An Incident: Writing From The Lemon Pie House (English)

Reminder:  The letter that you are about to read was a letter I wrote for my good friend, Oly.  I was just telling him what happened tonight because it involved his friends and his friends' friends.   I found this letter to be very accurate and that is why I'm posting it in my blog.  We've decided to write this post in English so that other non-Tagalog visitors can also understand.  If you would like to read this post in Tagalog, click here.  We encourage all our readers to comment on this matter.  So if you are against business staff cruelty by stupid and arrogant tourists/guests, then you'd better sit and read my story.  Because this might happen to you or your loved ones.  This is a real story and I think you should take the time to read it.  Thank you so much.

Hi Oly, I'm so sorry for not writing to you for so long.  Something happened here at the Lemon Pie House and I thought that you should know about it.  Your friends came here tonight together wth their other friends as well.  One of their friends who I called "the Witch" because of her really big curly hair and with a really bad attitude, went to the bathroom only to find that there was somebody else inside taking a shower. She also heard that there was a washing machine running inside the bathroom.  So the witch came to me and asked me "Is there somebody taking a shower in the bathroom?" I said yes.  Then she asked me another question: "Is that a washing machine that I'm hearing?" I said yes.  Impatiently, she sat on a nearby chair and suddenly yelled to her friends and said "Someone is taking a shower inside the bathroom!!!"  She was so thoughtless of others, not even thinking that that person inside could be the owner or someone that works in the shop.  I got really upset but I've decided to hold back my anger and just let the incident pass.  Until they came back that night.

They came back that night.  It was really a busy night for us staff.  Many people came and ordered meals. But what made your friends' group so distinct was because of their order.  The ugly witch requested bacon which was never on our menu. Not only that.  Someone from the same group had ordered Coke with ICE.  With ICE?  As if there are ice suppliers on the mountains of Sagada.   Someone also ordered a hard-boiled egg, again, that was never on our menu.  They were so demanding and so inconsiderate, not thinking that we would need an extra cook, a stove and a pot only to boil a single egg.  I was literally going crazy on the counter because of all the numbers of customers coming in and out of the shop.  I was taking note of the orders, serving drinks, boxing in pies, welcoming customers who are coming in, and saying goodbye to customers who are leaving when suddenly, the ugly old witch said loudly to her friends "Is the waiter coming or do we have to come to him instead?"  as if she wants me to overhear what they were talking about.  I got really pissed, so while I was on the counter, I told her "We're busy here , okay?  There's a lot of other customers here and you're not the only one that needs attention!" That shut her up.  A few minutes later, the son of the owner came to me and said that one customer was complainting.  He said that their order was not placed and that their food was never prepared.  We've made a mistake of not cooking their groups'orders.  I had to admit that the mistake was mostly on my part of not following the order up.  Me and the kitchen staff had some misunderstanding about the order and I've apologized to your friends about that.  My mind was physically not there and I was pulling reasons out of thin air.   I was totally unaware of the event happening inside the kitchen because I was so darn busy on the counter.  When the group found out that their food was still unprepared, someone from that group that looks like a butch went to our kitchen, which by the way was a restricted area, started pointing her fingers to our kitchen staff and screamed at the top of her lungs and said "You!  And you!  I will eat both of you if you don't finish cooking our food in 5 minutes!!!" Oh my world.  I know they are paying for their food. but they are not paying extra to treat our staff like animals.  We never even received any tips from them and we don't really expect anything from them after all the mishaps that happened.  Not only that, she came back to the kitchen after 3 minutes and yelled "2 MINUTES!!!"

After your friends paid their bill, I've noticed a rush for the door.  They quickly went into their van as if they did something really bad.  They never even finished their food although all the other customers inside the shop were enjoying theirs.  Your friends apologized for their friends'behavior. They were inquiring about placing a reservation for breakfast the following morning when my friend overheard them and suddenly bursted in anger and told us how annoying and bad their friends were.  He told me about what that tomboy did to him and the owner inside the kitchen.  It immediately annoyed me and provoked me.  I told your friends that I would need to talk to their friends and say something about it.   Your female friend requested me not to do that and just let the matter slide.  My friend was so agitated that it pushed me to come to their vehicle.  They cannot just do that to my friends, without us saying anything, let them just leave and simply get away with it. Oh no no, I will never let that thing happen.   So I hurriedly left the counter and went for their van and told the entire group, "We're so sorry for what had happened and we admit that we made a really big mistake.  But that was no reason for you to treat my friends like that!  You cannot tell my friends that you are going to eat them!  We're helping the owner for free so technically speaking, we are not under them.  So we can say anything we want.  You cannot act like that and you are so so wrong!"

After I made that short speech, I could see that their faces went blank.  There's no point of talking to them anymore so I came back inside the shop and apologized to your friends.  I told them that I had no choice but to be straight on them and let them know that they can't treat people like that.  Not in this life.  Your friends tried to reason out on us but I was so upset on how my friends were treated like animals.  After they left the shop, their driver and guides came in and asked us what really happened.  I told them the entire story.  I was not really surprised when they told me that they were having some trouble with that group and that they were so sorry for what had happened.  Those stupid tourists should be thankful that I was not from here because if it happened to any locals, they might get kicked out of their lodge and sleep in their van for the night.   Later that night, a very reliable source told me that even staff of Rock Farm Inn were having a hell of a day with that same group.  They said they were so rude and overly demanding, especially the witch with the big fat hair. 

Anyway, I'll blog about this in Biyaheng Pinoy and share this story to the rest of the country.  I'll warn everyone about them.  Your friends and their friends are free to leave comments in my blog.  I will never delete any comments and I will reply to every complaint that they will make.  Besides, just like what I've told everyone before, we're just helping the owner out.  We're not getting paid so technically, we're not their employees and we can say and do anything we want.  If we receive complaints with our behavior, they can go straight to us.  Lemon Pie House has nothing to do with it.  Sorry if my email got really long.  I'm only venting out my frustration.