Cancel, Cancel Give Me A Cure

Because I am 51% Italian, I have it down to science how to play martyr. How do I calculate this? Well, in spite of my Irish sounding name, I did have a mother who happened to be 100% Italian. Since she was much heavier than than my father, I think her portion of me tossed her portion of me closer to the 51% mark. 

Anyway, I have been working really diligently at getting the creativity group off of the ground. I did the first two introductory presentations, but then lined up some speakers for diversity. Who would want to hear me twice a month? I don't even like listening to my own thoughts that often, but necessity rules. 


After wracking my brain, the invitation to be a speaker went out to a few well placed people. They accepted, but one of them heard about who the potential others were and wanted to be first. Then there is the date dance, because it is his birthday. Big whoop, but okay, fine! A little rearranging on my part, a few e-mails, the gracious others move their dates and we have it settled. 
There was hesitation on my part about actually putting names on the new advertising fliers fearing someone would bale at the last minute. Then it seemed that if their name and association were printed and plastered around the city, they would be too intimidated to pull the chicken routine. 
Today, this afternoon as a matter of fact, I received an SMS from this Tuesday's speaker. He may be coming down with strep throat, so thinks it is best to cancel. Hell, I think I may be coming down with a cold sore or worse a panic attack, but as the saying goes "The show must go on." There were times when I was teaching college in CA when I taught with laryngitis. It was inhibiting, but I did it anyway. I sincerely believe he did not think the attendance was worth his time. 

There was a time when Ron and I first met, there was something I had to do that I really dreaded. It seemed like I would have rather been mud wrestling with hippos than do what I had to do. Ron said to me "It is only one hour out of the rest of your life." That convinced me I could get through it. Afterward, I mentally thanked Ron for saying what he did. Those words have resonated repeatedly in my mind ever since, but now I think "Damn, at my age that one hour may not be part of an enormous group of others. The hell with that crap."


A student sent this video to me. When people tell me now, I am going to go Panda on their ass. FYI, some subscribers do not receive the video in their e-mail. If you want to see it, sorry, but you will have to come here to the blog to view.

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US Americans Win the Award

Before you get too excited, this is not a fashionable award any US American should be proud of. If read the posts, you may remember the American husband and wife couple who booked both rooms, came here for a cup of tea the day before to 'find us', spent two hours talking, and then the next morning called to cancel both rooms since we did not have air conditioning. No accommodation under 5 stars has a/c with one exception that I know of and the 4 star hotel that does, rents the air conditioner for an additional 15 Euros a day. Well, something similar happened again. We had a very lovely couple, husband and wife stay here for two nights while they were getting their college aged son situated into his exchange program apartment. They had a friend meeting them here and she booked a room with us. Unfortunately, when she wanted to arrive, we did not have an opening, so I suggested another place for her first two nights and then if she chose, she could move over here. She pelted me with questions and I informed her more than once that her friends would be moving to a self-catering apartment for the rest of their stay on the same day she was to come over to our place. She said she understood, but we still exchanged 12 e-mails back and forth. She came over both mornings her friends were here to have coffee with them and meet up for the day. They raved about how much they liked it here, how comfortable we made it for them and how much they enjoyed their stay. This happened both when we were around as well as when they assumed we were out of ear shot. The morning the friend was to come over, we expected her to have luggage in hand, but she was walking light. She had her coffee, conversation with all of us, and then announced she decided to stay where she is at. In the same breath, she also told us she had her room changed twice in as many number of days. The first room the bed was uncomfortable, the second was too noisy. She was thinking of a third move, but not out of the hotel she was at. She acted surprised to find her friends were moving to an apartment, which was part of our e-mail discussions. As she was listing her complaints about her current living quarters, she said it was closer to the apartment where her friends were staying. She did ask what our policy was for such situations. Up until recently, we did not have a policy, but with US Americans, our fellow country people, being the greatest disappointments of all of our guests, we may have to come up with one. She offered to pay for the first night and we gracefully accepted. After all, she had booked for four nights and we had refused more than one request for those dates. The couple who stayed here, left their baggage until it was time to check into their apartment, so they could tour the city. When they returned, sans the friend, they shared how flabbergasted and appalled they were at their friends' behavior. Last year, there was another husband and wife couple from the US who canceled at the very last minute. Just before they were ready to leave, the wife decided to have elective surgery. Now if you are going on vacation, it is planned out, why would you ELECT to have surgery at the same time? What boggled my mind was that they admitted the fact when canceling. If it were me, I would have omitted the elective part out of the equation. To add insult to injury, they e-mailed me a couple of weeks ago, reminding me of the cancellation and asked if we had a room available in November. When I wrote and said we did, asking if they wanted a booking, they wrote back and said they were just checking. They would get back to me. Insert a Primal scream here! Is this some game? Let's annoy the innkeeper. To be fair, in the years we have been running our B and B, we had one Italian couple who had a motor vehicle accident on the way to the airport causing a no show. They did write to apologize when they were released from the hospital. There was a Dutch couple who went to check in at the airport and found their passports missing from their luggage after taking the train to Amsterdam and called from the airport after being denied boarding. We had one Bulgarian man who booked us through an agency and never showed. He never responded to our e-mails or those of the agency. Though these are just some examples, US Americans win the award for the most last minute cancellations throughout our years of business.

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