Catering @ Inside Film Awards

The big event I was telling you about the other day turned out to be the Inside Film Awards. The IF Awards are the people's choice awards for Australian film that acknowledge excellence in key areas of filmmaking. The evening was a red carpet event which they say has become one of the most highly anticipated celebrations on the film industry calendar, attracting international celebrities and significant media coverage. Something like little Australian Oscars. Without LA, without Brad Pitt.. but Broadbeach, Gold Coast, Australia :)

Great start, girls, and it's done now! :) It probably wasn't worth all that worrying we went through the day before.. but we pretty much jumped in to the unknown and did something we had almost no previous experience on. You could say 'come on, girls, it's just carrying a few plates of food and a couple of glasses of drinks, things you should well know' but when you realise your hands shake and the champagne glasses just don't wanna stay straight on the tray, you wish you were back in the office sitting at your desk, your PC, your chair.. the old and familiar environment where the only drink you have to carry a few times a day is your own coffee cup. Nah, maybe not! Let's stick to the new and exciting stuff, the whole new start far away in Australia :) Anyways, back to Friday. The day started at 3 pm @ Pinnacle where we met Vera, Simone, Lucas and Alex that were heading to convention center with us. The first 3 are WHMs from Germany and Alex comes from France. Yey, some more Europeans, feels almost like home. Lucas and Simone have bought a 'nice' old van to travel the country and that van was our transportation to the glamorous gala night. Would have been fun to park that right in front of the convention center in the middle of all these Ferraris and Lamborghinis the patrons must have driven that night. Anyway, the van didn't break down, although for a few times on the HWY I thought it would, and we got there in time, checked in at 5 pm and waited for the briefing.

The briefing is practically a short overview of the event where the staff is allocated different tasks to be carried out during the night - who takes the bar, who takes the buffet, etc, etc. If it's your first time to do catering, you probably won't understand a word, but no worries, you'll be alright, that's ok - you know all the great Aussie vocabulary to encourage your 'Don't worry, be happy' attitude. So we got the drinks.. not just one but the full-loaded tray of champagne, beer, sangria, water to walk around with on one, or two, or three hands if you had any because it's really heavy. I seriously thought I'd spill them all over but the little secret is: don't look at them, just walk around and pretend you have an empty tray in hand, 'cause the more you keep looking at them, the more they shake. And I did manage to break a few glasses if that's what you were going to ask :) Not in front of the guests but back at the bar collecting some empty ones. No worries, killud toovad õnne, that's what we say back home when you break a glass - fragments bring luck! Done with the drinks, we moved on to the food. Sushi, chicken, spring rolls, scallops with bacon. What a crazy combination to roll seafood in bacon, and believe me the Aussie go absolutely mad about these little greasy things. They would just run over you and stick their little white gloves into the bowl. There you go, madam! And they eat, and they drink, and they eat again. Enough for the $200 they paid for the ticket that night. Funny! Celebrities.. I wonder why I didn't recognize any. I told ya, no Brad Pitt! And no Alf and Sally either, from Home & Away! :) The rest of them still gotta make their way to da Movie World :D

1 am.. We left early, jumped out of the sexy blue shirt and black vest, jumped in the old van, and fell asleep on the back seat while Lucas was driving us back home in Brisbane. It was about 3:30 am when we finally hit the sack tonight.. to get up at 8 for the RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol) test @ Pinnacle (compulsory in F&B - Food & Beverage). The guy that held the 4-hour training was one great character. He would crack a joke on each of us coming from different countries with different language, expectations, laws and experience in F&B service. And all these Aussie expressions: schooner - a large beer glass, grog - a general term for alcoholic drinks, sanger - sandwich, brekky - breakfast, etc, etc. C'mon guys! :) Paid $60 for the fun and the multiple choice test.. and became all so experienced on the Liquor Act from 1992. What did I learn? Hmm.. nothing? (a) We'll see! ;)