Working for the (wo)man every night and day

Saturday morning here is Weymouth! Apologies to the loyal blog readers out there. I have been working very long hours and have not had a chance to post in a while. I started work last thursday and in 9 days I worked 95 hours. I closed every single night. Needless to say I am a bit tired. But to be honest, this is the best job I have ever had. I like it so much better than retail. Rather than people coming in top the store and having to sell them things, they come up to the bar and demand to be sold something! It makes my life a whole lot easier.

The first day I was thrown on the bar and it was sink or swim. Despite what my resume said, I had never worked in a bar before. It was a busy thursday and I just went back there knowing nothing. Ever heard of a bitter shandy? It's a half-lemonade (carbonated like sprite, not the pink stuff at picnics) and half ale. Crazy English. So I had to learn all new drinks and how to use the computer system. Meanwhile the lineup for drinks went out the door of the pub. It was pretty intimidating. I think that the only reason I did as well as I did was because I had worked at the Grand Prixs for so long and I was used to big crowds and a quick-paced environment. Anyways, by the end of my first shift I had the hang of things. Lucky, because the next day I had a 12 hour shift on a busy friday night. This is a very busy pub. The wait for food at dinner time is always over an hour and usually closer to 2 hours and people still wait.

After a couple of nights I got the hang of things and 2 new girls started on the floor (waitress basically) called Courtney and Nicole. They were basically hired with Dzido and I and are really nice. At the end of the night we were cleaning up and I was basically supervising them and another guy doing clean up. So 4 shifts in the manager pulled me into her office and told me she thought I was amazing and wanted to give me a raise or promote me to supervisor, but that there was a freeze on promotions and raises in the company. Took me 4 shifts to get offered a raise. Not bad. So the idea of me working anywhere but the bar is basically banished from Sonia's (my manger) mind. Which is good because I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

You may be wondering about tips. Unlike Montreal where you tip every drink, here you almost never tip. I am very friendly and (I think) a good bartender and I get only a few tips per night (which is split amongst the staff). But I do have some people who come in each night and buy me a beer for when I get off work, which is really nice. The pub is also a bed and breakfast and last night one of our guests was so impressed by the service that he bought the entire staff a round.

I won't say that it is all good. Some of the people I work with are really incompetant, but most are ok and all are very nice. Which kinda makes it harder for me to call them morons to their face. The customers are generally nice at the bar and only complain about the wait for food, but I don't have to deal with that as much. Also, most people love to hear my accent. At the end of the night we have a bell that gets rung to annouce that the bar is closed. The line is 'That's time at the bar' but since I took over that job I have added a line or two each night to spice it up. Last night I threw in a 'Thanks for coming eh!' I got a round of applause from some of the guests and one guy came and bought me a beer. Being a foreigner can be a lot of fun.

Hopefully my hours will slow down a bit next week, though not too much since I do need the money. It looks like I will get mornings off and work the afternoons, but that is only if I don't get called in, which seems to happen whenever I have time off.

Oh, one homesick moment- I met a guy who gives tours of Canada for a company and we talked about our favourite Montreal bars. He mentioned Brutopia and the raspberry beer and I really craved it. Sigh....

Best wishes to all, I promise it wont be so long until my next post and there WILL be picture of the bar and some funny ones from the European leg of the trip that I didn't get to upload yet.