Well, I must say looking after your B and B for the past 10 days has been an amazing experience. I am publishing this letter on my blog so that the many people I know who have found my stay here hilarious and are just waiting to rat on me, know that I am keeping my promise to come clean.
If all I have achieved is to keep the local populous amused and entertained then I feel really good.
So here goes:
- I couldn't find a corkscrew on my first day and in desperation I tried to dig a cork out of a bottle of red wine. Anyway, whilst digging away at the cork it went rocketing into the bottle and a fountain of red wine came out. It was quite amazing - but you now have very clean walls in this part of the kitchen, a very clean fridge and I repainted this bit of the ceiling yesterday - the red seems to be covered and it took 4 coats of paint.
- I told you about the fire in the kitchen because at the time I was not sure if anything would work again and it was one the go when you phoned. I am pleased to say that the griller still works despite all the water that was thrown on and in it. There was a lot of smoke and ash - but the walls cleaned up pretty well and you wouldn't know that there were some really large flames.
- I thought I would dust the really splendid Ikea moulded wall hangings. When I touched one they all fell off the wall. Nothing was broken but it was damn hard to get them back up. It took about 5 days of them tumbling off at odd hours during the night and day (the dogs and I were a bit alarmed especially at night). But they are now up and haven't fallen down for 4 days.
- One morning we completely forgot to make the coffee so I quickly made some Woollies instant and dished that out till the coffee machine did its thing.
- For whatever reason, I must have turned the generator key one notch and when I leapt out to fire it up for the normal daily load shedding (damn nuisance this), the battery for the generator was flat. Well, everyone at the computer shop who shares the generator went home and I frantically found out that Ian had a charger and he said he would come later that day - which was quite all right because we had no power to charge the battery anyway. The generator is fine now.
- When I went to the petrol station to get more diesel for the generator, I filled up the jerry can only to discover that I couldn't pick it up and certainly not high enough to fill the generator. So we filled up another guys can I then I refilled my one to 2/3s. I could manage this. I was looked at strangely at the petrol station.
- The other morning, one of the new people who came here for "breakfast only" couldn't open the garden door - even though there is quite a big sign at eye level that says SLIDE. Instead of sliding the door he pulled it off the rollers and it took 3 of us to prop it up against the wall. The man who came to fix it said it weighed 366kg, which figures for a door made of railway sleeps. I had to block the doorway with chairs so the dogs wouldn't escape and we then had guests clambering over these to get in and out until I got it fixed.
- The Kreepy Krawly in the pool packed up and CJ from the computer shop fixed it for me. The pool now looks great.
- I slipped in the kitchen and somehow managed to drop a little foil wrapped butter down the toaster - which was madly toasting away. The foil caused a few sparks and the butter melted somewhat and made a very small fire. I couldn't have done this in a million years had I tried!
- I unblocked a drain and fixed the electricity every time it tripped. One of the guys from KPMG said he thought we had a special switchbox because power was restored so fast. I had this little operation down pat and moved like lightening.
- I am pleased to say that the dogs and garden are fine - nothing has died.
- I have processed invoices and credit card payments and no-one left without paying. Although, Number 4 did run off with the key this morning but I will email her tonight - hopefully she will post it to you.
There have been other little incidences, but I cant remember now - I am sure your staff, family and friends will tell you about them. And on this subject, you have super family and friends - I am not sure what I would have done without them. Ian was such a star and today Janet brought over Sushi and a bottle of wine for lunch – I could have cried. What stars - I do so appreciate them.
It has been a great deal of fun and I have enjoyed this little sojourn immensely. I did bring paints and canvases here, thinking that I would have time to knock up a couple of paintings - no such luck. I have been busy and a bit sleep deprived but I have had time to picture in my mind what these canvases will look like. I will get stuck into them when I return to Johannesburg tomorrow. I will miss walking the dogs every day and I will miss them. They have been super companions, kept me amused and I just might get myself a dog some day.
Thanks for this wonderful opportunity.
Liz
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