Crew deserts - captains delighted

Ed and Ingrid our live in staff from Lithuania have left us. So from now on we will have the existing bar staff as waiters at the weekends and Lorna during the week. Lorna will be KP at the weekends and I’ll do without at other times. Since there are rarely more than half a dozen customers through the week that should work fine.
Sunny today. Strange to believe I know.

Aarlene, you’ll be delighted to hear that, after lamenting the poor creme brulee sales, we sold 6 in the space of four days. In fact we could have sold eight, but I only had six.

Summer for a day

£7 for just over three hours parking! You could park for six weeks in Galashiels for that! Never mind, it was a scorchy hot day in Glasgow where I was having a meeting with my accountant. A day for ice cream and sitting outside in trendy cafes watching the world go by.
Our two live-in staff are leaving us and that means more work both for us and for the bar staff. Unless it gets ridiculously busy we should cope. We’re going to try to make Tuesday Lorna’s day off as well as mine. Imagine that - a day off together!

Hallow there…

Page one…. turn, turn, turn. Ah - that’s why that was significant… turnturnturnturn. Oh, fancy that. Turnturnturnturnturnturnturn. Well, I never. turnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturn. Well, well, well. turnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturn…. I think I know what the next plot twist is… turnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturn. Yup! thought so! turnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturn. Oh my goodness, she wouldn’t allow that to happen would she? turnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturnturn… No, thankfully not. flickflickflickflickflickflickflickflickflickflickflickflickflickflickflickflickflick. Page 607. Finished!

A snowball’s chance…

Friday evening. Lorna’s in the bar and we’ve got 11 for breakfast tomorrow. After the mayhem of festival weekend things have returned to normal in the bar with half a dozen customers. The hotel’s quite busy though. Only two for dinner tonight, one of whom tried my freshly made creme brulee. Only 5 to shift before the end of the week! We’ll be on our own tomorrow since our two live-in staff are away, but although the hotel’s full, it’s all one booking and they’re going to a wedding. Anyone coming for dinner is likely to be non-resident.
Aarlene, here’s the odd thing. I last had a Tunnocks snowball about 30 years ago and NOTHING has changed! They’re the same size, the same consistency, the packaging, lettering and the box that looks like it was designed in the 50s - all exactly the same!
I am visiting my dentist a week on Tuesday. He will probably be unsympathetic.

Pottering about (but not Harried)

A quick look in the fridge and freezer revealed that some cooking was urgently needed. Cottage pie had almost run out as had the chilli for nachos and the creme brulee was past its use by date. Two out of the three have been made and I’ll get going on the chilli shortly.
Near enough full tonight and tomorrow. We’re also starting to get requests for dinner bed and breakfast which causes confusion because I can never remember the price (£45 per person in case you’re interested). Five for dinner last night and eight for breakfast.

Yesterday saw one of our occasional visits to the cash and carry in Galashiels. While nosing around the aisles I found something that brought out the big kid in me…

Our local sweet shop in South Edinburgh used to sell Tunnock snowballs - goo-ey marshmallows with chocolate and coconut on top. I used to waste my pocket money on them, but hadn’t seen them for years.

and now I’ve got a whole box of them! Hurrah!

Confirmed!

In my last posting I suggested that mentioning a certain internet booking agent would cause them to look at the blog.

Well, look what we have here on the blog’s traffic counter! Frankly with four bookings from them today alone I don’t particularly care whose website they look at.

Midnight feast

It would be nice to think that weary travellers arriving at a hotel late at night would be offered, in addition to a bed for the night, something to eat. The fact that a lot of hotels won’t do that is more to do with their staffing arrangements (chef’s gone home, receptionist isn’t trained in the kitchen) than because they’re being inhospitable.

We had a fairly busy evening. That wasn’t because there were a lot of diners - there were only eight although they did all arrive at the same time - but more because Ed and Ingrid were away for the day.

We cleared up, Lorna took over in the bar and I continued clearing up in the kitchen. At quarter to 11 a family of four from Georgia arrived. They hadn’t eaten. Would it be possible to have something to eat?

Well, we made them all cheese omelettes and chips which disappeared at great speed. From having six guests at dinner time we suddenly had 12 (another 2 had turned up earlier).

And our American guests had omelettes for breakfast too!

Beth, who works in tourist info was in the bar yesterday lamenting the lack of tourists. Well, it’s not been a busy year so far, but we continue to get a lot of bookings through our internet selling agent. Three this morning already!

You know something. Any time I mention that company in the blog they always have a look. I suspect some kind of word tracking software is at work rather than some hapless office junior trawling through websites looking for references to them.

It’s a bit like summoning Beetlejuice! Let’s try it…

Laterooms Laterooms Laterooms.

Cannon to the left of them…

It’s our third Jedburgh festival so we knew what to expect at 6am on Saturday morning, but that didn’t stop us both hitting the ceiling when the first cannon went off.
Let me explain. The last day of the festival is Friday night and there’s a ball at the town hall that lasts all night. At 6 am four “cannon” are fired in the square and that signifies the start of “Border Games Day” That’s followed by a race around the town and the brass band gets in on the act as well.
Friday and Saturday were both very busy in the bar and we had several folk in for dinner as well. This was despite some of the drunken revellers making off with our pavement board on Friday night (we found it this morning).
The Jedburgh Callants Festival is not as old as some of the other borders festivals. It was created just after WWII and the first “Callant” was alive until last year. The common ridings in Selkirk, Hawick and other border towns have been around for centuries and they’re all taken very seriously…
…and then there’s the Newcastleton common riding. It’s been going for ten years now and from what we can make out it’s basically a send up of all the others.
Each festival has a local lad to lead the processions. In Jed it’s the “Callant”, in Hawick it’s the “Cornet and in Gala it’s the “Braw Lad”.
In Newcastleton there’s “The Tub” and the processions take place on mountain bikes rather than horses with all paricipants in full riding gear. There’s the ceremony of the “cutting of the sod” and rather a lot of drinking and folk music. It all sounds like good fun and might be worth a look if you’re in the area. It’s at the same time as the folk festival there so even if you don’t want to take part in the silliness you can enjoy the music.

Foliage

The window boxes we planted in May are now flowering enthusiastically and, due to six weeks of torrential rain I haven’t even had to water them!

But today was dry and sunny so I decided to go for a walk. The decision was made as follows:
Her: “It’s a lovely day. You’re going for a walk”
Me: “Oh!. Ok then”
There’s been rather a lot of rain recently as you can see from the water pouring off the fields here

The lavender crop is unaffected. Well we assume it’s lavender anyway..

My destination was Oxnam whose church is just visible in the picture below.

You’ll notice what a nice composition this is. The picture is divided neatly into thirds and the road provides a strong lead for the eye to follow all the way to the little church in the middle distance. Judges at photographic competitions like pictures like this.

Returning to the hotel (Awwwww, do I have to?) we find that it’s the kirking of the Callant. This involves the pipe band of course….

and the callant (David Cairncross) who is the chap in the suit about a third in from the right hand side.

Phew!

Fifteen tonight for dinner. Only 6 booked, the rest just showed up. But it takes more than nine unexpected guests to faze us! Everything went well - I only cremated one chocolate fudge cake (amazing what a difference ten seconds in an industrial microwave will make) and feedback was very positive.
I’m being good this month - no alcohol until August - so instead of my usual pint or two of real ale, I’m having a glass of fizzy grape and apricot juice called Ame.
It isn’t raining! Hard to believe I know, but there you go.

Aarlene, I can’t really add anything to your comment which seems to summarise the whole episode perfectly!