today is my last rest day from casino, and i’ll be working for four more days starting tomorrow before completely abandoning my career in hospitality. i am happy to be leaving my job because to be truthful, working in casino is depressing. if i only had the chance to work elsewhere, i would have done long ago. it is a gambling place and being in the vicinity a-third of my 24 hours each day, i know that there are much more people losing money than winning. perhaps it is easily betrayed by how colorful and brightly lit the lights are. most of them are blinking incessantly to the varying tunes of hundreds of types of gaming machines. blackjacks, roulette, and other kinds of table games have their own billboard all blinking jolly.
this is the kind of environment i saw for four months. people are losing money, and i know how it feels like to lose a lot of money (obviously). more than that, they are hungry. well, i’ve felt hunger of course. but imagine losing money and dead starving at the same time. and so that is why in my customer’s perspective, i know i’ve been the best employee. i always make sure that while i serve their food, i see their overwhelming faces nodding in agreement to the amount of meat on their plates. i’ve been mixing the food combo from their normal set like giving kumara with lasagna, or pouring gravy on pork belly, or giving extra scoop of mashed potatoes which i effortlessly hide by just stacking it on top of another. i do this not because i want casino to get bankrupt, because i know this tiny act of immaturity in me would have little effect in the business, but i realize that giving more food and satisfying what the customer wants would at least lessen the stress they’re apparently having. i could also be bringing back the money they lose through giving more than enough food, and filling their stomach. lol.
despite the melancholic atmosphere, i know that this work has been a lifeline. it paid for my weekly rent, provided food on the table, and eventually more money to use on my way back to the road, which is very soon. i’m leaving auckland this weekend. i surrender the fight of finding an IT job, and what more practical thing to do visa wise than to go and see places i haven’t been to. i don’t really know exactly where i’m going next but one on the list is back to wellington, my entry point to the country. i’m laughing at myself now how arrogant i was in lugging all of my things from home to this country. i was so sure of successfully migrating, finding a skilled job and staying away out of the philippines for a few years that i literally attempted to empty my room, and stuck all my possessions in a 40-kilo baggage allowance. now, i smile that nobody bought my keyboard, speakers, treadmill, and a few books. most of the things i brought here are in wellington, dormantly packed in an oversized suitcase. it contains all my longsleeves used not even once in this land, crisp and fresh from my mom’s ironing 9 months ago, some grocery items from puregold when i prudently thought that bringing essentials like Ariel, Lucky Me pancit canton, some Colgate, and a few toothbrushes, would be a good idea, even the despedida banner from my lawson friends! in a few weeks, i’ll be putting them in a balikbayan box and ship straight back home. i could only hope they enjoyed their New Zealand stint.
