Worked at Paddock Club from 26th to 28th September 2008. Worked in the Suite called "ForceIndia" -.- If you notice, their logo has F and I in bold, when put together, FI machiam F1... lol Oya, uber wordy post ahead.. Pics will be in as soon as HR email me the pics they promised me.. xD
Friday
On the bus to Jurong East, saw Yingying get on the bus but she din notice me so I texted her. Then we texted until she got off the bus.. It was her physics paper that day.. I wonder how she fared.. Went to Ritz to gather and so meet Alvin on the train, he got in at Dover and me, Jurong East la.. xD Stood all the way there and walked to Ritz. At the security post I see the longest queue at the security post I had ever seen.. Ownage, like 30 people waiting to go in, the security people had their hands full and we're standing outside frustrated... D:
Finally got in and got our uniforms from the ballroom, its a shirt. So we thought we had to tuck in and we look like school boys! omg... Its ridiculously hilarious! xD Saw the houseman Leilei wearing it tucked in too and laughed out loud literally man! xD But was told later to tuck out, so tuck out lo... But look abit like after school tuck out uniform for some of us...
We gathered at ballroom, where I saw many many TRM peeps.. Then Amos came in and slowly organised us into our respective groups.. I already knew my group had no TRM peeps prior to this, but still damn sad cox they all at 3rd floor except for some… We then walked all the way to Paddock Club, which is rather near to the Flyer.. The building is very long as it houses the pit stops too.. The suite I am working in is on the 2nd level.. The pantry, is really, damn small... =.= 1 and a half of our chill room de size only.. Have to be shared with 3 suites, culinary dept and stewarding dept... D:
The suite was like wow when we got in, but the other suites are much more elaborate in decor etc as the company we serving is a new company.. The Honda suite beside us, for example, has a race simulator machine, which is machiam arcade i think... Then the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes suite is like WOW! Totally posh..
Anyways, cleared some stuffs in our suite like the buffet line and polished the utensils, which are brand new. So fingerprints are VERY visible.. It is from this company wmf, and Alvin and I were talking about him working at wmf prior to F1.. Such a coincidence! xD
We then had briefing by our manager Anand. He briefed us on what we had to do and allocate our jobs ecetera.. Some of our staff then went for lunch while we continue clearing up.. Then, because the arrival tea starts at 1430hrs, the 4 of us who were the 2nd batch to eat ate in the pantry at around 1400hrs, standing up.. After that, we stand-by at our tables and walked around and talked abit and listened to those techno indian and english music and waited for guests to come in.. Our 1st ray of hope AKA guest came in, and went out 5 secs later.... Cox he was looking for his wife... D:
This is one of the most memorable [in a bad way] de music I listened there. They played it from an iPod docked and I have no idea how many songs they had, but they kept repeating after some time, one English song I remember is called Serious.
Tea ended at 4pm and there was no guests! xD We must be the one and only suite w/o any guests for any of the meal slots! xD We then cleared the buffet line and prepared for dinner.. Dinner at Paddock Club ain't total buffet, it is actually half buffet. Cox the appetiser and dessert are plated and served to the guests while the main course are on the buffet... The food were tempting as always, well my stomach is always hungry…
Dinner was alright, the climax was only 20 guests, which is 20% capacity, our suite has 100 seats.. The tray with a very noobish traymat from sgp is not good quality luh.. Was holding a glass of the welcome cocktail - cranberry mixed with vodka - on the tray and waiting for my glass of red wine when the glass tipped and fell on me.. D: Heng it was on me, if not I gone.. half of my white shirt is pink... Was ordered to stay at the back area.. Then there were some extra shirts brought from RC cox the other suite had a spillage too.. So changed and continue service.. But after that din dare to take the tray with that kind of traymats... Used bare hands to serve guests, cox our suite small enough to allow this.. xD
The practice session of the F1 is quite nice, but the noise gets annoying after awhile.. Luckily Paddocl Club quite soundproof, the glass blocked quite some volume of the F1 cars zooming by... Then I was told to be ice-cream boy - to carry a tray of ice cream around and offer it to guests.. One girl "attack" the guests by giving them cold towel upon arrival.. Then another to attack with wine and water… We had to do this cox they pay 7.5k per pax for 3 days.. The kids too… D:
But all in all, we were very efficient! :D
Our dinner was downstairs at some tentage canteen, and we found out that there were 3 hotels serving there, Ritz Carlton, Hilton, and Marriot. Marriot gave the lowest pay: $6. RC de normal pay already $6.50 lo… RC and Hilton gave the same amts: $10.50.
The practice race was quite nice, but according to some info from Anand, the ForceIndia had never completed a race before, so if they do complete a race, champagne would be popping.. D: Ok, it is good for them but not for us.. xD
We’re like very eager to serve, too eager I would say. One staff finish serving towel, another one serve water/sparkling water. Then another one serve the welcome drink. Another would ask for wine/champagne. The guest kena own, our manager facepalm. He later told us to be proactive is good, but there is this thing called too much of a good thing.. xD As there are LCD tvs everywhere around the room, one at the buffet line de top also.. I was walking and smashed my head with the side of the LCD tv twice… =.=” The service ambassador we got was not very proactive, she was at best talking to a guest for I don’t know how long and that was when she was most useful… D:
Supper went by and we cleared up and did lots of unique stunts [in reference to GTA] and thou shalt not know.. xD Actually it is my 1st time having Haagen Dazs ice cream and I devoured all 4 flavours available there.. xD Then was all the food lo…
Helped the other suites to clear up and we went back to hotel to change etc, and waited for the bus… Then HR ppl say we have to walk all the way to Suntec Convention Centre to wait for bus, thanks to last minute changes to road closure from the Government. The bus driver damn stupid, damn 不自量力, go take people from marina bay westwards to Boon Lay, and also people from Bukit Batok, Bukit Panjang, Marsiling and Woodlands… Somemore, he doesn’t know his way around Singapore, most of the homes he drove us to had to have to person to direct… Theres like 20+ peeps to send home, I reached home at 3.30am, slept at 4am.. Those people from Woodlands, I asked the next day, reached home at 6am, and they start work at 10am for some.. Sad…
Saturday
Started work at 10am, changed and rotted in the ballroom until we were led to Paddock Club.. Reached and briefing and started to clean up and make the buffet line perfect. This time, the guests arrived super early, like at 2pm, even though the buffet line opens at 2.30pm.. Our service ambassador changed to a guy, who was MORE slack than the woman, he just stand around look look, walk walk, and tell us what not to do when we do something wrong ACCIDENTALLY… I thought nobody was collecting the used towels from the guests and took out the tray only to see another girl got it already, when I was about to put back, he said “We don’t need 2 trays to collect the wet towels.” I replied “I know” And just put back the tray.. He just did nothing lo.. At least I was trying to help… I heard that other suites de ambassadors helped out to clear stuffs etc…
Anyways, there were much more guests today, but with our almost perfect coordination, the guests were very happy with our service, as there were feedback from guests to our higher ups that we provided excellent service, which I’m sure makes all of us happy, even though no one showed that on their faces.. xD
Dinner had some famous model from India and also a famous Indian actor, which of course we didn’t know until Anand told us.. Anand ar, want to serve the model luh.. xD Saw some of the guests taking pic of the model lol.. We were the only room with no spillage that night too! Work was getting more fun than stress from the 2nd day.. The qualifying rounds that night also had us glued to the screens and watch….. the Force India driver went to ram the fencing on like the 1st or 2nd lap.. D:
We of course did provide excellent service while watching the race la! Haha, we’re multi taskers! Anyway, theres this Chinese guy who was with his son, he has a damn pro DSLR camera, kept taking pics.. Then after awhile, saw the guy whip out a camera for his son, who is like at most 4 years old, and the camera is just one notch lower than the one I’m sharing with Gary! D: It is a Lumix camera, but with 12x zoom, ours is 18x.. Damn sad… The kid take pics like some pro too, must have learnt it from his father.. But haha, got to use some compact cameras to help the guests take pics.. Got this guest, dunno how to on flash in own camera.. *facepalm* I on the flash and took a pic for his friends and him..
Unique stunts galore! Lol We had lots of food and I had the welcome drink! 4 mouthfuls was shiok enough.. xD
Cleared and refreshed the whole room, then went back ritz and walked to Suntec to take bus.. This time, it is not at convention centre, instead, it is some ulu place where the back has a big MANGO indicating that’s where the store is located I guess…
Jurong East Estate does not classify Teban as under it, it doesn’t even cover West Coast, which is where Alvin stays.. But that is the piece of paper we wrote on cox theres no nearer places! D< We then rotted till we got into some bus which got us to many places like Balestier, Little India, and then I fell asleep, then West Coast, and finally Teban..
Sunday
Reached home at 4.30am, slept at 5am.. Only to wake up at 8.37am for my work which start at 9am.. D: Set 5 alarms and I miraculously go off all 5.. Tiredness killing me.. Reach Ritz at like 10am and then repeated the loop which is to wait for a leader to bring us to Paddock Club.. Saw the flyer peeps like finally, cox our working times were mostly not the same.. So saw many TRM peeps.. xD Reached and Perfected our buffet line and then was getting abit too drowsy for work. Then took a cold towel and wiped my face, immediate effect sio, mind woke up and continue work as if I had a good night’s rest.. xD
Afternoon tea was alright as there wasn’t that many guests, maybe due to the crash of their cars and they start at 19th and 20th in the start line.. We served some guests, and there were 3 races prior to F1 race. There was the Aston Martin race, which if I’m not wrong, one Singaporean driver got third as I saw the flag raise up above the podium.. Next is the Formula BMW race, and then a Porsche race..
There was almost full house for dinner today, was very busy and the guests seem tired and didn’t drink a lot of wine and ate a lot of ice cream.. Luckily when the actual F1 race started, all went to the balcony there to watch and we got some respite.. We saw from the TV the cars starting, then peeped out of the glass to see them zooming past us.. Damn nice! Fisichella was 3rd at one point of the race, which made the guests nervous as in whether they could get a chance in the podium. Nervous for us cox if it does, we'll have our hands full of champagne.. But the pit stop brought him down, it took 15.1 secs for everything to complete for them... There is also this incident involving the Ferrari's Massa and his runaway fuel pipe.. Then some crashes here and there.. Those are the real drama of the race man! xD
Service abit messy maybe due to unprecedented number of people appearing according to Anand… But we still made it, and hope we get some guest appraisal ba.. haha, yea I hope..
Today used GTASA to do ultimate impossible unique stunts.. xD Tried Red, White and Kingfisher and had lots of food. :D
The HR peeps came, armed with digital cameras, they wanted to take pics of some of us. But I requested that they take a pic of our group shot, which they did! xD Shall get the pics from them next time I work! xD
Pic which Xinkai help us take of some of us. [l-r] Yongfa, Jolene, LianYin, Yanmei, Yanbin and me. Anand, our manager is standing. xD
Our Force India suite was cleared after awhile, then went to other suite to clear up, very very messy lo over the other sides, so disorganized… Maybe its because of the staff or what but yea, not my suite I don’t know what’s the situation so shall not say anymore… Then was gathering at one of the suites, the guy we kena ar, slacker. Tell us wad to do and go disappear.. Some of the old birds were drinking Old Ginger Ale lo.. One of them, a guy, was totally flushed.. Crazy..
One of the suites has SGP paper bags on the sofa. Inside one of the bag had a triangle number tag supposed to be put on tables, inside is a bottle of vodka. We all were”WTF, STEAL?!” Below it is an unopened box with a bottle of JOHNNY WALKER BLACK LABEL! WTFWTFWTF.. I wonder what happened to it.. But our plan was to dispose of it by giving it to the bartender or just show it to manager, but then was called to do other stuffs so didn’t know what happened to it.. Poured those unwanted but still can be used milk, all 84 litres or 7 boxes of them, into the sink.. Cox higher ups lazy to carry back so waste lo… D: If the milk from China I understand.. But not wad… Then this manager go and ask to gather everybody. He in a foul mood, so his words made our mood fouler… D: He just can’t wait.. And he act cheem, and for those who doesn’t know what LPD means [I think you all know la] it means Local Police Department.. After all was gathered, was getting the cloths back to Ritz and walked all the way back as usual..
Changed, went to get vouchers and cert, yes we get a cert for our services for these 3 days.. The bus wait was alright, as usual, Teban not under Jurong East, so we waited for some time and then got into this bus where all our homes were ulu ulu kind one, nobody heard of those roads kind one.. xD Reached home last at 4.38am and slept at around 5.15am Woke up at 1pm…
Strange, how come I didn't take as many pics as Edison did? D: Peeps go his blog to see the pics he took, some are quite nice! xD
Worked from 0830-0200, then reached home at 0330, slept at 0400, woke at 0750 and start work at 1000-0200 then reached home at 0430, slept at 0500, woke at 0837 and start work at 1000-0300 and reached home at 0438.. Wow.. So dead.. But earned around $543 during these 3 days… :D + those $ I earned last Wednesday and the 40+ bucks I’m gonna earn tomorrow, I’m gonna get at least $600+ in my bank acc this Saturday! Yay!
Then next mon-wed is TRM camp, then fri our OG gonna be staying at Sentosa de hotel suite for one night! xD
This is the most exciting, wonderful, fantastic, [insert adjective that describe good stuffs] and memorable work time I ever had. Good work-rest balance too.. xD
Many Thanks to: Anand, Yew Boon, Yongfa, Xinkai, Mingyu, the coffee boy [sorry I forgot your name D:], Yanmei, Yanbin, Jolene, Lay Sing, Lian Yin, Elda, Puvana, Tammi and Cherie.
And the times we had together working, [not forgetting the zoom of F1 cars which will stay for some time] will be forever etched in my memory! xDDD
ForceIndia [staff] RULES! xD
