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Published: January 27th 2011
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After our long holiday in South Africa it was time to head back to the U.K and start working again..blah.. For the first 3 weeks we stayed by our friends Kate & James in their cottage on box Hill while we looked for new jobs. (little did we know that in a years' time we would be staying in the cottage next door working for the same family as Kate worked for!)
After 3 weeks we started working at a 4 star Golf course hotel in Croydon, Le Meridian Selsdon Park Hotel, about 13 miles from London. We first stayed in their staff accomadation block, this was a little dodgy and we weren't happy sharing 1 shower and a toilet with about 15 other people..The staff came from all over, South Africa, Poland, Turkey, Greece, Spain, Italy, France, Portugal, Australia, Switzerland..I guess you name it and they were there..
So after speaking to management about our issues...they gave us a room in the hotel to stay in! Yay! (does that room come with room service and breakfast in bed?..NO!!) So this was home for another 10 months or so..
This hotel can be traced back to 861AD and the
times of King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons. It's set in about 205 acres of beautiful parkland overlooking the North Surrey Downs and has a 18-Hole Championship Golf course (we had many lovely walks there...dodging flying golf balls).
We worked in the hotel's 300 seater Cedar Restaurant as head waitress and somillier, oh boy did we work long hours! sometime's our shift would start at 15:00 and we would end the next morning at 6:00! It was crazy! On Friday nights we had jazz dining,This was really classy and we enjoyed running up and down the restaurant's huge floor while listening to the live band..Saturday nights was a little wilder and louder, this was usually a dinner and dance ordeal, and when the lights go out the guests start dancing! Not really that much fun for waiters!
We were glad when my brother and his wife,(Faizel & Nazley) moved to Croydon from S.A, now we had company and weren't so alone. We had fun job-and-house hunting with them and obviously exploring the country together.
Eventually we got a a flat in Croydon, just around the corner from my brother, and moved out of the hotel as Jason
started working at one of the well known department stores in London- Harrods. I continued to work at the hotel, travelling in by bus for the breakfast shift. A new experience😊
On our days off we would go visit other towns, go for drives in the country side, or visit far away shopping malls, but nothing was like home..we missed everyone and all the things we were used to but we also enjoyed the new experiences and meeting new people.
My friend, Sarah offered me her old job- a housekeeping position for a Lady in Dorking, we would get accomodation and I only needed to work Monday-Friday 9am-1pm, it was too good to be true, so before we made the change... we celebrated with a visit back home to Cape Town!
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