Seek and you shall find

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Toi, Oui, Toi

I wrote this a few weeks ago when I realized I was forgetting someone, and was ok with it.
The idea, that I didn't care I was forgetting someone who was once so special to me inspired these few words.

While Kirk was over for reading week he put some music on this and we sang it last week at the Acadia Enviro. Society Coffeehaus.

Chaque jour je m'eloigne de toi
J'oublie un peu plus ta voix
Ton sourire me manque
Comme tu le croirais pas

Je pense beaucoup a toi
J'entend siffler ta voix
Je te cherche un peu partout
Et je deviens plus fou

Comment pourrais-je partager
Comment je souhaite te parler
Comment pourrais-je t'expliquer
Comment j'aimerai t'aimer

Oh oui c'est vrai
Certainement tu l'sais
Oh oui, tu sais
Certainement c'est vrai

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Reading week

I'm on reading week, how much reading have I done?
Does reading beer labels count?
Last week Kirk was over, it was awesome! It was great to party with him and it was great to jam with him! I also had three midterms last week and didn't go to any classes besides the ones I had to write midterms in... Now I'm on reading week, it's pretty awesome to have no lectures for two weeks. I can't complain.

I do have an online quiz to submit by 1130 tonight though.. I think it should be illegal to have things due during reading week...

Saturday, February 13, 2010

The dirty, crooked and cheap

As some of you might know, I have been moonlighting as a pizza delivery boy since about October last year. I've recently relinquished my position as a delivery boy, although it was among the easiest of jobs, it put my values and morals to the test.

The pizza joint I worked for is known as the best pizza in town, not that the competition is stiff in town... There are three designated pizza spots in town. His is known as the friendly, welcoming, fun-loving great cust. service one. Always smiling and willing to give a slice even if it's a few minutes past closing time. That's where things start to get a little bit gray, for the people who work for him... His kindness and generosity translates into our non-paid overtime. Although the shop closes at 2 am any day of the week besides sundays when it closes at 12 am, he takes orders till 5 minutes to close. It takes him 3 minutes to prep the pizza, about 8 minutes in the oven and about 4 minutes to get it ready to leave, this includes, boxing, cutting and prepping cash float for me (or the driver working that night). The town is small, it takes me about 10 minutes max to get anywhere in town. If i've got more then one stop to make then I'm usually out for anywhere from 20 minutes to 40 minutes.

When people call at 5 minutes to close, it's because they saw the lineup in the shop, they know he'll take the order on the phone and they know they can walk home and receive their pizza warm, "fresh" and in a timely fashion. For us working for him, it means putting in an hour of "free" work. That's right, as a delivery boy, you are paid a flat rate of "60$" per night regardless of how many deliveries you make or when the shop closes. This pizza joint, never closes early. We were open till midnight on thanksgiving sunday, I worked that night. I delivered one pizza.

I put "fresh" in quotation marks because the freshness of his pizza is questionable, he has a wall of shame in his pizza joint. He calls it that because he puts up the numbers and names of people who order and cancel, don't pay, don't answer the door or made the delivery boy wait longer then anticipated, thus retarding the rest of the orders. In a university town, when people place orders larger then their actual appetite while intoxicated, I find that a tad unfair; shouldn't it be expected that every now and then someone will pass out and not be able to answer the door? Isn't that the risk you take by opening up a shop in a university town? Well, not according to his business etiquette. There's only one way to run a business according to him and its profit, profit, profit, no matter what the cost.

What does he do to the people on the wall of shame? He sells them old pizza and he tacks on a few extra $$$ . For example, if someone made the wrong pizza and it got cooked, it does not go to waste, not to someone working that night, not to him; it gets tossed in the fridge and re-heated the next time someone orders that pizza, the kicker... Regardless of if you are on the wall of shame or not if you order something matching the day old special pizza, you guessed it, you get it. You are probably wondering, well what's the point of the wall of shame then? Are we all screwed? the answer is: yes. Try to understand the statistical inference of someone on that wall of shame ordering something that was made by accident. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, the difference is they get an additional screwing, he tosses a few extra $$$ on the bill, sells them an old pizza and says: "Those sons of bitches, We'll teach them a lesson won't we?". If you aren't on the wall of shame but you happen to get a day-old special pizza, you don't get the more expensive day old special but you do get his justification: "It's only going to ___ I'm sure they've fucked us over before". Plug in whatever address you want, it doesn't matter.

How does it work behind the scenes? Let me start by stating, he licks his fingers after he pours a sauce into a small reciprocal for : wings. garlic fingers, donairs or just about anything, the man loves his sauces. The only time I've ever seen him wash his hands is when he washes the dishes, which is at the end of the night. He handles the cash, goes to the washroom, picks food stuck in his teeth, makes the dough, scratches, eats and does just about everything you'd expect a guy to do. He has a few rags he wipes the counter tops down with, rags soaked in water; the same counter tops that all the boxes of supplies get put on when they arrive from the delivery truck -the back of his pick up truck, the same counter tops he puts his mop bucket on -to grease the wheels cause the bucket is about 7 years old and its wheel bearings are gunked up by dirt and grease -he's too cheap to buy a new one, the same counter top he allows his dough to rise on... I think you get the idea. More specifically, there are two counter tops, a stainless steel one and a wooden one. The wooden one gets a hand/arm wipe down and a damp cloth rub down every now and then. The stainless steel counter top gets a wipe down when it isn't shiny any more. Ya, that's right, when it isn't shiny, you wipe it down with a cloth. His reasoning :"It's stainless steel, just wipe it shiny and its clean".

My duties as a driver... The ongoing "training"... Wondering what "training" a driver needs?
Anyone who has ever worked a job knows that with more training comes more responsability. As a driver, your typical and expected training is:learn to carry the bag, learn to count float, don't forget your debit machine and learn the streets of the town... Typically.
I'd like to state although I'm no slacker -atleast I don't think I am, at some point if the training never ends one does expect pay to match the new responsabilities bestowed upon oneself. Right?

My pay remained the driver's wage of 60$ a night, but I got into doing prep work. I cut cheese, peppers, onions; i sheeted the dough, I cut the dough, I restocked the pop machine and I even prepped some pizzas; I also mopped and swept at the end of the night and helped make donair sauce and pizza sauce. One could say, he found a cheap line-cook with a car he could send out on deliveries.

Besides his shady business morals and his crooked nature, I'd like to reiterate: this guy doesn't care for hygiene. Not for himself, not for the food. I've witnessed food dropped, dusted off, cooked and sold to customers, I've seen him lick his fingers, dip his hand in jars, containers and grab cheese all in the same bacterial moments. I've seen mousetraps in the back, grease stains on the ground around machinery that can't be removed unless scraped off. I've pushed the broom under the counter to pull out a chicken wing that was beyond moldy, it had dehydrated and was in decomposition. I've seen tiles that have rotted away, are shattered and have exposed the underlying rotting moldy wood. I've never seen the oven cleaned and I've certainly never seen the pizza cutter cleaned. He re-uses the oil he can salvage to grease his pizza pans and I've never seen those pans get washed, they just keep getting re-greased.

As far as I know, no one has ever complained of getting ill from eating his food. No one has ever died, or gone to the hospital (I've been here a cumulative amount of time of 12 months split up by 4 months away).

Once, I saw him prep a pizza, sneeze on it and cover it up with pizza sauce. You might wonder how he gets away with all this, well his oven is at 485 ºF, I think it kills most if not all bacteria.
On my last shift, he dropped dough and used it; the pizza cutter fell and he picked it up and cut some slices; he got hot pepper vinegar on his hands and dried them by quenching grated cheese in a container and wiping his hands on his apron. He also swept flour off the floor and back into the bowl used for making dough.

The idea that this happens to your food, the idea that I was a part of it for so long makes me sick to my stomach. I am very glad we parted ways and I am no longer an employee at that establishment. I never plan on ever eating anything he makes.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Over the hump

Today is thursday, I'm so glad its thursday.
Here are a few reasons I'm glad its thursday :
  1. On some calendars Thursday is denoted as "R" day, this makes me happy as my name begins with an "R".
  2. Today I don't have labs and I got to play an hour and a bit of pick up basketball
  3. I have my fist intramural indoor soccer game tonight
  4. I only have two classes today (both done).
  5. I'm beyond halfway through my week
In my books, that's more than enough reason to celebrate R-day, so pull up a chair, crack open a bevvy raise your glass and drink up.