If I had thought yesterday was busy, today’s actions
were even more so. Everywhere was a flurry of activity, preparing for our
soon-to-be, latest arrival of guests - men on ladders changing out light bulbs,
food supplies being brought in, carpets and floors scoured, rooms being readied
one by one. No spit polish this time around – things were deeply gotten into! One
of my jobs had been dusting off the furniture and hoovering up the bar area. I began
to notice all over the floor, and sometimes on the seats of the booths, these small
dark ovalish-shaped pellet objects – about the size of half a raisin. I
wondered what they were and where they’d come from. There were lots of that
scattered about and they kind of looked like they might be little chocolate
candies that had fallen out of a candy box - something like the hard outer
coating of an M&M. Thinking no further than that, and just like the curious
person – and sweet-toothed – person I am, I tried to bite into one to see if it
indeed was a confection or not. It wasn’t, no taste – hard plastic-y texture. I
went back to work. A bit later I needed to go downstairs for something, and
passing by the office, popped my head in to see if either Stacey or Loraine
could shed any light on this mystery. Having described the size and shape the
best I could, Loraine retorted with an immediate, definitive answer – ‘oh,
that’s rat poison.
‘What?’ I laughed nervously, ‘what d’ya mean, rat
poison?!’ Yes, that’s what she had said. ‘But . . . but I put it in my mouth!’ The
two of them got a pretty good ‘well, you silly girl, what are you thinking of,
putting foreign objects in your mouth like a kid?!’ chuckle over that one. We
tossed that around for a while – where poison had been put, etc., around the
hotel and finally came to the conclusion that these must have come from
something Chloe had left behind the day before, when she’d been there keeping
company with her mom. (Whew!) Loraine did think to tell me to watch out for any
brown powder I might come across under the beds – that it was a substance that
had been put down to deter bedbugs. Well, I guess I learned my lesson –
hopefully!
Made a great new friend today – in fact, somewhat
of a soul ‘chambermaid’ sister. As previously mentioned, whereas this is primarily
a slow month, Loraine has wisely made January the time when contracts for
temporary staff (not EVERY day folk, like Stacey, Mikey and Ricky, mostly,
who are more on call, work load determining it) come to an end. That way she
can legitimately let workers go if for some reason she is NOT pleased with
their performance, and not be held liable for fringe of contract or anything
like that. Loraine chose Kat (Katrina) of all the chambermaids she had had back in my
first few weeks here, when we had all those coaches, to sign up on a new contract. (Up
to this point, since new year’s, it has been Stacey, me and Charlotte taking on
the rooms.) So today, Loraine asked me to work alongside Kat to get a REALLY
good lesson in how to ‘do it properly.’ She’s awfully nice; felt an almost
immediate kinship with her. Had NO idea she and I would hit it off so well and
have such a similar outlook. (More about this subject on the day to follow.)
Another interesting, unexpected co-worker thing
developed today between me and Tony – similar handyman to Jez. Tony is the
electronic go-to man. I had been asking him for his help concerning remotes for
the random TV systems we have here at the hotel (composed of a television and a
converter box to pick up the ‘new’ digital service). He had said ‘well, as it
appears you’re working around here, as well as taking an interest in these
mechanisms, you might as well learn how they operate.’ Then he proceeded to caution
me about being careful about my working here and to whom I tell what (of
course, everyone knows I am American, and he obviously had been made aware of
the recent ‘Chase thing’ – that’s the name of the young man that has been the
center of the unhappy immigration troubles around here). I said, tongue-in-cheek,
‘I don’t know what you mean, because what I am doing is NOT working’ - in other
words, I’m not working here. When we bumped into each other next he said
something aside, teasingly, like ‘well, seeing as how you’re not working here,’
etc. And then the next time he addressed me out and out as ‘there’s the illegal
alien.’ Haha – who ever would have thought it would come to this? Me – an
illegal alien – now that’s a switch!
Around noon people starting arriving – so many, it
seems, that I had the ‘opportunity’ of vacating my room, once again. (Also
means I had to give up ‘my office’ and ‘my tub’ – temporarily!) Seems this weekend at the
Richmoor is an annual retreat for postal workers – and their spouses. (I had
very kindly asked Loraine to please be sure and give me 24-hours’ notice before
she needed me to move so I could avoid the pressure of gathering my stuff and
moving it with a deadline breathing down my neck. (I don’t like that feeling –
at all!) Did that happen? Ehm, no. It was Stacey, in fact, who was the one this
morning, as I was taking my ever lovin’ time doing a variety of things that
needed doing, who off-handedly threw out, ‘oh, and by the way, did Loraine mention
that she needed your room?’ What?! Because Loraine and I had talked about this very
possibility and it was not supposed to be written in the cards this soon. Ah,
well, such is life around the Richmoor - ya love ‘em and ya leave ‘em!
[In the end, it turned out that I hadn’t really needed
to have moved so suddenly like that – oh, bother! Because a lot of England was
socked in with snow (even if we weren’t down here at the beach!) and the
roadways were treacherous, a number of people who had anticipated lounging in
the luxury of the Richmoor Hotel by now for the weekend had had to delay their travel
plans. I am beginning to understand how the system works: I have been in a
double-bed room; there are only so many of them, and with this large of a
group, she needs every one she can get. As soon as this group has gone I could
move back to that very special bedroom overlooking the sea, but I can tell you,
I am so tired of moving about – waiting for the next time I’ll have to move
again. I just want to be settled – no matter the size of the room!
Was helping a nice couple who rang the buzzer (located
in the main hallway – for anyone to use whenever they need the attention of the
hotel staff) who were wondering if they were supposed to have a remote to work
the telly in their room. (They knew that some hotels, it seems, checked them
out to their guests much like library books. ‘Not like we plan on watching a
whole lot of television or anything,’ they had added. You always start this
conversation with ‘and have you looked . . . etc.? as it happens several times on
the first day every go around. And they said, ‘well, we’ve definitely checked
BEHIND the bed – because we found a dumbie’ (pacifier/binkie, etc.) Man, tacky!
They just smiled and said, ‘well, after all, it IS a family room, isn’t it?! (so
said because their room has both a double and a single bed) Yep, found it later
underneath the bed – along with lots of trash that doesn’t get picked up by the
short reach of Henry.
Well, I think that was IT: the one chance to
witness falling snow this winter – in Weymouth – and I missed it. Too busy
running up and down the stairs or in ‘my office (room 102 – the only room in
the hotel that picks up the internet) where, coincidentally, there is no window
to the outside. Others here witnessed it and I saw evidence of it all over cars
streaming past outside, but for me it wasn’t meant to be, I guess. Besides
that, I think it must have been a very wet, sleety snow – so maybe if I had
happened to look out I would have assumed it was rain anyway. (I’m calling it
invisible snow.) Weather update: a couple of days later I was
talking to the sister missionaries, especially the one who is a state-side
girl, and whose opinion more corroborates mine due to our commonality, about
the seeming lack of ‘snow-ness’ in the precipitation we had received recently.
They fully admitted that what had come down had been much more like a
rain-sleet than what I would call snow – aha! And not only that, but had added
that local schools had been shut down for the day – you have got to be
kidding!)
Helped with dinner service – I always rather enjoy
that interaction. It was me and Jack, and Ricky, and Alex - grandma honey bee
and a bunch of young blokes. (Tom and a different Jack, a non-family member
‘Jack’)They are all very good to me and treat me like a respected peer.
Couldn’t ask for more than that!
Later in the evening Loraine did the quiz thing.
Oh boy, did this group whoop and holler uproariously, compared to the little
OAPs I have been witness to in the past. I suppose it had everything to do with
age, also this were a group as opposed to strangers meeting up for the first
time – plus these guys also drank a lot more. (Maybe that’s it!)
Byron, my friend in Grimsby, texted me today to
say his first little grandbaby had arrived – a girl. Since northern England has
had their fair share of snow, he is calling her a snow princess – cute. (His
first sentence said something like ‘junior has arrived,’ before adding the
princess part in the second. Full well anticipating this birth, I scanned the
text hurriedly, my eyes lit on the ‘junior’ part (somehow oblivious to the
‘princess’ aspect) and thought, ‘oh, wonderful, it’s a boy!’ It was only later
before talking to Byron on the phone, and wanting to refresh the extent of my
knowledge, that the words, ‘snow princess,’ connected. Boy thing, no – girl,
yes! Haha – for several hours I had gone about thinking ‘she’ was a ‘he!’ (A
funny thing was that when we talking later on the phone and I brought up that
in my experience I had only ever heard the term ‘Junior’ applied to males, he
admitted, ‘oh, yeah, I suppose you’re right.’ He is so VERY new to this grandpa
stuff!)
Photos_
1- Blizzards brought Birmingham to a virtual
standstill on Friday with six inches of snow in eight hours causing transport
chaos. Roads were quiet as many workers stayed at home, while those who did
venture out faced treacherous conditions. Flights from Birmingham Airport
were grounded and rail and bus services were hit by delays and cancellations.
Big freeze set to continue. (Just as Leah predicted, all the world comes
to a standstill when it snows in England! They just don’t know what to DO with
it, nor have the wherewithal to DEAL with it!)
2- almost a box bedroom – pretty, though
3- new - but not the beach - view
3- new - but not the beach - view
