TRUE STORIES FROM A BED & BREAKFAST HOST. I grew up in a B&B since the age of 4, after 20 plus years of having a constant stream of strangers come through the front door. You pick up a story or two....
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For many years language schools were one of the best avenues for guests, they used to come for a few months at a time sometimes longer. Most of them where very nice, polite and hard working, at times I would have up to five or six different nationalities around my table at the same time. One student who stood out was a young man from Saudi Arabia who was a distant relative to the royal family.
He stayed for about three months, attending a weekly English course. He led a double life - a student by day and rich playboy by night. He joined his relatives in London each evening dining at their apartment in Park Lane or an exclusive restaurant - followed by a trip to the casino and being chauffeured home in the early hours of the morning. The chauffeur was a very tall, handsome man who had the body of an athlete and no doubt was highly trained in combat!
The one and only time he ever cooked for me was the day he arrived. His intention was that it would be a welcome gift for having him to stay. I had gone to play a tennis match and on my return, as I walked through the front door, a vile smell was emanating from the kitchen! I walked in to find a fully feathered chicken complete with head and feet boiling away in a pot, with a few prawns for company, and my guest just about to pour two boxes of Uncle Ben's Rice into the raging pot!
I didn't know what was worse, the smell or the thought of having to taste the food. Luckily he wasn't at all offended when I said I never eat meat and fish on the same plate, which he seemed to accept. I left him to it and went out for a walk with the dog to clear the smell from my nostrils.
I wondered, with his full schedule and double life whether he had done enough studying and low and behold with a week to go before his exams, a very worried young man was asking us to do his homework! He attempted to bribe myself and Pat (the handyman) to do it for him. We sat him down and explained that there was no point as he was still going to have to sit the final exam himself. Instead, we sourced a tutor who came every day for a week for several hours and at great cost to our guest. By some almighty miracle, he passed every one of his exams!
