England vs. Australia

So I got a job working for a catering company in Birmingham called MJ Personnel. I got the job a month or so ago and I haven’t been called for a job yet till Wednesday afternoon. They called to see if I’ll be able to work on Saturday in London at the England vs. Australia Rugby Match and of course I said “YES!” They called the next day to see if I would be willing to work behind the bar, I said I’m a fast learner and that should be fine. So on Saturday morning I arrived at the office along with 7 other American’s who work for MJ at 6am. When I signed in, the lady behind the desk asked me again if I’m comfortable behind the bar and again I told her I don’t have much experience but could learn fast. She told me to wait a bit by the corner. A few minutes later a call came in and the other person in charge whispered to the lady behind the desk something along the line of ‘he isn’t coming’ and she quickly looked up and turned to me and said “Try on those black suit jackets over there.” I obediently did and was sent to get on the coach.

Once in London, the manager started called out names for the people who needed to get to their positions immediately, I was one of those people. I get off the bus and counted out only 5 of the 40 MJ people who came to London. I started getting a bit nervous. A lady met us as we got off the coach and started assigning locations. She pointed to me and said “Retail Bar” and I quickly responded “Um, yeah I’m American and I’m not so good with English currency yet?” She then switched me to box seats. Phew! Then a woman came up and grabbed my arm to lead me to where I needed to be. After a long walk to get to the new part of the stadium, we took an elevator up to the 4th floor. She led me into a very posh looking room and when I entered there were a lot of people standing around in black shirts, ties and the same apron. As I walked through the room past what I assumed where the servers, I noticed 4 people dressed in the same attire standing patiently behind the bar. I was then introduced to two women who were the managers of that particular room. As I approached they started talking about how happy they are to see me and how much success they have had with MJ Bar Supervisors…..yup I was going to be a Bar Supervisor.AHH!!! They kept telling me things such as the plan for the day, the drinks they wanted ready for when the guests arrived, blah blah blah I couldn’t really hear them because inside I was freaking out. After they were finished I told them in the most professional way I could about how I was more or less a ‘supervisor in training’ and that I’ve ‘never’ worked in a bar such as this, and how if they preferred I could ring up my manager to get someone else more experienced. The two women just stood there for a bit and then the main woman in charged looked at the other woman, then to me and said “You know what, you can’t learn anything till you try it. I trust you and I know from meeting you that you’ll do just fine.” That was it. I put on my big girl shoes and went to work. I was introduced to the 4 bar staff who reported directly to me and they were very nice. One is actually a study abroad student as well, he is from Georgia Tech. I’m a pretty fast learner and I’m a pretty good actress so I played it as if I knew exactly what I was doing.

First off, Sheena who was the main woman in charge wanted me to get 8 trays ready with orange juice, water, champagne and buck’s fizzes. I only knew what a buck’s fizz was because I remember one of my British roommates talking about them and I was like “What’s that” and they were like champagne and orange juice. In America, I believe we usually call them Mimosa’s. So right off the bat I was doing well. We were getting the noon drinks ready and everything was under control. Throughout the day the drink orders were pretty self explanatory. The main orders were beers which were easy enough, although there were a pretty big handful of others as well. When first person who ordered a gin n’ tonic, they asked for a larger, so I thought to myself it must be two shots if it’s a large and for some reason I said “Ice and a slice?” I think I heard that from a movie once and they were like “Please.” Okay, at this point I was like Wow, I’m doing pretty good for never ever doing this in my life. The other drinks ordered simple things like vodka cokes, brandy, wines, whiskeys, port, a few becks shanties and some Red Velvets. I only knew the last two cause I watched one of the people working behind the bar mix one for a guest prior to my order if it. Again, phew. After all the guests were finished and left to watch the game we cleaned up and sat down to eat ourselves. Although since it took so long to clean, I only had a few bites of my steak till I had to get up again for the half period drinks. After that I had to get the pre-order drink trays ready for after the game.

So throughout my ten hour shift I had a few bites of food, a sip of coffee and no bathroom breaks. When the game was over and everyone was enjoying their pre-ordered drinks, the host of the event, some big wig rugby player who I don’t know the name of started bringing up speakers. Three famous alum rugby players, again I don’t know the names and the two captions of the England Rugby team, England lost so the mood wasn’t that great. Just as the host was about to close the event, guess who walks in? Steve Williams, Beijing gold medalist in rowing and Victoria Pendleton gold medalist in Track Cycling! It was really cool! Steve Williams walks up to the bar and orders a coke. I handed him the coke, brushed is fingers and was two inches from a REAL OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL! So yeah, after all 80 guests left Sheena handed me three sheets of inventory in which I needed to count every bottle, can, and all my supplies. I also had long list of chores like cleaning the bar and fridges before I could leave and let my bar staff leave. So after about an hour or so we were done. All the servers checked out with Sheena and I was the last to leave. She handed me my tips of the night, 20 pounds, which is really good because people don’t tip here and it wasn’t a cash bar. Then she shook my hand and told me what a wonderful job I did and how should couldn’t tell for a minute that I was ‘still in training.’ So I took that as though I did a pretty darn good job. As I walked back to the coach, a few people who I worked with caught up with me and asked a little about me, I found out that I was the youngest person in the room yet the third in command. Hehehe. I was 19 and I was working with mostly 22-26 year olds.

So in conclusion, I had a wonderful experience in London as a Bar Supervisor and I still can’t believe I pulled it off. It was a great learning experience and I’m happy I took the job. Oops, it’s 1 am!

Cheers

Kirsten