Monday, 16 July 2007

...visits should be like the scouts?

Don’t get me wrong, I lurve receiving guests - even more if they are family, after all, this is one of the things I miss the most from the homeland.
Throughout the year we receive many guests, from 4 to 8 a year! So I am kind used to it now.
But maybe because it has been just hubby and me for so long, and the fact I am so attached to my routine, it’s being so difficult to cope. And the facts there is a lot of them who came this time -all at once.
Most part of the current group is the type who is used to pay for everything to have all arranged on the snap of a finger - from cooks, to drivers, and people to carry your luggage.
What makes things more difficult is the fact they are people who also have a huge good heart. We now the moment we need anything, anything at all, they’ll be there to help us, and they’ve proven that more than once. So we have to be thankful and restrain ourselves to saying the wrong thing or come across as lazy or not cooperative.
On the other side…There are so many wrongdoings on their staying I could literally, write a book – it goes from being late to being complaining. And OMG do they know how complain?
Nothing is good enough, hot enough, could enough, near enough, far enough, sweet enough, long enough, pricey enough, cheery enough, exciting enough, cheap enough, pretty enough, ugly enough… the list is endless.
The worst of all is they didn’t prepare themselves. They didn’t know and didn’t bother to look for places to see, food to eat, hotels to stay or cities to visit.
So we have to take care of it all. Decide for them where to go, and almost always, we get it wrong. Despite our best efforts, it always goes wrong.
And then, we have to put up with moaning, whispering and bickering, not to our faces, but always on the background.
It’s hard to keep up with that!
But then, you’d say, a good thing about visits, they have a date to go.
But not in this case! Of course they don’t know when they’ll be leaving! They have changed that three times and still don’t know.
Their trip is like that, dynamic, always taking a different turn and being played by ear. Isn’t that great?? NOT (best Borat style, lol)
I guess I am stressed because hubby and I were trying too much to make this pleasurable to them, as we do to all our guests, but nothing works, because they didn’t plan anything.
Our visitors have, until now, always done their homework, at least a little teeny tiny bit.
But not these ones now, they are completely and utterly lost.
No hard feeling towards them, but I sincerely hope, for the sake of us all, they never ever come altogether again.

That’s why I say, guests should always be like the scouts, always be prepared: for the house to be a mess, for the food to be tasteless, for the place to be horrible…
This way you can be sure to enjoy every second of your stay and appreciate what the host has done for you – i.e. us :)

2 comments:

I Beatrice said...

I have been wondering if these are friends who come to stay with you - or do you take people in as paying guests? Either way, it sounds like hard and uphill work, and I admire your spirit and your sense of humour! I used to have lots of friends to stay myself, in my younger days - not any more though!

I also admire you for having undertaken to read my story from the beginning! What a task - and I fear you will find it an uneven experience. It has been an experiment, growing as it goes along; and only now, halfway through, do I begin to see how very many things I have got wrong.

Later, I'll take it to pieces again, and try to re-constitute it as a book....

(Your English is very very good by the way? Can you really be a Brazilian?)

Anonymous said...

OMG!!!
I don't know what to say... 4 to 8 people in your new house? Do you guys, have any time to seize your new house? I can't believe!
They complain about everything? Maybe it's time to start selecting your visits... maybe...
Good luck!