Thursday 21 July 2011

So, here we go!

This feels weirdly like starting a new exercise book in school on the first day of term, new pencil - with rubber on top still intact - nice new pencil case and a brand spanking new exercise book. Hold on whilst I underline the date and title with my new red pen!  Oh I used to love that first day of term.

So I thought I'd start off this new chapter in my blogging life by giving everything a bit of context.  I love make up reviews that finish with the eye shadow, or lipstick, or whatever shown "in the context of my face" whilst its a truly weird expression, actually seeing the full face photo makes much more sense of the product and I am hoping that this introduction to who I am and what I will do will do the same thing for my blog.


I am the 45 year old mother of two, Em 19 and Tom 17.  If I have done anything well in my life it's mothering those two, they are a credit to me (oh, ok "us") and all their bad bits are my making too!  I have 1 husband (Steve, or S for brevity) and have had him for 23 years.  That's a very long time and it's sometimes been a bumpy road, that said all the most interesting journeys have blind bends and a flat tyre or two along the way. So we bump along.  We run an 8 bedroom guest house and frankly that's where things start to go tits up.  

I really am a people person. Truly. I genuinely like people, am interested in them, how they think and what makes them tick.  I am just not interested in sharing my home and every waking moment with them.  Which isn't altogether unreasonable, although is a bit of a hinderance if you happen to run a guest house.  My intolerance (we'll call it that for now) is compounded by S's complete and utter inability to see that sometimes for the sake of our marriage and our sanity the customer is not always right.  You can probably see where this is going.

So, in addition to running our guest house, which is apparently a "life style" business (fine, if peed off and knackered are how you want to live your life) we also run 2 other businesses.  This is not because we are workaholic megalomaniacs.  Its because we need to eat and wear clothes and pay our £6,000 annual gas and electricity bills.  I kid you not.  S runs a domestic cleaning business and I work freelance, 7 hrs a day for a publishing company selling advertising and managing a website.  In addition I do a little paid photography, the one area of my income I would love to develop as it's fantastic to get paid to do something you love!

By now you have probably decided that I am the most negative, bad tempered blogger you have ever had the misfortune to read.  Not a bit of it, I am a resolutely half-full kind of a person, who believes that hard work generates good luck, that earning good karma is more important than earning big bucks and that if you smile the world smiles back.  I just struggle to remember this about myself at times!


So that's it; some context.  Perhaps when I launch into a full scale rant about a guests' minor indiscretions - crap parking is a particular bug bear, or leaving the front door wide open, hate that too - you wouldn't go out and leave yours wide open at home, why do it here - you'll understand a bit of where I am coming from!! 

11 comments:

  1. Great post hon & I take my hat off to you! X

    ReplyDelete
  2. Debbie, I kind of love you but I think you already knew that! Anyone who runs a GH is an absolute saint and I'm sure you have some great tales to tell! I'm all ears :-) xxx

    ReplyDelete
  3. Irish women - the absolute salt of the earth! Thank you both so much for your support. xxx

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ooooh, I am really liking where this is going! Please, do tell more... :)
    Nina

    ReplyDelete
  5. You have my sincere sympathy regarding the guest house. I like people but I like my home to myself too. I would commit crimes if I was forced to house and cater for people daily! x

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ooooh how I love thee, Debbie! That post made me cry laughing. I, like the others, would commit murder if I had to share my home with the general public. Sharing with The Boy is bad enough!! Especially people like the twonk that gets on my train in the morning, sneezes and then wipes his hands on the seat - I kid you not. He's also quite partial to throwing his banana skin under the chair. Does he do that at home?!?! I think not! You are a saint of the highest order. ;o) x

    ReplyDelete
  7. Brilliant! I can't wait to hear more goss about your guests.

    Oh btw is there anything you don't do?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Nina glad you are liking the new direction, plenty more where that came from - had planned a book but might just do it in a series of blog posts instead!

    Jane, the thought crosses my mind believe me! I want to do things like put up a sign in the car park saying "if you park like a twat expect to be asked to try again" luckily Steve is the voice of reason round here!!

    Leanne - the bloke on the train, that is seriously gag worthy, I have guests who use their paper napkins as tissues and leave them on the table, I want to go to the garden, get the tongs I use for poo picking after the dogs and remove the tissue, in full view of the guest with them!! See comment above re Steve!!

    Annabelle - Lol, sometimes I don't smile a lot!! xx

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great post!

    A tip on the whole 'massive gas and electric bill' thing... my parents had a stupidly high fuel bill a few years ago, but now they manage to heat their whole house (big old farm house) for around £350.

    Look into a magical device called a 'dragon'. It's like a HUGE straw burner type thing, which you can burn anything in (wood, straw, general junk) and it costs around £3k but then your bills are low forever.

    Not entirely sure how it would work if you didn't have an outhouse to put it in, but I'm sure there's a way to make it work.

    Right, that's me done! Back to pre-NYC stressing!

    Ritzx

    ReplyDelete
  10. A few years back we seriously considered upping sticks and buying a guest house. Me, Mr. L and my parents... a lovely big place somewhere up North. It took about 2 weeks of serious contemplation before we decided HELL NO.

    If I'm ever looking for somewhere to stay enroute to the inlaws, I'll be looking you up. I promise not to be irritating, disgusting or inconsiderate if you promise to hide me somewhere innaccessible so I don't have to continue my journey further North.

    Looking forward to reading more snippets!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi Charlotte, seriously if you ever want to buy a guest house give me a yell, will do you mates rates on this one!! If you ever need accomm en route to the inlaws you would be most welcome, we have a basement with a coded door lock, Mr L would never find you!

    ReplyDelete

Would love to hear from you, I always read comments and reply and I love not feeling like I am talking to myself! dx

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...