Week 2: Happy Monday!!

03 March 2014, Monday

It isn't exactly a happy, happy Monday. Well, I slept late last night so I didn't have a good rest to prepare myself for another week of battle. Haven't had weekends off since idk how many dinosaur years ago (since I joined F&B) because well, in F&B, there's no such thing as weekends!!

Weekends passed quite quickly (as usual) but it was still enough for me (at the moment :P). Spent my Saturday sleeping in till 2pm (which was damn shiok of course) and then dinner with my dear dear friend. We finished dinner at Xin Wang in less than 30mins, but the main focus of the night was when we had heart to heart talks with each other for the next 2 hours or so, which was when you unintentionally disclosed a secret that I would never have imagined my entire life.

Like I said, it was unintentional, but I still wanna thank him for telling it to me. The secret came as such a big shock to me that I broke down and cried. I felt cheated. I felt stupid. Stupid for believing people and friends that I trust. I felt like I lost hope in all my friends, but I definitely won't let that affect me. I just didn't expect things to progress this way when I didn't even do anything. I tried so hard to salvage everything with you, and till today I am still asking myself (and being asked by Emily), why did things between us get to this stage? I have no f*cking idea! I didn't do anything like I said. Well unless in my friend's pov/argument, the only wrong thing I did was to let my emotions heard.

And this night made me think a lot. I have secrets too; after all who doesn't? But I'm too afraid to be judged so I choose to let these secrets stay with me. Except for a few close friends who know my story. Kinda ironic and makes me ponder should I be frank about myself as well.

Anyway weekends are over already and its a whole new week of work! Today is the start of our orientation with all the other batch new employees and it sounds fun initially but read towards the end and you'll know how I feel.

It was basically a sit-in class the entire day with breaks in between. I went into office at 8.30am as usual after breakfast and decided to clear all my emails. I was expecting a lot because of the weekends + my manager Elisabeth is on leave. 15 new emails greeted me (which I guess is still a manageable amount) and while I was doing it halfway, Silvia called for daily morning meeting and it stressed em out quite a lot cos I finally spoke up today (as requested by Elis) and the response I got was.... Hooooly. So scary :/ Silvia is too serious every morning at work. I can't even.

And then soon it was 9am so Aswin and I headed for orientation, where they brought us on a hotel tour (again). Seriously, I have enough of the hotel already, but it was my first time entering Valley Wing and Valley Wing Deluxe Room. The others were nothing to me lol.

And Kevin from HR popped by and the moment he saw me he was like "you don't need to orientation do you?" Hahaha.

Together with us were three Koreans who are joining Rose Veranda, together with another malay girl, Rosi, who apparently worked at Banquet for 6 months and joined full-time through Mirko's recommendation. I impolitely asked about her salary and I was like, "damn, I should've taken Captain at Rose Veranda when Giovanni offered me." Sigh pie. Sales is not bad also lah. But if I had known that they pay so much, I would've chosen F&B for the sake of my bosses AND the pay. Now that I chose sales, my bosses are not happy. How?

Anyway training was so freaking dry that I wasn't even paying attention in class but using my iPad to play games like Flappy Bird and Tiny Towers. I scrolled Facebook, Twitter and Instagram until there were new updates already. Doesn't that go to show how bored I was in class?

During F&B department overview, I guess Mirko wasn't free to come so Joshua took his place (Giovanni is on leave). While explaining about the organizational chart he named Mirko as "Italian no. 1", Giovanni as "Italian no. 2" and Chef Nicola as "Italian no. 3". Yes we have some Italian mafias coming (as quoted by Joshua).

Joshua asked us to make a guess how many covers does The Line serve in a day, and following the end of his question was, "Justina cannot answer." Haha that's what he always says. Happened during F1 training too. And then when someone was asking about the smoking area in The Line, Joshua asked me, "Justina, how many tables in the smoking area?" I was like, "erm, 5 or 6?" To be honest I wasn't too sure either. Haha :P

And while he was happily describing his baby Banquet about how working there allows us to see so many prestigious people, he named me out again. "Justina, tell me which minister have you not served?" I was kinda stunned at the question, but replied him like, "almost all." Yes, the benefits of working in Shangri-la Hotel. I've seen the President more than a handful of times, and the ministers are just like our friends. The only thing I feel sad now is that idk whether the chances of us meeting these important people now that we are in Sales is still high as compared to working in Banquet. Oh how I miss F&B :(

And then Irene the hygienist came along for a talk as well, and she caught me unnoticed while I was on my game by saying, "Look at Justina. From a casual labour to a full-time, this goes to show how good Shangri-la is right?" Yeah bullshit, It isn't as good as it claims but I still love the company.

I left the talks at 5.30pm to head back to office to check on my emails, especially those that needs to be completed by today. I didn't manage to finish it by 6pm though, and I rushed to catch the 6.40pm shuttle cos I was meeting David, Junrong and Miaoqi at AMK Hub for dinner and movie!!

Time spent with good friends are always the best. Makes me feel energetic after a long day at work (sorry, orientation xD) and never ending laughter. See you guys soon!

Ps. My calendar for this week seems to be packed again :/ Meeting someone everyday for dinner after work.