Hmmmm.

Well - yesterday we had our second viewing by the extended family. Following which they said they were putting in an offer of the full asking price with an exit/echange day of the 10th December.

Mike and I are in total shock. Will this really happen? Can there be anyone so cruel as to it not happening?

We wait......

Meanwhile I appear to have picked up some bug and am praying this does not go to me lungs. Definitely a cold, whoozy, shivery legs, sneezing etc.

Set off for my hair do and nearly there heard some strange noises from beneath the car. Crawled into ASDA car park and discovered exhaust on floor. Phoned Mike. He came out and took me to hair dressers. After much toing and froing and sounding like boy racer we got my car into garage, us home, and hopefully I will have car back tomorrow. My hair do got rained on so is now frizzy and curly, £20 down the drain. No Rotary tonight, sneezing, sniffling, and no car.

Really not sure whether things are good or not. But me being me they are GOOD. Right on.

Clouds.

What else do you get from my blog! I just find them fascinating. Sit and watch them for hours, well I would if I could. More painting of gold on walls inside, more paint on outdoor furniture. We will be back to minus 14 degrees before I finish! The patio outside my bedroom resembles a cafe with three tables and six chairs all in varying degrees of being cleaned and/or painted.

So - today we had yet another viewing. Three generations wanting to live together out of the city. Well good on yer. Who wouldnt with a sky like that most evenings. Space to play, space to breathe (if your lungs aren't as bad as mine), space to savour, and the peace.......................Lets hope you get what you want and via that so do we.

I swear I am not going to do all the house doctoring and presentation, presentation et al again, but then I do, and I am ending the day shattered, sipping a glass of wine. Be nice to have had a relaxing waft about day, but still with the sipping of wine at the end of it.

And now a plea. I would love some comments from people viewing my blog - other than the pornography I get from the person sending a comment in Mandarin Chinese.

Keep on painting...

Well, here is the before picture, walls white, large antique furniture.

And now the walls are gold, to be honest the picture does not do justice, it is a deeper gold than this. This is the right hand wall as in the picture above.

And the radiator cover, painted to match. Still a long way to go! This wall needs a second coat, and then there is the other corridor at the top of here and to the left, not even started. I hope you agree that once this is finished it will be a wow....This is the left of the picture above.

We took the three cats for their blood test yesterday and have the results - all negative. Whooo. They may have to have a further test in a few months time, but the information on the web indicates that all is well and the test should be the one to rely on. Thank goodness.

French couple in last night for a week. It was only this morning that I realised they had specified quite clearly they wanted twin beds and this idiot had spent the morning setting up, ironing etc for a double. Bum. So this morning it was more ironing to make it twins, and the next door bedroom for two more guests specifying twin beds. Then a single chap in for two nights and then a couple from England, who want a double, and so it goes on.

Sunday afternoon we have yet another viewing and whoopie do, they havent got their house on the market............I am seriously considering telling them to p*** off and have a Sunday afternoon just enjoying the sunshine.

The League of Nations.

The mystery guests turned out to be a lovely family of four Belgians. Who did not seem at all fazed by being trundled off down the road for ten minutes, Sandy, Lucy's partner in the lead directing them here.

We also had a couple in from Canada. Last night a couple from Italy, who took one look round here and asked if they could stay for two nights. Take it as a compliment and said Yes! (Even tho we were going to have a night off.)

Tomorrow is the night off and we then have a couple in from France for a week.

The English schools are now on holiday so we have a lot of bookings from there due in August.

And - on the 22nd August we have a Canadian Family coming to the Pipe Band Competition (as in photo above- some years back) Their daughter is to be part of the Highland Dance Competition. Wowee. Booked in for two nights.

We still turn away far more than we can take. Someone younger and fitter than we are could really make a bomb out of this house - we wait for them to notice this wonderful house is for sale........After all, there are three more bedrooms unused, and three bathrooms. Use your fingers, then your toes to add up on, if you had more breath than I have how much could you make!!!!!!!

Meanwhile.... the day is spent catching up with the washing of bed linen and towels, drying and ironing. Cleaning the rooms, making biscuits for the courtesy trays. Mike has been making jam from strawberries, gooseberries and rhubarb, the latter two from our own garden. In between the room cleaning and ironing I am spending time up and down a ladder painting the corridor. I did the fire door this morning, to blend in, suppose I should have done it bright red so people can see this door with the 'hit bar' is the fire door. Surely the 'hit bar' gives one a clue? Anyway its done now. And after a lot of manipulation we finally got it shut again, sheesh.

Mike made up the radiator cover and I have painted that also, waiting to be fixed to the wall, my it does look posh.

Then there is always the supermarket trip. Much as we try it ends up being almost every day.
But it gets you out of the house! My turn today - so I swanned down the wine aisle and asked myself, "Which Nation today?" Have gone for a very nice Cabernet Sauvignon from some Australian vineyard. Then it just struck me - this is the first year since we came here we have had no-one from the Antipodes. Now why's that? Where the bloody hell are you?

Praise the Lord.

The picture is of the strawberry fields (poly tunnels) beneath yet another of Buchan's amazing sunsets.

A busy week. I am all ironed out. We had a group of ladies from some church in Alabama. One should NOT generalise. Learnt that lesson! I fully expected them all to be black and saying "Praise the Lord" at the end of every sentence. Well they weren't and they didnt. I am also still in the dark as to what their fascination was for Peterhead, the Fish Market and not a mention of any link up with any of Peterhead's proliferation of religions. Peterhead has the most varied and different religions of any town in the UK, or so I am reliably informed. Whenever there is a disagreement they break off and form another. Bit like an amoeba.

The reason I know so little about our American Ladies is that the booking was arranged by Lucy. And she keeps things close to her chest. I do know I ended up being illegal for one night -and had to buy an air bed. I am only allowed six heads on beds and that night I had seven. "Y'ell have five of them, but one is only 13, so just stick her on a camp bed."
Haven't got one. Had to buy one, and a foot pump. And she was the tallest of the group. Just an aside here - have you heard of people swanning about? Well this girl glided just like one, never actually seen it before. A natural blonde too, she was stunningly beautiful. Hope they are not going to send her to a nunnery.

Even more excitement tonight. Yet another of Lucy's bookings. From what I can gather while Lucy was away on holiday in her mobile home she took a booking. When you ring her home number it transfers to her mobile. Little did they know they were having their booking taken by a woman parked up somewhere in the Hebrides.....not anywhere near Peterhead. So she gets home and realises she is now double booked, every b&b proprietors nightmare. So what does she do? Pleads with me to take them. At her prices which are somewhat lower than mine. Anything to help out a friend, especially Lucy. But she has no contact number for them, doesn't appear to know where they are coming from, what time they are arriving......So we sit and wait. I am assuming these tired and travel weary people are going to turn up at Lucy's, only to be sent off to us. Hmm. So I have a double bed and a twin bedded room awaiting and just hope they are pretty laid back about it all. Never again. Tho I still love Lucy.

Happy whatever....

My grandson playing with the road mat I bought. Mike took it to Edinburgh along with Emily who stayed with us last weekend and crammed the car with furniture and lots of other stuff as she is opening her own shop, The Spider and the Fly, later this month. There is a web site, check it out. Mike had the pleasure of driving to Edinburgh and back, but whilst there he got to see the shop and Zac, Amy and Jonathon and Chloe.

I was at Greenbrae waiting for guests to arrive. And painting. Our 'mile long' corridors are being transformed. As I said before we are going Gold and by gum it is. First coat I thought ' Oh goodness what have I done'. Second coat, I thought , 'Well arent I just the clever one.' I shall post a before and after when it is finished. Remember it is a 'mile long'. Today Mike put together the radiator cover which is also to be painted gold. And the other two radiators will also be receiving the same treatment. Hopefully this will lead to the wow factor.

Yesterday Summer finally hit, no wind, glorious sunshine - I just sat there soaking it up, once I had come down off the ladder.

Today - well. Dark, misty, rainy, yeuk. Hopefully back to summer tomorrow.

Remember the 'jobs worth' chap with his trade waste bins? See previous posting. Well I am getting a little concerned at his approach to some of our members of the Best of Banffshire and Buchan Bed and Breakfasts. During the conversations it has been reported that he has asked, "Are you aware of the t.v. licensing for hotels?" Well yes, but we are not hotels. "Do you pay business rates or council tax?" Does one feel there is a threat in there??? Oh forgot one, "Are you on a water meter?" and of course the old chestnut the Performing Arts regulations, the one where you should pay for letting your guests listen to music. As I told the Performing Arts people, "If they want music, they have to sing.".

Do not believe it is July.

Cool, windy, raining.....It could be my fault as I was nearing the end of painting the outside chairs and went to buy a tin of tasteful creamy white for the wooden table...after that I was going to sit outside with a bottle of wine. Hohum.

The picture was taken last night. Minerva McGonogal sitting on the fence. It looks as if she is watching the sun set, but in actual fact her head was mainly looking downwards for tasty (yeuk) mice. I do not think she is so daft as to think an equally tasty (to her) bird would land on the bird table next to her.

Anyway, back to the weather. No guests this weekend so I have paint samples dotted around the walls in the corridor. We are going for GOLD. All the furniture is going. I have a daughter arriving in a few hours who will take some for her new enterprise - an Edinburgh shop no less. I believe it is to be called The Spider and the Fly and will sell lots of different hand crafted stuff so my 'antique' furniture will display them beautifully.

Then it will be back up the ladder for me. I am so glad it was my lungs that failed me and not my legs and arms.