Easter Weekend… 28th March
Easter has been a quiet affair, not sure if that is down to the weather forecasts for rain and storms or that Easter was too early for tourists who chose to have a holiday in the sunshine or snow. The weathermen were spot on about Storm Katie last night, I did not sleep a wink from about 2.30am until 6am this morning. I finally slept when the wind died down. It has also been one of those weeks when the phone rings between midnight and 4am with someone wanting a room immediately. I never understand why they don’t even attempt to apologise for ringing at such a late hour, instead, they just say ‘have you got a room?’.
My phone doesn’t ring all day and then three times this week between those hours on three consecutive days. With OTAs and Motel chains dominating the lion’s share of the local work in my area, where are they at this time of the night? With automation comes restrictions. They are not at their desk 24 hours answering the phone to people that are stranded, so they ring me and wake me up instead. Where is the fairness in sharing the work? I am quite loathed to take someone at that time of night unless of course they explain themselves and say they left their keys in the office or have been left stranded, or whatever other genuine reason they could have for having to call at such a time of night. But most of these calls are quite aggressive and also the voices are quite slurred and for me, that means not an easy guest to deal with. So to make my life easier I just say ‘No’.
On another note, I also want to mention another change to this industry that has been happening for the last six months… At least once a week I have people ringing up asking for a room only during daylight hours, wondering if I would do it for half the price. I haven’t accepted any of these bookings. My reason being – that this is a working home, there is the noise of the Hoover or the dogs barking when the postman arrives – all the usual daytime noises. So I feel the guest would not get the kind of sleep they are looking for, plus I don’t really want to tiptoe around the house when there are so many of us here.
My stamina is slowly returning as the days pass and I am now beginning to get back into the swing of writing a couple of hours a day. When I first came out of hospital it was very hard to concentrate on anything at all so I spent my time just reading. I am so pleased that my creativity is coming alive again and that I am back to enjoying writing my blog.
I did mention to a girlfriend when she came to see me after my operation (the hip replacement), that I had one leg longer than the other. She came to see me today and told me that she had mentioned this to her sister (who is a neurosurgeon) who said that this does happen and if it is more than 1cm then it will be an issue. Mine, I am pleased to say is 1cm approx. and my son Paul is going to make me a 1cm insole for my right side so that I am balanced. I figure if I don’t sort something out then I am going to suffer from backache, which has blighted me most of this week. I put this down to my chair at my desk, however as I get more mobile this may not be the real cause of it. I have read many websites about hip replacements and there was nothing mentioned about this on any of them! I am going to try out the insole and see if my back ache improves.
On a lighter note, when Chris came back from San Francisco he bought me a cookery book and a selection of treats made in San Francisco, for my birthday. The chocolates are delicious and wheat/gluten free so I didn’t mind getting tucked into them, and he mentioned that he got the Bay Honey because he had met the person who managed the bee hives that went towards making it!
