Ehui told us to report to work at 2pm today. It was my first time working at such a late time (:

The 4 of us all started work in the afternoon, but we didn’t walk to work together. Joanne started at 12pm, YJ and I at 2pm and Angela at 3pm.

YJ and I went to the Grand Ballroom to report and there were a lot of staff there already.

2 major events were taking place in the hotel at the same time and all the ballrooms were used up. A lot of other staff from other departments was called to support for these 2 events.

People from HR, Nadaman, Jade etc etc all came to support. They divided the servers first to Opera Night then the remaining went to the French Chamber event. YJ and I weren’t assigned to anything yet so we just stayed at the Grand Ballroom.

All serving staff was supposed to change into the BQT uniform. It’s so weird to see the HR people dressed in the BQT uniform because they are always in suits and now they are called to serve tables. So, obviously we changed into the BQT uniform for the night too.

The briefing took place at around 2.30pm and a lot of rehearsals were done for the food servers (where to walk, how to serve, how to keep the dishes etc). Floor plans were drawn out, team leaders were assigned to different areas and a hell lot of briefing was done to ensure that all the staff knows their stuff.

A few of us were assigned as drinks servers because the menu for Opera Night had different wines to go with the dishes. So we were assigned to pour all the different wines at our designated tables. Kelvin briefed us on it because he’s the Director of Wines and he is such a slacker compared to the others. He just told us what to do and then ‘smoke break’ or ‘dinner time’. Haha.

The cocktail reception was first, so we went to pour, serve and refill champagne at the foyer. After that, we went inside the Grand Ballroom and started pouring white wine when the guests were seated. We continued topping up white wine because it was meant to go with the first 2 dishes. After that, we started serving red wine for their main course.

For dessert, there was another type of white wine and there was a screw up. There weren’t enough bottles at the 2 bar stations. They took quite some time to get the bottles up and in the end we could only serve some tables the white wine when they were eating their dessert.

After the meal, it was the opera performances. One seat cost more than RMB1000 and for circle seats it cost more than RMB2000. And, we watched the show for free; not like I can appreciate Opera though :P

After all the performance, there was a chocolate buffet outside. YJ and I were assigned to the outdoor bar to pour red and white wine and cognac. It was damn fun because we could interact with the guests (handsome ang mohs). There was this young hot guy that kept coming back for more white wine and kept chatting with us. It was really cold outside and we were shivering!

YJ and I tried opening red wine bottles because we had nothing to do! We also chatted with the banquet staff to pass time.

We poured drinks until 11.30pm? I swear I haven’t stood for so long in such a long time. Headed back to the Grand Ballroom and they were already tearing down the set-up. We waited for all the guests to leave the foyer so that we could take the dessert and chocolates!

The Pastry Chef even asked us to take plates to get the pastry’s to eat. Oh, the chocolate was so good! We were eating non-stop.

After all that, we ended work already. At first, Cherry asked YJ and I to join her for dinner. Ehui offered to send us home via cab and Cherry also offered to send us home with her car. But in the end, we headed to BATS to look for Joanne and decided to stay there instead.

Maxim, Jennifer and Joanne were there. In the end, YH, Gabriel, YJ and I joined so it was like a mini Singapore (excluding Maxim and Jennifer) gathering. Rice and Cook were also at the other side of the bar.

We wanted to wait for Alan to come back to take photos with him because it was his last day and he’s flying to Beijing to work at Care Centre but in the end we couldn’t find him :(

After awhile, we decided to leave at around 2.30am. We didn’t cab back, 4 of us walked home (:

Overall, I think it’s a good experience for us to be involved in Opera Night, although we were made to be drink servers. We could see the planning, pre set-up and execution. It was really an eye-opener to see how a huge event was organized. We also asked Ehui to call YJ and I down if there are any major events so we can experience it and not be stuck at RSVN all the time.