HAVE YOU MISSED ME?

Have you missed me?

I’ve missed you.  My beautiful, invisible friends J

Please forgive me; it’s been twelve months since my last confession… err….blog.  March 23 to be exact, and so much has happened within that period of time, that I have had to sacrifice my blogging.

But do not despair! I am back now, and hopefully, will be able to blog a little more now, as my life seems to be settling into some semblance of normality.

So, what’s happened to keep me away from you?

Last time I blogged (and you read), I was starting my new adventure at TAFE.

Well, since then, I have completed my studies, changed my twenty-five year career, left a job I had been at for fourteen years, and continued running a business from home.

It’s been a busy year.

So, let’s look at things in a little more detail (cos I know you have nothing better to do than read about my exciting life! LOL!)

Studies.  Well, I’ve passed my Certificate II in Hospitality (Kitchen Operations), and my Certificate III in Hospitality (Catering Operations).   According to my wonderful trainers (who have over twenty years cheffing experience), I am now qualified.  I can now call myself ‘chef’.

I’m a chef.

Fuck me.

Strange really, as I never thought it would happen.  Like… I don’t know why I never thought it would happen… I was studying with the purpose of becoming a chef and working in the industry…

It’s like… being in the safety and comfort of normality; life as you know it, understanding that ahead of you, there is major change.  However, part of you thinks that the change will never come…. That it will never happen, even though you’re barrelling toward it… then the reality of the change hits you, and it’s… surreal and confronting.

I’ve dreamed of being a chef for a long time, but never really understood that it could happen, and what it would be like when I achieved it all.

At the end of my studies, within a week, I had said goodbye to TAFE, goodbye to the career I had enjoyed for twenty-five years, and hello to a new way of life.

It all seemed so quick.  So final.  I think, four or five months later, I’m still catching my breath.

The study, looking back, was easy.  I do theory stuff well.  I get the importance of deadlines, and I’m quite capable of interpreting text and completing assignments.  The challenge is retaining the information and apply it practically! That’s where the fun starts…

With everything I had on my plate; working three days a week, on campus two days, running my little business and a household on the other two days, I was amazed that I was able to meet the deadlines set.  Shame that most of the other students in the class struggled to.

When I first met with my trainer, she said that I would make friends for life through this class.  I thought she was fucken mental.  I was so NOT interested in making friends.  I just wanted to study, kick ass, and change my life.  100% all the way, and I didn’t want any distractions.

It would appear that my trainer was not so mental after all.

I have indeed made some wonderful friends during my time at TAFE, and not just in my own class.  I made quite a few friends with the VCAL and VETIS kids that were studying there as well.

They were good kids.  Troubled and sometimes little fuckers, but good kids.  My trainer and I figured that I was one of the few adults that wanted nothing from them, and treated them like human beings, so they warmed to me.

They are only human, after all… J

Some days, my fellow cheflings and I would go to one of the café’s for lunch, or get take away noodles and eat them in the student lounge.  We would have coffee and chocolate during our breaks, or I would bring in some baked goods for them all to sample. 

Good times. J

I miss my girls, who I have come to affectionately refer to as my molls.  Friends for life indeed.

As for work, well… that wasn’t so easy.

The boys found a replacement for me; a lovely lady with a lot of experience doing exactly what I did.  She was a perfect fit for the job, but her biggest challenge, like me, was adjusting to change.

She had been forced to leave her last job, as they were going broke and owed her a heap of money.  You can only give charity for so long before it starts impacting upon you personally and financially, so she jumped ship, and came to work with us. 

Five months later, she’s still there and starting to get her head around it all and settle in.  She’s such a nice lady.  I hope that she’s there for as long as I was, because I think she’ll be happy.

As for letting go?  Well, it was easier than I thought it would be.  It was hard to say goodbye to my family of fourteen years, but I was ready for the change.  Ready to move on.

I think of my boys and my old job every day, and wonder how they’re going… hoping that they’re going okay and that they’re happy with their lives.  I haven’t contacted them much… and I don’t really know why.  I guess… I just wanted a clean break for myself, as well as them… space to focus on my new career, and space for them to focus on the new lady that was performing my role… I wish all of them nothing but the best.  I hope they achieve even greater success than they experienced during my time there.

 

So this brings me to my new job.

About August last year, I was contacted by the owner of the local pub.  A chef who had been working there for some years, had just left.  Sometimes, people leaving is not a bad thing, if you know what I mean.

So, how’s this for lucky.

The Head Chef at the pub (a local lady) was getting her hair done by one of my girlfriends (another local lady), and was telling her that this chef had left the pub, and they were looking for someone to replace her.  So my friend (god bless her fucking heart) said ‘you know Lee Buttler is studying hospitality at TAFE?  Why don’t you see if she wants a job?’

Fuck me.  Do I want a job?

So the Head Chef is like ‘Fucken what?’ and immediately rings the owner of the pub, who said ‘Oh shit yeah! I forgot about that!’ and rings me to offer me a job.

A few days later, I’m sitting at the pub, chatting with the Head Chef and the owners, and talking about my future at the pub.

I did a couple of shifts there before I finished TAFE, just to get a feel of it, and for the pub to get a feel of me (lots of feeling going on here…) and as soon as I finished my studies, I finished one job, and started another.

Fucken BAM!

My head’s still spinning.  It all happened so quickly, and just like a dream!

The Head Chef said to me in the interview, ‘So you’ve resigned from your job, which finishes when your course finishes, and you have no prospects for work, or anything lined up.  So you could finish TAFE, and have no fucken work at all?  That’s a big risk.’

She was astonished, but I simply explained that it was a risk I had to take.  A risk to move forward and make a change.  I knew I would eventually get work, but I simply didn’t know when or where.  I trusted the universe, and knew that something would turn up.

Sometimes you just need to back yourself and take a risk, right?  Luckily for me, it paid off.

Lucky for my fucken mortgage, too J

So I’ve slipped into the routine of the pub now, and everyone there seems happy with me.  One of my roles there is a second to the Head Chef, helping her with menus and kitchen routines and shit.  Plus, I’m responsible for the dessert menu. 

Fucken BAM! I love desserts and baking and shit (as you know), and as I progress, I’m getting better and better at it.  I’ve worked out good menu’s that sell, and the right quantities to meet demand.  So, if the staff don’t eat them all (and they often do!), the customers seem to be happy.

As for my little cake business?  Well, it’s still ticking along nicely.  I had to make a few choices at the end of last year, which resulted in me missing a couple of markets.  After all the hard work I’d put in through the year, I didn’t want to throw it all away because of the markets.  The market wasn’t going anywhere, so I shelved it for a few months, and focused on my study.  Big picture stuff.  I feel it was a wise choice, and certainly one I haven’t regretted.

It’s been a massive year of change, and somehow, I’ve managed to come through it relatively unscathed. 

Even Charlie has survived!  Poor bastard. He’s gone from me being home every night and weekend, to the demands of hospitality shift work.  He’s cooking for himself most nights, as am only home a couple of nights. Come winter, I will leave stuff in the slow cooker for him, to give him a break.

Though, in saying that, for twelve years, I would come home after two hours in the car, and cook him a meal.  So fuck him; he can see what the shoe is like on the other foot.

Poor bastard. J

So, that’s pretty much where I’m at for the moment. 

Let’s see what new adventures 2014 can provide.

Peace out peeps.