"Our strength is that we don't have any weaknesses.
Our weakness is that we don't have any real strength." - Frank Broyles, College football coach
First up, a cocktail from Playboy's Cocktail list:
Dracula
45mls (1 1/2 oz) light rum
2 dashes of bitters
1/2 tsp. grenadine
30mls (1 oz) lemon juice
12mls (4 oz) cranberry juice
Combine all the ingredients into a shaker and shake. Strain into an ice filled tall glass.
Then here's my concoction:
A Straw in the Berry
30mls gin
30mls strawberry liquer
15mls dry vermouth
Combine all the ingredients into a shaker and shake. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.
Sunday was rather quite today in the bar. So as I was preparing for the evening shift (as in just sit around and do squat), something in the Herald on Sunday caught my attention. It's an opinion story by Matt McCarten about how hotel works are being paid shit. Read it here.
It's amusing (and disheartening) how very true his article is. While I was down in Queenstown in '05, I've seen how little we get paid and how erratic our working schedule is because of tourist seasons. Mine was a bit tougher considering our hotel was in the midst of renovation and it was stressful trying to cope with what the hotel had to settle with in terms of occupancy vs cost-wage.
In Auckland, it's a little bit better, but not a whole lot. You would be surprise to know, next to help desk support, the hospitality industry has one of the highest turnover rates in New Zealand. Why? Because as the article states, they aren't getting paid for the shit they have to put up with.
I guess though if I look at my role in the hospitality industry, I think my pay reasonable to the workload I do. The only thing that really makes up for it is the tips I get each night I work. On average if I add it up in a week, I probably get about an extra 20-30% on top of my wages. The ones I really feel for are the guys in the restaurant who are on salaries (chefs & supervisors) who do more than 40 hour p/w and not being paid overtime. Kinda puts a damper on whether I want to move up to be a supervisor.
Sigh... well enough of sounding pessimistic, I better head off to bed.
First up, a cocktail from Playboy's Cocktail list:
Dracula
45mls (1 1/2 oz) light rum
2 dashes of bitters
1/2 tsp. grenadine
30mls (1 oz) lemon juice
12mls (4 oz) cranberry juice
Combine all the ingredients into a shaker and shake. Strain into an ice filled tall glass.
Then here's my concoction:
A Straw in the Berry
30mls gin
30mls strawberry liquer
15mls dry vermouth
Combine all the ingredients into a shaker and shake. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.
Sunday was rather quite today in the bar. So as I was preparing for the evening shift (as in just sit around and do squat), something in the Herald on Sunday caught my attention. It's an opinion story by Matt McCarten about how hotel works are being paid shit. Read it here.
It's amusing (and disheartening) how very true his article is. While I was down in Queenstown in '05, I've seen how little we get paid and how erratic our working schedule is because of tourist seasons. Mine was a bit tougher considering our hotel was in the midst of renovation and it was stressful trying to cope with what the hotel had to settle with in terms of occupancy vs cost-wage.
In Auckland, it's a little bit better, but not a whole lot. You would be surprise to know, next to help desk support, the hospitality industry has one of the highest turnover rates in New Zealand. Why? Because as the article states, they aren't getting paid for the shit they have to put up with.
I guess though if I look at my role in the hospitality industry, I think my pay reasonable to the workload I do. The only thing that really makes up for it is the tips I get each night I work. On average if I add it up in a week, I probably get about an extra 20-30% on top of my wages. The ones I really feel for are the guys in the restaurant who are on salaries (chefs & supervisors) who do more than 40 hour p/w and not being paid overtime. Kinda puts a damper on whether I want to move up to be a supervisor.
Sigh... well enough of sounding pessimistic, I better head off to bed.