(this was written last night) I wished I could unscrew my legs at the knee level and set them aside for the night. During working hours, they are ever so willing to walk and stand around… the second I get home – HAIYOR.
Did the closing shift (again!) tonite. Vat’s so terrible about it? Hmm… you don’t just clock out and walk off at the end of it all. Unlike retail. You have to wash everything (and I mean EVERYTHING), stack up the chairs & tables, sweep and mop. That’s F&B line to you. And today, (starts singing) I did the GREASE TRAP!!! Golly be gosh. The trap is this huge square steel thingy which traps all sorts of dirt, grease, fat and whatever la as the water from the sink goes through it. My assistant manager, Zarul, showed me through the steps of cleaning this awful thing. As can be expected, it was a laughable affair, seeing how I’m easily amused. Both of us, hands gloved in bright yellow, squatting near the sink and laughing like shit – imagine that. And he’s this big fella who looks like as though he can kick your ass if you looked at him the wrong way! Even Afham, who had to handle the store alone outside (poor thing) could hear us. The worse part was where I had to use a strainer, dip my hand into the watery trap and sift all the grease and fats out. The first dip was the worse, coz I could see these sort of like kuew teow strips floating in the oil. That was all the fatty stuff from food humans eat at our store… human remains, more like it! Iyerrrrrr…. And then the damn drainage system where I had to throw the watery oil-like liquid got stuck. So I had to sit there, by the sink, breathe in the grease fumes till everything was over and done with – which took about an hour. Afham visited me a while later saying “Waaa Celeste, lamanye… aku rase ko dah sebati ngan grease trap tu la” (Celeste, soooo long… I think you’ve already become one with the grease trap). Now that woke me up. Coz when I 1st opened the trap, I was disgusted with the smell, and now I’m actually sitting in front of it without any complaints. Uh.. I don’t think this is oxygen I’m breathing… so I got out the mop bucket and poured in some lemongrass detergent with hot water…. Ahhhhh…now this smells wonderful. Every night, when it’s time to mop, we use this lemongrass thingy, which when put under running hot water, turns the whole storeroom smelling like a forest just after a slight shower. We just love it. A while later, and I was done!! DONE DONE DONE!!
Zarul lifted my spirits up later on by saying that the Cream Cheese Brownie cake is to be marked out that nite. Man, I’ve never had cakes marked out during my closing shifts before this. Yummy! Plus the fact that today I worked 8 hours, meaning that I was entitled to 3 drinks. So I brought back 2 frappuccinos, with the other caramel macchiato consumed during my break. And there’s the pastries Afham packed up for me (usually he takes most of the lot)… ahhhhhhhhhhhh. What can I say but AHHHHHHHHH.
Got to know a few more customers today. One actually noticed how I’ve progressed through my 1st month at Starbucks. If at first all I could do was to slide (clear tables) and make drinks at a very slow rate, now I am more calm in handling the cashier, upselling the pastries while shouting out orders to those making the drinks. Big thank – you’s go out to my customers who kindly drop money into the tip box!
Alright, need to finish this frappuccino. Au revoir. Oh I’ve started my French lessons too.
Read Sunday’s papers and found an article on how the practice of black magic is still widespread in our modern culture. One particular mention of the pelesit made me snicker quietly. For those of you unfortunate souls who have no idea that black magic is as much in existence as feng shui is in our lives – though we vehemently deny it and cause our grannies and grandpas to roll in their graves… may their souls rest in peace.. hehe – read on.
So there I was, 2 years ago in Form 6… not having the slightest clue as to what a pelesit is. A black magic dingdong if you’d like. Being Biology students, we had a huge project to do in collecting insects/butterflies etc and preserving them according to standards to be displayed proudly. After weeks of scouting around and under potplants and jungles in our backyards… my group had a few huge butterflies and beetles and whatnots. Oh the smelliest dead insect has got to be the biggest butterfly – which I forgot its name. And then one day as I was leaving school, I passed through a corridor and on the water hose (for fire emergencies) was a grasshopper!! And I caught it!! Big, green fella. What luck. So there I went, gleefully back home to show the newest addition to the preserved family. WHAT LUCK. My mum saw it, screamed and hurriedly pushed me outside seeing that I wouldn’t let go of my new ‘pet’. What’s wrong with her? I didn’t know she was afraid of insects… heights maybe, but this cute green thing?? She told me to NEVER BRING THAT THING INTO THE HOUSE AGAIN. Vat thing? The grasshopper?? YES.. AND ITS NOT A GRASSHOPPER… IT’S A (drum roll… no.. lightning) PELESIT!!!!
Ok… I was still a dingdong at that moment but seeing how white my mum’s face went, I guess this was pretty serious. So I left it by the aquarium and came back inside with thousand and one questions in my head. Being the good daughter (hehe), I waited for her to get the colour back into her cheeks before pestering her to tell ALL about pelesits. And so she did. But the description below has been lifted from Sunday’s article:
Ok, first there is the polong – an evil being who always has the company of a spirit in the shape of a grasshopper. The spirit is somewhat like a plaything of the polong and is called the pelesit. Pelesits are well known in Kelantan and Kedah whereby it is acquired through a special process from the corpse of an infant – which must be the first born child of first born parents. The pelesit serves its owner in all things but most importantly, to inflict sickness and death upon persons disliked by the owner.
What mum told me was that pelesits are put in the houses of those people whom the owner dislikes and tadaaaaaaa… she started questioning me like hell as to where I got THAT THING from. I couldn’t help but giggle… much to the chagrin of mumsie, but hey.. I’m amused easily so blehhhh. I wasn’t even concentrating on her… I was just thinking, WAIT TILL I TELL MY BIOLOGY TEACHER ABOUT THIS. Seriously, those words were like these huge white letters on a black background in my head. Hahaha. I must’ve had a giant smirk on my face when I recounted the whole thing to my classmates the next morning… being urban dingdongs as we are.
Thanks to the pestering(??) of my friends, we decided not to wait till Bio class but just went straight to the Teacher’s Lounge to find dear Miss Halimahtun. The whole school knew what we Sixth Formers were doing so when a few teachers met us outside the Lounge with a container in our hands, they were curious to see what insect demanded such a confinement space rather than a measly plastic bag. Oh my… that next moment was a Candid Camera moment. Upon seeing THE THING, they ran helter skelter into the Lounge screaming for Halimahtun on how insane the project has gone. Like… HAHAHAHAHAAHAHA. My friends were as dumbshocked as I was the day before and we all gave a sympathetic glance to IT. Poor pelesit. Halimahtun came out and was surprised that I even caught it. But being a Bio teacher – who’s more into science than mythology – she gave us the go ahead to preserve it. And so we did that afternoon. Much to the satisfaction of, I guess, the whole teaching fraternity LOL. Wished I had a camera then. Sigh.
That was 2 years ago. I don’t think I can recognize a pelesit now, because to the untrained (read: dingdong) eye, it looks like a grasshopper. Oh but when I pried open its wings ( I got the honour of preserving it), they were beautiful!! The detail was exceptional if compared to another group’s grasshopper. We also labeled it according to its rightful name so people would know, Celeste actually caught a pelesit… nyehehehehe. Weird right. It struck fear in the hearts of those who believed in it, but admiration in non-believers for its other qualities. They say pelesits only exist through that dreadful process, so I guess, my sympathy goes out to the parents of that poor child.
Another thing I got out of this find were loads of ghost stories from my mum… and her friends when they dropped by for tea the next day to hear that I found a pelesit. Conclusion: Malacca and the Holiday Inn On The Park in KL (behind KLCC) sure is haunted!!
I'm on my off day again. And supposedly, had no one to go out with. Payal... i dunno what happened to that gal.. Isil can't go out if Payal doesn't go, coz she has no transport. Sara had to stay at home. Aishath's head in her books. My old school frenz.. most of them ran back to their universities after all the open houses. So yeah... i might as well stay in bed till my brains became hot as a result of the afternoon sun. And then Bertie barges into my room, announcing that i have a call. La Dee Daa.. awake i am.
Picked up the phone. Aiyahhhhhhhhh... i crashed onto mum's bed next to the phone. It's Abe... you can guess what 70% of the conversation was about la kan? :p
So it was Abe in Ampang. Cash Converters what else. How's the Pearl Jam album, Abe? Hehehe. Then i come online to see Abe's twin - Amit. That dude still loves Ampang. Sigh.
I seriously don't know what to write in here today. Had a whole bunch of crap stored up in a disk at home but forgot to bring it to the cafe... all because of mummy suddenly asking me to go to the pasar malam before i left for Ampang Point. Hergh.
Work's ok. Oh.. ohhhh.. i took the till the past 2 days... like shiiiit man. All hell broke loose. It was just short of seeing money flying in the air - that was the scenario hehe. And i'm surprised Amit knows Great Eastern Mall hahahaha. Betul betul salute the fella la. My brains are fried. See you guys during the weekend. I'll be off .... again. Hehe.
Oh, Abe... Amit says he doesn't bang me becoz (of all reasons) I'm nice to him. That's an accurate quote. Hehehehe.
