Shame on you

Seriously, can we please stop all these maid abusing? It is getting out of hand for too long. Every two days, someone is exposed in the newspaper for severe physical violence and psychological ill treatment towards their domestic helpers. For whatever reason, there is no excuse and no one has the right to ill treat anyone, not even when the recipient is a housemaid.

“She is so stupid, she is so slow.” The commonest excuse.

That is so lame. If these cleaners are any cleverer or faster, they would have chosen another job. We must first understand where they come from and accept their capability.

“They don’t even have the basic common sense.”

True but their job requires them to use physical strength, to do repetitive errands and other things that we are not able nor willing to do. They are not paid for their intelligence or so called common sense (which is subjective at times).

Nefarious acts includes hitting them in the head, burning their body with an electric iron, forcing them to eat feces, deprive them of food etc. Is it true that everyone has a hidden dark side? More appalling is the revelation of the people who commit such crimes. There are teachers, CEO, police staff sergeant and the more recently exposed vice president of sales dept in mediacorps. Most of them are highly educated people. Unfortunately their academic achievements have little to do with their civilized level.

Shame on you.

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For every 2 nice girls, there is always a bitch. Out of my 3 female colleagues, one of them is bossy, selfish and petty.


Apply this formula to another category, it works too.

For every 2 nice polite dining guests, there is always a demanding hell cat.

“I want a pizza with MORE meat. I mean more more, not just a few thin slices of salame.” She squeaked.
Anyone who wishes to have more meat would have ordered a beef steak instead. Perhaps she does not know that pizza was invented by the poor, using left over available in the kitchen; flour, some tomatoes sauces, water. Whatever additional ingredients found (like bits and pieces of salame, olive) was added to make a variety. So in a pizza, there will never be “more meat” because it was originally a poor man’s food.

Another guest complained: “I don’t like it. Next time ask your chef to make thinner spaghetti. They are so thick, I have difficulty swallowing it.” Maybe she needs to know that there are numerous kind of pasta. Spaghetti comes in various sizes. If she is not so ignorant, she could have ordered thinner pasta forms like vermicelli, linguine, bucatini, spaghetti no 5, no 7, tagliatelle, fusilli, farfalle etc. The next time before one starts to complain, it is better to get some basic knowledge of things. Otherwise apart from being a bitch, one risks to be imbecilic too.


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Precious laughter

“Do you watch the local tv drama series every night?” My friend asked me.

“No”, I replied, “I do not want to go into depression.”

What the script writer can come out one after another, year after year are all tragedies, celebrating every mishap and hardship under the sun. A little bad fortune is being transformed into a catastrophe. What is so interesting about that? Does the audience really licking up all this?

Every time I switch on the tv, there are some actress in tears, screaming or dying. Is this reflecting real life? Does all drama shows have to be like this? Does this mean good acting?

Such programs are so unnecessary. On the contrary a little laughter is appreciated but it is so difficult to write humor into the script. There are just so few examples in our daily life to draw examples from. Because happiness is rare, that is why we need it so much in tv. Life is not just tears, there are laughter too.

 
 
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Hands up !

This high class restaurant apparently embraces all the right elements towards hygiene:

Industrial high temperature dish washer? Checked.
Drying utensils with cloths? Checked.
Chefs wearing gloves when handling food? Checked.
Bartenders using pincers? Checked.
Disinfect dinning table after every use? Checked.

Waiter with clean hands?
Hello, waiter with clean hands?

Well, After 8 days of observation, I have not seen anyone cleaning their hands after collecting dirty oily plates. The same pair of hands also brings freshly prepared food onto the table for the next guest. The same pair of hands then picks up a towel to wipe the table and sanitize it with a strong, poisonous chemical liquid.

If you demolish with the same hands that you build, then why bother with building in the first place? Maybe the building is just for exposition.


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Fine Dining

Now that I am working inside, I am about to dissect the whole myth of a high/fine dining restaurant…step by step. Beyond the breathtaking deco, is a world quite different from the diners and layman like us.

Firstly, of course is the organization. Everyone has a role to play and the hierarchy is as complicated as a spider web. The kitchen staff has its own, the service staff has theirs. The one that I am working for has 15 in the kitchen and 12 on the service side. All working hard for 108 guests (if the restaurant is full, which it is usually not).


It is nice to be pampered by all these people. But of course, the cost of this huge labor force eventually goes back to your bill. That is why a bottle of mineral water costs $9.00 while normally you get it in the supermarket for $1.50.


That is why they call it fine dining. Besides dinner, you also get a hefty fine.



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