Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 17:32:48 +0000
From: Allan Brettell <cfgw2000@aol.com>
Subject: Life's Illusions - Chapter 4 - Bring forward new life - Relationships

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Life's Illusions - Chapter 4 - Bring Forward New Life.


That evening spent with Ramon proved to be a deciding point for me, I saw
before me an absolute dynamo, a hard working young man who had so many
ideas bursting to be put into practice.

He explained the first change which had been to install hot drinks machines
in the Restaurant, Terrace Bar and Pool Bar, in itself pretty uninspiring
until he explained that these were no ordinary machines, they dispensed a
high quality product directly into china of a quality much like you would
expect from visiting your local Barista or Coffee Shop.

All of our European Stock were operated on an 'All Inclusive' basis
including Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner along with Alcoholic and Soft Drinks
provided within the package price.

He had installed these machines alongside soft drinks machines and free
flow wine and beer taps allowing our guests the freedom to dispense any
drink except spirits as and when they wanted without the need to wait for
someone to make the drink for them.

He explained the number of staff required previously to operate the Main
Bar (where the hot and cold drinks were prepared for the terrace) and the
Pool Bar was 8 full time employees throughout the day, (2 staff on the bar
making and dispensing hot and cold drinks to the guests on the terrace, 3
staff doing much the same on the Pool Bar and 3 floating staff collecting
used crockery and returning it for cleaning from the Pool Bar, Pool area,
Gardens and Terrace).  The staff had been reduced to 4 (2 to staff the pool
bar and 2 to collect the used crockery from all areas).  He took great
trouble to stress that to date, no staff had lost their jobs, nor suffered
a drop in salary, all of the surplus staff had been relocated to other
positions.

Ramon impressed me with how he could recite the unit cost and savings made.

The Main Bar Lounge now remained closed during the day and so was cleaned
only once in the morning and was ready to open for the evening
entertainment, saving on both staff for the bar during the day and cleaning
staff who previously had to clean the bar at least 3 times a day.

The unit cost for hot and cold drinks was substantially lower, the quality
higher and the guest experience was enhanced by having drinks available
whenever they wanted.

Ramon had implemented his drinks policy in the Torremolinas Woodruff and
now the Madrid Woodruff.

The guest feedback was glowingly positive.

Within the next week his feedback information and cost analysis sheets
would be available for me to use in negotiating contracts with national
suppliers (this in itself would present the opportunity for a further
reduction in unit cost) to allow the rolling out of his policy throughout
Spain and eventually across the whole of Europe and eventually I hoped, if
we could work out how to do it, across North America as well.

Thankfully things started to settle down and the Hotel Directors old and
new had commenced breathing new life into their properties, searching out
the right candidates to be appointed as Hotel Directors, new staff to fill
the previous ghost positions.

I'd seen invoices coming in for maintenance and decorating costs which I'd
fully expected, I wanted all properties back up to standard as soon as
possible and that could only be achieved by bringing in contractors.

I saw this as an initial cost we would have to swallow in the interest of
long term gain.

I'd sent out an open letter to each member of staff confessing that I was
upset, appalled even, to think that some of them had not been treated
fairly in the past and pledged that this would never happen again.

I informed them I'd instructed each Hotel Director to establish a staff
forum where anything of concern could be discussed openly on a monthly
basis and I added the email address of both myself and Pip my PA for cases
where they felt they were not being heard or treated badly, along with an
assurance, every communication would be treated with the utmost secrecy
unless the sender gave permission for their name to be disclosed.

I thought we had weathered the worst and I could relax a little until I got
word from the Spanish Public Prosecutor.

Sylvio Ramos had implicated my father in the scam and had the paper trail
evidence to prove it.  The Spanish Authorities had issued an arrest warrant
for my father.

A third of all the embezzled funds had gone to my father, paid into a
special account that had already been emptied of the many millions it had
contained, I was stunned.

My father had disappeared, we suspected to some South American country with
no extradition treaty and it didn't look as though he would be returning,
not with the prospect of a jail term if he did.

A few weeks later his lawyers contacted Gramps with an offer to sell his
shares in Woodruff.

Gramps took the offer paying 1.5 Billion Dollars to see the back of my
father and ensure the shares stayed within the family, they were worth
around 3.5 Billion Dollars so my father had accepted a massive drop but he
now had the funds to finance a lavish lifestyle and stay out of the reach
of justice.

Lenny had completed the purchase of Thorn Plaza as she had named my new
home and with my input her architect and builder were well on the way to
completing my castle which Lenny told me confidently would be done inside 3
months.

I was surprised but Lenny explained the only real work was on the
restaurant floors and my penthouse floor as all the other floors remained
true to the original spec and they'd been finished to the point where they
only needed the final fix and decoration when the developer ran into money
problems.

When the building was completed there would be a grand restaurant on the
ground and first floor, the centre of the first floor would be cut away to
give a first floor visible from the ground floor and divided into private
suites which could be altered to form small, intimate or grand lavish and
reached by 4 sweeping staircases and at the back of each staircase a glass
scenic lift which exited at the top of the staircase so that it's occupants
were as visible as those climbing the stairs, after all it was all about
being seen here.

Above the restaurant floors there were 16 floors of apartments with 5
apartments on each floor, above these were 2 floors which I took as my
personal accommodation. The 19th floor was configured as all the floors
below with 2 x 3 bedroom apartments and 3 x 2 bedroomed apartments, two of
which would be used for staff accommodation and the other 3 for overspill
guest accommodation when we entertained.

The 20th floor was my penthouse apartment, being constructed from what
should have been 4 apartments, it would have a grand entrance reached by
private elevator with an Italian marbled floor leading off into a formal
lounge which took up most of what would have been the floor space of one of
the original 5 apartments, leading off from the lounge would be a second
smaller lounge and a music room, a private office, state of the art kitchen
and utility with adjoining breakfast area, a formal dinning room that could
accommodate up to 30 at a rosewood table I had acquired from a country
estate sale and a master bedroom suite with its own bathroom and dressing
room plus a further 7 guest bedrooms all ensuite.

Three house bathrooms had been worked in close to the main lounge.  The
second smaller lounge and utility room shared a bathroom.  The office had a
further private bathroom.

Off to the side down a separate hallway would be a self contained 3 bedroom
apartment for our personal staff.

The walls of the penthouse would be mostly floor to ceiling windows taking
in the view in all directions with access to a complete wrap around balcony
allowing for a jogging track when time didn't allow for a beach run, a set
of stairs and an elevator would lead up from the lounge alighting into the
roof top conservatory and from there you would walk out into beautiful
gardens which would have a swimming pool as well as a bar and covered open
plan kitchen/BBQ area.

There would be a patio area screened against winds and sun when needed.

This would be my home, it was where I intended to settle, it was lavish on
a grand scale and I would make no apologies for the cost, this was my
castle in the sky.

It was 2 months after I'd sacked the rotten staff and I was engaged in a
conference call with Gramps and Josh to examine the effects of my fathers
departure from the company and after all was said and done we concluded
that he had done us a favour because we would no longer be subject to his
constant fuckups, before the meeting concluded I spoke directly to Josh.

"I apologise for ranting at you when I asked for extra staff, I was rude, I
was angry, and I was worried, at that point I was looking at so many rotten
apples I really didn't know if I could pull off my plan to put this right
and you threw me completely off track, you derailed my plans and I
panicked, I'm sorry.  I guess I'm asking if going forward we can try to be
courteous and civil for the sake of the business?".

Seeing Josh on screen I realised he was crying and Gramps had his hand on
Josh's shoulder.

He looked up at me, "You're not coming home are you PJ?".

I looked at him, into those bright beautiful blue eyes I'd always found so
captivating, "No Josh I have no plans to come back to the US, I've bought a
place out here and maybe in time you could visit but let's leave that for
now I just wanted to try and get us back to a place where we can be civil
and exchange ideas".

When we ended the call Gramps asked Josh if he would excuse us so that we
could chat over some family business.

Josh wished me well and said he looked forward to visiting at some point in
the future but if I needed any help to call him and he'd do whatever he
could to help.

I realised it was a big relief to get rid of the elephant in the room each
time we met.

Gramps told me he was giving me the shares he bought from my father
effectively increasing my share in the company to 41% and my nett worth to
around 12.5 Billion Dollars, which didn't really faze me because my shares
from my mother and grandmother had already made me a Billionaire.

My office had been out of bounds for most of the day and staff had been
barred from entering past the reception area, most were curious as to what
was going on and at 3pm I asked the front desk manager to locate Ramon and
Rozel and send them to my office.

Both turned up within a few minutes and both were visibly nervous thinking
maybe they had done something wrong.

Pip ushered both of them into my office and as previously instructed left
the glass door to the office pushed right back so that neither of them
looked directly at the door as they came in and when they took the offered
seats in front of my desk the door was behind them.

I could see how nervous they were so I thought I'd best get to the point,
"Ramon would you be so kind as to close the door please".

Ramon walked back over to the door and swung the heavy glass door to close
it but at the point where the door was about to close he uttered a, "What
the", and pulled the door open again.

Staring wide eyed at the new lettering on the glass door, Señor Ramon
Perez, Hotel Director.

There was space for 2 more names though right now they were blank.

It was funny to watch Ramons reaction he used several words of question but
didn't actually string a sentence together, "Wh... What, How, but,
when....".

I spoke up because it was obvious Ramon was in shock, "Ramon what you see
there is why I called you in and why no one has been allowed past reception
today, I wanted the name on the door before you had chance to think up
reasons why you couldn't take the position.

You have to know how impressed I am with the energy and effort you have
given to the role I promoted you to a short time ago", Ramon just nodded,
obviously still trying to process the information so I took the opportunity
to carry on.

"What you don't know however is that you have been the subject of
discussion in almost every board meeting since that first promotion.

I have been fighting off requests to' 'borrow' you from all over Europe and
the whole of North America, well I'm not taking the chance of losing you so
I'm putting you in a position where I think your talents will excel, and
before you raise the issue of looking after Raul, you choose your own hours
which will need to tie in with the other 2 Hotel Directors which you will
be choosing as your first official duty, now it's Friday so enjoy your
weekend because you will be sitting in this chair at this desk from
Monday".

To say Ramon was in shock would be an understatement but with me, Rozel and
Pip who had now come into the office congratulating him he finally realised
he was not dreaming, "Thank you Mr Thorn, thank you so much, I promise
faithfully to look after the Woodruff family and guests and not let you
down".

Okay one down one to go.

I turned now to Rozel, "And now Rozel, first let me say a massive thank
you.  I thought I would have one hell of a job trying to recruit all of the
staff which were missing and preventing us from performing as we should but
in the case of housekeeping you took the task away from me and completed it
in record time".

Rozel looked a little nervous and said, "I hope I wasn't too forward Mr
Thorn but it all happened so quickly, I knew of several really good people
who would work hard and be loyal and they were all available because of a
local factory closure so I sort of grabbed them while I could".

I was smiling as I answered, "Rozel you proved I was right on my first day
here when I said to Philipe Perez, if I could just duplicate you, Ramon and
Philipe many times over I would have such a simple life, well you helped me
without even being asked, you have assembled a housekeeping staff which is
a joy to have and because of what you've achieved as my last official duty
as Hotel Director I am offering you the position of Head of Housekeeping,
that is if you want it".

Ramon was the first to speak, "Please say yes Rozel, it will make my job so
much easier to know you are in charge of housekeeping".

Rozel was teary eyed when she spoke, "Thank you Mr Thorn, Ramon, I'll take
the position and I hope I can make you both proud".

And so I'd filled 2 management positions and was retired from my role of
Hotel Director and now I could relax maybe take a holiday break, or so I
thought but that's the problem with life

At around 5pm Lenny breezed into my office announcing that work was over
for the day and it was time to play, no amount of protest was effective,
which was immediately obvious to Pip and the rest of the back office staff
who were chuckling at her antics, so I gave in gracefully and after a quick
change at my rented apartment which was just across the road from Woodruff
we were back in the restaurant by 6.30pm having dinner.

Lenny had been a little vague as we chatted before dinner in the bar and I
asked if she thought she was doing a little too much running back and forth
to the new building but she'd waved me off saying it was probably just a
cold and we moved to the restaurant.

We'd collected salad and shrimp starters from the buffet and as I opened my
napkin I glanced at Lenny who seemed to be in a fog not really focused on
anyone or anything, she reached out to her fork and missed it, she seemed
to slump forward against the table knocking both wine glasses over and then
in almost slow motion she slipped from the chair sideways onto the floor,
her head banged the table and her eyes just fluttered then closed.

For the longest time but probably only a split second I just stared, it
didn't make sense and then it was as if an alarm went off in my head, I was
out of my seat and down on the floor cradling her head, there was blood on
the side of her head where she hit the edge of the table and she appeared
unconscious.

Everything happened so quickly, Philipe was next to me telling me to cradle
her head the ambulance was on its way, within a matter of minutes there
were paramedics gently pushing me out of the way and then Lenny was on a
stretcher in the back of the ambulance and we were on our way to the
hospital, she was still unconscious when we arrived at the hospital and was
whisked off behind closed doors whilst I was directed to checkin to supply
payment details.

I handed over my Amex Centurion Card and the clerk looked suitably
impressed, I told her there was no limit on what could be charged so no
need to check before any procedure was carried out just go ahead if needed.

I was shown to the waiting room whilst Lenny was being examined and it
seemed like forever until finally a doctor called my name.

"Mr Thorn you can go through now, and congratulations, mother and baby are
doing just fine, there appears to be no lasting effects from the fall
though she really must take it easy from now on".

I was struggling to get past 'Mother and baby are doing just fine' that
phrase was bouncing around my brain like a pebble in a can, "Wha, what
baby", I bumbled but the doctor just chuckled and led me to Lenny's private
room where I found a visibly shocked, white faced Lenny sitting up in bed
staring out of the window.

TBC

Constructive comments, good or bad to cfgw2000@aol.com please, headed
"Life's Illusions" in the subject box.  Thanks for giving your time to read
this.

Author ARB