Getting back to work

I arrived back in France today to grey skies and, now, torrential rain - not seen in these parts for a goodly number of weeks. In fact I am told that the weather has been good here until today - sorry everyone.

It has been a quite intense couple of weeks of celebrations and nearly two weeks since I had paying guests here. I have to admit that it feels like even longer and it took me a little while this afternoon to get my head back into gear. I have new guests arriving tomorrow and their room is now sorted and ready.

There were guests in the suites whilst I was in the UK, staying on a self-catering basis. Claire did a great job of looking after them and has even done all the washing from the midweek changeovers - not the ironing though - that jolly job awaits me tomorrow.

My mother's 80th birthday weekend went as well as a family get-together can go and was a lot better than some we have had in the past. Everyone was very relaxed, apart from my Mum, and there were relatives present that I haven't seen for at least 10 years. Naturally everyone was looking a lot older or had in fact just grown up from being a child and turned into a young adult.

Before all that kicked off on Saturday, we managed to celebrate Debrah's birthday. We stayed at West Stoke House near Chichester and had a great dinner with lots of good wines. It is a restaurant with rooms so the food and wine is excellent - but the rooms are lovely too. I would describe the atmosphere as calm Englishness and highly recommend it.

The proprietor used to work at BBH, the very same advertising agency that I once worked for. Our paths never crossed then but they have now. Bizarrely, the owners weren't there last weekend - they were staying with another ex-BBHer in Provence. Roslyn runs a similar business to this at Le Paradis near Orange. She is one of our best friends. Small world indeed.

Family stuff

Christian really liked the college and it's facilities and he really liked Falmouth and he thought the interview went well - so now he, and we, just have to wait and see if he gets an offer. Let's hope so - for his sake!

Yesterday, I went down to Sussex to see my Mum and Dad and took my Mum a big bunch of flowers ahead of Mothers Day this weekend - very beautiful they were - chosen by Debrah at Borough Market when I dropped her off at work.

The drive both ways was horrendous - stop start stop start, traffic lights, roadworks - two hours to go 50 miles. Driving in the South East of England is something I haven't missed whilst I was in France.

It was good to see Mum and Dad though. They were looking well and in good spirit. Mum is 80 this year so we (the family) need to sort out what we are going to do to mark the occasion - that won't be easy to sort out - family events are always difficult, but we'll sort something in the end I'm sure.