Day 305! Today was a LONG day of work. But definitely needed after a long week off of not working. Today I worked for a few hours in the morning and then worked for almost 9 hours at night! It was a super busy night but a blast and a half bartending.

I woke up this morning and started my morning routine. It’s really nice having a combination of travel and routine! I don’t necessarily enjoy having a super strict routine because I love the free nature of being on the road. But having a routine allows for a much slower version of traveling, especially since I’m working now.

I cut up another one of my mangos and had a huge breakfast to kickstart my day. It’s no Koh Tao 30 Baht muesli bowl but it’s my Australian version of it.

I went to my room after finishing up breakfast and strummed on the guitar for a bit. I then dove headfirst into my new book which I’m super excited about. It’s started off really good and I’m thoroughly enjoying it already.

But… my time to head into work quickly rolled around. So I threw on my work clothes and took my steep walk up the hill to the hotel.

My first shift this morning was slated to be another 2 hour shift. But, yet again, it (happily) turned into a 3 hour shift! I was serving drinks, cleaning, glasses, and even was helping bus plates and dishes from tables when the bistro was getting busy. They really appreciate me lending a hand every now and then on that side of the operation.

It was really nice being back behind the bar and working. As much as I love lounging about on the beach, I need some social interaction and bartending gives me exactly that! A lot of the regulars I have met came in today and I got to see them again (even remembered most of their names).

This will definitely be another job like being a hostel volunteer, where I say the same stories/things to customers. People are excited to ask where I’m from, of course bring up the election, or ask me if I know who Frank Zappa is (or say I look like Sacha Baron Cohen).

But, it’s enjoyable nonetheless!

My manager was happy with my work again today but I did need a break between shifts. So after having me on for an extra hour, I clocked out at 3pm and quickly made my way back down the hill for lunch.

Before I left, someone didn’t eat a salad (or even touch it). So when the bistro offered it up to the bar, I grabbed a to go box and brought it home with me. Also, I chatted with my manager and as of now, the plan is for me to do bartending on the weekends, clean during the week, and once the summer rush hits I’ll be bartending during the week as well! Hopefully sooner, but we shall see.

I made myself another PB&J, had my last clementine and ate the salad I got from work for lunch. I only had about 15 minutes after that to sit on my bed and relax. So I cracked open my book again and read as much as I could in that time.

But then… it was time to head back up for work! I’m really getting my steps in.

I didn’t know it at the time, but this was going to be a very long shift, but a very fun one too.

When I started back working, I could feel that it was going to be a crazy night. The beginning of the night wasn’t super busy, but the two people I met yesterday, Holly and Rachel, told me there was a Halloween bar crawl happening today… so I knew they were ending at our bar. But there was a slow trickle of the costumed party goers and the energy was building up for a busy night.

The shift started out normally, clearing glasses, taking and fulfilling orders, and keeping busy. I think there’s another big horse race day coming up soon, so there’s been lots of action on that as of late in the bar as that gets ramped up.

I had my 30 minute break to eat and I got a chicken schnitzel from the bistro. This was easily the best meal I’ve had from them so far and was exactly what I needed to make it through this long night.

As the night progressed though, my night turned into taking order after order! The bar crawl started showing up in masses and were wanting drinks. I was sometimes pouring 4 to 6 drinks for one group at a time, in rapid succession. I even got some beer pours down in one go, instead of having to wait for the head to settle to see where I was at with the pour (they taught me an easy way to pour by pouring half the beer and then finishing the pour after the head was created and settled).

Rachel and Holly showed up again and were excited to see me! It was nice to know a couple people by name and to hear about their night.

Before I knew it, it was well past my time to leave at 9pm and we were still going strong. There was a live band playing and the dance floor was packed the entire night. The band was playing plenty of sing along and I was jamming to the music as I was making drinks.

But because everyone was so busy making drinks, we started running low on things. So periodically, even with the madness, one of us (including me) would have to quickly change bottles out, grab more ice, fill up lines/lemons, etc.

But in the end, we made it through all the way to close!

The bar shut down at midnight and then it was time to clean. We had to stack chairs, pick up all the plastic cups and trash littered about the bar, wipe everything down, clean everything off, the whole shebang. I ended up clocking out at 12:45am and my manager and coworkers all gave me enthusiastic remarks for how well I handled the night and how quickly I’ve picked up the job.

Since this was my first close, I didn’t know if everyone just immediately went home, but to my surprise everyone hung around for a bit to hangout and have a beer. We played a few games of pool too! This was a big plus for me because it’s been too long since I’ve been around a pool table and miss my days playing with Kit, the Burmese boys, and other hostel goers back in Thailand.

1:45am rolled around and we all decided it was time to call it a night. So I walked down the hill to a beautiful sky of stars!

It was a crazy good day of work! I’m really enjoying bartending so far and I’m hoping to get more days working soon. But, I’ll happily take the beach days this week, hopefully get some work cleaning, AND maybe even get my surf lessons in this week too!

– Elie