So, what were you doing for the first 6 weeks of 2005?

[Christine Kenyon]

I'm only asking the question because the Forum seemed to go remarkably quiet for the month of January and most of Feb - even Paolo, LivinginItaly, Paul Carmel (and his many aliases), the DivineMrsM, Tansy, Soodyer and musicmonkey only made rare appearances .

I was starting to get worried. Should I register for my local Forum Anonymous sessions or vow to give up the Forum for Lent? And then John Borg re-appeared with his big cup and I knew all was well with the world .... even if the sun isn't shining in Malta!

So where were you?

Christine

[paolo]

Hi Christine,

Alas the forum is my mistress, but not my paymaster, and I had a lot of work on in January. I notice I still found time to make 270 posts this year, so I can't have been that busy. And if you look at the bottom, the most users ever on this forum was on Jaunary 12th.

I did notice the DivineMrsM go a bit quiet though. Is she being unfaithful to us? Has she found another forum to hang out on?

[oskar]

Could it be we were all too busy taking in bookings?

It certainly was a busy month and start of Feb. Tailed off in last couple of weeks though.

[vrooje]

Hm... there are Forum Anonymous meetings?

I could use some of them. I wonder if they have a forum where they can get together and support each other.

;p

Sorry, *terrible* joke, I know...

[Fraise]

Hm... there are Forum Anonymous meetings?

I could use some of them. I wonder if they have a forum where they can get together and support each other.

;p

Sorry, *terrible* joke, I know...

I'm up for it!!!!Well, maybe...............
Brrrrr, lots of snow at the moment , the drivers round here aren't used to it and we've had lots of cars in ditches in the last few days Well, not me personally you understand!!!!

www.thepetitmanoir.com

[Sue Dyer]

Hi there!! I was locked out of the forum at home for a while, strange problem which seems to have resolved now. Other than that I've spent time at my cottage, had a great weekend in Liverpool to see my friend Bob do a couple of gigs there. Watched too many Forensic Files type shows on TV, read lots and saw a few movies - National Treasure - okay, Oceans 12 - hmmm, good cast, no plot and the great film Sideways, try and catch this, the wine snobbery stuff in it is so funny.
So that's my year so far

[tansy]

Building!!!!! Stress city here with all the walls being knocked through into converted barn...we were seeing light at end of the tunnel - or is it tunnel at end of light?

....we were thinking finished this side of Easter..move onto St Germain as I had a brainwave as it was not booking like Utah Beach - convert the huge room at the back that is presently a store room into a 5th bedroom with en suite...advertised it as sleeping 10 & the bookings flooded in...

so we are committed to do the work now ...and you've guessed it... no light at this end...now, some bright spark has come up with the idea of knocking down a wall, which would transform the house into something special...

no problem I hear you think..but as our walls are in excess of 6 foot thick stone...to make one door way we removed just over 3 tons...for this wall down we estimate 10 tons plus...the dust - I'm cringing with the thought!!!!

The interior of these walls haven't seen daylight for probably 250 + years...they are a bit dusty!!

This time a great idea of mine...remove the downstairs loo because we've been able to de commission the old downstairs shower room as the new bathroom is actually finished...make that bigger room into the downstairs loo with a sink...make the grotty loo room into coat cupboard....plumber duly arrived and started - so this weekend we've no loo, no downstairs old shower room which doubled as the glory hole...the plumber got his hammer drill out...so now I'm 3 inches deep in dust - we're tripping over coats, wellies, ironing machine etc etc...3 inches of snow outside and 2 trenches inside the house - that is just moving one loo!!!

We're trying hard not have the syndrom of for our next great idea!! I think the light may be at the end as folk are starting to say...what will you do when you are finished...?

But I was very busy for 2 weeks taking bookings - took, I think it was 19 in 2 weeks! Fab - long may they continue ...but it's gone really quite again

[John Borg]

Christine (with the famous surname ), I'm honoured that someone missed me and yes, i have to admit, I have been rather quiet for a while! In fact, I was very busy in the last part of 2004 and the first weeks of 2005, being abroad for most of the time. (Yes, on football duty, taking photos with the "big cup").
On returning from a very cold and snow bound Geneva recently, I was sick in bed for 8 days, bringing back to Malta a Swiss version of the flu! So being away, being sick and what not left me with a lot of catching up to do.
Being sick should have given me plenty of time to browse the internet, but it was exactly the opposite. I was feeling so dismal that after 5 minutes infront of the pc it was back to bed!
By the way, we have had 4 days of glorious sunshine here in malta and the temp is around 16C, so it's back to normality again!
One last comment regarding the forum, I think that the massive popularity has had one negative effect: It is becoming an ever increasing problem to keep up with all of the topics. I think Paolo will have to do a bit of spring cleaning, how I don't know, but I'm sure Paolo will find a way!

[Christine Kenyon]

Well, apologies to Paolo that I wasn't around on 12 Jan to join in the "busiest day so far" session on 12 January . We were at the end of a fabulous two week holiday on La Gomera trying to get off the island in the worst storms for 30 years. No electricity, wading through raging torents, dodging round landslides, narrowly missing collapsing roads ... Eat your heart out Indiana Jones. We then ended up on Tenerife wet, slightly bedraggled, carrying big rucksacks and trying to get a bed for the night. I should have tried some of the Forum members!!

Paolo, I'm a bit worried about the Forum being billed as your mistress - particularly as you've now got over 400 signed up! You must be good

But hopefully you've all had a good start to the season. Congrats to Oskar and to Tansy on 19 bookings in two weeks (from another topic, I just hope they're not government ministers!). Hope the dust is starting to settle on your road to construction, Tansy!

I love reading about Sue's life outside of the cottage rental business. How do you get time to do over 200 postings as well? Fraise and Brooke are continuing the trend of the Forum's zany humour - brill! And John's got his sunshine back in Malta. All is well with the world.

[Sue Dyer]

Thanks Christine, if there was an emoticon for a little boquet I'd put one here!
You keep pretty busy yourself and catching up on the posts.

[paolo]

Paolo, I'm a bit worried about the Forum being billed as your mistress - particularly as you've now got over 400 signed up! You must be good

[tansy]

dust...what dust?

Seriously, I am so looking forward to not being dominated by building...only problem is in another 2/3 months (it's always longer than you think!!), what gems am I going to be thinking about?

[Christine Kenyon]

I know what you mean, Tansy. We spent most of 2003 completely renovating our cottage in Troutbeck Bridge - as well as running a village shop and letting out another house. And there are only two of us!

We certainly went through a prolonged stage of resolving one problem and finding (or creating!) two others. The worst bit was probably when we thought "aha, only one room to go". We then started to scrap off the decades of wallpaper from the ceiling. Some bits came off easily; others brought the whole ceiling down. In came the plasterers and even more dust. but it was worth it in the end.

We took a number of photos as the renovation work progressed (or didn't!) and put these together with some text to create "The story of our pink cottage" (yep, the cottage was also a revolting shade of murky pink - we won a lot of brownie points from the neighbours when that disappeared) and have left this in the cottage for our visitors to read. I have wondered about putting it on our website as a bit of history to the cottage, but think it's probably best read in situ so that you can see what we've done.

Anyway, good luck Tansy. And have fun

Christine

[tansy]

thank you...I mean it - if anyone has been there they understand!

If you could see me now.....la la la la la le la...

[vrooje]

I agree probably best not to put into a potential client's head what a disaster a house used to be!

I am so glad we haven't yet had to perform major renovations on the house. We are thinking of putting a small en-suite bathroom or shower room into the master bedroom, and I am dreading the day we start that process!