La Guitare

Thom is finally getting used to the fact I will take photographs of him and perhaps started enjoying it slightly. Any free time usually finds with a guitar, working out songs…Thom playing and me singing, camera in hand of course. We usually end up with a little audience of children no matter what the time of day…and then the requests start, usually something One Direction. We now how have ‘That’s What Makes You Beautiful’ down to a tee, to my utmost shame.

The day was, as ever, Carisma’s Got Talent followed by some time at the pool, then some more tidying of our reception (a thankless task, it seems like we never stop trying to clean the thing!). The space that we have, even if it just was the two of us, is miniscule. Having the two of us and an entire store-room and linen section, as well as a hoover, a boiler, a hob, two microwaves…well, it doesn’t leave us much space for anything else. The number of times we have asked for a storage tent, or just anything, and been ignored is now a little bit ridiculous. I don’t know whether we are being deliberately ignored, or whether there are other things that are more important, but you would think the wellbeing of the staff should be somewhere on the list.

The entire evening was taken up by leaving visits. The Friday leaving visits are less rushed than those on the Saturday, as on a Saturday you have all of the changeovers and then you have to see everyone who is leaving and tell them what they need to do with their keys etc.

I know I complain quite a lot about this job, mainly about the amount of work we have to do, the lack of free time, the paucity of resources and the fact we are continuously trying to keep our own home in order while cleaning twenty-three others on an almost weekly basis…but if I hadn’t done this job, I wouldn’t have met Thom, nor or all the lovely customers that we have; all who have great stories to tell and are more than welcoming to two young people whose job it is to try and keep them happy. And I would say we succeed at that. Too bad we’re not told this by our managers rather than our customers.