Thursday 18 September 2008

Early arrival

It was supposed to be a straightforward day - client breakfast, market shopping, finish the ironing, clean out the apartment and fit the toilet roll holder and, if I had time, clean the kitchen and move some stuff out of the office down to the basement, before a client dinner this evening.

It started well enough - breakfast as normal, then a trip to the shops for chicken and vegetables - resist a coffee in the square, get the ironing out of the way - and then the phone rang ..

My Australian guests, who were due to arrive tomorrow, had decided to head to Carcassonne a day early and wondered if I had a free room - well I did but it wasn't ready and it had a half fitted toilet roll holder - but I couldn't turn them away could I?

"Be there in two hours", he said - "No lunch for me", I thought

Welcoming guests a day early when the room is free is not a problem, but combining that with my DIY skills is always an issue and so it proved. The fixings were too close together and the plasterboard between them broke which left me with a hole and a problem that I didn't need - so there is a temporary fix and the extra time taken meant that I only just finished the room just before they arrived.

I tried to grab a half hour rest before getting stuck into dinner preparation but the guests wouldn't leave me alone for five minutes and the phone kept ringing and text messages too - so I gave up and prepared the chocolate puddings instead.

Dinner turned out to be a bit of a laugh and my Sheffield guests were so happy with life here that they are going to come back for Bastille Day next year, which means that we are already sold out for the big event - fabulous.

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