Having worked in the corporate world most of my life, I always dreamed of my retirement days and imagined that I would have tons of time on my hands to do leisurely activities.
But then, as I got to my Autumn Years, I had a new dream, and I'm sure many of you will find yourselves in the same boat one day.
I have since learned that one should never wait for that 'one day' to do the things you enjoy as that day may never come.
My plan was to open up a bnb as we had a lovely empty cottage that we wanted to share with holiday makers or business guests. Mom Lily had already moved up to our house and when the last of the fledglings who lived in the cottage departed, Lily's Cottage was born.
So now when you're all at work, we have a bit of a break, and when you're out to play during the holidays, the fun and games start here at Lily's Cottage with us hard at work.
Do I have any regrets? Certainly not!
In fact, we often find the roles reversed with our guests spoiling us and really making this such a rewarding undertaking with their Random Acts of Kindness
So I will tell you a little about what happens when you're hosting guests from all walks of life.
We sometimes find ourselves in awkward situations.
We had a situation where someone booked for 4 guests, and when this massive vehicle pulled into the driveway, alarm bells started ringing. The weary travelers explained that they had a problem; 4 friends traveled with them and there was no bed to be found anywhere in Durban as it was Christmas Eve. So of course we could not be inhospitable on Christmas Eve and offered them our private guest suite which fortunately was not being used, much to their relief but to our disdain as it was more work as the staff had all gone home for Christmas!
We've had all kinds of sportsmen and women; body builders; besides their muscles bulging, my eyes nearly popped out bumping into guys' with pumped up muscles in skimpy little speedos in my backyard :) Hubby missed out on the bikini girls as he was away at the time :):)
We've had Cricketers, Water Polo players, Marathon runners, BMX riders, Drum Majorettes, Swimmers, Squash and more, strange how life takes people in different directions!
Then we had the Darts players who came for a National Tournament, and 3 extra guests arrived; they were late selections and could not find accommodation elsewhere! These guests however were prepared and after sweet-talking us, went to fetch 3 camp beds from their large seven seater SUV!
I was quite concerned as darts players can be quite rowdy, always needing a drink or two to steady their hand before they start throwing those little feathered arrows. Fortunately these guys took their game seriously and every night at precisely 10 o'clock, the lights would go out!
But we were quite amused to see them with a beer in the hand first thing in the morning, yep a beer, not a cup of coffee, as that does not steady the hand before the competition :)
As said, we have guests from all walks of life, we had a high court lady judge who at the time was presiding over quite a prominent case; but so humble and a real fun person!
Our cottage became a kind of safe house for a special guest, of course I cannot go into those details, but that sure was an interesting period.
Lately, we’ve been hosting students from a nearby training centre as well, so we've become kind of 'foster parents' as we encourage them through their training period. One student even called us at midnight on New Year’s eve to wish us a happy new year, that was very touching!
We get to laugh but also cry with our guests; an expat South African living in Belgium has been back many times already, the last visit was a sad one as she’d lost her granny, felt like we had also lost a family member.
She is but one of our returning guests who have become firm friends, all now part of the Lily's Cottage family.
Since the birth of Lily’s Cottage, life at our address has never been the same again; we’ve met some amazing people and are busier than ever before. It’s been an immensely rewarding job in more ways than one, we are blessed indeed!
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