classy cakes & EXtrAoRdiNaRy jObs!!!

HOLD BACK….wait a MINUTE!!! Ok…. I know the mature thing to do right now would be to put my computer away and watch TV in isolation and silence… and NOT to vent, and put anger on this page that I am about to blog on! BUT… this happens when you are living alone and your Australian oven has decided to do EVERYTHING in its ability to make you look bad… DUDE, REALLY???!!!! I mean really…ok so (busted) I baked a pre-mix cake today… (The Betty Crocker commercial on TV just got me-their ads are stupid but they’re somehow effective…the OREO ad even got me up to the shops, buying my first pack of Oreos in 2 years and the ad is directed at little boys in the playground…!!! ) Anyway, it’s the mud fudge cake and the batter just tasted DE-licious (perks of living alone…I DID clean out the bowl like a 6-year old child…licking the spoon, my fingers and washing my face after)… back to the dilemma… so the first cake I baked (also a box cake), actually, let me just tell you the logic behind a box cake…I am semi-Unemployed… therefore should NOT be purchasing…flour, eggs, sugar, cocoa, icing sugar, bicarbonate of soda or ingredients NOT already in my cupboard or fridge to be used on a daily basis…AND because I am living alone…a PROPER cake…would cost money and put on pounds like force-fed chicken! Hence…opt for the cheaper version…. Where the ingredients are exact amounts, pre-mixed, no extras, therefore no need to bake again and again and again, therefore no need to eat it, over and over and over again, and no need to FINISH it, because you PAID for all the ingredients - no use wasting it… ok…that’s why I bake a box cake….[I’m not supporting the action though… but I’m supporting my pocket and lifestyle, besides at the rate my relationship is going with this oven…a box cake seems to be a waste of money to.

Alright…where were we…aaa yes, the FIRST box cakes, COLES (home brand) cake…. That is the lowest of lows…sorry Coles… it's kind of like buying no-name (SA)...or Safeway (USA) brand BOX cake (how embarrassing) well, it worked beautifully, oven cooperated, few bowls were used, icing was icing, cake was cake – absolutely NOTHING…spectacular or delicious about it…but it WAS beautiful! Lucky at that time I had guests and we could cut the slices in half and spread apricot jam in the middle to give it some taste.

SECOND cake I baked… large scale… in a roasting pan…. Kind of dry… baked another…. Kind of dry… and flat… so I took some DELICIOUS icing… plonked it on top and stuck the two on top of each other, had a ball icing them, (this was my batman cake – indeed) how much fun was THAT! Anyway at the end of the day...it was Successful, I had a sugar rush, the kitchen was in shambles and my hands were black so were the spoons, counters and dishcloths (batman’s icing). picture on the side...go figure!


I can bake batman I can do ANYTHING! So I go buy a better cake, a slightly higher quality than Coles-brand, because it looks so damn-good when the kid on TV eats it… anyway, licked the bowl out, pre-heated the oven, put it in the oven…started fiddling with the knobs and the light went off inside…I guess that’s maybe what it does… there’s no on or off button so I couldn’t have put it off by mistake…it's been on for a while so if something is NOT wrong…. I don’t want to go and OPEN the oven... I mean let us not add that to the number of bad decisions made in my ‘baking-cake-in-Australia’ history…


Anyway 55 minutes later the cake has a nice surface but shake it and it JIGGLES… so I fiddle with the oven and find a switch against the wall - flip it on flip it off…BOOM the oven is back on….yes….55minutes before…it had switched itself off and never thought about letting me know… anyway… I feel better now…and the cake seems to be doing fine…

Back to important things, I think I might forgotten to tell you, that well…I got MY job!!! I say MY job…. Because well that is what it is now… but some of you might recall… when I left SA, some were shocked that I did not have a job waiting here and some others thought….that iLse, that one builds castles in the sky… but when I left SA, I came to Australia with a specific idea and goal in mind… do you recall… ‘I’m going to get an island job!’ ‘I’m going to work on an island!’ ‘I only want paradise, is that too much to ask’ ‘I’m going to go up north in Aus’ … those were the basic goals… well…MY job…which I got offered on the morning of the opening of the world cup on home ground SA, is EXACTLY that…. It is …#1 …on an island…. #2...the most northern island of Australia and #3… my garden will be the Great Barrier Reef….. Yes friends…castles in the skies are what keep me grounded!!!!


Soccer world cup BLISS!!! I’m loving it…got this internal sunshine going on and let’s just say BAFANA boys….you BETTER win on Wednesday night… because I WILL be waking up at 04:00 to watch them! (That’s a whole 4 hours earlier than I usually do!!!)


Bu that put aside… my cake is out the oven...it is a GREAT success... the oven is working and thus I feel more warm and cosy), I’m moving to an island in 10day with no cellphone reception and I’ll be ‘stuck’ there for a solid 3 months until my probation period is over… I will be encouraged, to hike, to swim, snorkel and dive… so that I can sell the activities to the guests.
Lizard island http://www.lizardisland.com.au/  I will be an F&B attendant. (start off as an F&B attendant )


Life can be so difficult when you biggest worry in a day is about flopping a pre-mix cake… this life…is NOT for rent.

LoVe &and HaPPineSS fRienDs!

hOsPiTaLiTy 101...

Ok…so … My initial plan of this adventure was to go around all over and do stuff hospitality-like stuff. So as it goes I feel a bit more settled in my newest continent-of-residence...

 I’ve placed things into perspective and found new perspectives… and on top of that, I‘ve become a year wiser [I aged]. I’ve also realised or rather accepted, that I am young, and THIS is the time of my life, and the best time to start at the bottom…

 In order to get anywhere in Hospitality in AUS, you need an RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol Certificate) – this is law and it prevents you as a server, from serving an intoxicated person, how to deal with it, and from encouraging over consumption of alcohol, as well as the relevant fines, laws and legislations that come hand in hand with this (alcohol=responsibility). Serving to minors, driving under the influence and knowing when to stop are the basics of this certification. Interesting, in South Africa we have warnings on the bottles (or boxes…) ‘my favourite being Namaqualand ‘Don’t drink and walk on the road…you might get hurt’  - CLASSIC! but in Australia they have the number of standard drinks that that drink is equal to…e.g. an average bottle of wine is 7.6 (depending on alcohol levels)… a 150mL glass of wine qualifies as two…The blood level is 0.05g / 100mL. Anyway that said, I have this certificate now, 4 hours online –BOOM, I CAN serve you alcohol.

As I was getting bored and frustrated I applied for many jobs and as such landed a casual job at a recruitment agency that organises staff for 4-5 star hotel events in the City (Brisbane City) so I get paid by the clients we work for, per hour, via the agency. Now my first event was this Saturday, 29 May 2010…and when I say I want to do a lot of things in hospitality to know everything, I mean a diversity of things…I guess I really meant it when I got assigned the job for an event at the Sports club… as a food runner, dressed in smart black business pants, a white collared shirt and long black tie….classy, elegant…MILLION dollars I say….I worked at the RIZE fight 2…was kick-boxing, 230 guests at the tables many more on pavilions, people (not animals) in the centre ‘ring’ not to be confused for a cage…RAAAAAAA!!!! (to my dissappointment i origianlly thought it was going ot be a cage fight.) I thought it was fun...3 hours later, tables had been served-2 courses, tables had been cleared, people knocked out, crowds went crazy and ladies shook their bootays, g-pans were washed and I smelt like old oil [brings back sweet memories].

As the new week swept in, I had been here now for a fair month. I went for my first jog in 6 months… let’s just say my body still has to get used to the altitude changes…? As my lungs sent a message to my brain and was like WOOOOAH son!!! What you doing?! So it was an oxygen overload… but I continued walking and it felt gooooood, I will see if my body allows it again tomorrow [ladies of leisure don’t USUALLY awake before 08:00…]

This week is now standing at Wednesday and has already had so many curve balls in my BUSY schedules...that by the end of this week, I will have had 2 interviews, a function at the airport, maybe another jog, baked a batman cake, iced a batman cake, perhaps even…eaten a piece o f the batman cake, and had a kids party and a good old fashioned BRAAI.

This all said brings me to the next topic….where I choose to speak to those a year or so my junior…yes my fellow hospitality fiends in the lower age groups…when you come out into the ‘big-world’ and if you are as fortunate or lucky as I am to be living a dream (currently the dream has unexpected kinks -unemployment), then you need to know that the course you are studying definitely is worth it…but you do need your experience [and if OPI is the way to encourage you..don't fake it and DO it!!]…and also just...carpe diem!!!

You know more than the average student who is working in the café around the corner BUT that student might have been working there since he/she started studying…and that in itself is a reference, my friends if I had NOT worked during my studies…I might be working under that girl, (sorry but...no accounting student will ever tell me how to do my job..UNLESS im making a loss;-) )…BUT then again that said… to first get into the PRIME job they will look at your experience… and THEN you can bedazzle them with your smile…. And your knowledge….if you listened in class and took notes...well...I do beleive you might KNOCK 'em off their feet mate!!!! 

My first interview, was a phone interview, stand up while talking-you sound more confident, if on the cellphone- give them a landline number… and after you’ve done so…do not proceed to run down the stairs to answer the phone (I did NOT do that …? uhummm…) you will huff and puff on the phone she might think you are unfit…anyway all you got on the phone is your voice, confidence and experience and if you good… your personality makes it through the wires… UNFORTUNATELY this job was given to an internal promotion… but alas..fear not fellow friends... many many many more applications and disappointments later I have landed a casual job, to keep me occupied- it's sad to admit…but...I am not cut out for the life of a lady of leisure… (yes I prefer working and being busy, I like being domesticated, cleaning and cooking – yes boys…come and get it…TROU VROU! Huh?! ;-) moms and dads...send your kids to hospitality, where dish washing is FUN!!!)

The interview for THIS casual job…was on the OTHER HAND strictly theoretical… VDS 311 or 312 or one of them … the service subject. From which side do you serve a guest? Who is the next guest from the 1st guest? What is silver service, How would handle this guest and that guest, how would you cut labour costs without cutting employee hours? What is a degustation menu, name 3 styles of red wine, 3 of white, 5 premium beers, what is a G&T, what are 2 things a waiter cannot be without?
What does a guest want if he wants a Bundy & Coke, a JD, what are 3 Australian beers. What is the ‘pass’ and who runs it, what IS an expeditor? What is the hostess’s job? What is an alternate drop? LEARN to carry three plates… what is a cruet?
The one question was where should you NOT hold a glass of wine and why? Maybe I’m being too theoretical or scientific but I said…on the bowl of the glass…because you may potentially alter the temperature of the wine or leave finger prints on the glass….(TRUE?) the response ‘ uuuummmm yeah….this is kinda right but for hygienic reasons….? ‘ I kind of felt stupid saying it because I guess it is kind of stupid… but…’on the rim….? ‘ YES!!!’ ….REALLY? Who DOES THAT?!

Anyway if I lack any kind of experience in Australia I guess it could be practical and theoretical…. Theoretical….knowledge of the beers, and drinks….I’ve become more acquainted with the wines, but more homework is essential. On a practical level…I guess….not drinking enough of those products…..? ;-)

My last interview was very corporate… and an experience in itself and the next interview will once again be a phone interview (number 2)….should I do voice exercises? Eat No dairy? Drink Honey tea. Make sure phone is charged or in the charger.

So the SOCCER is on its way and I will be watching religiously…not because I care about soccer at all!!! But I will be checking to see if I can see any of my friends on the TV…the last few weeks some of the Australian TV presenters have been in South Africa where in her own words ‘these monkeys, they’re everywhere. They roam the streets like cats and dogs’ …I mean OBVIOUSLY she had been to the two big ‘cities’ yes… SABI SANDS and SUN CITY…. They saw a lion chase a leopard (and I wondered if they knew how LUCKY they were and how RARE it was to see that…) she ‘played’ happy birthday on a vuvuzela, and in the studio back here everyone is just loving South Africa…. It really is awesome seeing it from this side, makes you proud, until the minister of something came up to talk about the safety and possibility of terrorist attacks and he couldn’t read the notes he was reading from….then I laughed a little because that’s home and it’s the humour in that, the fact that it just isn’t perfect - THAT makes it home and in itself I guess makes me happy to be able to laugh at that… the more things change…the more they stay the same.