 Changing Places Week 159 W/C 8th March 2009
The changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace was going on as I passed the Queens house last week. The tourists were there with cameras ready and no matter that London is creaking with the weight of recession some things never change. I was in that area interviewing staff for the Kids Clubs in Majorca and Minorca and was using the facilities of a very special agency. In the next room a training course was underway for Butlers. Smart young men with white gloves were being taught the art of discreet service and attention to detail for some of the wealthy families of the world. This is the world of the Greycoat Academy and its agency that supplies staff to the prestigious households of the world including the one just up the road where the Queen lives. The people that pass through its doors are the masters of discretion and spend their working days preserving a world that is only seen in period dramas on TV.
Sun Search has entered that world and finds staff for some of those families who have houses in Majorca. We are often asked for `live in' housekeeping staff, butlers and maids and we learn about the way the `other half' live. To enter this world means leaving your life at the door and becoming immersed in other peoples. These jobs are highly sought after and provide the benefits of living in beautiful places with wonderful facilities and often travelling the world with their household. Many people think that if they have run their own house to a high standard and driven nice cars that they are qualified for these positions and are shocked when we tell them that they are not. In truth this is a rarefied world that few can manage successfully which is why Greycoat are very busy with their training courses. A small Island like Majorca has its own grapevine and word soon gets round about which of the `big houses' it is worth working for. Discretion of course is the better part of valour and our lips remain firmly sealed on what we hear. We have passed our Greycoat training exams and know that the customer is always right …………..
The return to Majorca - to my own much smaller house with no staff (except a patient husband) was fraught and I share the story with you in case you are thinking of travelling out of Luton or Stansted. I began my journey home on Sunday by arriving at the station to get the Stansted train only to find that all trains had been cancelled owing to engineering work on the line. Following all the signs I ended up circumnavigating a local train stopping at all stations to Cheshunt where I could pick up a specially provided coach service to Stansted. This coach was going to the airport via all the other stops the train should have made and was going to take an hour and forty minutes to get there. A taxi - at a cost of seventy-five pounds was the only option if I was to catch the plane. Total cost for the journey to the airport from central London was three times the cost of the air fare not to mention total journey time of three hours. Moral of the story is to check, when you book if there are any engineering works planned - I wish that I had done just that.
A London walk before I left had taken me to see the daffodils and crocuses on the banks of the lawns at Kenwood house. Tramping over Hampstead Heath and walking familiar paths made Majorca seem far away. North London is a great area and spending time in the bookshops of Hampstead, Belsize Park and Primrose hill to get my fix made me realise that Amazon will never replace a bookshop. Sometimes we recreate this experience and spend time in the bookshops in Palma and applaud the selection of English books that we can get but it is not the same as having floors of books to choose from. This maybe one of the downsides of relocating to Majorca but the weight of the books in my suitcase can keep the yearning at bay for a while
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