And contemplates lots of laundry

I haven't posted for quite some time. I have busy travelling though, not up and down the country like last year but across. It's long been the plan to sell up our current home and relocate to the West of Scotland and try our hand at B&B. We first got the idea on our honeymoon, staying in a lovely house in Kirkcudbright which was part family home, part guest accommodation. While by no means underestimating the hard work involved it seemed to be a way to afford a nice house in a beautiful place. So over the past eight years I've been scouring the internet for suitable houses. We had quite a large search area but quite stringent search criteria and I've tried not to get attached to "perfect" houses while we were not quite in a position to move. One which I "watched" for three years was bought just as we started serious looking and another, the subject of our first tentative viewing may always be "the one that got away". It's good to drive past and see it being renovated but I have to choke back the old song....."it should have been me.." I've learned to read between the lines of HomeReports and suspect closely cropped photos.

There's been some practical experience too; we had a few seasons renting out our holiday home so I'm familiar with the meeting and greeting, cleaning and running the books. Mr Starke has been perfecting his ironing, marmalade making and general baking skills. He's convinced me that scrambled eggs and smoked salmon is a nice combination and has developed some less well known breakfast dishes. Mind you we would probably pay for the secret of failsafe perfect poached eggs and we're under no illusions that it's going to be easy. (Not just the poached eggs)

When I started this blog I saw it as an extension of the reviews I posted on Trip Advisor, but even there I couldn't (with maybe two exceptions) bring myself to be negative. The initial "thrill" of posting something a bit cutting and "clever" soon dissipated and I hated re-reading those reviews - though one was heartily deserved. I decided that it was much better to feedback any criticisms directly when asked, not to just say that everything had been fine then be snide later. And it is so much nicer to post positve reviews after a really nice meal or stay. I suppose I appreciated the nice comments and constructive criticism we received from our guests and realised how hurt I might have been by nasty reviews. I'm neither so idealistic nor naive not to anticipate some negativity when we get going and don't really believe in karma but "do as you would be done by" seems to be a reasonable mantra.

So where are we now? Well possibly homeless quite soon, we've agreed the sale of our current house but have yet to find a new one. We're off again this weekend, so keep your fingers crossed....

 

 

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