statues with things like...



"It's because I need to recharge my social energy, that's why I only go clubbing once a week instead of the usual 4 times a week with my girlfriends. Understand my predicament my friends and know my pain !"

or just put numbers like...

"6 & 10!" .... because they can relate to those 2 points so much.




I call bullshit on those people who share such articles online on Facebook or Twitter and claim that they are introverts, I think an introvert would just agree with the articles silently and then get on with the next thing on their list, which probably doesn't include clubbing.... ever in their lifetime, not share it on Facebook in hopes of people agreeing and liking their status.





Personally I don't think I am an introvert, I'm just a really shy person who also happens to be extremely lazy... but since I can't tell that to the lady boss, I had to portray myself as an introvert because I know I have screwed myself over when I tried to pass myself of as a perfectionist in a discreet manner.




The pay for the job was shit though. I was asked about my expected salary and gave them what I thought was a decent figure, which was $1500 - $1600 per month, for a 6 day work week schedule... full time position. Apparently that was too high and what they had in mind was in the range of $1300 per month. knew it was gonna be shit but just decided to try my luck.






Good thing though is the working hours aren't as long as I thought they would be... when I was working in the restaurant, a full timer's work time is on average 12 hours a day, granted they are being paid more but still 12 hours is really crazy hours, and it's a 6 day work week, the thought of ending work that night and knowing that you have to go through the same 12 hour cycle the next day and day after is just insanity, even the pastry shop central kitchen also follows the 12 hours a day, 6 days a week work cycle, that's like spending every almost every waking hour working in a kitchen... so when I heard that the bakery works operates on a 8 hour work cycle, I was really glad about it because that would mean when I get home, I might actually have time to go for a jog in the evening. .. which I have currently put on hold because I am procrastinating.





Have another interview tomorrow at another bakery. I don't really like the company's name though, sound like something a little girl would name her imaginary kingdom where she is the princess.... it just doesn't sound very professional when friends and relatives start asking me of the name of the bakery I am working at.... although right now, I don't really have much of a choice since I haven't gotten any good news from the bakery I went to yesterday regarding the interview... she said she will get back to me in a day or two if she decides to hire me, usually if they don't get back to me at their earliest possible date, I will assume they are no longer considering me... that being said though, the last Interior Design job interview I went for took a month to get back to me regarding my application... who knows? IKEA might call me tomorrow to ask me to head down for an Interview.

Rejected

I was offered a position as an In-House Designer 2 days ago. This was after 2 months of job hunting, sending out countless resumes and a few unsuccessful job interviews.





And I rejected the offer. which was probably not a very good idea, but the thought of having to do an Interior Designer's job for probably the next decade or life time isn't exactly what I was looking for. It's just so boring to me even though it's design related. The trial run I went for was so mind-numbingly boring I was secretly hoping I wouldn't be chosen for the position.




Interior Design was probably the most boring design related course I could have gone for, everything about it revolved around houses and furniture which I don't really give a fuck about and that lack of interest isn't going to make any designs I come up with interesting or engaging to anyone.... probably the reason why my results in school were bordering on mediocrity.




All that "spatial experience" learned and experimented in school projects isn't going to translate well in the real world where home owners want their house to feel like a home and not an exhibition space where their chairs and tables are all just sticks "emerging from the ground like how a sapling would before they become trees that would provide us with oxygen" coupled with an angled mirror hung on the ceiling as a tool for "reflecting the natural sunlight that aids the saplings in photosynthesis" to light up the whole room. No one is going to want that, what they want is IKEA and Home-Fix.




At the end of the day, Interior Design in the real world just isn't as interesting to me as it was in school, before I was looking for a Interior Design job, I was actually looking for position as a graphic designer, that didn't pan out so well since I was lacking both skills and qualification. Interior Design was just my fall back, one that isn't very comfortable to fall back on.