Guests

I waited around all afternoon for my new clients and then two lots turned up when I was only expecting the one.

The clients I was expecting had said they would be arriving by car between 3-5pm. At five I sent them a text asking what time they thought they might arrive and at 6.30pm they turned up, having been on the beach all day and still oblivious to my text or that they had compromised my afternoon.

I guess it goes with the territory and at least I gave the kitchen a much needed thorough clean - so there was a silver lining.

At 7.30pm the doorbell rang again. It was my Australian client - the one supposed to arrive tomorrow - just the twenty four hours early then. To say that I was taken a little bit off guard would be an understatement, especially as I was in the final throws of dinner preparation for yesterday's arrivals who would be coming through the door for their four course gourmet dinner with wines in less than 30 minutes.

Fortunately for him, his suite was a) empty - the only night in June that it was - and b) mostly prepped - I had changed the bed but hadn't cleaned or hoovered but thankfully the previous guests had only been in for one night and had been very tidy. Anyway, he was in no position to complain because I know he was a day early and he was lucky to have a room at all.

So I brushed over the confusion for the time being and gave him some clean towels and settled him into the suite. I couldn't really spend much time with him with dinner guests due and I knew that somehow his itinerary was different from the booking I had taken from his travel agent back in Australia - we could sort it out in the morning. When he said that the car hire company weren't expecting him either - well, there you go. Maybe he went the long way round across the international date line or maybe he's just not with it - who knows.

Being the professional that I am (Debrah would say OCD) the dinner was all ready to go and his arrival was but a mere blip on the proceedings. My dinner guests were unaware of the drama and I even remembered to put the candle on the top of his hot chocolate fondant to mark his 30th birthday, which it was.

In some ways, they reminded me of Debrah and I when we first got together - young affluent couple, high pressured jobs, grabbing a weekend away, constantly bickering ...
She's a cushion buyer - she's bound to have a futility attack at some point.

So dinner went well and all the washing up is done. I was up at 6.30am this morning for guests that had an early start so it feels like a long day. I think if I didn't have to get up early I would probably wake up anyway - I don't think I have been in bed beyond 7.30am any day for the past 20 days since I came back from London, which means I just can't do late nights out at all - I ducked out early from La Fête de la Musique last night for that very reason.

It may be the early mornings or the busy schedule or the years catching up or that going out just isn't really fun without Debrah here. It's 20 days since I last saw her and it will be another 10 before I do - that's just too long and I'm feeling every day of it.

I am so looking forward to our week away at the beginning of July.