Fries, fries and fries

Another posting - surprise, surprise or should I say would you like fries with that, as per Kay's comment on my last posting. I have now completed three nights training in my new job and have a whole new respect for those working in the fast food industry. After a training video the first night, second night was straight into, you guessed it, making fries, lol. Now when I last worked in the dairy in Waiuku, I could do hamburgers (the best in town I might add) but was considered too young (14 yrs) to use the deep fryer - oh where did those years go, laughing lots.

So, there is not a lot of space wasted out back, barely room for two extremely friendly people to pass each other in the aisle it is that tight a squeeze, which is interesting working with oil at a heat that would melt the flesh off your bones if you fell in the fryer. Got shown how to put fries (I called them chips at one stage, but no, they are fries, lol) into the different sized bags/cartons and they have a very interesting shaped shovel type thing to do so. Then it came to actually cooking them, which is all automatic but does involve pressing buttons, lifting and shaking baskets half way through cooking, then lifting to drain, then putting them in the tray to put into their respective packaging. The chip dispenser resembles a fridge (which it is) and is also automated so when you put a basket underneath it, the required amount of fries fall into the basket. Now you would think this is all pretty basic, but omg then the speed factor gets built in and it is all go when busy. I had perseperation dripping off my face (avoided the fries, lol) and the shift just flew by. Mon, Tues and Wed nights are considered slow nights but it was St Patricks day yesterday and there was some more than busy bouts on Tues so never got further than doing fries that night.

I need to go back a bit. I am wearing a uniform which is not a problem but omg there are very prescribed ways of wearing it. Hair has to be off the face, - not a problem - except mine is neither short nor long at the moment so had to wear my cap with enough clips to keep the average steel mill in work for the next wee while, in fact, had to clip cap to head. You are not meant to wear your cap out in public but had to the first night so my hair could stay in place. Luckily by last night, I found out they supplied hair nets so reminescent of days gone by, seeing my grandmother put her hair in one of these spider web type contraptions, I shoved all my hair into one and hey presto, comfortable and not a hair in sight. I have never been a cap wearing person as they do nothing for me, so challenge number one. The next challenge was wearing a belt, (laughing lots here). OMG, I have not worn a belt since the early 80's when wearing two at once was fashionable or wearing one that draped itself several times round, (when my waist was the size of my thigh now, laughing tears ). In retrospect I must have been positively annorexic, laughing lots again. Not only do I have to wear a belt, but the shirt must be TUCKED IN!!! Cruel and unnatural punishment indeed. I am not sure if I can remember that far back when I have worn something tucked in - I am having a flash back to my very first day at school (5yrs), checked shirt and shorts ?????. Hmmmmm. FORTUNATELY, the shirt is of decent proportions so one can tuck it in (a mere 1/2" lol) and leave it drape somewhat over the waistband of one's black pants. The uniform is black pants, black and grey aircell type shirt, black hat, black shoes and black sox. Let me tell you, they check to see you are wearing the right coloured sox and that you are wearing your belt and no inappropriate makeup of jewellery allowed. Lucky wearing black is not a problem for me. Last night got "great appearance" written on check list so woohoo. You get a warning if not appropriately turned out. You are not allowed to wear uniform uncovered in public either and have to have a jacket on or another shirt over your work shirt before you step out the back, - this is to signify you are not on the job yet so people are not expecting service from you. (hope you are impressed by my work knowledge already).

Last night went straight into doing fries but got pulled off doing them to learn drinks, deserts and sundaes. Who knew there were so many sizes, so many drinks/deserts/and variations on how to have them. Ice goes to so far (marked)on the cups, right sized lids for right sized containers (logical I know but not all beside each other just for fun). One squirt of topping for one size, two for the next, UNLESS, someone asks for something different. Cones are fun, so many twirls and a half - my first one looked like a drunken sailor , second one resembled something that could go over the counter. OMG, and just when things had gone in one ear and straight out the other in a whirlwind blur, hello, there was the till. This is where I gained a whole new respect for the crew that operate them too. They resemble somthing like the flight deck of the average 747, with every permutation of order you could imagine and then some. I will absolutely love any customer who wants an ordinary burger, ordinary meal combination, ordinary anything, with no extras, or no deletions from how anything is made eg blah blah without cheese, etc. They will get the 4,000 watt smile while the rest will get the 1000 watt gritted teeth behind smile, lol. Thank heavens the average public (up till Monday that meant me) has no idea of what they can ask for, heh heh. Also, I will never dither about what I want to order again, or change my mind half way through, laughing lots. You have no idea the fancy finger work on the till that takes, as you jump from screen to screen. I had to serve some actual customers, luckily with the trainer asking most of the questions, as we got caught with it being so busy. I fumbled through hitting most of the right buttons, luckily no problem with the actual money side of things, thanks to former lives in retail and working in the Post Office when you could actually bank there. Just as I was going to have to tackle more out front there was a call from the fries area and I was needed back there - thank you, thank you - which was great, except or some reason I was not at one with the fryer, possibly due to the speed we were working at. In fact instead of pressing the button after lifting the fries to drain, I in fact turned the fryer off. Strike one, but luckily it was only for about a minute till I realised when the next lot of buttons would not work. Somehow, the buttons were not working properly when I pressed them numerous times when putting the fries on, so it was by guess and by god that several batches were cooked. Anyhoo, despite that, had several well dones said to me by store manager (even though it was Gerard, but he takes no prisoners over standards at work, lol) and was told later that another manager had commented on my positive work ethic so all is good. Next week will be mainly front counter work so back to till, drinks, sundaes etc. Drive in is a whole other world and is the busiest place in the store, so will have to wait and see when I get to that stage how it all goes. Am lucky that fries sounds the same in NZ and Ozzie language, lol as if it was "will you have chips with that" I would be given to much grief and would have to learn how to speak like an aussie to be understood.

The biggest challenge of all is that until coming to Oz, I had never frequented this franchaise except to get the odd meal for the grandson in Wellington. I was a Chinese takeaways or a KFC kinda girl and have cannot remember the last time I had a takeaway burger. So, in the main, I had no idea what they were talking about last night with the names of burgers etc and then I had no idea what they looked like and which was which as it was cooked and packaged out the back. Have decided to bring a menu home to familarise myself with the goods. I suggest to any of you out there, do pick up a menu next time you visit said stores so you too can learn what you want and speak succinctly and at speed when you next place your order, :):):).

Am about to arise and greet the brand new day now it is time for morning tea instead of breakfast lol, and need to get stuck into the books today as essay dates are coming closer.