Finding the Right Holiday Accommodation for You ( Or Always Brush Your Teeth After Eating Wasabi)
So let me ask you a personal question. Do you like wasabi? No, seriously, tell me the truth – I can take it. I won’t judge you as a wasabi wuss if you don’t.
Personally, I can’t stand it. One sniff from 50 paces and I feel like someone has poured Draino up my nose, while the idea of voluntarily ingesting it activates my involuntary gag reflex. I think the strength of my reaction may be linked to my first wasabi experience. I was having dinner at a local food hall, teriyaki chicken and salad. About half way through the salad I thought ‘Gee, look at that! They’ve given me a little bit of avocado – yum’. Being somewhat partial to avos, I scoffed it down. Need I say more? I haven’t been able to look a blob of wasabi in the eye since.
My girlfriend, on the other hand, absolutely loves it. For her teriyaki anything wouldn’t be complete without a blast of nasal rheeming green gloop.
So that’s how it is. She loves it. I hate it. A mixed marriage, if you will.
Apart from a strict half hour break between eating at the food hall and smooching, we get along famously. As I said, it’s quite a personal question. You might love it or hate it. There’s no telling.
Can we move to a more pertinent example?
Read the following two passages:
Him -What an awesome place. Very resourceful to convert an old carriage into what it is now. We spent two remarkable nights here. The shower is fantastic. Tim’s work on the bed and shower are noteworthy. Really special place! Keep up the excellent work. It was most entertaining to read your folder on what you have done to the place – kept me interested until the last page. Good luck and we shall be sure to stop here again on our travels. Her – We loved our stay in your gorgeous carriage, serenaded by frogs, lullabied by water features, luxuriated by the pebbles in the outdoor shower. The Painted Fish is truly divine. Thank you for sharing your vision.
We stayed in the Carriage. I cannot comment on the other 2 accommodation styles the Painted Fish offers. The (Railway) Carriage is actually a Cattle Cart with sliding doors that a very fit person would have trouble opening and closing – a health and safety risk. The furniture was so old I wouldn’t even offer it to a charity. The owners are eco-friendly but so are many other people. They have mis-represented the Carriage on their web site to be something that it isn’t. It was simply disgusting.
Now believe it or not these two marvelously expressive passages are two different responses to almost exactly the same experience ie a couple of days staying at the accommodation place run by partner, Shani (the wasabi lover) and myself.
Our accommodation is called the Painted Fish. It’s eclectic, quirky and run with as much of a sustainability bent as we can manage. It was even recently described by Josh Byrne as one of the most innovative sustainable retrofits in Western Australia.
I came up with the wasabi analogy because I’ve been fishing around for some way of understanding how our humble holiday offering can elicit such powerfully different responses. When you run any business, particularly one which reflects you personality and beliefs, then I think any honest and constructive feed back should be treasured. How else are you going to know how to improve your product or know whether what you are offering has a place in the market?
If you’ll forgive me another digression. . . .
Remember way back when (and it’s been a long time since I watched commercials on TV!) there was an advertisement for toothpaste that started with a blonde beautiful couple paddling romantically along a river. He leans towards her and whispers something gently in her ear. She jumps out of the canoe, slamming down the paddle and storms off screaming ‘Next time you can paddle your own canoe! He says I’ve got bad breath!’
Now as a business owner I’d love to reshoot that ad. When he leans forward and whispers sweetly in her ear she turns around and hugs him saying something like Oh, honey, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realise. Thanks for having the courage to tell me. When I get home I can do something about it. I know you love me and you’re giving me honest feedback to save me embarrassing myself in public.’ (I mean, who knows she might just have been eating some wasabi).
And after a passionate embrace they paddle off into the setting sun. As I said honest and constructive feedback is rare and precious.
But what do you do with feedback that contradicts the very things you hold dear? (I’m sorry, Mr Schwarzenegger, but your biceps are just too big OR Yes, Mr Flannery, I can see you are passionate about climate change but it hardly makes cheery reading now does it? Have you thought about trying romantic comedy?)
Again, seeking a more pertinent example, let’s go back to The Painted Fish (if you are brave enough after reading the quoted Trip Advisor review!).
It’s actually really quite upsetting to Shani and myself to get really negative responses. We put a lot of time and effort into our business and one of our biggest rewards is looking at the lovely comments, poetry and pictures that people leave in our guest book.
The vast majority of the feedback we get is really fantastic (see website for examples if you are currently underemployed or on holidays and don’t have a good novel).
When we excitedly flip the guest book open and get one of the two or three “hate mail” entries we have had in the last four years, it really is like a mouthful of wasabi.
It is really just a question of people with different tastes and expectations?
Let me give you another example.
We had one guest who sent us quite an extensive list of our transgressions (which I probably would have listed as special features) including:
The carriage was just an old cattle truck with no charm or character. Well, he’s absolutely right in that it is an old cattle truck. A marvellous reuse of existing materials I would have thought. Through my eyes the wave bed I had made from recycled steel, the dry stone rubble walls (collected from roadside earth works, inside/outside courtyard water feature, pirate ship entry gates and collection of prints and paintings from local artists make it a charming and character full setting. But then that’s just me and I also hate wasabi . . .
The shower was outside. Again, absolutely true. The al fresco shower in the carriage is one which I sculptured from copper to look like a vine or sunflower is one of my favourite features of the carriage. It has featured in quite a few magazine and newspaper articles and there’s a bit of a nudie shot of me showering in it on one episode of Gardening Australia. However, obviously not for everyone.
The furniture was made out of old boxes . . . .Absolutely true. I love old wooden boxes
. . . . or looked like it came from the side of the road. Yes, in fact most of it did, or from garage sales or else I made it. I think the only new furniture at The Painted Fish are the red lounges in the studio. We bought them from Ikea and I swear I’d never go there again . . but then again while that’s my opinion I hear the traffic in the car park is increasing faster than the Great Sandy Desert.
That we claim to be sustainable but he also recycled his scraps and grew vegies. Wonderful – good on ya. There should be more of it.
That the crockery was all second hand and some of it was chipped. Absolutely true. I love old tea pots and crockery. So much so that I will often keep them in use even if they get a few chips. Ironically, the day we received this guest’s list of grievances another guest who was really enjoying our colourful and eclectic crockery collection had come across some great pieces in an op shop and brought them back as a gift for us.
I don’t believe the other guests comments were authentic. So you see, this poor fellow has come across exactly the same dilemma I’m talking about. The disparity between what he perceives and what other people have written is so great that it is simply incomprehensible. In this case, he has decided (if I interpret him correctly) that I must be making them all up. I’m flattered by his suggestion that I have such a wide range of literacy and artistic skills (not to mention different languages and hand writing styles. Unfortunately I must confess that they were all written by guests. Not only that, but mostly guests who actually liked The Painted Fish and enjoyed their stay.
Which brings me to the point of this novella.
Contrary to the belief of the guest who gave us his feedback, it’s not our intention to trick unwitting travellers into wasting their money and ruining their holiday by spending it at “The Horrible Painted Fish”.
The really great thing about small owner run accommodation like ours is that they are so varied, reflecting the personalities of the people who run them and offer a huge range of styles and prices.
Hopefully, everyone wanting somewhere to stay should be able to find something that at least approximates their needs.
As my brother says ‘For every lid there fits a pot.’
So I guess all this is a round about and hopefully light hearted way of saying ‘Thinking of staying at The Painted Fish book carefully, you may not like it.’
We look forward to seeing you.
(Of course not if The Painted Fish is not the pot that fits your lid!)
Love Tim
PS Always brush your teeth after eating wasabi!
Queen bees live for 1 to 4 years 
Peter has several hives in the Fremantle, White Gum Valley and Coolbellup area and he prefers to sell his honey locally if possible. Shani and Tim always have some at their place, so get in touch with them if you are interested in purchasing local unprocessed honey from Peter.
Our chook night, held on Wednesday October 14th was another great night of sharing – thanks to Ian and Sandy who presented and shared their love of all things chicken, those who sat on the panel and especially Nadia, our special guest. Nadia is a 14 year old chicken who still occasionally lays an egg!
10 Things that Chooks Need
Applications were made to the City of Fremantle for three different aspects of the Fiesta. (Please contact Shani Graham if you would like to see copies of these applications.)
This year’s Fiesta poster featured a painting by local artist Tim Darby, entitled “Growing Community”. His whimsical water colour caricatures are popular with adults and children. Tim donated the use of this image to the Fiesta.
In preparation for the Fiesta several street and community events were held, including a Street Verge Gardening Day a month or so before the big event. During the day residents of Hulbert Street were encouraged to plant productive food gardens on their verges, or tidy already established verge gardens. Three new verge garden beds were established and many verges were tidied. All households did some tidying of verges before the big day.
During this day, participants received training from Shani and Tim in organic vegetable gardening and an extensive tour showing the features of the two sustainable houses (The Painted Fish and #21) open over the Fiesta weekend. It was envisaged that these volunteers would then act as “guides” over the weekend, assisting people with questions etc. This training would also assist them in their own personal development and academic study.
During a Scarecrow Making Day facilitated by local community artist Nadia Rasheed, held the Sunday afternoon the weekend before the Fiesta participants were encouraged to make their own scarecrow to enter a competition held over the weekend. Approximately 25 children and families enjoyed this opportunity. Scarecrows were used to sign post open homes, gardens and studios before being gathered for official judging on the Sunday afternoon of the Fiesta.
The Painted Fish at 37 Hulbert Street was open again part of Australian Open Garden Scheme (AOGS) with a door charge of $6. Three volunteers worked on the in and out door of the Painted Fish all weekend. The number of people entering the house and garden less than in 2008 (only 500 people or 10% of visitors paid to enter the Painted Fish compared to 1000 people or 50% of visitors in 2008).
The front half of Tim and Shani’s other property at 21 Hulbert Street was also open to the public, with all proceeds from the donation box inside going to the running of the Fiesta. An estimated 700 people visited this house.
Four other gardens in the street (at # 7, 24, 26 and 10) were open to members of the public .
- The Solar Shop
This year about 60 stall holders participated – a well planned mixture of community groups (such as Living Smart, St Paul’s Church, Soroptimist Club etc ), local artists and craftsman (eg Kiki, Chinky Rooster, Desert Shadow), local businesses selling or providing information about sustainable products (eg Solar Shop, Solar Options, Tanks Very Much etc), flea market stalls and stalls selling food and drink (local schools and community groups were encouraged to run food stalls).
The stalls were coordinated by Kylie Wheatley from Red Tent Events at a discounted rate, with stall holder fees providing 68% of her fee. Stall holders were charged a sliding scale- from $50 a day for companies selling sustainable products or food, to $40 per day for local artists, $20 for community groups selling goods or services on the day, and $10 for flea market stalls. Community groups or individuals that were not selling anything were not charged for their stall. Hulbert Street residents who ran a stall were not charged.
A great deal of effort was made to ensure that stalls met the criteria for entry – products being sold had to be locally made and produced or be sustainable household goods, community groups had to be not aligned to any political part, and there was attention paid to the final “mix” of stalls. While this does reduce the percentage of Red Tent’s fees that come from stall holders, it is felt that it is vitally important to keep the local and sustainable focus of the Fiesta.
The buskers stage proved very popular this year, and all spots were filled before the opening of the Fiesta. Shani contacted interested parties from last year and other local musicians and an article in the local paper appeared about a month before the event calling for buskers. Many street residents participated in the busking.
- Local children playing violin and guitar
During the ceremony Shani Graham invited all elected officials and those who wanted to be elected (local council elections were being held!) to come forward and collect two blue ribbons. Participants then had to find someone from the audience to give one of their ribbons to before joining these ribbons. These pairings were then combined to create a circle of ribbons with both elected and non elected members of the community, symbolising community working with various layers of government for a more sustainable community.
A formal closing ceremony, scarecrow judging and raffle draw was held on Sunday at about 3pm. Sadly it had just rained very heavily before this event, and the planned scarecrow parade did not eventuate. Melissa Parke (Fremantle federal MP) Lyn McLaren (State MLC) Georgie Adeane (local South Fremantle Councillor) and Andrea Whiteley (Soil Sister) participated in the closing event. Local drumming group Wasamba began proceedings by performing and then encouraging participants to get their faces painted and join in.
Three special mentions were made from the collected scarecrows before prizes were awarded to all scarecrow participants. Many scarecrow makers were not present and many entry sheets had been damaged by the rain, so a letter to the local paper encouraged participants to contact Shani after the event to collect prizes. The Herald ran a three quarter page photo montage with the letter, an exciting surprise for organisers, volunteers and participants.
Shani had been bed ridden with a prolapsed disc for about three months before the Fiesta, and underwent back surgery three weeks before the weekend, so many calls for assistance were made to the Freo Living Smarties and local resident to assist. As well as a host of people who helped set up, prepare gardens and clean before the Fiesta, a total of ten volunteers were working at any one time over the Fiesta weekend. All street residents and volunteers were given special name badges to wear. 90% of residents in the street participated in some way, either by opening their homes, gardens or studios, running fundraising stalls, or working on the doors over the weekend.
The Fiesta clearly needs to be well insured. Because Red Tent Events coordinated the stalls, the street itself and stalls are covered but it is suggested that different opportunities to be looked at for house, garden and studio insurance. It is suggested that the Fiesta has a big enough profile to “go it alone” without continuing to be an Australian Open Garden Scheme Event, but this does mean that other insurance will need to be sought. Ideas for discussion include paying for private Event Insurance from private insurance companies or the WA Local Government Association, or expanding local household insurance over the weekend.
The second morning I commented it sounded like it was still learning how to crow. Tim suddenly said “what if it’s ours?”
Mum told us the first thing to do was relax the rooster by a process of hypnosis. Apparently chickens are not over endowed with intellect and so are excellent candidates for hypnosis. After about half an hour of my mum gently swinging a giant love heart bling in front of the chook, it was no more relaxed but Tim was starting to look decidedly glassy eyed.
She and Tim had a lovely time “quieting” the rooster, plucking, gutting etc and today we had the most amazing chicken soup for lunch – all with veges from our suburban garden – potatoes, broccoli, spinach, carrots, corn (dried from last summer). What a feast (and not a shop in sight!!)
But my favourite bit? – seeing my mum and partner sitting side by side while they plucked the rooster, talking about growing food in your own backyard.
