The Place is Upside-Down!

Literally.

What's with the concept of "Warmer weather = everyone comes out to eat"? The restaurant is being turned upside-down almost everyday, and I haven't had a break for the entire week already.

Yesterday (Tue 2/11) was Melbourne Cup Day, and is a public holiday for all Victorians. However, I still got to work (with no double pay! dammit!). I am usually off on Tuesdays, but a colleague said she can't work so I swapped shifts with her. I was in charge of upstairs and the entire place was a wreck. There were so many customers upstairs and I felt so tortured to be up there cuz it was extremely noisy (and deafening loud). However I think I have managed every table perfectly, and everyone's happy. But I am so exhausted!! I have been working non-stop since last Wednesday, and I will not be getting any rest until this Saturday. Plus, I was unwell the entire last week (nauseating, some diarrhoea, menstrual pain, fatigue) and have lost my appetitie (and also a few kilos). I really look forward for my entire day off on Saturday now........ 

On Monday (1/11) Yiyi and I met before work and had lunch at AOBA. The boss there sort of remembers me as a friend of Jay's. Jay and I had visited AOBA a few months ago before she went to Queensland. As he has ran out of sushi rice and therefore couldn't do any sushi for us, he treated us desserts and a ferraro rocher chocolate each. SO NICE OF HIM!! I like his very tiny Japanese cafe because it looks so homely and cosy. After lunch, we went to Alexandra Rose to have a look at their watches. They house watches and other accessories from different brands, including Pandora. I saw a watch from IO?ION! the other day when I walked past but they were closed. To my surprise, IO?ION!'s POD and BUD watches are only $40 each! Yiyi and I both got one (she got a white one, I got a green one). Their light rubbery texture makes it comfortable to wear, and since it is not too expensive, I did not mind even wearing it at work (I never wear watches when I work for fear of spilling something on my expensive watches). 

Home-made Coconut milk tofu custard @ AOBA, as well as home-made Green tea ice-cream

New watches from IO?ION! 

Of course, a daily dose of coffee is a MUST. I wish I can do these coffee arts!

And the ladies with their new watches.

I feel really tempted to get another of those watches. IO?ION! silicon rubber watches comes in other designs as well~ Check out: http://ioion.us/

On a side note, I am dropping my plans to go back Singapore in December. As much as I really wanted to attend Amanda's wedding, I really don't think spending >AUD1000 is worth it for a 10 days stay. Plus, my parents will not be in SG... where am I gonna stay?? Hotel? That will cost me so much more!! Anyway, Amanda will be staying in Tokyo after her wedding (her hubby is Japanese) therefore I can still visit her there since I have already made plans to visit Japan.

I will put forward my Korea plans, and will now travel late Jan - early March. I will be in Korea the whole of February and the first week of March. However, I will travel late Jan to Japan before going to Korea. I might switch these plans around though since I haven't booked my air tickets. Though I really wanted to travel Japan in April (cuz of blooming sakuras) I have decided that I can't wait that long (I've seen sakuras before anyway, but in Korea). This trip has got to happen before I look for my full-time. And I must not delay any longer because I am not getting any younger. Plus, I want to get out of the F&B industry and do something solid/serious for now. Enough of wandering around aimlessly. Enough of hard-labour jobs. Enough of having stingy Japanese bosses. Enough of dealing with barbaric customers. 

I will book my air tickets some time this month. Hopefully soon I will come across some airfare discounts so I can cut my costs further.