Now her cheerful guest rooms have the luxurious, old-money look of a Ralph Lauren advertisement.
She had sensed some shift in his attention and was now willfully cheerful, cool, not giving away too much.
In poor Catholic areas like the Bogside, the worst of the public housing has been replaced, and the city center, which looked like a war zone, is now a cheerful spot.
Dyson began his career by improving a wheelbarrow, and then a vacuum, and pricing his creations like works of art; he is now a cheerful Brexiteer who lives at Dodington Park, a vast country estate in Gloucestershire.
On previous visits, it had been like flying into East Germany in the old days, particularly coming from Kenya, toward which there was great suspicion and hostility, but the airport is now pretty cheerful, with well-stocked souvenir shops and smiling bureaucrats.
Doubles from $55 B&B, +51 1 444 2107, hostalelpatio.net Between the coast and the city, this colonial-era home, now a cheerful B&B with eight en suite rooms, has kept its lofty ceilings, ornate tiled floors, stained-glass windows and wrought-iron window grills.
"I imagine Mr Putin is shouting at one or two people right now," a cheerful British official told me.
Less cheerful now, I said no.
They looked decent, sensible, and somewhat more cheerful now.
