Street Cred with the Taiwanese

I learned today that I've got pretty good street cred with the Taiwanese and Chinese communities now that I've seen Kangxi Lai Le. I had a young couple in on a date tonight, both Taiwan born, and I mentioned to them that I'd seen this show. They told me that most people in Taiwan and China would know what it is. It's great to know I now have something to connect with about 1/4 of the worlds population on. Nice!

In rent news, Kate still does not know what happened to the money. She cannot remember taking it out of the envelope/brown bag I left it in and doesn't know where it might be but she has decided we will forget the whole thing and move forward. I know I paid her, she trusts that I did, but the money cannot be accounted for. Either way, the situation has passed, and everything is fine. Thank god!

Work today was a long day - 9 to 3 and 5 to 10:30. 11.5 hours total. Long day, but time and a half. After taxes I made about $260. Not too shabby for a traveler. And I had tons of great guests again today.

- The taiwanese couple. They were in their early 20s, younger than me, and on a nice little dessert date. She moved with her family to NZ about 6 years ago and he moved here with his 10 years ago. They are studying at Uni here in Auckland. They suggested I go to Taiwan on my travels, which I have agreed to (it wasn't that hard for them to get me to agree to a new and foreign place to travel to...) and have even suggested a good Taiwanese meal for me to eat at some point, chicken cutlet. I'm going to try and find Taiwanese food sooner than I'm going to get to Taiwan, however. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

- A group of 6 friends/couples in their mid-late 30s. I liked this group because they defied their initial impression, well rather they defied the first judgements I passed about them in every way. This group was all Asian, and in my experience for the restaurant, Asian people can be difficult to deal with and I suspect it is all based in culture. I always try to give them the benefit of the doubt, but sometimes the cultures clash quite strongly and it can be hard to maintain an authentically good mood when serving them. This group, however, was fabulous! One thing I really appreciated was that there was one person in charge of the group, placing all the orders and making all the executive decisions. This makes it much easier for me as the server, and probably for them as well as they don't all have to worry about ordering this that and the next thing. They spent lots of money, which makes for a fun experience for me and them, and had a great time. They asked me to take some photos of them with their smart phones and I did. One was an iPhone which I know how to use. The other phone was some other brand, maybe Samsung, and the phone was in their asian language (Chinese likely). I had a bit of trouble navigating but I took a few pictures. In one of the photos, one of the men's hands was moving, waving at the camera. It was a photo, not a video, but his hand was waving. I have no idea how I did, neither did they, but it made for a funny moment. All in all, this table was likely my favorite for the day.

- I had a family in from America, California to be exact. One of the daughters is living here in NZ and her sister and parents came to visit. Always nice to get Americans.

I'm sure there were more great customers but this is all I can think of now.

I feel like I have more to type but I can't think at this moment.

It's my day off tomorrow and Wednesday. Not sure yet what I'm going to do. Relax, get out of the city at least for a few hours, something, anything. A nice Italian dinner at least one night.

Oh, and a good portion of the staff (maybe 25%) are leaving Ortolana in the next few weeks for a number of different reasons. This is going to mean more hours (and more money) for the rest of us. Yay for the money! Can't wait!!!

Best!