The “voice”
of
independent accommodation providers

Joy retired at the end of a long first day in her new B&B in Southend, taking with her to bed, a cup of hot chocolate and a lot of uncertainty.

She went into her new bedroom feeling quite alone and missing her old cosy bedroom with its pretty pink and white curtains, and her co-ordinated covered comfy sofa at the foot of her old bed where she liked to lounge for a while reading a book or chatting on the phone, usually to Sam, in whatever country his platoon was currently stationed.

No point looking back, Sam didn’t like her choice of decoration and soft furnishings, “too girly” he called it.  He was coming home soon and he would prefer his home a little less frilly and fluffy, and Joy was anxious that he should settle down as soon as possible so she needed him to like his surroundings.

She looked round this room and sighed.  Magnolia, you can’t go wrong with magnolia, or so they say, but it didn’t feel as if this bedroom wanted to hug her like her old one.  She could probably get a nice cosy two seater sofa under the window she thought, but better to wait for Sam.

Joy then began to wonder whether most people decorate guest rooms in B&Bs in a very conservative way, or whether most look on them as their homes and put their own stamp on them, she wasn’t sure. She had been excited at the prospect of creating themed rooms, but what if they wanted to sell, would it be a bad idea?  What would Sam think?  They could ask the property agent who sold Sunfair to them, he should know.

She sat on the edge of the bed and sipped her hot chocolate, mulling over the events of her first day.  Joy was anxious about her car, she hoped she would not have to pay for repairs, the legal fees on the sale of her old home and the purchase of Sunfair had proved more expensive than she had budgeted for.  She wondered what Eve would find out for her, she knew Eve would ask others if she could not find the answer herself.   She shuddered slightly as she dwelt on her unfortunate run-in with the Brown family, and she had to admit that she felt rather sympathetic towards Mr Brown, he did have a point really, there was very little room between the beds.  She also thought about Sally Jordan wanting clean towels in the morning and she thought about the helpful comments she had received only a very short while later in response to her first post on the Bedposts forum.  What a great find the forum was, particularly on her first day, at least she had enjoyed one bit of good fortune today, especially as the two ladies who posted replies sounded really nice, as if they understood how confused she felt.  As soon as she had received a reply about Sally Jordan’s towels, she also posted about belligerent Mr Brown.

One of the ladies who posted a reply mentioned that she is a CAB volunteer, Joy thought she would have to remember to tell Eve when she phones in the morning.  This lady thought that Mr Brown was in the wrong, because he did not give Joy time to offer another room (not that there was a bigger room to offer) and everyone knows that cosy means small, but she also thought it was probably a grey area.

The other lady who posted, asked her if Sam knew that she had chosen a B&B, and did they have much privacy?  Yes, they had talked it over and they both thought it would be nice to do something that they could do together, having already spent most of their married life apart.  They were occupying the whole of the top floor which was a self contained flat.  This lady also advised Joy that it would be a good idea to think about how to phrase what she routinely says to guests on check-in, so that she is giving them information rather than asking a question, and according to her, there was already a discussion on the forum about towels, Joy hadn’t seen that, but she promised herself that she would make time tomorrow to try and read more of the comments already posted there.

Joy drained her mug of hot chocolate hoping that this new venture would prove to be the right choice. She was so excited when she woke up this morning, now she just felt anxious.  Perhaps, she told herself, when Eve rings in the morning we can arrange to meet for coffee tomorrow, Eve always made Joy laugh, and she smiled to herself just thinking about the fun they had shared over the years.  Eve had laughed when Joy told her she was thinking about opening a B&B with Sam, she had said to Joy “You’ll soon get the hang of it, but Sam will be as useful as a chocolate teapot, and you don’t need one of those at breakfast time”.  Joy amused herself wondering if she was going to find herself taking a leaf out of Sam’s chocolate teapot. She would also hopefully be able to talk to Sam tomorrow.  He had emailed her today to say that he was being sent out on patrol somewhere shortly so he would not be able to ring her today.  Joy was disappointed but used to it.

Just as Joy was nodding off, she heard voices from below, she awoke with a start, and realised she had heard Mr and Mrs Jordan coming in.  It seemed strange to her that strangers were walking around her home in the middle of the night, and lying there on her own in a strange bed in a strange room that she was now calling home she felt quite lonely.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 at 5:38 pm and is filed under Contract. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.