Thursday, February 16, 2006

My Day/Nite as a Flower Ger

Now for the last installment of the 'flower series', I shall relate my experience as a florist.
After this particular experience, I have come to a few conclusions about life in general.
1. Expect the unexpected.
2. Expect the worst.
3. Anything is possible.

I kinda amazed myself really and am actually quite proud of my persevering spirit. ha!
I spent a nite without sleep so as to save my ass not disappoint the guys who need to present bouquets to their Dears on Valentine's.

Armed with 2 Mushroom mayos + 1 Chicken pie from Han's and a Red Pearl Milk Tea from Sweettalk, I got down to work.

First, remove the pesky thorns from the stems. You never know how prickly they can be until you have to slice them off. *Ouch* I think it's akin to removing scales from fish. If you've only ever eaten fish, you'll never realise the effort that goes behind scraping those scales off. (An observation: Red roses tend to have much lesser thorns than pink ones for some strange reason ...)

Next, arrange the stems into bouquets, along with Lavender and Baby's Breath, then wrap them up with layers of 'tissue'.

Sounds easy doesn't it? You bet.

By 3 am I was tired and frustrated.

By 6, I was a goner. My left hand ached from clasping the stems tightly while arranging them, and my right thumb and forefinger hurt from trimming too many stubborn stems with scissors. And for some strange reason, my hands itched. (tink its due to prolonged contact with the stems.. Most prob cos they're laced with pesticides.)

I believe I elevated myself from the ranks of ehm..."No rank" to "Amateur" to "Semi Pro" over the course of a single night, completing almost 10 bouquets. Any florists out there need temps?

Yup, and here are some of the results!
















Notice the disparity in sizes in the bouquet below? Major headache...
Supposed to be pink and white but the white turned out to be pale yellow. *Panics*
Though the supplier insisted its 'ivory white'! My foot!
(Moi is aware that it does look kinda whitish on the pic, but I assure you that's the effect of a flash. Compare it to the color of the baby's breath around it and the difference is apparent)
Thank goodness the customers were not too fussy. *Phew*
yellow bouquet

A bouquet of 39, from a loving boyfriend.
Moi has since 'affectionately' named it the 'Monster Cannonball'.
Thot bubble when tying this one... 'Gf's arm would ache after one nite of lugging this around. And if she uses both hands to carry this, then no hand left to hold Bf's hand' *Laughs*
dan's bouquet
Another view:
dan's bouquet
And all these affort for a profit of about 100 bucks each for biz partner and moi, minus transport, minus cost.. etc.. lesser if i factor in the mushroom mayos.. hah!
I figure my hourly pay is less than 4 bucks. but it was quite a learning experience indeed.

2 comments:

sheepo tan said...

wow... i'm impressed gal! =)

Anonymous said...

lolz.. but hor san san, part of the wrapper of my 39 roses dropped off half way..! haahaa. But overall, it was a good job.. well done