Freedom!

Today marks my last working day at G.S. I had a good talk with my exec chef last week to explain him (part of) the reason I'm leaving, and thank him for the time I had in G.S. All ended rather friendly, though I'm sure he's quite disappointed that he now has less a hand over the Christmas period. But I honestly do not want to do another week of lunch and dinner of 9 a.m. to 12 midnite. I didn't even bother to talk to the cuisine chef, though he tried to ask a few questions abt my leaving. I just told him, hush, it's still a secret. My pastry chef was very nice, and kept insisting that I should join his pastry team (who's also severely underhanded, and they actually have longer working hours than the cuisine team). I said I would have, and I will still consider, but right now, I can't.

So how did it feel to finish up the last service at G.S? Honestly it didn't feel much! It felt like I'm just leaving for my off days, and will be back next week again. I expected myself to throw a fist in the air and screamed, YES YES YES!!! But I didn't. Almost the same way I felt when I submitted my resignation notice.

Which could only mean 2 things : that G.S lost me a long time ago, that the feeling of leaving was already so long embedded and recognised, especially over those difficult first 3 months, when I already considered the subject. It was only a matter of time and opportunity arising.

The second reason could be, that my leaving was a little premature. Sure 7 months aint' much when you look on it on paper (but try to stay a week in G.S and tell me how it feels after), and a colleague in whom I confide a lot told me, "well, you've already endured for so long, I'm sure you could endure a bit longer if you wanted to". True enough, I think I can still go on for a few months in G.S, if I really wanted to. It will be a prettier picture, but I'm not sure if it will do me any good. Some very evil things have been by the cuisine chef makes it very mentally, morally and emotionally taxing and demeaning. This on top of a physically demanding job. Secondly, we are shorthanded, but it doesn't seem they are adding more on the team anytime soon. I hate to imagine them opening for lunch and dinner like they did during the F1 period, and the team put to extreme exhaust and stress. This model of business-at-all-cost is not what I envision work to be.

This week, I learnt that 3 other guys are making plans to leave too, from asking me how I wrote the resignation letter, to confiding how bad they actually feel during work, how they empathize when I get the short end of the stick some days, cos they get it too, depending on how the 'wind blows' day to day. They are just amazed I didn't wait for the AWS or bonus, I guess I'll hear a lot of their 'good news' once January comes.

What will I be doing meanwhile? I'm going to kick back and get a well-deserved rest, and some vino in the Tuscan countryside!!