All in a days work

Saturday 3/04/2010

Happy Easter everyone from all at Cauteret towers LOL

Got to go on an egg hunt today to buy chocolate eggs otherwise the kids will not be happy bunnies tomorrow

Tuesday 30/03/2010 1am

Well its now 1am on Tuesday morning and in 4 hours time the alarm will go off sounding at 10 minute intervals until the wife gets up at 6.15. But currently I am just not sleepy, don’t get me wrong I know tomorrow I am going to pay big time for this but currently not much I can do. If the rest of the house was not sleeping I could quite easily get the hover out and give the place the once over. But that’s the funny thing, now I could do it, but cant, then tomorrow when I can, I wont. Oh such is life? Tomorrow or maybe I should say today I plan to do the things that I should have done to day but somehow never got round to them, mainly sorting the kitchen cupboards, but I decided to leave it until tomorrow for good reason as they say the weather is not going to be nice, well very horrible in fact, so maybe the cupboards will get done, but then I might be so exhausted not having slept that they will have to wait another day

Saturday 27/03/2010  to Monday 29/03/2010



Writing this I has just realised I have lost 3days I thought it was the 25th today, but of course its not and the we have the clocks to put on tonight so will lose an hour much needed sleep

Well I really don’t know where the week has gone. The weather has been nice for best part of the week, but still no work done outside, oh well there is always another week to begin. This seems to be the story of my life since living in France, the lists always get bigger with jobs to do and I might be lucky and am able to cross a couple of job of the list each week only to add another 4.

This week we have had paying guests for 5 nights and they booked dinner each night so have really been busy with them and preparing dinner each day. After the long winter break I seem to have forgot just how much work is involved and of course now the problem is I am out of the routine. Simply preparations seem to have taken all morning where normally I would have done them in a couple of hours. I am looking on this my training for the rest of the season, if and when that ever takes off this year. It is always nice to have new people to stay and to here there stories

Enquiries seem to have dried up and the ones I do get are for dates already booked. Not sure why I am in a panic as I should know by now that bookings don’t normally start coming in until April for our bed and breakfast but it’s the same every year.

 I have been meaning to plan my menu now for the past 3 weeks, this is something that never gets done, but I have at least tried a few new recipes out of the guests we have, something I would not normally do but I have been lucky it has paid off

Currently no more news on the dinner for 40, not sure if this will now come off or not, but I did get another request this time for a lunch event for 35, I have come up with a menu and will put it to them to see if they agree, but will not know for another week as they have now headed off to the slopes for a final weeks holiday

Well since starting to write this, its now Monday, I found myself without internet connection for 18 hours over the weekend, no idea why, maybe the heavy winds had something to do with it on Saturday.

The weather today looks like being nice with highs of 22 this afternoon, but Tuesday forecast is not good and those heavy winds are back with us, something I really hate.

Yesterday was our first same day change over guests left at 10.30 and then had to get the rooms ready for the booking we received on Saturday. The rest of the day was spent in the garden, I got the front lawns finally cut, it was a long job and took 3 hours and 3 tanks of petrol, normally I can do it with 1 tank of petrol and it takes just over an hour. The grass way to long and the molehills did not help with the speed of cutting the grass. Now just the back to do but I ran out of petrol and our old mower did not want to carry on anyway so the back will have to get done later this week.

 We had our first no show of the season, these are really a pain and people are so un thoughtful, we took the booking on Saturday afternoon from some people who where coming to watch the rugby in Valance, I cant take credit cards but normally would request a deposit but with these short bookings these are not possible. Just glad they did not ask for dinner, but it unsettles your whole evening as you keep wondering when will they turn up and just how long do you wait up, in the past I have seen us stay up until 1 in the morning but yesterday we were both dead so gave up on the at 10.30. Oh the joys of being a bed and breakfast owner, this is when I wish I had a gite

Tuesday 23/03/2010

To be honest I have no idea where the last few days have gone. The weather here has been lovely which at least has given us a chance to get out in the garden. But there is still so much work to do outside before our main season kicks off. April is normally a good month to lick the garden into shape and for some reason we never normally have many guests at that time of year. In all the 7 years we have been open as a chambers d hotes I don’t think we have ever had people stay for Easter, maybe the French see it more for a time to visit friends and family.

 Still problems with the car but thankfully it will go in next week to be sorted just hope it will last out for the next few days. We have guests arriving tomorrow for a 4-night stay and have booked evening meal each night. At this its good training after the winter break and means we will have some nice meals for a change. Most of the menu have been sorted, still not sure about the sauce for the duck on Friday, did have some nice suggests from some of my Twitter followers last week. Normally we would try out all recipes before serving to guests but in this case I don’t think it will happen

Not done much cooking the past few days, as I had my check up this morning and had to ensure my sugar levels were low, now I just have hope the results are ok. It’s very hard to cook and not taste LOL

Tomorrow i will post the recipe for the rich chocolate cake that i am making for afternoon tea for guests arrival

Sunday 21/03/2010

 Last week I should have got so much done, but afraid most of my jobs slipped by the wayside, but this week will be different as we have paying guests for 5 days so the house will have to be cleaned and menus prepared as the guests are eating in each night. To be honest most of the work needs to be done outside, but for some reason I don’t like working outside on my own. Sylvia is the gardener really I just like doing pots, but this year we have shutters to paint and the terrace to treat before summer. I suppose the next big job will be taking the cover off the pool, not something I am looking forward to as I feel we might have a small leak so not expecting to see much water in there when I do.

 Well the forecast is right for a change, it’s raining. Today was meant to be a tennis day as Sylvia was going to have a game this morning and our daughter was meant to have a latch this afternoon, but all has been cancelled as St Clar does not have an inside court. I suppose the nice this about that is Sylvia has decided to cook today which is nice and gives me a day off. Mind tomorrow when I look at the kitchen I am sure it will be a different story

 Recipes are hard things, as to me cooking is all about taste and trying a little of this and a little of that. I tend to use a recipe as a guideline. A friend has just asked me for my recipe for duck terrine, but I am finding it really hard to give it her, not because I don’t want to, but because I don’t know the amounts I use. So have decided to make one, only to find I don’t have all I really need so this one will be trail and error will have to see how it turns out. My guests this week will be the judges. Now cakes and desserts are a different matter as in most cases you do need to follow a recipe. Not that I am making anything sweet today as I have to see the doctor next week and have a blood test, need to get my sugar levels down

 Friday 19/03/2010

Thought for the day

Man can not discover new oceans until he has the courage to loose sight of the shore

Thursday 18/03/2010

Thank god the day is nearly over.


Wednesday 17/03/2010

Its funny really my wife works in Toulouse so has an early start each morning and needs to be up by 6.20 and is normally away by about 6.50. She will however in clock is 15 minutes fast and she always put the alarm on for 5am and the snooze comes on every 10 minutes until she decides to get up at 6.20. Ok don’t get me wrong I have been there as it was something I always did back in the days of living in the Uk, well until later years when maybe old age told me its was crazy as I might as well have another hour of quality sleep. I always get up at the same time and make breakfast and coffee and then normally take the kids to school. Our son has to catch the bus at 7.15 and our daughter I take at 8. But this morning it was no good I had to return to bed, only problem with that is that best part of the day is wasted and its a nice day.

Plan to get at least one of the lawns cut this afternoon, provided the machine will work after the long winters break that its had

Today I seem to have received a lot of invites to free listings sites for the Bed and Breakfast, I do sometimes wonder if it’s worthwhile spending the time loading details. We must be on about 20 free sites and to be honest I don’t think we have had one booking from them. How do others feel about them, ok I suppose you might get into the google search system? So maybe that’s another job for tomorrow. I do find marketing the Bed and Breakfast much harder than doing Gites and the sites are so expensive for sometimes the return we get

 Well the Bread dough is now ready, at least today I remembered to put the yeast in and I have 2 kids who are asking to be feed Tuesday 16/03/2010


The day has not started well as we seem to have a problem with one of the cars, its like driving a kangaroo, its when things like this happen that you realise living in rural France just how much you rely on transport. But some how it will have to wait until payday to get sorted The sun is shinning but I really don’t know where my get up and go has gone. I hope I find it soon as there is so much to do. I need to get the guests rooms sorted today as we had a call from someone who would like to come to see the rooms before they book, so that really should be my first job. But after the long cold winter the outside also needs attention. Hoping that if this weather continues then I might even get the grass cut this week, god knows how long that will take normally it’s a 3-hour job once I am on top of it. Just hope the mower will work.

The positive side is that we received 3 more bookings this week, it would be nice if we could just extend the season a little. Over the past few years we have found that mainly all our guests are French so the holidays periods all seem to be in July and August Sunday 14/03/2010

Very boring day really. This morning was spent cooking, a great lemon tart which i will hopefully post the recipe for tomorrow and then a rich chocolate cake. The lemon tart was made with our own lemons. Then it was wood cutting as i have to say not much got done on saturday. A dear friend also felt sorry for us and bought us a car boot full of wood as well, which was very nice. It was nice to be able to stop and have a coffee and a slice of that tart.

Then tonight 3 bookings , one for June and  two forJuly, so very happy about that

Saturday 13/03/2010
 Well I woke to grey skies this morning and a cold house. Good job we have no guests this weekend. Due to the long spell of cold weather my wood supply is disappearing fast and so is our woodman’s supply as well. So one of the jobs today is to go collecting some of our own wood to try to keep stocks up. Not a job that I enjoy, but one, which will have to be done. At least looking at the weather forecast last night it seems next week will get warmer. I promise I will not complain this summer about being to hot.

Had an interesting phone call this morning, asking if I would be prepared to cater for a dinner for approx 40 people. Only problem is the hall has no cooker only one small microwave. Can currently only think that it would have to be a cold buffet and the problem with those is the amount of work and cost which in this case has to be kept down. Something to think about while I a cutting trees down

At least the good news is that wife will be doing the cooking tonight so that will be a nice change. Friday 12/03/2010

We have no guests this weekend, which in some ways in a good thing as the weather is so cold and we are nearly out of wood. We also have a lot of work to do outside so am hoping that the weekend will be good, to give us a chance to start clearing away from the very long winter

Well the first job of the day was to do some shopping. Decided to go to Lectoure market this morning, I always feel that the markets in winter are sad the stalls just do not come to life like they do in the spring and summer. One of the things I did buy was red peppers and decided to do the some stuffed red peppers for an entrée for tonight’s dinner. The recipe is so quick and easy and it reminds me of the summer months to come. Recipe can be found in the food group
 
Posted by: alan ness on 12 March 2010