Where did the time go?

It has been a couple of years since I last updated this blog. February 9th, 2018 to be precise. I see several drafts saved in my folder, where I’ve started with enthusiasm and apparently gotten sidetracked before I’ve posted it. To echo a poignant line from the late Johnny Clegg’s Farewell Tour from his song December African Rain, where did the time go?

A lot has happened while I’ve been gone, personally and professionally, that have left me forever changed. As this is not that type of blog, I’ll mention it once here for context and then we can proceed with the business of hospitality news, which is why we’re all here in the first place.

On 1 October 2018 I signed on as public relations and communications consultant for the City Lodge Hotel Group (CLHG), working for the dynamic Zuki Jantjies, divisional director of sales and marketing. After 24 years as a journalist and later editor, I have discovered a new (to me) and exciting rabbit hole to dive into, to hone new skills, think new thoughts and stretch myself. It has been exhilarating and challenging, which is how we like our passions, and happily takes up a large chunk of my day. I continue to write freelance articles as and when interesting opportunities arise, although far less than before.

Jump ahead – or back – to 11th February 2019 and the unthinkable happened: my husband Paul, father of our only child Kate, died, suddenly, or so it seemed to us his family (even though he was frail and becoming frailer). He was 64.

It has been a little over ten months since we fell through this crack in time and space into a strange, new reality and we continue to pick up the pieces. It feels like working on a puzzle for which we have not seen the picture on the front of the box (which Paul always thought was the way one should build a puzzle). Or rather, to quote U2’s Walk On: “[We‘re] packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been, a place that has to be believed to be seen.”

Many things have kept us going during this painful time – family, friends, pets, nature, routine, rest, cake. CLHG has been a lifesaver – I don’t say that lightly – with the team at central office serving as the fulcrum to my day: equal parts understanding, supportive, empathetic, distracting, inclusive and patient.

The marvel of the hospitality industry is just how very hospitable it is, understanding that humanity is a messy business. What happens in a hotel room or restaurant – the good, the bad and the ugly – also happens in real life. And when life gets hard, really hard, it makes all the difference to be surrounded by people who are genuinely kind.

The main photo is of Paul, me, Kate and her husband Vince. We were at Gilroy’s Brewery during the festive season of 2008. We wish you these holidays what is captured in that image: happiness and health, family and friends, love and goodwill, and a future so bright that all you can do is smile.