All in a day's work

So much for feeling sufficiently recharged after taking a break on Wednesday.

On Thursday, all hell let loose in the restaurant. A chef had her day off and the two other chefs couldn't cook fast enough, the new chef/waitress (she hasn't decided) couldn't do much to help, and we were 80% full on a normally more relaxed week night. I was alternately waiting on tables, trying to placate complaining (read: fussy, non-regular) customers who didn't know our good food is always worth waiting for (seriously! the regulars never complain about waiting), and running upstairs to get more of anything that the chefs ran out of because they were too busy to do so.

At least the new chef/waitress could help me write the bills and do some washing up, otherwise I think I might have had a very strong impulse to slap anyone who called me over to their table just to tell me they've been waiting very long for their food. Duh, I know! But what can I do?! Not like I can speed up the cooking process! I was helping with things like getting the rice ready for the donburi dishes or kare rice or set or whatever, or beating the eggs, but that was about all.

After such a busy night at the restaurant and not enough sleep last night (helping a friend with some school stuff), I had an absolutely rubbish morning. GH and I had to accompany some singers for a masterclass, and because I've been too busy to practise this piece, I was sight-reading it. So was GH, but her sight-reading skills are considerably better than mine. The professional giving the class didn't give me time to react when he told me where he was singing from; he referred to them by the text instead of the bar numbers, and by the time I've found the place he'd already started singing. I'd be trying to catch where else he'd got to by then and trying to sight-read at the same time. At one point I was really lost and didn't know where he was singing at all, the second time he started, I finally found it. And the third time, I was ready to play, but for some reason he thought I wasn't. So he came over to the piano and told me off for wasting everyone's time.

I didn't respond in any way at all (read: stone face), but GH was definitely pissed off and I could feel the vibe from the singers being more tense. After the thing ended, GH furiously bitched to me in Mandarin (so that nobody would know what we're saying hehe the benefits of Mandarin!). Yep, it is my fault that I didn't practise this piece. But even if I really did, chances are I would still screw up the first or second times because you're singing a recitative and I don't know what @%&%# speed you're singing it, and where you're going from, damn it! ARGH.

Like GH said, it's not as if we were obliged to play for them; we could have said we weren't free when asked to help play for it. It was terrible to be put down in front of all the singers attending the masterclass like that, as if my poor sight-reading wasn't enough to show them that I'm such a LOSER. It's times like this I'm glad to have been with my piano teacher in Singapore, for her harsh criticisms (some friends have actually cried because of what she said), and maybe for whatever-it-is that makes me so able to remain stone-y in times of crisis. Blessing in disguise, maybe? My piano teacher used to say I play like a block of wood (read: emotionless), but the woody-ness of me also helps me not to react to harsh remarks. I'm glad to report that I still smiled at some of the singers who made eye contact with me at the end of the masterclass (no doubt checking I was all right, no?)

GH was also saying, if the pianist had been some local brit, (and had been in my situation), it would have been likely that he/she would have ended up crying. Because the piano teachers here are so PC! Everything you play is 'good!'. That applies to my first-year teacher. At least the teacher I have this year has more constructive criticisms on top of the 'good' that he says after every piece I play. Lol. Sigh... now I am totally relieved of all my negative feelings from this morning and it doesn't keep replaying in my head. Well, at least people who've heard me play for concerts know I can do it if I practise. I am not CMI lor! *grim and determined mood*

Now it's an early (ya, 2am in the morning is REAL early man) bed time for me, and an early rise tomorrow for a fresh start to a hopefully-sunny day full of practising!