Most of our first group of guests, the Christmas
lot, approximately 30 of them, left today when their coach came to collect them
around 10 – and by 3 o’clock a whole new bunch, 36 this time, were seated in
the bar for their welcome pep talk. Goodbye old group, hello new one. Repeat!
The last group came on a Sunday, left on a Thursday – these will be here
through the next Sunday morning. Kind of sad – it was overcast EVERY day, and
rainy for PART of every day, while the others were here, and now, just as they’re
leaving, the sun burst out and began to shine. Life is NOT fair! (It was warm
enough that I even went out in my shirt sleeves, as you may see by the photos
below. First time we’d seen the sun for days – HAD to get out!)
Saw for the first time the ‘waving goodbye’ phenomenon
that I am naming the ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ tradition, where EVERY staff person
in the hotel – from the chambermaids to the kitchen staff, plus Stacey from the
office – all decked out in their black work clothes, congregate on the front
steps of the hotel and wave goodbye, vigorously, to the departing coach as it drives
away. (The guests boarded the coach on the side of the hotel, from where it
drove behind the rear of the building, to turn left, and left again, to come back
out onto the Esplanade – headed now out of town, as it drove past the Richmoor one last time.)
I’m giving it that name as it mirrors so perfectly
a similar situation I’ve seen on the popular BBC series called ‘Upstairs, Downstairs.
’ It portrays life in the early 1900s, both from the perspective of the gentry,
who own the estate and live in the manor house (upstairs), and every bit as
relevant, their staff, who lived, loved and interacted below ground. Whenever
the master came or went from the estate, every member of the household, from
the lowliest scullery maids to the head butler, all arrayed in their black and
whites (aprons and caps for the women), would line up outside in a row to greet
him, or wave farewell, as the case may be.
Anyway, I think it’s great! I was telling Michelle,
new friend and head of household staff here at the Richmoor, about my ‘Upstairs
Downstairs’ analogy, and she wanted to know where SHE fit. ‘Well, downstairs,
of course,’ to which she grimaced, (obviously she hasn’t watched the show!) to
which I added,’ don’t worry, that’s just IT!’ While the wealthy silver-spoon
folk think their life is the absolutely ultimate, as the audience soon learns,
while they MAY be the ones with the privileged life, if anything, they are the
ones with the greater number, and degree, of misery and sorrows. Of course, the
servants have their own set of challenges, don’t get me wrong; but as I
mentioned to Michelle, there lies the crux of the matter – the ones who
supposedly should have it all, don’t!
We’re now into what is referred to as ‘Twixmas’ –
the period of time between Christmas and New Year’s. It is a time when many
tourists like to get away and have themselves a little holiday. For some reason
it is a more laid back, less stressful time than when the ‘over-Christmas’
group was here. Soon after this first group of guests had gone, Loraine said,
‘sorry, but I’m going to have to have you move.’ Well, great! No warning,
nothing! Actually, it’s okay – luckily for me I hadn’t unpacked any more than I
had, and you should just SEE the room I have for the next two nights – with an
enormous window that opens out onto a veranda that overlooks the beach. I plan
to have it open during the night for the sounds and scents - just heard another
ubiquitous seagull – YES! After that, for a night, it’s the bunk room for me.
Myfanwy’s prediction has turned out to be prophetic – I AM a nomadic gypsy!
(For now, this is the very same room Carole and I occupied during the time we
were at the singles convention back the first week in November – so I feel
right at home!)
Pretty great exercise running up and down those
four flights of stairs. (I need it, too – way too many sweets sitting around
for an easily-seduced, sweet-toothed person
like me!) I’m beginning to get the hang of things – to see how things run. Today
I was able to jump in and help in a situation before being asked - that always
makes you feel good about yourself, more confident in a new situation. And
Loraine recognized it and thanked me for the assistance. I give her my best
every day by attempting to assess her greatest needs for the day and then going
about to fulfill them the best I can.
As I was helping a couple find their room, they
asked me if I was also a member of the family. Not realizing where they were
going with this, I chuckled and said, no . . .’ In our further conversation I
soon realized that Loraine touts the hotel operation as a family-run business.
At which point I added, ‘oh, yes. I’m a cousin – a rather distant, FIFTH
cousin.’ hahaha.
Today I got called ‘Debs’ again– by Loraine’s Andy
this time. Pretty funny – a name I have always abhorred, but now having heard
it so many times, and out of a British mouth, I am starting to warm up to it.
(I guess the truth is – in England I am quickly becoming the ‘Debs’ I didn’t
know I had it in me to be while back in America!)
[An email I got today: Hi Debs :) I forwarded this email to Paula. See, what'd I tell you!]
[An email I got today: Hi Debs :) I forwarded this email to Paula. See, what'd I tell you!]
This evening when I went down to snatch me some
food, for some reason for the first time I felt like actually sitting down at a
table. (I usually go down for some breakfast and/or dinner approximately an
hour after the meal has been served in the dining room – seems to work pretty well.
Usually I just stand in the kitchen and eat, or else bring it back up to my
room.) After checking to make sure it was alright (‘of course you can!’)–
there’re always a few stragglers hanging around – I chose a little table off to
the side to make myself as inconspicuous as I could. Julie, the blonde, really
friendly, solicitous waitress who I first met back in November, came up and
asked if I didn’t want to join the party of people across the room. I said,
‘oh, no thanks – I’m kind of a loner, happy just the way I am.’ I mean, why
would I want to go and chat with strangers while I’m trying to eat?! Not one of
my favorite things, making small talk – especially when you’re just trying to
eat in peace. After a few minutes, I heard my name being called from the other
side of the room, coming from the table of six people. It was Loraine – I
hadn’t even known she was there, sitting with the group. She had told me that
her two brothers and one sister, and their partners, were coming for their
annual stay at the hotel, but I hadn’t known when that was going to be. Appears they, at least some of them, had
arrived, and I had missed it!
So over I went, obligingly – to meet Loraine’s only
sister, Leslie (a decided brunette in contrast to Loraine blondeness) and her
‘Johnny Cash-ish looking husband, Pete, plus her older, smallish brother that
she said had always been really special to her, David (he had taken tender care
of her during her growing up years), and his fiancée, Karen (a tall, large-statured,
boisterous, happy woman – she demonstrated how she wanted to do karaoke by
singing out some songs she hoped would be on the bill, right then and there –
she was a hoot! I understand there was one night when this actually happened
and I MISSED it. Darn!), plus her father, Ricky. I’m sure I’ll be seeing much
more of them as the week goes on!
Was experiencing a little Christmas letdown today;
that that very special day had come and gone and what had it all been about
anyway – far away from my family, with no real spiritual element to it. Then Loraine
introduced me to her family and told them what a great help I’d been to her –
on Christmas especially. This was all the assurance I needed – that I had made
a difference. It wasn’t so much that I needed to have Christmas a certain way –
for me, necessarily. I just wanted some sort of validation that there had been value
to what was somewhat of a sacrifice on my part – one of my own choosing, I’ll
be the first to admit. Hers had been the perfect words for me to hear!
Photos_
1- adieu to my first load of OAPs
2- the Richmoor version of the 'Upstairs, Downstairs' farewell (pretty fun tradition) - motley crew (to Ricky, only guy in the shot, I am Debs!)
3- the real deal
4- my Christmas display(, Erin)
5-6 shirt
sleeves at the beach – 27 December (that’s how they write dates here), in the
50s every day. Notice the unexpected flora next to the kiosk?! (Pretty great amateur photography – what can I say?! About as good as it
gets:
pole out the head
me
giving instructions to the photographer – as she snaps the shutter)
7- Debs in the main floor 'toilet' (back home it’s a
device - here, a place)
