Sunday 6th September

It’s late Sunday night and I have realised I need to update you all on what’s been happening since the start of the week.  Well, I have had three sets of people working on the house this weekend, a roofer, mending the leak in the roof due to the heavy rain, a team of builders replacing the French doors in one of the bedrooms and Paul our regular builder in to redecorate after they had put the doors in. 

Paul had 48 hours to decorate a bedroom ensuite.  Not forgetting the unexpected happening of the boiler on Friday evening around 6.30pm, when I switched it on, water started pouring out of it and it also short circuited the downstairs sockets on the ground floor.   

Well, no one works on a Friday night after 6pm!  I even rang the insurance company to book an emergency call out and the earliest I could get someone was some time on Monday! As luck would have it, one of my plumber’s returned my desperate message and arranged to pitch up on Saturday afternoon.  He solved the water issue which was btw not a boiler issue but a third party issue, the magnetic filter was leaking.    He dried everything out, tested the boiler, let the air out of the pipes and fired the boiler up.  Great we had heating and hot water back on!  I do have an emergency back up whereby I can heat the tank but it’s not so efficient and it’s difficult telling guests take it easy with the water as the boiler is broken.  The last time my boiler broke was New Year’s Eve – so I had to endure several days without heating, I couldn’t get the spare parts needed as all the shops had closed down for the Christmas period! 

One of our regulars arrived this evening, he first came and stayed in 2000.   We had not seen him for seven years as he went to live and work in Barcelona. Honey my 15 year old grumpy Jack Russell got out of her bed to great him and wagged her tail, it’s quite strange, she remembers guests from the past.  We also had another repeat guest at the weekend, she is a vetinary technician, and both my dogs were so excited to see her as well. Many guests when they know we have dogs – bring them treats and some offer to take them to the park for a walk, we have had several take them to the Pub as company when they went for a pint too!

I bought some puff pastry this week and was asked by a guest what I was going to make with it, I explained I was going to put whipped cream and jam in it.  “Ooh” she said, “that sounds lovely.” So I made it whilst they were sitting at breakfast and decided to serve it alongside the croissants as a bit of naughtiness as it was their last day and they had a 14 hour drive back home to Frankfurt. 

I will sign off now as we will have a house full from tomorrow and I am sure there will be lots to tell you during the week.  Goodnight!