Square one

I have been totally rubbish at blog writing this week. I have thought about it often but have found little inspiration - and as the week went on I became busier with guests and consequently more tired and even less inspired - as this thoroughly uninspiring opening paragraph demonstrates.

I have just finished a client dinner which is the fifth night in a row that I have had client duties to attend to - drinks and canapes on Wednesday and Thursday, dinner for seven on Friday, canapes again last night and then another dinner this evening. At the other end of the day there were three breakfasts to be put together each morning. I have had a full house here this week.

The multinational and British regional theme has also continued after the Americans of last weekend. A British couple courtesy of Nigeria at the start of the week, followed by Canadians, some gritty northerners from Cumbria, some posh southerners from East Anglia and finally a Scouse/Yorkshire mix - plus a booking from Mexico and one from Germany - both firsts for 42rvh.

Their backgrounds are also many and varied including diplomats, oil lawyers, builders, art historians and interior designers. So it is always fascinating to throw them all round the dinner table and see how they get on. The result is that people just do get on - they find some common ground (even if it's just that they are visiting Carcassonne or drinking wine or sitting at my table) and the conversation flows - sometimes on and on.

Friday night was a case in point - seven people around the table and they all got on splendidly which, of course, meant that they got on splendidly until the early hours of the following morning. I managed four and a half hours sleep between clearing up and starting breakfasts.

Maybe my exercise regime of the last six months helps me to deal with it all better. Last week I totalled 97kms on my bike which is new high - if only I had stayed out for another three!

I also went to look at a house out in the countryside this week, as Debrah and I continue to wrestle with finding the best solution for our 'living in different countries' scenario. It is a very old watermill in need of total renovation. It feels quite daunting to think about going back to square one again but is equally quite exciting. It's even more exciting because we would be working on it together. We aren't sure if it's right yet and Debrah hasn't seen it in the flesh but you never know. Watch this space.

Non Anniversary

My weekend wasn't really a weekend - they were work days and very busy ones too.

Two sets of guests left on Saturday (one airport drop-off and one at the train station). So two rooms to clean out and market shopping ahead of dinner in the evening for the remaining guests.

They left on Sunday (another airport run) and three sets of new guests all arrived - so all the rooms had to be prepped and ready for them. One airport pick-up, one arrival via the train station and my first ever Italian visitors arrived on a big BMW touring bike after a very hot 5 hour ride across Southern France dressed in leathers - sweaty. Canapes and drinks in the evening completed my working day.

Yesterday was in fact my wedding anniversary and a poignant reminder of how difficult this year has been for Debrah and me, living in different countries for most of the time, getting on with our jobs, trying to earn as much as we can, making the best of things, but finding it very lonely a lot of the time.

Denis insisted on us going out for supper again, but said that he was a poor wife stand-in and couldn't manage the heels! He is a lovely man and if I couldn't have supper with Debrah then I couldn't have wished for a better companion for the evening.

We followed my guests, at a discrete distance, to Brasserie Saint Germain, the only brasserie in town that appeared to be open on a Sunday evening in the middle of August, the day after a public holiday.

As you would expect it was doing a roaring trade - so much so that we had to sit inside because the outside terrace was packed. Not so bad a decision actually - my guests were all outside and the air-con was on inside.

We enjoyed a steak and chips each and a good bottle of red wine between us and chewed the fat and put the world to rights. Very pleasant it all was too but an anniversary dinner it was not.