Note from the Writing Team:- This story was written by Julie & Brian. Since they don't have
full access to the blog, I've uploaded it. Kim.
Hi from Amita
The title of this story is “We had a full-house.” And it was too, probably the only time it has ever happened. The logistics of finding where everyone would sleep took some sorting. First Sarvesh wanted to put them all in the hotel at the club. This would have worked well, we would have got everyone in at a good discount too. But Mandara wanted to put our visitors up in our own homes. She said this would be better to get to know them and maybe have some fun too. We all knew what she meant by ‘fun’.
So one nude weekend we spent time working out where everyone would stay. Mandara said she was able to take some and of course we could too. Hansini was all for it, quickly offering to take two couples. The other new couples weren’t so sure but I noticed both followed Hansini’s lead and agreed to help.
This was all looking good until a few weeks before our visitors were due to arrive. It was becoming clear, Jeevan and Mandara’s new house was running behind schedule, was obviously not going to be finished in time. They had moved in and thought they would have more bedrooms available. Since some parts such as the kitchen would not be completed any guests who stayed there would need to take their main meals in our house. Not a problem since Jeevan’s new house was very nearby. But this wasn’t going to happen, they just weren’t able to take guests. (In the end, we did get to have one couple stay there but had to take their main meals with us.)
So we had to work out how the rest could stay in our house and to my surprise we were completely full. The upstairs rooms were taken by our friends from overseas since they would be staying longer than our other guests. We even had to empty a couple of rooms downstairs, converted into bedrooms too. These three rooms were used by some of Katrina’s close family. With all these people and the extra work, it became clear that more staff would be required and so the House Manager set about employing staff for the period of the wedding.
We kept the guest house empty since this would be where David’s family would be sleeping. Even there it was over full as there were only three bedrooms with seven of them including David, plus two small children. Mandara loaned me some beds since her furniture was still in storage and we set them up in the lounge area. Sarvesh did offer them rooms in the hotel but they were content to stay in the guest house.
But it was good having all our friends staying with us. A good atmosphere, with every seat taken at the dining table, full for every meal. When the others came up from the other houses too, it was a crowd, a nice crowd to have.
Our servants noticed the places some of our guests were sleeping in and one day the House Manager approached Sarvesh offering rooms in the servant’s quarters but he was assured that our guests were long term friends who were comfortable with the arrangements. It showed how much my husband has changed; being able to accept such arrangements and having members of our staff feeling they could approach him with help like that.