"I didn't go to bed early after all & I didn't go walking with a guest either. The afternoon I spent basking in the sun by the pool talking to Tony, Benny and a couple of others.
I went fishing last night with Benny & caught two fish much to my surprise & delight. Benny caught one. Benny's easier to control than Robin & behaves better anyway.
Nerida thinks she's pregnant & has had a miscarriage, because of all these mysterious pains she is suffering. I learnt from her yesterday Joscelyn, just before the exams, was pregnant & had an abortion. My friends... what a crowd! Still, I like them because they are so frank & I'm far from being an angel myself.
My guests (some of them) are pretty beastly. One of my tables is absolutely beautiful - lovely people, polite, undemanding, patient and friendly. The other table are sullen, demanding, uncooperative & complaining. They monopolised all the toast this morning so that the other table scarcely got any at all."
You may well be wondering where all this stuff is happening with guests being mentioned willy nilly.
The place is the Mount Buffalo Chalet , a mountain resort in north eastern Victoria. In those days the Chalet was run by the Victorian Railways and we students could get summer jobs there as waitresses. It was a great place to work being very picturesque and accommodation and meals were included as part of the job.
It was easy work and we got most of the afternoon and the evenings off. As there was nowhere else to go - we were stuck on top of a mountain after all - we amused ourselves as best we could.
The Chalet is a grand old guest house (see photo below). It even had a croquet lawn and was just a step away from a spectacular gorge, where in the early morning the mists used to rise up from the bottom and swirl around in a mysterious way.
As we were part of the staff we fraternised with them and also the with younger guests. Interestingly, at that time most of the guests were Jewish families and most of the kitchen staff were Arabs from Lebanon. So I got to know both sides of these levantine cultures.
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While looking for chalet information on Google I discovered, to my dismay, that the Chalet is no longer in operation. I've always intended to one day go there and stay as a guest. Perhaps it will open again one day.
2 comments:
I have thoroughly enjoyed catching up on your posts - great reading.
LOVE the diary!! You must use the material for a 'retrospective' novel or something ...
Thanks for the list of cds and books too - I have pinched some ideas from there.
And your happy birthday Lizzie is descriptive and sweet.
Looking forward to reading more.
CB, I'm glad you enjoyed my posts and loved my diary. The diary reads as very callow to me. Still, it is interesting to read one's younger self. I actually haven't read the diaries for years, but having sought out those two entries, I might take some time out to re-read them.
1967 was a great year for me if I recall - full of wild and wonderful things.
As for using the material for a retrospective novel, I have thought about it, I must admit, but am too lazy to do anything about it.
I hope you find my recommnedations up to your expectations.
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