{"id":251,"date":"2005-08-19T11:39:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-19T17:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/royblumenthal.com\/wordpress\/?p=251"},"modified":"2005-08-19T11:39:00","modified_gmt":"2005-08-19T17:39:00","slug":"sundown-ranch-hotel-boshoek-pilanesberg-north-west-province-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/royblumenthal.com\/wordpress\/sundown-ranch-hotel-boshoek-pilanesberg-north-west-province-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Sundown Ranch Hotel, Boshoek, Pilanesberg, North West Province"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Friday, August 19, 2005 &#8212; Later<br \/><\/h2>\n<p><i>Service: *<br \/>Food: Looking grim<br \/>Ambience: * *<br \/>Babe Count: * *<br \/><\/i><br \/>Okay. So the service rating of this place has just plummeted to one star. I haven&#8217;t actually eaten the food yet, but I&#8217;ve just been in the dining room and seen it. It&#8217;s looking pretty fuckin&#8217; diabolical. Here&#8217;s the story.  <\/p>\n<p>I arrive in the dining room. A waitress and a maitre d&#8217; both approach me,  slightly too urgently for my liking.<\/p>\n<p>The waitress says, &#8220;What is your room number?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I say, &#8220;One oh five.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She looks at her computer printout. &#8220;You&#8217;re here for bed and breakfast,  not dinner bed and breakfast.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I just checked in an hour or two ago, and paid for dinner bed and  breakfast,&#8221; I say.<\/p>\n<p>She shows me the printout. I show her my meal card. &#8220;Eish,&#8221; she  says, shaking her head. &#8220;These reception people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The maitre d&#8217; steps in. &#8220;That&#8217;s okay, sir,&#8221; he says. &#8220;Go  ahead.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A woman with a clipboard steps up to the maitre d&#8217;. &#8220;Where you gunna sit this guy?&#8221; she says. &#8220;Is he just one person? We haven&#8217;t got space for one person. We can&#8217;t sit him at a table for eight!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The maitre d&#8217; says to me, &#8220;Sir, is the table just for yourself?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Just me,&#8221; I say.<\/p>\n<p>The woman says, &#8220;Well, we haven&#8217;t got a table for just one person.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I say, &#8220;Well, when will you have a table for me?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The maitre d&#8217; says, &#8220;In about five minutes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She says, &#8220;In about half an hour.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Okay,&#8221; I say. &#8220;So if I come back at eight o&#8217;clock you&#8217;ll have  a table for me?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ya,&#8221; she says.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sorry,&#8221; says the maitre d&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>So I&#8217;m back in my room considering making another cup of tea. (Earlier, the service rating hit four stars because I asked the lady at reception to organise me some real milk for my tea. She had them send over a cup full of the stuff. So I don&#8217;t have to use the powdered coffee-creamer.)<\/p>\n<p>I think I&#8217;ll be asking them for a free drink at the buffet for my trouble.  Harummph.<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\">Roy Blumenthal is a writer, director, artist, and <a href=\"http:\/\/snipurl.com\/visualfacilitator\">visual facilitator<\/a>. Hire him to make pictures of your meetings or workshops.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Friday, August 19, 2005 &#8212; Later Service: *Food: Looking grimAmbience: * *Babe Count: * *Okay. So the service rating of this place has just plummeted to one star. I haven&#8217;t actually eaten the food yet, but I&#8217;ve just been in &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/royblumenthal.com\/wordpress\/sundown-ranch-hotel-boshoek-pilanesberg-north-west-province-2\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Sundown Ranch Hotel, Boshoek, Pilanesberg, North West Province<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p521FP-43","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/royblumenthal.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/royblumenthal.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/royblumenthal.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/royblumenthal.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/royblumenthal.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/royblumenthal.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/royblumenthal.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/royblumenthal.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/royblumenthal.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}