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Well it's been a while since I wrote on this here blog and there is good reason for that.. because I haven't done very much!!!
Well that's not 100% true, but near enough.
I went to the 'Balck Pearl' to try and meet Robb the guy I have the contact with, but he wasn't working that night, but I was still able to speak with the Manager of the bar called Natasha. She was cool enough and spoke with me about maybe getting me behind the bar once or twice a week and that she'd have a chat with Robb and see what he thought?! She said she'd be in touch the following week.
A bar called 'Trust' gave me a call on Tuesday (9th) morning and asked me to come in for an interview on Thursday.
Just so you know when I'm not job hunting I'm pretty much doing nothing! It's so different to what I'm used to, like in Sydney or up the coast if you sit doing nothing in the house or hostel or where-ever you are you feel really guilty that you should be doing something or seeing something, but here you don't really get that feeling, because there isn't really anything to do??! So it can get pretty depressing sitting in the house when it's cold outside and you have no money to do anything!!!! One thing that I have had to do is buy a coat, yes a coat... when you're all shedding yours I'm in Australia trying to buy one, crazy!!!
So Tuesday morning came; excited and pumped for a passionate chat about bartending and cocktail making I arrive at 'Trust' to speak to David who created over 3/4 of the cocktail menu, a good talking point me thinks after doing the list at Pitcher&Piano. 10 minutes early I was forced to wait while he was speaking to someone else. Then at 11:00 he came over with my CV in his hand, read through it and then said "ok cool, I'll give you a ring"...
"erm ok?!" I thought..
11:04 and I found myself walking down the road furious and fully dis-heartened... I'm not too sure what happened but it certainly didn't go as I had planned??!
I got back to the flat fully 'pissed off' (sorry Mum). I was determined not to let this get me too down so, as I mentioned in my last blog I was yet call-back the other bars I had handed my CV to last week and on Monday. After some lunch and enthusiastic thoughts I sat myself in the 'Observatory' the dining area of our studio at about 5pm to make some calls. I phoned a number of different places some of which I had been to, some of which I hadn't been to. One place I called, 'Bambu', a very cool looking place (it is one of the places on my playing cards), and spoke to a guy called Joe who was very cool and asked me to come and do a trial shift on Saturday night, no worries!
I then called a place I had found on the internet called Bluestone and he then asked me to come in for a chat on Monday morning at 11am. I also phoned a place called 'Canary Club' a cool place I dropped my CV off to and they said to give another bar a call and speak to Tony at 'Hairy Canary' they will probably be interested.
I then phoned 'Black Pearl' and finally, after 3 previous attempts throughout the week, spoke to Robb and he said to pop in for a chat on Monday after 6pm. Haha... "screw you Trust bar!!!!" was the number one thought running through my head.
Saturday comes... yes that's right we didn't do anything in that time.. oh I lie I bought a coat, great!
I arrive at 'Bambu' at at 8:45 to start at 9pm and met Joe. The bar was awesome, a basement bar with low-key lighting and tea-light candles on every table. The bar was at the far end which was only big enough for 3 to work comfortably. Joe was very friendly and gave me the lowdown on how the place runs etc. But it wasn't really that busy so there wasn't much to do. I worked there for about 3 hours making some cocktails and chatting with Joe and the other staff Nick and Drew, both pretty cool. Sadly the bar is only open Thursday, Friday and Saturday and Joe could only offer me one or two shifts a week maximum, so that wouldn't really earn the desired amount per week. He said that he knew loads of other bar managers so would do some phoning around next week to see if anywhere else needed a barman. Was a really cool place to work, all free-pouring and cocktail based, nice. www.bar-secrets.com (check out Melbourne).
Monday came after another couple of exciting days?! and I went to 'Bluestone' not listed on bar secrets so I had no idea what I was going to walk into? As it was.. It was pretty terrible. The bar was at the far end, there was no atmosphere, the furniture looked as it had been bought bulk at a car boot sale and the old club sofas didn't looked un-inviting. The bar itself was made our of cheap looking plain solid sqaure wood, had a lack of back-bar and the big shining Stella badge behind was slightly depressing to see, ah well, work is work = money!
I sat down with the manager and chatted to him for a while, he seemed keen and confindent in my abilities but wanted me to maybe work in the restaurant as well and do a lot of food service downstairs, no problem I thought. So he organised for me to do a trial shift on Wednesday at 11am for the day shift.
That night I went to 'Black Pearl' and spoke to Robb, he was a really sound guy and discussed the art of cocktail making for a while. He seemed pretty keen to get me in for a trial, but again could only offer one or two shifts a week, but it would be worth it because the bar is awesome and I'd learn a lot working there. He said he'd be in touch in the next couple of weeks.
I really am getting bored stuck in the house each day with no-where to go, nothing to see, nothing to do accpet rubbish Australian day-time TV.. it's even worse than back home! To say I'm missing the good weather, the beaches and the fun and frolics of the East Coast would be a masssive under-statement.
Finding work is kind of going ok, but it's the waiting for calls or trial shifts where I have nothing to do that really sucks!
Anyway Wednesday comes and I go for my trial shift at 'Bluestone' to work the lunchtime shift. I thought it would be similar service to Pitcher&Piano day shift, but saying that I have just very much insulted P&P because the place really sucked and the service was very strange?! They told me not to use a tray to take drinks over.. classy! The bar was terrible using plastic tubs for lemons and limes... I could go on but I'm not going to!
In the end after taking out the napkin rolled cutlery and stone baked pizza's all day, trying to stick to my tables, but having the 'I know it all girl' running the floor as if she didn't want me to have go, doing pretty much everything, ("thanks for that!") my shift came to an end.
The manager spoke to me out the back to see how I got on and said
"it would take a lot of training to get me upstairs to the resaurant"...
"that's wierd, being a bartender??" I thought to myself,
he then said that he had "no worries about me on the bar but certain things weren't done how he would have preffered on the floor"...
"mmmm" I thought.
"I don't remember anyone telling me how to do the floor service and that girl didn't actually let me serve anyone!" I mused.
"we'll give you a call as we have a few other people trialing" he informed me.
Another great day! I can't even get a job in the shabby-est of establishments! ..somethings wrong here?!
So again not to be dis-heartened too much I called Joe to see if he had anything for me? he made some calls and said a place called 'Candy Bar' seemed pretty interested, so he will be in touch soon. He then asked me if I wanted to work on Friday night, yes please! He said he would put in a good word to anyone else he spoke to about me being a good bartender.
So here I am now after a good rant about how much I hate trying to get a job (can P&P start a Melbourne branch??)
I worked last night (Sat, night) at 'Bambu' was pretty cool and a manager of another bar was interested in poching me for a possible 40hrs a week at a place called 'Trader Bar'. I went to have a look and it also was very cool, similar to 'Bambu'. He offered me a very strange first shift working on the door on Thursday night doing a guest list for a 21st birthday party...Well it's money I suppose! He would then chat about bar work.
I'm now off for lunch and then I'm going to Candy bar to see what that place is like and to drop off another CV.
Well that blog was certainly a lot bigger than I thought it would be, but I feel better for it, grrr!
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BIG Col...
non-member comment
Come on
Come on mate, keep the faith. You'll get something in the end. Pains me to hear your not really enjoying yourself. You'll find something. We've had a lot of interest in the bar of late, i was wondering if your mate from love train might be interested too? We have a meeting with the Marriott Hotel group on wednseday. Fingers crossed!!! What else... Oh 2 of our projects went live yesterday... http://www.showcase.ehsbrann.com/broom/pop3.html http://www.hse.gov.uk/falls/index.htm Hope you like? Well, that's about it. Not a great deal to report, Abersoch was amazing, can't believe it was a week ago! Still have a hang over, messy! Ben says hes gonna drop you a line about st.Kilda, says he LOVED it. Mate, i hope you're alright? Don't panic too much, if needs be working in a few diff bars might not be too bad? Love you mate, keep chirpy. Col