Cold

It is and I have. I am up to make breakfast for our guest (the normal BP squad aren’t coming down until Wednesday due to some unspecified problem) and am going back to bed again as soon as he’s gone.

Meanwhile here are some pictures of work carried out so far.

This is the old stillroom which was being used as bottle store/junk room. It now looks like this

Note the old fireplace that has been uncovered to the right of the picture. The stillroom and corridor adjacent used to be a single room before the “newer” building was added in the late 18th century. The still room will become the main kitchen for the time being.

Sunday 26 Feb 2006

Guest Ale:
Our guest ale for the forseeable future will be Farne Island from the Hadrian and Borders brewery in Newcastle.

Direct from cask!
As our cellar is a long way from the bar, the ale travels through the chilled dispense system and becomes excessively cold. Because of this we’ve taken to dispensing directly from the cask. This gives a much better looking pint at a more acceptable temperature.

Promotions:
Smirnoff Black Ice £1.80 while stocks last (normally £2.20)

Continental beers

We’re going to change the range of continental beers. We currently have 5 beers from the Andechs brewery in Munich, but I have to drive to Glasgow Airport to pick them up.

Currently remaining:
Andechs Weisse (about 20)
Andechs Dunkel Weisse (about 15)
Andechs Hell (about 20)
Andechs Spezial Hell (only 2 left)
Andechs Bergbock Hell (about 15)

Continental beers currently stocked
Poland:
Zywiec

Continental beers planned once the Andechs runs out:
Pilsener Urquell
Budvar
Leffe Blonde
Erdinger Weisse
{if there is anything you’d like to see us stock please leave a comment}

Room news
Once renovations get under way (anticipated: April) room 9 will be unavailable.

A first note

Lorna spent yesterday updating the Spread Eagle website. Since this isn’t something that can be done in a few seconds We’ll use this blog for occasional announcements that don’t warrant a major rewrite.
The kinds of things we’re thinking of are drinks promotions, events, special offers and stuff like that.

A fridge too far

Today saw a graphic illustration of my tendency to act before thinking. L decided that the smaller fridge in the bar should be moved to the kitchen to make way for the glass washer. L then retired to bed having been up at the screech of dawn to serve breakfast to a family of 5 from Indiana. This was pretty normal last summer but she hasn’t done it for a while.

So, I took all the bottles out of the fridge, hauled it out of its corner beneath the window and manoeuvred it to the kitchen door…

…which it wouldn’t fit through of course. After much heaving and muffled swearing I managed to lift it onto the bar, then carried it round through the front hall and into the kitchen. I’ve put all the dross that nobody buys (archers aqua, irn bru wkd, smirnoff black ice) in there and that makes more room for the stuff that does sell.

Here is the place we stayed last Monday. It’s a converted coach house and they’ve used the height quite well. The bedroom is on a gallery accessed via the stairs and the bathroom’s straight ahead.

Floury Scotland

Dearie me, what a pessimist! Of course we won although it was a nailbitingly nerve-shreddingly close game. I usually don’t watch internationals live - I wait until after I know the result, but as I was working in the bar that wasn’t possible. Very few people in as most had gone to Edinburgh to watch the game either live or in a local pub (for local people)

Sporting chance

Rugby is on today. Scotland v England. I was going to say “may the best team win” but somehow I suspect they won’t.

We didn’t have any guests last night so we didn’t have to get up until 10 to let Shirley (cleaner) in. L is still snoozing. We only have staff for the first four hours today. We have to do the other eight ourselves.

And that’s because one of our staff decided to quit last Saturday three hours before she was due at work. She’d already handed in her notice, but wasn’t due to leave for another two weeks. Fortunately the other staff filled the gaps while Rob was in charge. And an applicant for the cleaner’s job was supposed to come in on Thursday and didn’t show. Tsk - young folk today (rant rant)

Spaced out

The problem with taking a holiday is that you go back to work after it. Today we had no staff at all so I did 4 - 8 and L’s doing 8 - midnight. The local girlies are devastated by the departure of Rob “Awwww no - he was GOOD looking!!”.

The project continues to almost begin to start to think about beginning to get under way. D***** was up yesterday along with structural engineers and others. A brief summary is as follows:

- The function room wall may have to remain due to the cost of removing it. D**** is getting prices for various options and we’ll decide what to do.

- There’s a wall above the old kitchen which is built in the middle of a wooden floor and…Oh dear, where have we heard that before? Fortunately this one’s smaller, not brick and not supporting a great deal. Some strengthening will be required however.

The floors on the top floor need strengthening cos they bounce. That involves removing the boards and putting extra joists and “dwangs” (cross braces between the joists) in place.

Once that’s done the work to create the bedrooms, wee kitchen and temporary breakfast room can get under way.

Corporate identity

I mentioned yesterday a hotel we stayed at on the way back from our holiday. We suspected that it was owned by a company rather than an individual and closer examination of the receipt reveals that it’s part of the Spirit Group which is owned by Scottish Courage.

That explains the relatively high price and non-inclusive breakfast. Usually only chain hotels do that.

Rob has left us. He flew down to London and will be staying with L’s aunt and uncle in Finsbury Park. We’re sorry to see him go, but wish him all the best for his stay there.

Is Tiramisu a vegetable (and does it matter if it isn’t)?

Our first holiday in fifteen months was spent in various pleasant locations throughout England. We spent the evening of Valentine’s day sitting in a hot tub in Warrington eating strawberries and cream (as you do) and the following day looking glumly at the M6 and M1.

We spent a pleasant evening here, then continued to an undisclosed location in the New Forest where vast amounts of excellent food, fine wine and good company were to be found.

We consumed ludicrous amounts of bubbly, foie gras, fish, meat and chocolate coated pistachios. The latter, we have decided by process of elimination must be green vegetables (they’re not animal or mineral and they’re definitely green under the chocolate) and hence good for you. I’m not absolutely sure about Tiramisu though.

We did most of the return trip in one day, stopping here. It was tastefully renovated - we were in the coach house which gave us some ideas for our own stables renovation project. Despite this we can’t recommend it because if the (quite substantial) room rate doesn’t include breakfast I expect someone to tell me when I check in. Additionally the sheets and crockery weren’t totally clean. We came back today via Hawes where we stopped for lunch at a new cafe - Wilsons. It’s in the main street in Hawes and has only been open for a week. Nice people, nice food and good coffee: what more could you ask for?

We hope it will do well and last longer than Jacksons the delicatessen in Jedburgh which opened about a year and a half ago and closed just before we left for our holidays. Colin and Debs tried their best, but the tourist season is short here and the local trade just wasn’t there.

Generation game

We bought an emergency generator a couple of months ago and finally got around to making up cables and testing it. It produces 4KW which appears to be enough to run all the lights on the ground floor, three fridges and the central heating. It can’t run the lights anywhere else cos they’re on different phases, but it will keep the bar open and that may well be enough.

We’ll be on holiday for a week from tomorrow. No more postings until we come back.