One crazy hospitality day, when hospitable incidents come like the buses!


The start of the academic year is marked by the activities of the induction week.  This year with two “hats” on both at the Postgraduate and the Undergraduate levels the week was full of wonderful hospitality moments.  However one day in particular remains vivid in my mind because it felt both surreal and at the same time profoundly amazing.

My day begins with an early rise at 4am due to a painful back muscle that has been bugging me all week. Since I am up, I might as well catch up with emails and do a little bit of work whilst waiting for the painkillers to do their work.

I lose myself in work and before I know it, its time for a school run. That is when things take a philosophical turn. In half a day four incidents one after the other mark the day and this years induction week.

1 A school ground fight
If you imagined kids fighting you would be wrong, it was two parents that did the fighting this time and in my dazed and hurried up state of mind, I give no much thought to the fact that in a school parents should now better. Or the fact that in most cases including that one we forget that we can have a win-win situation.  Most of us and especially when under stress focus on our own little wants and needs and miss the opportunity to create the conditions that allows success not only for us but for others as well.
Lesson of the day? Play like a kid but don’t fight like a kid, remember you can always win-win.

2 Walking over the lawn!
After the school run I have to make my way to a conference center and not just any conference center… but the international lawn tennis center. When I finally reach there a colleague waves from across and in my sleepy and tired state I decide to cross towards him using the fastest root possible. And that’s when I put my foot in it literally!  For a split second my rational self looked out for signs that said do not step on the grass, but apparently I should have known better and an angry grounds keeper is hooting from his gigantic lawn seeder that I also managed to miss.  At that point I ad not realized that I do not know what I do not know.  I see grass not lawn, I never quite understood lawn tennis even though I lived in Wimbledon for years. No matter my huge indiscretion I still stood my ground (after I got of the lawn) and with an angry face I made signs to the angry grounds keeper that he should have added some signs to his “baby”.  I am lucky he never got off his tractor in a fight between the “ 4am woken up academic with a bad back” and that guy…well my money was on that guy even if I was at peak condition (He had the build of a luchador!)….
Lesson of the day? Never forget that you don’t know what you don’t know and enjoy learning something new even if the lesson comes from an angry lawn keeper whose lawn you just disrespected.

3. A Plumber in a Jaguar!
A couple of hours at the tennis conference lawn later with Postgraduate students  and I need to dash back to the University to  talk to a group of undergrads.  As I reach the university and I park my car I notice something.  A gentleman is trying to park his Jaguar at the University but seems perplexed, I approach and offer to help, I explain we can get him a parking scratch card so that he doesn't get a fine and direct him where to park ...I ask him who he is visiting to which he replied "I am just the plumber" he was dead serious and when he got out of the car he was in full plumber gear.  At this point I must add that I have helped many others in all types of car, cyclists and pedestrians when they seem lost in the University grounds.  I was intrigued by his I am “just” the plumber.  He had judged that I chose to help him because of the car and he (in his mind) didn’t matter.
Lesson of the day? Burn all my degrees and become a plumber… I am only joking, the real lesson is to never judge a book b its cover but also never underestimate the power of your own “cover”!


4. My student our customer! In my talk with the undergrads I decided to show a little clip of my brothers restaurant, a clip that I created for him many years ago and for me it is a small part of my soul, it shows where I grew up one of my first restaurant ventures (we opened the restaurant together).  This was the first time ever I decided to share this clip.  This year I decided that it shows my students that no matter what, I come from a hospitality background and I have a deep love for hospitality and the sea because of my background.  Choosing Eastbourne and the University of Brighton as my current home is no accident.  At the end of the talk one of the students who I thought was waiting to ask a question tells me this: “I can’t believe it, I was there at your brothers restaurant a few days ago and was eating there”.  She had just returned from a holiday in Greece and unbelievably she had visited the little part of the world I call home and had experienced first hand my brothers divine cooking and looked at the views that are imprinted in my mind as my most treasured childhood memories.
Lesson of the day? The world is much smaller than we think and one way or another we are all connected.

I am looking forward to more moments for the rest of the semester. This is the beauty of my varied role, it may be busy to the point that I have to limit my sleep but I wouldn’t have it any other way. It is in the sea of confusion and panic where we must recognise the moments of tranquility and philosophy and use them as “batteries” instead of using them as “walls of bricks” that hinder us from our journey towards happiness.

Have a great start to the academic year everyone.

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