Next steps

Both sets of guests wanted late breakfasts, which is both a good thing and a bad thing at the same time - good because I don't need to set an alarm after a dinner and subsequent late night/early morning clearing up but bad because with a late breakfast the morning is virtually over by the time it is all done and I always feel as if half the day has been wasted by the time I get round to anything else.

It made a nice change not having to take Debrah to the airport today - instead she was beavering away on her computer all day doing work for London from here - it would be fabulous if she could arrange to do that more often.

Having said that, I'm not sure that Debrah agrees - she adores our French home but she's not thrilled about it containing clients and frequently declines to meet them, she hates any sort of noise from outside to the point where it makes her so angry that it impacts on us and she is not yet ready to give up London - we have a problem that we need to resolve and I'm not sure what the answer is.

It's all about the next steps really - the business here has gone better than we could have imagined and we have both been caught out by that in different ways - do we move it on to the next stage by capitalising on the first year's success or is it not what we expected, or indeed, wanted - the truth, probably, lies somewhere in the middle of all that and I have no doubt that we are not unique in having to face up to this sort of success issue.

We did have a very entertaining dinner last night. We both agreed that we very much enjoyed Steve's witty and entertaining company - he's a true Aussie it must be said, but a top bloke nonetheless! He was 50 years old on Saturday and we took a call from his mother-in-law trying to wish him happy birthday. There was initial confusion when Debrah answered the phone and they were asking for Debbie, Steve's wife, but eventually all became clear and the 'death adder', as she is affectionately known, left a message to be passed on.

Steve and Debbie left late morning and Daniel and Katy (who got married last Saturday - aahh!) arrived on the afternoon flight from Stansted, and, like all arrivals from England or Ireland this year, they were thrilled to see the sun and drive home from the airport with the roof down on the Audi.

Everybody loves the Audi - it's as much a part of 42rvh as I am.