Working at Coffee.com

In my final year, I was working at Coffee.com initially as a barista cum IT person. They had 3 pc’s to connect on Internet while having coffee and cake/sandwiches. It was the “in” thing at that point.
After 2 weeks, Gary (the boss) noticed that he wasn’t making much profit on the IT side of the business, so he took out all the PC’s and only left to do for me was make coffee and serve food. It was one of the most tiring jobs I’ve ever done. But don’t get me wrong, I loved knowing how to make a perfect Latte or a Cappuccino. And I loved the fact that I could tell the difference between a Panini bread and Ciabatta bread.
I also love the fact that after work, I could make myself a chicken pesto Panini or tuna and cheese on Panini for half price….yummy!
After about 2 months of working there, Gary sacked the manager (he was actually stealing money from the till) and made me (yes, a foreigner) a manager. I did get a pay rise, but at that point, I was so honored to be trusted to be a manager, ie one who closes down the shop (and checks the sales) everyday. I was also the one who was giving whom to do what. There were a few girls and one guy working under me at that time.
But Gary understood. He knew I was in my Final Year, so he did limit the hours he gave me. And some weeks, he would only give me an hour a day to close the shop, if I told him I have a few too many assignments to finish.
And because I was also quite desperate for money, I managed to handle work AND excel in my studies (thankfully)…
Anyway, one memory I had of the place was:
2 underage (16 yrs old) drunks came in at about 3 pm to get some coffee (I guess to sober up) before they went home. Anyway, Sara and I didn’t know they were drunk, we just thought they were high on drugs. One of the girls dropped her coins when she was paying, and couldn’t really pick it back up, and the other was falling over (without her coffee, thankfully) walking to their table.
They also ordered food. Anyway, Sarah went to the back to prepare their food, I was preparing their drinks. One girl stood up and ran (or tried to run) to the toilet. On the way, she puked all over the place.
The toilet was situated downstairs, and you have to go down a spiral stairs, so you could imagine the pain she had to go through, just to get to the loo…
Anyway, the minute she puked, the other customer’s made faces and moved away from their table. (it was quite obvious why). Sarah and I immediately opened the entrance door to get rid of the smell. The next thing was one I could never forget…ever! We had to clean the sick. (Brits call puke “sick”). It made me and Sarah both, nearly sick. Anyway, after about 30 minutes of mopping with water, floor cleaner and a bucket full of bleach, we had to ask the other customers to leave because it was getting quite unhealthy to eat and drink in a room smell of bleach.
We then asked the girl’s friend to check on her friend in the loo. It was getting abit too long for one to have to use the loo, even in such a drunken stage.
After another 20 minutes, no sight of both girls. One of the regular customers- who wanted to see the drama hence he didn’t leave when the rest did, offered to help take care of the upstairs as I and sarah went downstairs to the loo to check on the 2 girls.
When we got downstairs, both girls were sprawled on the floor, both with their eyes shut, one had her head in the toilet, literally.
We checked to see if they were breathing, I ran upstairs to call an ambulance, Sarah checked if they had a mobile phone on them so we could call their parents etc..
We found:
1) toilet rolls (they stole from the loo and the cabinet outside the loo)
2) soap (used) from the sink
3) 2 bottles (half left) each of what looked like Vodka
4) School uniform
5) 2 ID’s- 1 fake, 1 real…

Hmmmmm….

Anyway, ambulance came almost immediately. One girl was already awake when they came. The other was still half dead.
The nurses had a difficult time carrying her up the spiral stairs, (it wasn’t only spiral, it was very narrow). They had to tie them to the carrier (the plank thing) and pulled her vertically upwards, I was so afraid they might dropped her. But then at that time, I actually wished they did! The trouble she caused us both!
My topshop trousers had bleach stains all over!
&*^%

Anyway, after the ambulance took them, 2 cops came. Just to take our statements. Apparently, they were only 16 yrs old. They left school early to go pub hopping.

Anyway, a week later, Sarah and I both received flowers and Choclates from them to say “sorry” and “thank you”…

Sweet? Well, I can still smell the sick and I am still pissed off that because of that incident, the bleach destroyed my beloved topshop black flair trousers…..