IN A former life – or at least, during the decade or so I dropped out of journalism to give the entertainment industry a whirl – the weirdest thing I was ever asked to do (of the things I can actually talk about in public, that is) was to organise a baby grand piano to be taken to a sixth-floor hotel suite at 3am.
The particular star I was “baby-sitting” at the time, Elton John, had an idea for a song in his head and he and song-writing partner Bernie Taupin needed to work on it immediately before Elton’s musical muse fled to bed. “No problem,” I told him far more jauntily than I felt. “Is half an hour okay?”
With help from a couple of good-natured colleagues – smiling and willing despite being woken in the middle of the night – and only 20-minutes later, the piano was ensconced and the star was happy. Everyone else but Bernie was chased away, band members included, but I was invited to sit quietly in a corner and watch the way the magic worked. My reward, I supposed.
The resultant song – anti-apartheid commentary, Passengers – is still played from time-to-time on the radio and every time I hear it that bizarre escapade is summoned up for me all over again.
There were many other odd requests during those years, and there were many times I wished I’d known about such strange requirements when I was still on the other side of the fence and writing a gossip column – but then I’d never have been privy to any of them, would I?
It wasn’t the song that summoned it all up this time, though – I stumbled across hotel group Protea’s 2012 list of weird and “just plain kooky” guest requests put together from submissions by staff at their 130 establishments all over Africa. No names are mentioned, needless to say – that would be commercial suicide.
“Bedding is where the walk on the wild side begins”, according to the hotel group, adding that last year a lone businessman asked for the white duvet cover on his king- sized bed to be replaced with one featuring children’s cartoon character Ben 10.
And while few adults need to be lulled to sleep with a lullaby, “unless they’re Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory, that’s exactly what a manager in Gauteng had to do when a burly guest insisted being sung to was the only sure cure for his insomnia. And strangely, he was right!”
But that’s nothing compared to the task set for a Cape Town hotel manager who had to go searching for a goldfish at 8pm for a guest who couldn’t sleep unless she could watch swimming fish.
Protea hospitality group marketing manager Nicholas Barenblatt says staff take it all in their stride. “After you’ve been asked by a businessman to check his cupboard for monsters, not much is going to surprise you … but few are equipped for odd requests like the Eastern Cape chef who had to magic up goat meat for a guest who wouldn’t eat anything else.” Of course, that was before the current meat scandal. Had he known about it at the time, he could probably have passed anything off to satisfy the guest’s request – after all, that’s what’s been happening to us, isn’t it?
Today’s Chiel is Stevie Godson. E-mail her at
Anyone for room service?
The particular star I was “baby-sitting” at the time, Elton John, had an idea for a song in his head and he and song-writing partner Bernie Taupin needed to work on it immediately before Elton’s musical muse fled to bed. “No problem,” I told him far more jauntily than I felt. “Is half an hour okay?”
With help from a couple of good-natured colleagues – smiling and willing despite being woken in the middle of the night – and only 20-minutes later, the piano was ensconced and the star was happy. Everyone else but Bernie was chased away, band members included, but I was invited to sit quietly in a corner and watch the way the magic worked. My reward, I supposed.
The resultant song – anti-apartheid commentary, Passengers – is still played from time-to-time on the radio and every time I hear it that bizarre escapade is summoned up for me all over again.
There were many other odd requests during those years, and there were many times I wished I’d known about such strange requirements when I was still on the other side of the fence and writing a gossip column – but then I’d never have been privy to any of them, would I?
It wasn’t the song that summoned it all up this time, though – I stumbled across hotel group Protea’s 2012 list of weird and “just plain kooky” guest requests put together from submissions by staff at their 130 establishments all over Africa. No names are mentioned, needless to say – that would be commercial suicide.
“Bedding is where the walk on the wild side begins”, according to the hotel group, adding that last year a lone businessman asked for the white duvet cover on his king- sized bed to be replaced with one featuring children’s cartoon character Ben 10.
And while few adults need to be lulled to sleep with a lullaby, “unless they’re Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory, that’s exactly what a manager in Gauteng had to do when a burly guest insisted being sung to was the only sure cure for his insomnia. And strangely, he was right!”
But that’s nothing compared to the task set for a Cape Town hotel manager who had to go searching for a goldfish at 8pm for a guest who couldn’t sleep unless she could watch swimming fish.
Protea hospitality group marketing manager Nicholas Barenblatt says staff take it all in their stride. “After you’ve been asked by a businessman to check his cupboard for monsters, not much is going to surprise you … but few are equipped for odd requests like the Eastern Cape chef who had to magic up goat meat for a guest who wouldn’t eat anything else.” Of course, that was before the current meat scandal. Had he known about it at the time, he could probably have passed anything off to satisfy the guest’s request – after all, that’s what’s been happening to us, isn’t it?
Today’s Chiel is Stevie Godson. E-mail her at
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