All over for 2009

My final guests of the year departed yesterday morning on the East Midlands flight. I cooked my last client dinner of 2009 on Sunday evening, delivered the last breakfast yesterday morning and the last airport drop-off soon afterwards.

I have cleaned and prepped both suites and all the laundry is done - just one set of sheets still to iron, which will be done first thing tomorrow before I head off to London.

There was a sense of relief when I said goodbye to the last clients at the 'kiss and fly' drop off point at Carcassonne airport. The season is long and intense and relentless and although I love my work and get far more job satisfaction than I ever did in my past working life, there is no real let up from April onwards until the end of October - now to be precise. I am glad of the break.

I headed off to Lagrasse late afternoon for dinner with Michael and Nicole knowing that they were cooking dinner for me and that I could stay over because I didn't have to worry about a breakfast. I relished the thought that I could stay in bed as long as I liked.

As it happened I was awake quite early - force of habit I guess - and just dozed and surfed the internet whilst the wind and rain battered the shutters. It wasn't a very pleasant morning.

Whatever the weather the drive through the valley between Carcassonne and Lagrasse is always stunning. At this time of year the colours are magnificent with every shade of red, yellow and brown and a patchwork of different coloured vineyards backed by the garrigue and rugged hills - just beautiful.

My mind has now turned to other things though and I am very excited about getting back to London, not only to see Debrah but also because my eldest daughter, Amy, is staying with us for a few days too. She is down in the big city from Lincolnshire on a work placement with a PR company which she is hoping will turn into something permanent - but if not there then we will do our best to find her something else from the contacts we have. Even so, it will be just nice to see her - first time since July.

So the clients have gone and I'm heading back to London to see my ladies. I should just be happy and excited, but strangely I also feel an element of sadness.

Maybe it's just the uncertainty of this time of year - bookings are over and we are changing the way we are running the business next year, which really means starting from scratch and losing the goodwill we have built over the last two years. When you have no bookings it always fills you with fear.

Maybe it's the closing down of the apartments, unplugging everything, emptying the fridge, closing the shutters up, turning the water off, locking the doors.

Maybe it's just the Autumn melancholy.

However, I can't but help feel that this is the end of something - the end of an idea that Debrah and I formed three years ago which has gone better than we could have hoped and has in it's turn caused us more difficulties than we could have imagined.

C'est la vie. We just have to make what comes next even better.