Our first morning of doing breakfast started with a bit of a blow-up between Anna and self, as she couldn't get herself out of bed. She told me that as the hotel was not full, I could easily manage, and I saw that if I let it go and do it alone, it will start the same pattern as at the Windsor house, where I did a lot of the breakfasts on my own. She was still tired from the previous night, txt-ing to all and everybody that she had a man! I then told her that as Joe and Rosanne lived in the hotel, I will go and ask them for help, at which madam jumped out of bed and started dressing!
So at seven we were in the kitchen, after worrying for ages about the alarm that we had to put off first, none of us quite remembering the sequence, but in the end we decided to try the numbers we both had in our heads, putting in the numbers gingerly, then waiting anxiously for the sirens to go off, but all stayed quiet! It worked! Anna might be a bitty man-crazy, but she is a magnificent cook, and her presentation of the food, arranging it ever so tastefully, was really out of the book! It was to me a pity that Alex disliked her to such extent that he didn't want her in the kitchen, as she was much more equipped with the knowledge needed to take the food up a few notches by her presentation, than me.
We had decided that I would cook for one table while she took the food in, then we would swap, as I was definitely not going to stand behind the hot stove every day, and on top of that, I loved the interaction with the tourists.
Anna being Anna, every time before she went into the diningroom, out came the little mirror and the lippy, and only after she had made double sure that she looked good, would she go through the swing doors. All went well, but we were both knackered after we had finished the bedrooms too.
Liz, a finnicky and very conciensious lady when it came to her work, made us as cross as crows by inspecting every little thing we did, like pulling her finger over the top of the doors, and, though I didn't know it until this morning, she even checked to see if we cleaned out the bins in the pub and diningroom toilets. How I came to know that is, it was my turn to do the toilets, and when Liz came up to where we were busy in the rooms, and with a puckered doomsday face asked who had done the toilets, we looked at her in consternation, as it did not seem a worthwhile question, as long as everything was done. I knew that I had done everything, and I told her so, but she pulled this utterly disgusted face, and said that I couldn't have, as somebody wearing a bag, the ones you wear after some of your stomach and intestines were cut away because of sickness, had changed it, and put it in the bin, and, she said looking at me sternly: 'You never took it out!' I was absolutely flabbergasted, as I knew that I had washed out all the bins, and went down with her for inspection!
The terrible stomach bag turned out to be an empty plastic soap dispenser bag that I had taken out, and put it in the bin, forgetting all about it after I had to look all over for Joe or Ged to come and show me how to put a new one into the dispenser, and this one was lying in the bin with the little spout through which the liquid soap runs, looking upwards! Liz was a bitty sour afterwards, as Joe got to hear about it, and told this funny story to all the villagers, who took the mickey out of her for a few days!
After Liz had warmed a bit to me again, we had a good laugh about the stomach bag, Liz not laughing quite as heartily as we did. She was a very private person, and did not make friends easily, but we started talking, and found that we actually had a lot in common in the way we saw things. She was fiercely passionate about Scotland and her people, and I liked that about her, and as Anna was now becoming quite boring with her Gordon, Liz and self started to sometimes go out if there was something going on. On the photos are top, me doing breakfast, Anna waiting for Gordon, and me with Liz, next to me, Jane left, and one of the guests next to Jane.