Birth of baby Luke

Good news from Kate. Her daughter gave birth to baby Luke at an unreasonable hour this morning whilst she dozed away in our spare room. Never mind - all are doing well.

I turn now to the vexed (and increasingly vexing) subject of Mars and Venus - or why men and women think so differently. This week our long-awaited maintenance work began - and immediately ran into the buffers. Our lovely, skilled workman goes randomly from room to room, filling and painting as he sees a problem. But each time he visits a room, he leaves a lovely trail of paint and filler dust, which then gets trampled into mats.

Why can't he see that he is wasting my time and money by randomly dirtying already-clean rooms? Why can't he work systematically on one or two rooms at a time, then finish them and let us clean and prepare them for the guests? He is treating the whole house as if it were a building site, whilst I am trying to run a business from the place. I shall have to speak to his boss before I lose my housekeeper over it.

Back from the smoke

I've just returned from a weekend in London, meeting some old friends. Reunions! They're enough to provoke a mid-life crisis. I thoroughly enjoyed myself (feeling a bit fragile today) but the early race back through Heathrow and Edinburgh was a bit much.

Had a lovely lunch in Edinburgh with a lovely man. He knows who he is! Thank you for your company.

Feeling very upbeat about the business this week: we are fully booked all week, and until the schools break up. Not full as in high occupancy, but we at least have people in each room.

And Kate came over this evening for a quick refuel and a cup of tea - her daughter is labouring away in the hospital. She can have the spare room as a stopgap tonight to stop her having to drive all the way home and missing the great event. I will be the first to post the great news when the baby comes.

So: babies, trips away, full bookings and nice lunches. What a great end to a week!