Coffee Shop

I worked for parents since i was a very small kid, helped parents to fold shoe boxes, help in the factory every year during school holidays. I remember the first time i worked outside was in Mid Valley, when i was 13. Daddy's fren has not enough worker in the shoe shop, so i ended up working in his shop for a month during school holidays. And i remember i earned RM 1000 that time. Haha.. can you imagine how happy is it when you got a thousand riniggit in your hands when you was just 13?? Eventually I saved all the money in my bank account. I loved seeing my bank book with lots of money =P. Every year after chinese new year, we will save our money into bank and i loved comparing my bank account money with my siblings one ... I consider a really rich small gal last time, parents, uncles will borrow money from me when they are lack of cash. LoL.. which make me really proud of myself.

I applied a weekend job last week, and the boss (an indian lady) asked me go for 2 hours "training" on Friday which mean yesterday. So i went yesterday, without asking how much is the pay =.=" stupid me, at first she said train from 10am to 12pm, but then she asked me to stay till 2pm, cause she want me to learn more. So i agreed with that, till I Ping reminded me, only i realized that i am actually worked FOC for them for 4 hours. Ah.... blurr... Yesterday, after the so called training, they told me that they going to pay me £50 for 2 days, 9am to 3pm. That's consider very low pay here, according to the law, minimun wage is £5 ! aih.. why i always met this kind of cases??? Thought of quitting the job, but if i quit i don't even get a "pence", so i decided continue work till i get a better job.

Today is the first day i officially work in this coffee shop. I trained by the indian lady- aka wife, yesterday, the wife is a nice lady, very friendly, taught me slowly, chit chat with me, asked bout my family, uni etc etc. She taught me how to make tradisional breakfast, brunch, sandwiches, panini, baguettes but not coffee. She said people like their coffee, and she cannot teach me that, a bit kia su i think. Scare i open my own coffee shop and steal her technique/recepies. Hahaha..what to do? i look smart to her maybe =P. This morning i worked with the husband, at first i feel quite scare to talk to this boss, somehow he's a man,hahaha.. young lady like me don't even dare to look into his eyes when i talked to him. After working with him for sometimes, found that he is actually a really nice man, he taught me really patient, step by step, and HE TAUGHT TO MAKE COFFEES!! He explained to me a lot of coffees knowledge. People who know me well know i am actually sensitive to caffeine, i seldom take coffee except starbucks one =P.

Now i know "a little bit" about coffee. The husband taught me how to make lattee today, Lattee is weak coffee. This is how he explained to me. Latee is prepared with 1/3 of coffee and 2/3 of hot milk, with a layer of foamed milk. Mocha is Coffee + chocolate, espresso is just plain coffee, cappucino is considered as "strong coffee" with more coffee and less steammed milk. Hahaha..now i know ~ before this i only drink hot chocolate. He told me the key of a good coffee is not the bean but the temperature of the milk, one with the very expensive coffee bean can come out with the worst coffee with its not at the right milk temperature,fuiyoh~ sound complicated to me. Too hot temperature will spoil the coffee, too cold temperature will make the coffee very hard to dilute. How you know what's the right temperature of the milk? well, they don't boil the milk, there's a steam machine to heat up the milk, you have to hold the jar, till your hand can't stand the heat anymore, then that's the right temperature. The problem is, everyone has different sensation for heat, sooo... i will just prepare breakfast, and leave the coffees for both of my boss. Oh ya, and the compression of coffee power is very important too =.=.. you need to press it at the right pressure so that the hot water can flow through the coffee powder at the right time, if the hot water flow too slow, it will spoil the coffee as well. hahaha.. a lot of things to learn leee~~~ He just taught me latte today. Before this i thought mocha, espresso, latte those with different names and prepare by different kind of coffee bean. Hahaha.. back home in mamak, we only have "cham ping", teh tarik, nestlo... and now i learn those english coffee~

I can have a free sandwich and a cup of coffee/tea during my breaktime. I made my own bacon baguette (long bread) today, and mocha.. hahaha.. my first Mocha ~ =P it tasted good to me, i put lots of chocolate powder, hahaha.. cant stand the caffiene.

my working place

a Yong's Mocha~ it doesn't look good here, pai seh, i don't know how to make nice foam on top~ but i am learning!

the steam machine for milk (picture taken from wikipedia)

The wife asked me just work on Sunday, cause Saturday is a very busy day, she had another girl who worked for her for sometimes, and she knew most of the thing, since she can only work on Saturday, so she will let me work on Sunday~ which mean i only have £25 a week T.T okie la, I can buy lots of groceries with that £25 and survive for a week. Guess i'll stay and work in the coffee shop, since its just once a week, and i can learn to make good coffee from there ! =P so for now, i will try to get another job for weekday. Money Money Money !!

I went to reload my Osyter Card today (a card like touch&go) , I put in the wrong debit card, and entered the wrong pin code!!! ahh.. i only have less than 3 pounds cash with me, and my cards are blocked. I am pooorrr, any one want to do charity and donate some money for me??? I was telling my friends that, i won't even get out from my room with only 5 ringgits in my purse, now i go out everyday with less than 5 pounds =.= .. life a difficult isn't it???? poor people really hard to survive in this society. Everything related to money, no money no talk T.T

oh ya, I got replied from the placement application !! *peace* That is a 15 day placement working as a classroom assistant in a school or college. The jobs are use my subject knowledge (though i don't have much knowledge) to help young people achieve success and to encourage progression to Higher Education *study good, study good !* At the end of the placement, I get to claim a bursary of £40 per day (i.e. £600 for the full 15 days). Wahahahaha~ happy-nya ~ RM4200 for half month =P , but then heard I Ping said, UK kids very hard to serve ~ they rather open a kebab shop in the future also don't want to study properly for now *swts* haih..kids nowadays ~ unlike our time.. people want to study also cannot... *shake head* ~ Last week lecture on different field of psychology, lecturer explained what you need to do, how long you need to study, and how much is the pay of that particular field of psychology. To become a clinical psychologist, sit in the clinic wait for clients, you need to take 7-8 years to study. A bit chi sin right??? 3 years degree+2 years training+2 years working experiences and maybe 1 more year master.. fuiyoh~ long time ~ but the pay is quite high, they said its very competative in this field, then he talked bout educational psychology, forensic etc etc, then he said, we can try go for placement, work with different kind of people see which field that's actually suitable for you. True also, that's why i am applying this school placement *not because of that 6oo pounds, but the experience*. Guess the next time will try to apply job in hospital or some lab , sound interesting ~~~

The university had replied me, and ask me go for training on the 26th of Feb, yes, again training.. go there FOC, need to pay transport myself T.T ~ hopefully they offer me the job and i get the money !! =P wish me luck ~