7 September 2023
Thursday. A guest rang ahead this week to say she would be bringing her own chair, and I have never been so pleased to be told a guest would be bringing anything.
The management arranged it beautifully. There is a gate downstairs that avoids the steps, and they open it when they know a guest is coming, so she rolled into my locker like the guest of honour she was. One chair to a sitting, they tell me; I would have offered two, but rules are rules.
I removed a dining chair to make room at the table. It is the first time in my career I have taken a chair away and felt hospitable.
Her friends did the stretching for the higher shelves. She did the thinking. I am told she was very cross with one of them for being slow, which is precisely the energy I want at my table.
No crawling in my rooms, no squeezing, no climbing through anything undignified. I designed it that way because I dislike getting flour on my knees. It turns out to be good manners as well. I shall take the credit.
— B., your host
