Going Through the Front Door

A new hotel, the One & Only, recently opened in Cape Town at the V&A Waterfront. Sol Kerzner, born in South Africa but not currently living here, has built luxury hotels around the world and is also involved with gaming (helped develop the huge gambling place Sun City near Jo'burg). He is sometimes called the Donald Trump of South Africa.

The One & Only in Cape Town is his first project in post-apartheid South Africa. We'd been watching it being built from out apartment but didn't know what it was. Just another building with construction cranes surrounding it. Then one day the cranes were gone and there was news that a fancy new hotel was opening and the party was full of celebrities including Sharon Stone and Nelson Mandela.

Stories of this exclusive opening party peppered the media and finally Jared and I decided to check it out the hotel for ourselves. Along the road we usually walk to get to the waterfront there is a driveway going to a BP building and there is also a sign that says deliveries for the One & Only. It was a long way around to the front of the building so we went in this back way. We went past the loading docks with some employees hanging out smoking, but we just acted like we knew where we were going and no one bothered us. We went around the side of the building to the water, a bridge, a water fountain, and the front of other buildings along this part of the waterfront. We stopped and were looking around, when a man in a suit (security people at fancy hotels wear suits) asked us if we were residents, we said, no, we were going to the One & Only and can we get to it this way? He said no, you must go in from the front, this was for residents only. Okay we said and went back the way we came.

Fifteen minutes later we walked through the front door of the hotel. We were dressed pretty casual, but that didn't matter. Since the hotel recently opened there are quite a few people still stopping by to check it out. We went through the lounge area which is also a bar with a huge floor to ceiling window and a view of Table Mountain and Devils Peak. Outside the bar is a patio area with some chairs next to the water and then down to the right a bit is a water fountain and a bridge....ummmm yeah..... this looks familiar. Oh wait, I was just standing in this very spot just 20 minutes ago....

From this spot 20 minutes ago we had been able to see the back area of the hotel and the back entrance to the bar, though we didn't know it...but we hadn't been allowed to go that way....why? Rules probably. But it got us to thinking about back doors and front doors and which way we usually go. I'm not talking about sex here but life. I think we have been trying to go about setting up stuff here by going through the back door instead of walking up to the front, announcing ourselves and claiming our right to walk through that front door. I often feel nervous going into some fancy place, especially dressed as casual as I usually am dressed, but attitude portrays so much, and claiming the right to walk through the front door and go for it is the way to make a difference and to be big in the world.