Categories: uncategorized
Date: 06 June 2005 13:17:03
I have been on night shifts for the last couple of weeks. Which means nothing too exciting and just chaos. Because we have 2-3 floories during the day and then at night we have just one usually. But the nights can be busier than the day because that is when the event starts and final adjustments need to be made or people set up for events the next day which causes much changes. Recently was a little like that.
I got a call from security control saying the client who had been stuffing around for 4 hours with the table settings from lunch now needed some one to put the left over stuff they were not supposed to be leaving were now leaving them overnight so they could retrieve them the next day when the dock was not open. That alone caused me frustration. I was in the middle of getting all the paper work squared away and sorted. So I left the office to put the stuff away. When I saw the dude from the company aimlessly walking around back of house. I rescued him and kicked him out of back of house. Someone else had let him into the freight lock up. So there was no need for me to leave the safety of the office and my paper work at all!! This Gentle Reader was just the beginning.
I returned to the office and delved right back into it. Around 25 minutes later I got a call from control again saying that the man I was supposed to see was still there and was now very annoyed and his block of ice is now melting. "What???" "Hold on what block of Ice?? I dealt with the man as described what has this got to do with a block of Ice?" The control officer who is a new Australian who gets muddled with english. Said "Please Chops this man is very angry and we have no officers available and the dock is unattended and the man is very angry" Just to get some much needed quiet I said "Ït's ok i will go sort it out." I get down there and sure enough was one ticked off man and a very large block of ice weighing around 150-200 kilos. He started to complain about how long it took to get some one to see him. I promptly told him "I just got the call and I'm sorry but the dock closed an hour and half ago and I can send you away and you will have to deliver this tomorrow when someone authorised to sign for this is here." Not surprisingly his tone improved instantly. I don't like threatening people but I will if I need to.
Here is the tricky bit how does one get a 150 kilo block of ice out of a small utility type vehicle up around 30cm onto a dock with only two guys. I called in the department that moves the chairs. They mostly have someone with a forklift ticket on board. I should mention that normally I would call the chefs who deal with this stuff as it was for a ice sculpture. But they wisely had gone home. I tried speaking to the stewards but English is really a weak suit with them. I wish I could print the name of the stewarding supervisor it is quite amusing. But we will call him the sheriff. So forklift guy came in and grabbed a pallet and we slide the ice onto the pallet. He lifted it onto the dock and we wheeled the pallet and pallet jack into the coldroom area. I had never entered the kitchen before. I am a big fan of the stuff that comes out of it but never darkened it's halls. It is massive. I opened the coldroom doors to find this was the antechamber to actually six coldrooms. All going smoothly till we realised the pallet would not fit in the doors. I said to the sheriff we would need assistants. They are all of the same nationality and speak the same language. But not the same language as good ol Chops. I said to mini sheriff we need a trolley can you get one. He came back with a trolley a quarter of the size of the block of ice. This would not do. After several minutes of discussion between the sheriff and M.S and the only word I recognised was Pallet, also the block of Ice was now melting. I said we need action get me a bigger trolley. With 2 scrawny mini sheriff's and very large melting block of Ice. I saw the chair guys were going on smoko. I grabbed them and between the M.S's and the chair guys and some table clothes for slings we got the trolley in the freezer. Very happy with the coordination on my part and saving the day I went back to the office happy knowing good had been served.
The next day I saw the nearly boss Chef. I asked if he got his ice. Oh yeah thanks Chops. How much of a effort was it to get in there? Well it took a bit and 6 guys to lift the Ice. Oh he said I should have warned you it was coming all we do is grab the ice pick and drag it in from the dock and leave it on the floor. I could have died right then. Some days it feels like you try and do the right thing and all you've done is make a easy job hard.
Til Next Time Just Send Them Away And Tell Them The Dock is Closed,
Chops