Mad ol’ me
Last Saturday was a day of unexpected events.
I went to Plaza Berjaya for my second Starbucks training session on a Saturday morning. The bummer part was I have to wake up at the crack of dawn to make it to the KTM station in time at 0730, so I’ll reach the Imbi monorail station at 0830 with plenty of time to spare for the class at 0900. The trip was uneventful and I reached there with no problems.
The first person I met waiting at the Training Centre was someone I didn’t recognise (uh-oh). Well, I reasoned, they must have shuffled the class attendance or something. Made the usual pleasantries and then made my way down to 7-11, not Starbucks for coffee (waking up that early isn’t really suitable for my brain). Yeah, I got myself Nescafe, not a cuppa at Starbucks. All right, I’m not helping my employer out here, but for my defence I’m only paid RM4.50 an hour and I only get free beverages after working for at least 4 hours. Happy now?
Anyhow, the worst part is to come at 0900. To my horror, the time for my class is actually 1400! Crap, such stupidity on my part. So, what can I do to wait out 5 hours? I took the advice of one of my fellow barristas from my branch whose class is at 0900. I decided to go over to Berjaya Times Square and pass the time in Borders. After all, going back to SJ and wait it out is an insane idea, and a waste of money too! Plus, the prospects of waiting it out in a bookstore sounds like the best value for money plan(it’s free, so what can possibly beat that?)
After happily walking over to Borders, you would have guessed by now what I found. A closed Borders, and a sleeping Berjaya Times Square. What a bummer. Now, what else could I do? Even Low Yat Plaza does not open that early, and besides, I’m not in the mood for any price huntings for gadgets at the moment. With nothing to do, I just wandered around the Square like a ghost, under the eyes of the security and cleaning staff. I figured, "Well I might as well go find out what else is in this 10 storey mall."
So, looking like a potential Starbucks terrorist scouting for a suitable place to plant explosives I went roaming around (I was bringing along my usual black bag, plus wearing my black Starbucks shirt). In hindsight I just realised why the security wasn’t so interested in me. Apart from being a Chinese (so I can’t be a fundamentalist terrorist), I didn’t bump into any ‘potential’ cafes to bomb. That might explain a lot of things. hehe
What did I discover? The fact that the most number of stores goes to those selling ladies apparels, followed by beauty salons and health foods. Secret Recipie was hidden somewhere to the rear on the 3rd floor (I think). Clickers is all the way on the 9th floor, with some of the IT shops (Idiots!). Food court is actually on the 10th floor??!?! It’s bloody high up, but at least they have a nice view of the theme park though. There’s Lorenzo and Empire on the 8th or 9th floor, selling really nice furnitures (quite expensive though, and the beds seem a bit smallish). That unoccupied space somewhere on the 9th floor is unlocked (what a security risk). There’s some places where you can look out at KL, near the elevators (but not really photogenic, IMHO). There’s only 2 Starbucks in the Square (one at the entrance, the other one is near GSC) and not 3, as somebody once told me. So there you go, the results of a full hour of ‘reconissance’. But it was somewhat boring though, doing all the exploring alone. There you have it, interesting, but paradoxially boring and tiring.
And finally, at 10am Borders opened and I get to enjoy the comforts of a sofa and books. =) A book titled Physics of Superheroes caught my attention (the title plus the fact that the book was yellow was eyecatching enough), so I grabbed it. Bottom line is, not a book that you might want to read, unless you’re a fan of all things comic or are an absolute idiot when it comes to Physics. Then it was on to gaming books (it was conveniently next to my sofa, the ‘How to’ game books). Learnt a bit more about a few card games (blackjack, poker), mahjong and pool. That’s all. And then it’s time for lunch. That’s it. Time’s up. Along the way I tried to figure out which route to Low Yat is quicker from the monorail stations, Imbi and Bukit Bintang. My verdict is Imbi, if you take the additional shortcut (guys, don’t go around Melia, go behind it! You’ll enter Low Yat through another entrance with the O2 shop).
Finally, at 1400 I got into class on Communicating Coffee. Basically it’s all about coffee, sort of a crash course for us to learn the coffee basics so we won’t be complete idiots in serving customers (Tip :Don’t simply mix coffee and drink them because some combinations taste really horrible). And then it’s back to home sweet home. And of all the places, I bumped into ol’ Ches in Carrefour. Haha. Oh well, i suppose friends do turn up at the least unexpected of places. =)
Moral of the day : Double check the class times!
