Menowerwhelmery - the finding of less than expected

Last Thursday you saw what sort of accommodation could be found which is full of delight and surprise and kindness.

This Thursday, let me pick up from the point where Julie and Tony dropped me at the bus stop in Mosman and I made my way by bus to Chatswood. There, I was to meet a friend, but that fell through so I continued up the line to Hornsby and Mt Colah. I had made the decision to drop the Beast Luggage on Emm's porch on that day (which was actually a Thursday, but May 9th - yes am all out of timeline, wotchyagonnadoo???) so had packed it with the cabin bag at the top for ease of separation. This I did and then caught the bus back to Hornsby for a 90 minute lunch break before taking the first of two buses it was going to require to get me to Telopea Train Rooms, my next abode.

I arrived in Telopea at 4:45pm, a bit tired and a bit caught out at how very hilly it was. The climb from the bus stop and the convoluted route meant another fifteen minutes before I arrived at the door of a very ordinary suburban house. I was puggled. Ringing the bell I was a little surprised to be greeted by a tiny, elderly Chinese lady with no English. Behind her came a man with about half a dozen words of English.

Let me clarify. When I book via my website of choice, all of the properties are taken for what they say they offer, plus their ease of access and vicinity to place of focus. After five years, I was for the first time to discover one of those which was less than claimed. A lot less. Such as English spoken, clean, and lots else. I DID know that there was to be a share bathroom but a classification of 'homestay' usually means that this is with not more than another couple, maybe three folk.

Rather than give you a litany of what was disappointing about this place, such as the stair which was not declared and the fact this was more a hostel and as many as ten people were using the one toilet, one shower and one wash basin and that all were speaking Chinese and seemed to have no English, that I had to clean the toilet floor myself because I couldn't face it and that I didn't use the washbasin at all for the whole four nights due to the state of it; or that I nearly froze due to the very thin cover and the pillows stank of many heads and my back began to sieze up and became very painful because the matress was so bad and the carpet so poor I couldn't do my usual trick of sleeping on the floor... yes, rather than all that and more, let me tell you a couple of positive things.

The place was a stone's throw from the venue of The Wedding Part Two and when I went out on the Friday morning to find some food (having not eaten since lunch the previous day - no croissants here!), The Man did at least offer me their shopping trolley so I didn't break my arms carrying the bags back up that hill again, and also showed me the 'short cut' through the fence of the Governement Housing scheme to avoid all the curves I had encountered before arriving. The Mama at least smiled and did try to get me to cook in the kitchen, but if I told you of the smell of meat and other (to me) overpowering odours, you will understand my reluctance. I lived on tomatoes, capsicum, avocado and lettuce with wraps and bananas for all but the Wedding Feast.

It couldn't have been a more opposite experience to the previous stay! The bit that really got me was the lack of transparency on the listing. I am working on my review and whether to take it further...

Needless to say I won't be seeking a return visit here. On the Saturday, there was the wedding function (see that here tomorrow) and on the Monday morning, very early, I was out that door. Only at that point did the owner who DID have (limited) English come to introduce herself wondering when I was going to vacate. Too late lady. I headed to the airport.

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To brighten up this post, let me remind you that FFF with YAM-aunty is coming upon us again very soon - Friday 31st May to be exact! Ruffle those pages, seek the online readers, go to page 87 and lines 8, 12, 16 and draw out some words to use in a tale, a remembrance, a poem - something creative with words!!!