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Published: August 5th 2007
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The Steamer Wharf...
This is the complex where Luciano's is located, right down by the water in Queenstown Harbor. Yeah, so this post was supposed to go up this past Sunday, but due to sickness and extreme exhaustion (You'll get the details in a minute...), it was put on hold until today. Sorry. I promise to be more dilligent with postings in the future... 😊 Its kind of sad that the original post also begins with an apology for not posting sooner... Im sensing a trend that needs to be bucked...
Sunday, July 22nd, 2007
Ok, I apologize for not posting any updates in the past week, but before you get all up in my grill, allow me to explain... So, I noted in my last post that I had been working at Luciano's Restaurant down on The Wharf while waiting to start at the Sofitel-Queenstown this past Wednesday... I worked at Luciano's Fri-Tues nights, just trying to build up some good will with Clarissa and the rest of the staff should the Sofitel thing not work out (More on THAT in a minute...). Luciano's was great- awesome people, friendly atmosphere, good hours (I was working 7-930 most nights there...), amazing food- a pretty sweet deal, but still not enough hours to get by with having that be
The Steamer Wharf...
Another view- here you can see the docks to the left and the TSS Earnslaw steamer pulled up alongside. Luciano's is through the glass doors in the center of the complex... my sole source of income. Enter the Sofitel... After helping out at Luciano’s Fri-Tues, I then worked Wed-Sat nights at the Sofitel, so all in, I have been working the past 8 days IN A ROW!!! Who would’ve thought that I would move halfway around the world- on a “Working HOLIDAY”, no less- only to find myself working MORE here than I was when living in the US?!?! Unbelievable… Now, comparatively speaking, I would hardly call my brief appearances at Luciano's "working", considering the shifts at the Sofitel ran from 3pm to between 1230 and 130am every night… Ridiculous!! All in, I think I worked something like 37 hours in 4 days at the Sofitel?? I don’t really remember, actually- its all a blur to me at this point… Honestly, I feel like I’ve been gypped out of the past 4 days of my life, and have nothing but a nagging crick in my back, a stress fracture in my left foot, a sore throat, and a TOTALLY screwed up sleep schedule to show for it.. Good times, all around! Anyway, here’s how the latter part of my week went- I got in at 3pm on Wednesday, kind of knowing
what to expect since Cory had worked the previous 2 days, but still not fully aware of what I was getting myself into. Its weird- even as I sit here now and try to recall the sequence of events of the past 4 days, I can’t really remember how everything went. That’s what working 10-hour shifts 4 days in a row will do to you, I guess… Anyway, the job is basically this- setting up the in-house restaurant (VIE) for dinner; waiting on guests in the restaurant during dinner hours (6-10p); delivering room service orders to guests in the hotel throughout the evening; helping out with the lobby bar (Nue Lounge) when its busy; and then, after all of the dinner service wraps up for the night, breaking down the restaurant and re-setting it for breakfast the next day. I’ve also had to clean up and re-set the conference room a few times since they’ve been doing some internal training seminars the past several days. All in all, nothing too difficult or stressful. The problem is that there are only 3 people staffed to do all of this, and that’s where the long shifts come in. They are ridiculously understaffed,
Luciano's Menu...
All restaurants in town post their menus outside for people to check out- not sure if its required or not? Take a close look at some of the pictures in the collage- they were the inspiration for some of the artwork inside the restaurant. but refuse hire on more people to share the workload. A little background on the situation: When we were interviewing for the jobs, we got to meet the hotel’s General Manager, and he told us that the Food and Beverage Dept. is grossly under budget. They are trying to come up with new ways to get people to come through the restaurant, but so far, nothing has increased interest significantly. An example- we only had 2 tables come through ALL NIGHT on Wednesday- not what you want to see from what is supposed to be a money-maker for the hotel. Anyway, due to the fact that they are not hitting their numbers, they can’t afford to hire on more F/B workers, and the service suffers because there are so few people to do all of the work. Its kind of a Catch-22- They are under budget, and therefore can’t afford to hire more workers, but the reason they are under budget is because the service is poor due to the lack of manpower. There’s probably 8 F/B workers, including Cory and I, and from what we’ve seen and heard over the first few days, everyone else is working 6 days
The Fireplace...
Fairly small, but oddly one of the larger selling points of the restaurant- everyone always wants to eat by the fire. Probably because it has been so freaking cold! a week, probably getting in between 60 and 80 hours over that span. Needless to say, not an ideal situation. The other thing is that while you do get to interact with the people in the restaurant, they are all guests of the hotel, and not people that are going to be around town for very long. Its not like working at a cafĂ© or a local restaurant where you get to meet and make friends with people that live and work here. Besides, all anyone wants to do after working a 10+ hour shift is go home and go to bed. No one wants to hang out and go get a beer at 2am. I guess what I mean is that I envisioned our jobs as being a means to expand our social circle, a way to meet more people and make friends while living here in Queenstown, and working at the Sofitel isn’t very promising in that regard. There are a couple of cool people that we work with- Federico, who is from Argentina, and Simon, who is from Montreal- but again, when you’re working 40 hours in 4 days, it doesn’t leave a lot of time for
The Bar at Luciano's
This is where I spend most of my time- polishing glasses, helping get drinks ready, chatting with customers and co-workers, etc. socializing. Federico is hilarious, by the way. A little side note, preceded by a disclaimer… I don’t like Borat- I didn’t like the movie, and think the TV show is pretty lame. Anyway, Federico is always doing his Borat impersonation, which is pretty funny to begin with (Imagine Borat with a Spanish accent&hellip😉, but the funniest part is that he has never seen the movie, has never seen the TV show, doesn’t even know who Borat is, but yet he talks like him all the time. I thought this was hysterical when he first told me… “All my friends talk like this and they think its funny, so that’s why I do it,” he said, followed by a classic “I liiiike… Its goooood…”. He had me on the verge of tears the other night. Granted, it was 1230 am, we had both been working since 3 without any breaks, and were probably pretty slap-happy at that point, but still- he was going on and on in his Borat voice, having no idea where it comes from to begin with, and I could hardly catch my breath I was laughing so hard. Hey, you’ve got to break the monotony somehow, right?
The Bar Area...
Typically this area is reserved for people just having drinks and/or waiting for their tables, but if its really busy, they can eat down here as well. Thank God for laughter- I don’t know what I would’ve done without it over the past several days… Anyway, needless to say, I’m not sold on the whole Sofitel idea. Ill give it another week and see how it goes, but I’m already thinking of other possibilities that might be more along the lines of what I had envisioned originally. At least its good money… I paid my rent off in under two days at work!!! The rest goes straight into the Adventure Fund… We might make it to Australia after all!!
Just so you all can have a mental picture of where I’ve been spending the past several days of my life, here are a few pics of both Luciano’s and VIE. They’re both pretty nice, but very different working environments…
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Kathy Hoots
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Working Vacation
Hi Nick.....Don't forget to play sometime.....You make me laugh :) I can tell you are really enjoying the people and having fun! How's the mutton? Take care of your wing man Cory.... Cory says Fiji for your birthday! Not a bad birthday present. Can't wait to see you guys and give you big hugs. Kathy