How hosting breeds friendships

[Robin4]

Last Autumn we hosted a Chinese couple from Shanghai who stayed for four nights.

One morning after exhanging a few emails I came out of my man cave and went over and sat in the garden with Chang pu and we shared a cup of tea and we talked. He told me, in Chinese his name means 'flourishing plant or vine' and how he always wanted a garden. Tears whelled up in his eyes as he told me he lived in an apartment and had no access to a plot of land where he could actually grow something for himself. I asked him to come into the potting shed with me and help me strike some Salvias and some Biden for planting next spring. Chang pu was in his element and my feeling was this was one of his nicest mornings.

 Tonight I received a request from 加菲猫 Garfirld and 菖蒲 Chang pu....they wish to come back here and get married in our garden!

I have always said I would never host a party but, here I  am looking forward to this one.

Hosting brings unlikely people together and creates friendships that no other occupation on earth can do!

Cheers......Rob

[Robin4]

@Cathie19

Oh, it would have been lovely to see you again Cathie, but hopefully again next time! You two will never wear out your welcome here!

I am glad Garry's  eye op went ok! I bet he is chafing at the bit to get back on the bike again!

I love the 'Tour Down Under' but I am glad it only goes for a week. Hills roads and towns are not designed to cater for general traffic and the 'Peleton'! The disruption is huge. Those quaint little villages in France and Italy have a few hundred residents and disruption for an event like the bike tour is minimal. Our Mt Barker has 32,000 residents with another 6,000 in neighbouring Hahndorf. It takes hours to get rid of the backlog from the road closures!

All the best possum, hope to catch up again soon!

Cheers.....Rob

[Gordon0]

If I wasn't such a hard man, I'd say that story might have brought a tear to my eye as I look out over my (miniscule) yard on this sunny Sunday morning. Nice one, @Robin4.

[Robin4]

@Gordon0 

I'm serious Gordon, I hated gardening, that was Ade's province, to keep things looking ok, but with the onset of her MS her wonderful abilities have become restricted to barking instructions at me. 

When push came to shove, for a year or so I loathed mucking around with plants, you lavish them with care and set them out where you think they will reward you best, you water them day and night (as we have to do with our 40c plus heat here at the moment)  fertilize them......they give you about 5 or six weeks of splendor and say....' Goodnight Jack, that's it for us!'  What the F did I put all that effort in for??....their gone!

But By God, it grows on you Gordon, and every year I get better and better at it, and more and more proud of it. I look forward to the next garden turn-around.

I took this photo which I have posted elsewhere here about 5 weeks ago........

This is that same shot tonight........

Despite my best endeavours that lovely colour died, is now in the compost bin! But the soil has been fertilized, new stock planted and the area covered with pea straw to not only protect the seedlings from our blistering summer sun but to pump a bit more nitrogen back into the soil, (See, I am up with all these tricks of the trade now) and I feel satisfied I am keeping the cycle going. And when every guest walks around the corner and makes some nice comment, I feel good and it makes it all worthwhile.

Like Ade, I am hooked now Gordon!

Cheers......Rob

[Gordon0]

@Robin4 One of the (few) negatives about living in a city like London is the lack of space (we had a stint in the country and it didn't suit us). But our thin yard (probably 8' x 30') is something for us to tend to during the summer, as are our hanging baskets.

The weather is on the turn here now (getting much colder) but I'm still woken every morning by the birds (minutes before another, bigger 'bird', BA's A380 from Hong Kong flies over) and it's our little bit of nature.

And yes, that is a huge great (Tube) train in the background, but as I work for LU it's akin to taking my work home, sort of...

Cheek by jowl
   

[Cathie19]

So @Robin4, are they returning at a similar time of the year for the nuptials? That is, have you planned the garden display for the big day! 

[Debbie153]

This is what Makes AirBnB so special to me. When I first started, it was pretty difficult for me to always be here for my guests, because I have a full time job. But as of recent, I switched priorities, and have been able to connect more with my guests, forming amazing friendships. Relationships is what makes the world go round.  🙂

[Linda-And-Richard0]

@Robin4.  Lovely story about the upcoming wedding.  Thank you for sharing.  I love reading your comments and seeing the photos of your beautiful garden. 

[Patricia55]

@Robin4

Bloody brilliant!

[Ben551]

@Robin4  brilliant. Just brilliant story. Folks getting hitched in your garden... if that’s not something to brag about, I dunno what is. Magic.

My wife has a couple of pointers to share about Chinese weddings that might help (handing over the keyboard)...

1. Chinese brides are very lucky and get to wear 4-5 different costumes. One will be traditional Red and Gold. Traditional Chinese brides won’t wear a white gown because it is a funeral colour, but some modern brides adopt the Western tradition and will have one White gown change. Tea ceremony has another gown. Banquet has up to 2 gowns.
2. Avoid wearing Red, White or too much Black. Red, Gold or White is seen to compete with the bride. Too much Black is a bad omen. Stick to neutral colours.
3. Traditional Chinese Wedding can take several days and includes multiple parts, including 2 Banquets, one for each family, and a Tea Ceremony. Some families are traditional and some aren’t but most do these things anyway to be seen to honour the parents. Perhaps ask how many parts will be in your garden, but perhaps just the marriage ceremony. Even so, the bride will need to change gown once or twice.
4. Start of ceremony is very loud and begins with lots of drums and fireworks to signal the arrival of the couple (so keep your pets inside and warn your neighbours).
5. During the ceremony the couple will be kneeling at an altar, which if outdoors is constructed using embroidered cloth draped over a simple table. They will honour Nature during the ceremony, so being among so much Nature, like your garden, is a very good omen.
6. Ask if they will be doing “red envelope” and assist the collectors by providing a discrete place for them to collect and store the money as people enter.
7. Unlike Western weddings, Chinese do photography well in advance of the wedding ceremony. They get all dressed up and have a formal photography day. The wedding album is then made up and available for guests to view on the wedding day. Because of this, you may find they ask for a separate photography day in your garden. It’s like a dress rehearsal 🙂

There are a few other things like flowers and bells,  but the couple will decide. I don’t know if you can plant and grow lilies (any kind) but if you can, they are a traditional Chinese wedding flower.

Hope this helps!

[Robin4]

@Ben551

Lalalalalala....too much information, you are starting to worry me Ben! My garden is not up to staging a 'Cecil B Demille' epic. I wasn't too bad until you got to the drums and fireworks bit, my knees started to shake and buckle at that point. After reading that, I am sort of imagining a 72 person propane fire breathing silk dragon with a police escort blocking Flaxley Rd as it emerges from Stephenson Park and snakes it's way towards my front gate!!!

I am aware of Chinese pageantry Ben having had a visit to Shanghai in 2012 but this will be symbolic for them. The formalities will take place in China and this becomes a ceremony and a Honeymoon rolled into one for them, a mixture of east and west. It's early days, all I have had is a request which I have accepted, we will iron out the details, we have a couple of seasons to come and go before it will happen.

I was just thrilled to get the request, probably should have kept my mouth shut but, at that point I felt so good about Airbnb and what it does, I needed to say something!

Cheers.....Rob 

[Ben551]

@Robin4hey steady on, that was my wife writing all that 😛  Yeah I was on board until she started talking about drums and fireworks... um... good luck mate 🙂  I think it'll all be superb.

[Cathie19]

😱🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷 

Seriously, just ensure you have an inkling of number of attendees and expectations. Maybe just the two of them, as you don’t want to have to try and put up their parents as well!

we all know ALL weddings can take on their own life form!

You know the drill.......

Offer what you can... no more! Enjoy! 🍷

[Leo192]

Thanks for sharing this wonderful hosting+guest experience. The connection you made is worth more than a 5-Star.  Love it!

[Lizzie]

This is such a sweet story @Robin4. It's has certainly brightened up my Monday morning, here in cloudy London. 🙂 

Exciting times ahead. 

[Robin4]

@Lizzie @Quincy

When you start out on this hosting journey the main pre-ocupation is making money. Personalities are the last thing on your mind. But little by little your guests chip away at your soul, they worm their way into your life . Chang pu and I formed an instant bond because he has the same values as I have. Here he was from another culture and another part of the world but, we spent a lovely few hours meeting on common ground.....a love of gardening.....never thought I would say that! I had it and he wanted it! 

There is a bit of water to flow under the bridge before this event, but I would love this to be an Airbnb success story in some way without intruding on the event.

We will work on some way to make this public without it being gratuitious and compromising the wonderful spontaneity of the event!

Lizzie and Quincy, this is what hosting is all about!

Cheers......Rob