why wy?

In less exciting news, I got a job as a waitress. It felt surreal, laying tables and taking orders. I couldn't quite believe it was happening to me, maybe because it felt like a scene from gordon ramsey's kitchen nightmares (bloody good reality show btw) or any cooking series. Mum freaked out a bit when I told her, and she was probably thinking
:a) What, my daughter, a graduate, is waiting tables?
b) Will they work her to the bone with heavy plates and hot soups? Cinderella in a restaurant?
c) Will she still have time to study? Is she going to flunk and become a waitress forever??? (cue music from the Psycho shower scene)
d) All of the above

She relaxed when I told her that it was just temporary until I find a better-paying job (true), it would give me much needed pocket money (true, a glass of cooper's ale is $3.60) and the work is easy (soon to be true).

Other than my obvious inability to mop, I'm still grappling with the menu, which has nearly 100 items on it (Nick counted). So, there's a dine-in price and a take-away price, and I need to know ALL OF THEM. That's because they use the cash register to store cash, and all calculations are done with pen and paper. On my first night, I forgot to total up the bill for one table and double-punched another bill. But everything else went smoothly and they still want me back, so am keeping fingers crossed.

I figure if I can remember my anatomy I should have no trouble with the menu, but I'm not sure if I have a finite amount of brain space that I want to turn over to mango chicken ($10.45, $9.90) and tamarind prawns ($17.10, $15.10).

Then, there was a customer who wanted to know what szechuan sauce tasted like. (me: Er, peppery.) It's hard to describe, what does an apple taste like? Like an apple. She also wanted to know if we could do a szechuan sauce with duck instead of pork/beef/chicken/fish. I tried not to let my confusion show and mumbled something about asking the chef, but she ordered something else instead.

It's a fairly odd combination if you ask me, and will either turn out brilliant or disgusting. Turns out there is actually a recipe for Sichuanese duck in one of Monica's cookbooks. But it's an extremely complicated stuffed roast duck served with a rich gravy made from bones.

Joe's in KL, and he debated whether to tell me that they were eating ampang yong tau foo. He figured I wouldn't be thrilled to hear, so he delayed telling me until just now. Not that it made a difference to my reaction, as he just found out the hard way. It doesn't help that we didn't get to eat ampang yong tau foo the last time we were in KL, because Julian missed the turn-off. Julian is still hoping we'll forget it.