Royal Pines & Cascade Gardens

After a few quiet days over the NY’s (relaxing at the pool as usual), my phone finally rang. It was Pinnacle calling to see if I wanted to work at the Royal Pines Golf Resort in Ashmore, not far from here. It was Tuesday afternoon and they offered me a shift for the same night, which I had to turn down as Paul was back on the GC and we had been planning to go out that night. And between the two, I believe you know which one I chose :) Again I must say I didn’t really expect to see him again, but the happier I was when he turned up at my doorstep just two days after the NYE. Welcome back! So we decided to take a walk down to Broadbeach to avoid the crowds in Surfers Paradise. Living right between these two main centers of the GC, it’s actually pretty convenient to walk to either one. While Surfers is definitely the local night life and entertainment paradise where something’s going on every day of a week, then Broadbeach has some really nice top end bars and restaurants which I find much more intimate and relaxing. And although we didn’t have a dinner in any of them that night, but ended up having a nice chat in Cascade Gardens, a beautiful park behind my house, it was a great night out which I won’t forget. At some point it started to rain.. drizzling soon turned into a heavy rain fall.. and it was really nice to sit under one of those covered picnic areas with tables and benches.. and enjoy a good company.

Anyways, coming back to the Royal Pines, Pinnacle found me a few more shifts till the end of the week. As Ann was now working at Toscani’s Café on Cavill Av, it was my first Pinnacle shift without her (except for the Gabba where we were so cruelly separated from the very beginning). However, I guess I’m a big girl and able to do things on my own :) The first night at the Parkview Restaurant was actually much fun, the staff was very friendly and the job quite easy as it was a buffet dinner. I met a nice Brazilian girl Ana who later gave me a lift home as for public transport Royal Pines is in the middle of nowhere with no buses whatsoever after about 6 pm. I also met a Swedish girl Sara who had only started a few days ago and heaps of other nice people (Kat, Celina, Richard, David). If I hadn’t worked there through Pinnacle, I’d probably apply for a position directly with them, but with the restrictions of the agency I now can’t. It means that once you’ve worked through the agency at some hotel or venue, you are not supposed to apply directly with them for a period of 6 months. Avoids agency staff to run along. The day after I was scheduled for both morning and evening shifts, and had to be there by 9:30 am. Ann came with me this time to do a day shift as well, but we ended up working in different departments again. My shift was actually pretty extraordinary as I had to replace somebody at the staff canteen, so instead of serving the guests I ended up serving the other staff, which was way better and more laid back :) Even though, as I later found out, it had been a very busy day compared to the usual with heaps of staff on duty. The night continued at the Parkview buffet dinner where I was already like one of the ‘own’ :) The third day, my birthday, I did go for another morning shift, but after setting, unsetting and resetting a few tables (because somebody decided to have black table cloths instead of the white ones) and running a few trays of snacks out to the guests at the tennis competition held at the Royal Pines, I decided to finish early as there was not much to do. And it was my birthday!! I should’ve stayed at home to prepare the party anyway. Oh, one thing though. Did I tell you about Mr Josh from the other time I was working at the Royal Pines before Christmas? Probably not. Well, this young gentleman, obviously not brave enough, asked Elizabeth, another girl working with me, to get my phone number for him by the end of the day :) Which he didn’t get :) Well, he was there on Friday.. and obviously recognized me while passing by with a few platters of snacks. It was so funny to watch how he continuously ran to get another one.. one by one.. instead of taking a few and not have to come back again :) Hmm.. He didn’t have more luck than the other day though. I was gone before he came back to take the 20th platter.