An unexpected day off
This is a rarity. Upon going into work today I'm told to take the day off by the owner, we have 2 new staff members on tryout and there's nothing in the book.
And for the first time in several months I have an extra - unexpected day off.
Too often it's an unexpected day of work, so often, in fact, that it's not even slightly unexpected, plans are not made for days off as too often they disappear.
The other 2 waiters are bitter, the Nephew and G, but it's "too bad so sad" and I merrily make myself an espresso while I wonder how to use this windfall day....
The new waiter, he spots a decanter with a red trace of the weekends excesses on the bottom. He's about 60, he's done it before, somehow I'm not too hopeful, but...
...he spots the decanter and he says - "Shall I clean this?".
Now, 50% of the people we hire would never spot that the decanter was dirty. OF the 50% remaining that spotted the dirty decanter, 25% would pretend to see nothing and so absolve themselves of the responsibility of cleaning it, of the remaining 25% maybe 90% would ask if it needed cleaning, 10% would just take it upon themselves to clean it.
I answer: "No, we prefer to keep it dirty".
He gives me a little look and says "You're being facetious...."
I like that he figured it out. And he could say facetious, we don't get too many waiters with any sort of vocabulary skills. Maybe we'll get along after all.
***
The day, it passes in a thousand little chores I otherwise wouldn't have found time to do. I get the new tires re-torqued, deposit a months worth of cheques in the bank (OUCH! I thought I had more than that....), I go to the thrift shop, take in some new watch finds to be repaired, eat a healthy breakfast, nap, meet an old friend for coffee (4 months since I last found time to meet him), eat dinner, nap again, and now it's time to sit up and return some emails, do some writing. A near perfect day off.
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- Category: Miscellany
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
A rare inside glance of the art found inside the Chauvet Cave in Southern France, by Werner Herzog.Now the film is interesting, the artwork and the cave fantastic - but what makes this film unique, better than, say, the same sort of polished documentary that might be done by the National Geographic Channel, are the idiosyncratic experts, the intrusion into the documentary by the questions and comments of Herzog himself, the bringing of a Master Perfumer to sniff the rocks around Chauvet in the quest for other undiscovered caves, the failed efforts of an archeologist to persuade viewers that the throwing of the Atlatl could bring down a deer or a bison ("they must have been better at it..." chastises Herzog as the dart lands not far from the camera...).
Amusing, and - if you're into that sort of thing - very, very good.
Other related links of interest: Wiki on Venus Figurines, Wiki on Cave Painting, Wiki on Paleolithic Art, Paleolithic Flutes.
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- Category: Film
Partying with Customers
Now as insane as the nights out with staff are (and they are - completely - entirely - predictably insane), there's another group of people the staff occasionally party with - that's the customers.
And these stories, they're completely fucked up.
Completely.
The girls - waitresses, have a few - dropping off drunken customers, popping in for a drink (and who, after all, isn't curious how the other half lives?) - mad groping with drunken older men, strange exhibitionists, ridiculously weird circumstances that they're loathe to confess but must make their working life a bit of a hell - the customers, the male ones anyways, generally transparent in their ludicrous expectations.
And there's the Nephew and G, who've probably created as many stories amongst the female clientele as the male customers did amongst the female staff.
There was a time, rumours, of a previous manageress who - for a small (or large) sum of money and the right amount of wine could be bribed into certain acts, but she's long gone. Still, you only need to get lucky once and you'll try and try again, and I'm not certain that our current employees are above the same sort of prostitution, their shock and awe more directed at the lack of material benefit than at the preceding invitations...
The boys, they've been out with the women, then there's the big night out with the male customers, a group of well-heeled regulars who take G and the Nephew along for a late night, talks of blow, the calling of prostitutes and the reputed dubious sexuality of the one customer who declined to partake, passing his along to another and contenting himself with watching in a housecoat....
I've never been on any of these excursions, late night safaris with customers, my rather aloof demeanor keeps me safe from any invitations and when they come I merely treat the customer as drunk and help them to call a cab. It's not worth giving any of them a ride home, I have to trust the second hand reports, they are - if anything - dumbed down for my consumption.
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- Category: Conversations
Sitka to Prince Rupert, Home
And that's the vacation. Rain the entire ferry ride, finally clearing an hour before Prince Rupert. Customs, and a few days drive home to Calgary.
We stop and look for Opals again, collect more, we drive to Edmonton and visit family, then to Calgary.
The trip - too rushed, the daughter too young, and perhaps - almost certainly, in fact, this was the trip I was to make on my own - she was good company - family, the family that you create, always is, but for me this was a reconnaissance for another trip that will see me prospect the great white north and find, if not treasure, at least some small peace of mind and spirituality that's been desperately missing from my day to day life.
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- Category: Miscellany
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