Memories of a B & B

 

 

Our guests (God love 'em) say the darndest things. Recently, two of them surpassed all expectations and wrote two poems about their experience of Nelson House B & B and the Shangri-La suite.

 

Since it is Christmastime, I would like to share their gifts with you. Both poets have kindly extended their permissions but please accept my apologies for any damage done in selecting from the whole. For those of you who have stayed with us, these poems may stir some memories.

 

The following is an excerpt from a piece entitled The House by Don MacLean.

 

" Confidently sitting like a pampered prince, The grey-blue wood frame home, shoulder to shoulder with the towering high-rises, three stories of Victorian splendor, our writing retreat in town for the weekend, on the top floor....

We passed through

a black wrought-iron double gate.

Wide steps rose

to a carved oak door,

and a protective

grey and white cat

challenging us to come forward.

 

...Second floor, a thousand miles

away from the first,

water chimes by a vine-adorned window,

captivating to my partner,

who stops for three minutes meditation, I watch her watch the floating chimes, and

feel warm at her stillness.

Old photos of old people,

sepia images in one dimensional poses,

stories of the past imagined for a minute, there on the second floor, carpets everywhere

to absorb the city noises.

 

Third floor is though a smaller attic door, steeper stairs, narrower staircase, slightly mysterious, very quiet."

 

And by Lisa Shatzky, a small portion of her beautiful poem, The Room at Nelson House.

 

"But for a moment there was nothing else

but the memory of the room where we stayed, walking up the long narrow staircase to an open attic hideaway, a chamber extraordinaire burgundy walls and east Indian books and a bamboo sofa and two paper dragons hanging from the ceiling facing us with their fire eyes and wild tongues.

We spent the day writing...

And the room became an inner journey

to a sacred place

revealing the hidden labyrinths of being and we stayed by the fire sharing the poems over wine and chocolate...

 

The room then gathered us in her arms

and danced us into the night

and the poems grew wings

and joined the dragons

flying..."

 

My best wishes for the holidays and may the new year bring you all much peace and happiness.

 

David

 

Innkeeping - you just gotta Love People

I once read that innkeeping is "the hardest job you will ever love".

I think the author was talking about the long hours and physical labour involved in maintaining a large house. However, the important message is that all of that hard work takes place in a happy and relaxed atmosphere. And all of that work is by your own choice, for your own profit and enjoyment.

If you ever thought you might someday like to operate a B & B, ask yourself if you really do like people, engage with them, manage them and want to know more about them - starting with yourself.

Do these characteristics sound like you?

At the very least - you must be cheerful and optimistic. Well - are you?

To run a bed and breakfast, you can't be afraid of hard work, but it sure is easier if you are self-motivated.

Every day in this job, you are going to meet a wide variety of people. Do you communicate well?

Can you handle more than one thing at a time?

Stay cool when the unexpected happens?

If you truly are a "people person", you will learn from your mistakes and forgive those of others.

It helps if you have an innate desire to keep your home clean and tidy.

It will help more if you don't make your guests uptight over tracking in mud or a spilled coffee.
A bed and breakfast is a home, meant for the living.

Are you flexible?

Practical?

Non-judgemental?

If you can answer Yes to most of these questions, then innkeeping may be your thing. Most of your guests just want to enjoy themselves, unwind and learn a little about the place they are visiting. Generally, their demands will extend no further than asking for an extra towel, explaining their dietary restrictions or picking your brain for local restaurant recommendations.

As it turned out for me, an innkeeper sets the tone and the guests intuitively pickup on it. Be yourself. Be a gracious host and you will have very grateful guests.

Ozzie & Team Nelson House

It is a bright, hot & sunny day in Vancouver but I still feel grey today. The cutest member of Team Nelson House, Ozzie, our Cairn Terrier, is in the hospital, under general anesthesia. Since visiting a Sunshine Coast cottage, frequented by many other dogs, he has developed a stubborn infection in his left ear, that has not been responding to the usual frontline medication. Therefore, it's time for a deep ear flush, some lab work and new meds specific to his problem.

The smile on Ozzie's face has never wavered. Even with one ear limping, he greets our bed and breakfast guests, in fact every human being, with equal love and grace. People always ask if he is a puppy. He is going on nine. If anything, his affection and trust have grown with every passing year.

I have never known him to have a bad day. I have done my best to preserve his canine belief in the kindness of strangers. Everywhere he goes, he catches the eye of young and old, rich and poor. Inevitably, he interrupts their busy lives just long enough to meet his soulful, intelligent gaze and return that happy grin.











How have dogs affected your life?

A Bed and Breakfast Poll. Your comments & questions too!

Top 5 Reasons to Open a Bed and Breakfast

At the the turn of the year, I like(besides Sydney's fireworks) all of the Top Ten Lists, the retrospective Best Of ... Lists, and the look ahead to What We Might See in the New Year.

If you have ever thought that it would be nice to open a bed and breakfast someday, these are five good reasons to pursue your dream:

1. Self-employment is a challenge to yourself with the potential for great personal satisfaction.


2. Innkeeping is a particularly flexible form of self-employment that allows you to define the day to day details of earning your livelihood.


3. You can bring a wide variety of life experience and skills to the bed and breakfast table. A love of cooking might be equally as valuable as a love of home renovation.


4. Owning and operating a B & B is a multitasking delight. Each day is not necessarily like the last. Done right, it should not quickly grow stale.


5. In hospitality, your customers bring the world to your door. B & B guests are not only in vacation mode but they are often very seasoned travellers, who have purposefully chosen the personal touch of a guesthouse over the anonymity of a hotel. They are smart, considerate, genuinely interested in the the place they are visiting and as such, more likely to leave a positive impression of themselves behind them.
   

One egg at a time.

I remember my first B & B guests. They came to me courtesy of a local bookstore named Wanderlust. Don't you love the name? They were from Calgary and I put them in our old "Fiesta" room. Please understand that the year was 1990 and I had just lived the last five years of my life out of Dallas, Texas. The room was done up in a sunny Southwestern decor, complete with howling coyote artwork. The Calgarians loved it and the Texas talk, you know - the awl bidness, new skyscrapers and the legends of the West, formed a mutual vocabulary. At breakfast, I served them a sandwich that I had always loved making for myself - a thick baked ham slice with both Canadian Cheddar and Dutch Edam, slathered in both honey mustard-mayo dressing and tart French honey-dijon. To make it breakfasty, I served it open on a toasted kaiser with a poached egg on top. Apple slices for garnish. Nothing gourmet but all my own invention. They loved it. And I exhaled. This was a recipe for success!

I was my own man. The very reason that justified my walking away from the percs and privileges of a Foreign Service career was right there in the satisfaction of those first guests. Corporatism, whether it be for profit or governmental policy, takes the "best and the brightest" recruits and drains them of the very attributes for which they were allegedly hired. Initiative is slowly drained away. Brave and independent thought is actively discouraged. Be it ever so humble, give me the work that is done with two hands, where a boss or a committee has no say over which direction to go. Farmers, artists, craftspersons, maybe even architects and entrepreneurs are the kind who will save this planet. Innkeepers may make it a kinder place.

Like so many self-employed persons, I have become a one man band, simultaneously a planner, builder, decorator, cook, washerman, cleaner, marketer, webmaster and accountant. In the early days, there was no one to ask the how-to questions to. No internet back then! I sketched out my future on a day to day basis and felt no regrets about losing the "security" of a regular wage or a guaranteed pension. The creative right side of my brain grew abs of steel. The left side applied discipline and focus. One egg at a time.

Just for fun, check here whether you are using more of your left brain or right brain.