Slammin' In The Morning

Our busy Thursday got off to a fast start. This part is for Marc, and any one else interested in Kiwi cuisine (sort of). I present to you the Tim Tam. Jen first discovered them while studying in Australia and got me hooked on our visit there a couple summers ago. They’re pretty simple, really. Just a chocolate covered biscuit with flavor fillings, but there’s just something about them. Frankly, it’s a crime that we don’t have them in the States.

Anyway, our flatmates, Maelle and Martin are now hooked on them as well. They work in a café and early this morning, Maelle was dreading another day at work. So we decided to get her day kick started by teaching her the Tim Tam Slam.

Step 1: Bite both ends off said Tim Tam

Step 2: Use it as a straw to drink a hot beverage of your choice

Step 3: Enjoy a liquefied, delicious chocolate mess

Good times!

Since we were off to such a great start, next we went into the office to quit our jobs street peddling. We’ve never been happier. It was a horrible job. We thought that we could do some good, but the commission based pay structure really left us feeling bad about things. It’s one thing if people want to give and help out, but we were taught “rebuttals” to try to talk people into it and it just didn’t feel right. The commissions also can bring out the worst in people. The girl that was supposed to be training me, actually stole a customer away from me in the middle of my “pitch.”

At least it was somewhat entertaining. Jen was partnered with a really cool person and the boss was a complete lunatic. We were trying to come up with a description for you and the best we could do was “Michael Scott on amphetamines.” He does these goofy cartoon voices all the time. “OOOOOOOWsome!” “Cah-YOOOOOL!” We kept waiting for “That’s what she said,” but it never came. Too bad. Anyway, both of us have some work lined up that should be much better for us.

Free of that burden, we were able to work security at last night’s twenty20 Cricket Match between New Zealand and England. It was really fun and just an insane cultural experience. Before the match, we were working the doors. Jen took peoples’ tickets and I checked their bags for alcohol, fireworks, guns, etc. It was a nice change to talk to people who were in a good mood and not accidentally tripping over signs while pretending to talk on their cell phone to avoid you.

They’re a little more lenient here with what you can bring into a stadium, but any containers larger than a liter we have to confiscate. They are also really nice about it in that we had cases of water to give to replace your confiscated beverage. Of course, not everyone was cooperative. This one guy went absolutely BALLISTIC when I told him he couldn’t bring in his enormous bottle of juice. We gave him some water bottles and he started dumping them out all over the place. Then he tried to refill the bottles with his juice, but he was just spilling stuff everywhere. We think he got more all over his sandals than in any of the bottles. I got an up close account, but through the crowd, all Jen heard was a lot of splashing, yelling, and garbage can rattling.

Once the match was under way, we were reassigned to the stands, actually right down on the playing field (or “the oval” as they call it). Thankfully, Jen was placed on the side where they are doing some construction, and her intimidating presence was enough to keep the 6 fans in the area under control. She was so close to the action that one of the players came over and chatted about how cold it was during a break in the action.

I was not so lucky. Imagine going to the Yankee Stadium bleachers and they just tell you, “Go over there and tell that guy he can take a break.” That’s it. No instructions and I’m thrown in front of the craziest section of the stadium (the Tui Stands) with 18,000 lunatic cricket fans! They were more vulgar than anything I’ve heard at Yankee, Shea or Fenway, screaming the whole game.

I was even the target of some of their heckling. “Hey, Guard! You suck!” But I got some positive hecklers too. They gave out these roll-up signs that say “Shot!” These two girls kept unrolling it so that you couldn’t see the “S” and screaming at me. It was really hard to keep look intimidating and all when you can’t keep a straight face. The Kiwis didn’t fare so well and the crowd got more and more grumpy. Eventually a couple fights broke out, but for $13.50 / hour, I wasn’t going anywhere near that.

After the match, we got a behind the scenes look at the stadium and even a post game interview for the local TV station. We don’t think we’ll ever look at a sporting event the same again. When we got back to the office, they were asking if people were interested in working the season opening Rugby match next Friday. We decided that if the crowd was this intense for Cricket, we don’t want to contest with the Rugby fans. Instead, we’ll be joining them! We just bought tickets to the match, and no, we will not be sitting in the Tui Stands!

Hope you all have a great weekend!