Shower the People

The Friday formal went off without too much ado. It's good to have that pressure off of us. I spent Saturday working on my book and attending the last of our Wine & Spirits classes. This week was the digestifs Cognac, Armagnac, Calvados, Scotch (highland and an Islay), ruby port, tawny port and a cream sherry. It's amazing I made it back downstairs to keep working on my book. I can tell you, though, while the Calvados was a very yummy first, the Lophraig Scotch was brilliant and the Armagnac fantastic. It took great self-control to only sip at the glasses.
As you might have seen in my previous posts, the process here includes a rather in-depth autobiographical look at who you are, where you came from and what your influences are. My attitude is I have to be very honest with myself and my employer if I am to justify entering their home on a daily basis. Some of the exercises were exhausting at both the spiritual and emotional level. The result of all this work was, for me, a 20 page examination of my past, experience, values and style and standards of work.
The Placement Team then creates a Curriculum Vitae for us based on this work plus several interviews with us, our existing resumes and job experience.
I got to see the draft of my CV last Monday. I was surprised to see excerpts from the transcripts taken during the school's check of my references. These are added to the end of the CV.
Here is the hard part. I was stunned. I still find myself crying at the memory of the responses. I cannot explain the wash of emotion I felt at seeing the wonderful words used by these people. I can only say that I am humbled and blessed to be surrounded by such generosity and love. Thank you all.

Peace Train

It's been a long 3 weeks. The amount of information coming our way can be a bit overwhelming. That combined with the dynamic of 8-10 people spending 12-14 hours a day just about every day makes for a good amount of tension. What is interesting is the group was warned about "Week 5". Right around week 5 the students begin to feel overwhelmed with the information and frustrated with life "in the fishbowl". It can make for some less than pretty moments.

Between our HM Book project and making up for the Memorial Day and Independence Day holidays, there has not been much down time. I worked most of last weekend (18-20 hours) on my Book. We have the last of our wine tasting seminars tomorrow afternoon and then back to the Book. It looks to be another work weekend. However, we are down to the last two weeks. That's almost hard to believe.

I am just about finished with my HM Book. This is where we create a Principal and spouse/partner, their family, children pets, their house, their wardrobe, linens, china, etc. We create their service style and standards. We staff the house, create task sheets for cleaning areas of the house. Create a formal dinner event to honor an international guest. It is a long project with tons of research and data entry. The International Guest insert is due on Monday. The Carmichael's (my principals) will be hosting Richard Carmichael of Carmichael, Baron of Carmichael and Lady Carmichael for a formal dinner. The Book is due July 2, but I plan on being finished but for one or two details this weekend.

We served the first of two formal dinners last night. The class was divided into 2 teams for the events the kitchen staff ("Back of the House") and the serving staff ("Front of the House"). The Back of the House is responsible for preparing the food served. Since these are 8 course meals, there is a lot of preparation involved. Four classmates plus 2 chefs worked in the hot kitchen all day. However, the food was magnificent. The Front of the House polished silver, set the table and made sure the entertaining spaces were presentable for guests. The work is certainly less physically strenuous; however, the table and house are presented to exacting standards. The Principal's guests and the Principal left very satisfied. Tonight we get to do it all over again for 10 new guests plus our hosts.

We have a late start this morning, 10 a.m. instead of 7:30. Time to hit the showers, though, show time is only 8 hours away.

This just in...

A number of articles have run in the past few days with regard to "butlering". Let us be clear that what I am training for is a Household Manager. The distinction is important. A House Manager provides a service. Butlering is a style of service. The perception is that "Jeeves", or worse "Alfred", is the only way to manage a house. (Both, by the way, were Gentleman's Gentlemen or Valets, not really Butlers.)

In any case, the Wall Street Journal has an interesting article. You might actually recognize someone in the pictures. The Independent features another article sighting the apparent shortage of Butlers.

It was another long week, but I am finally finished with the kitchen rotation. Now it is time to kick the studying into high gear. I am doing fine on the tests and quizzes , so far. Now I have to focus on my HM Book. I am VERY far behind the rest of the class on this part. My goal is to have it finished before we have our Formal Dinners.

The Formal Dinners are our opportunity to practice entertainment service with real guests in the Mansion. Local or regional VIPs are invited by the Principal. The pictures in the WSJ show us practicing serving at the table. We will also have to work on everything from floral arrangements, seating charts, 4 different styles of serving (French, Russian, English & American Plated), formal table setting (though we had a lot of practice the week before last with all the media here), door greeting and announcement protocols, cocktail service, after-dinner coffee service, etc. And, that is just the "front of the house" stuff. The list for the "back of the house" is equally as long.

The Principal and a close associate have separate evenings to invite their guests to these events. For our class, the events will be in 3 weeks. We have a lot to get done in 3 weeks.