Missed

I missed Debrah today but it shouldn't have been like that. She was supposed to be flying out this morning for the weekend but unaccountably got all her timings wrong. I called her at 8am UK time, expecting her to be in transit to Stansted by then - I got no answer from her mobile (which was unhelpfully set to silent mode apparently). Fifteen minutes later I noticed, via the magic of skype, that she was online which meant that she was still at home. The exchange of messages was as follows;

Me - are you still at home?
Debrah - yes, just having some breakfast, will leave at 9.00
Me - isn't your flight at 9.50?
Debrah - oh shit

There was no way she was going to make the flight, which left her feeling angry with herself at her own stupidity (her words) and me feeling helpless, frustrated and sad. It was my fault, of course, for not phoning her last night!!

Last night I went out for a quiet drink and ended up in a lock-in at a birthday party of a girl that I'd only met once or twice before and hardly knew at all. There was dancing on the bar and impromptu French chanson karaoke (even more incomprehensible than normal) and too much red wine and a early morning finish - so, of course, Debrah missing her flight was definitely my fault for getting mixed up in such company when I should have been at home talking her through setting the alarm clock and ordering the cab.

Other than that, yesterday was quite productive. I have recently discovered the trick of dealing with globe artichokes, which until now had always been a bit of a mystery to me. Of course, everything is easy when you are shown how and between the chef who visited some weeks ago and the Austrian journalist last week, I was shown first hand how to extricate the treat the precious hearts. As they are now in full season and very cheap, I spent Thursday afternoon preparing, cooking and bottling 30 artichokes, which is quite time consuming and produces an enormous amount of waste vegetable matter, but is ultimately very fulfilling.

On an over the top cooking day, I even baked a cake! No, not one of the excellent pre-prepared cake mix packets that one can buy in the supermarket - a proper make it yourself eggs, butter and flour classic victoria sponge type cake that my mum used to make all the time when I was a boy. I think baking a good cake should be part of a school syllabus - it is the sort of activity that brings family and society back together - just the smell of the pre-cooked cake mix took me back 30, well maybe 40, years. I added lemon juice and zest to mine and the guests had some on their breakfast tray this morning.

My guests are as low maintenance as they could possibly be. Since sitting with them over a drink and a few canapes on the evening of their arrival day, I have seen them only twice to hand them a breakfast tray each morning. They seem to be very happy though and they even wash all their breakfast stuff up so that I get back a tray of spotlessly clean crockery and cutlery - guests that do my job for me is something I should encourage - maybe I should put on the website 'you will be expected to wash up your breakfast tray, clean your own bathroom and change your own bed before you leave'.

It was a beautiful Spring day here today, not a cloud in the sky, coolish breeze morning and evening and 20 degree sunshine in the middle of the day, which made Debrah's non-arrival all the more disappointing. My day had been planned around some morning chores and then an airport pick-up - chores having been done and no pick-up to do, I decided to take advantage of the sun and sit in the square for a while. I had intentions of writing the notes for the guest information packs to go in each suite but one person after another came past and joined me in the sunshine - no notes were written, some wine was drunk and I have a sunburnt face , neck and forearms.

That will teach me to sit around doing nothing when there is probably a toilet somewhere I should be cleaning or some sheets I should be ironing. There is bound to be something I have missed.