CHATTERBOX

[Renée Profile]

What a fabulous photo, Dennis and I have been enjoying everyone's accounts of visiting the area.

I'm beginning to realise why friends and relatives that I've stayed with said that I'm no bother!! What horrendous stories about guests demands.

[Joanbunting Profile]

Renee just about anyone with a house here will tell you similar stories ! M calls this sort of guest "Hangers on". They don't realy want to see you, they just want to make use of your facities to have a cheap holiday.

Sorry if this sounds cynical but it is true. The longer we have lived here the better we have become at spotting one and making up an instant excuse. They usually telephone you and at first this can put you on the spot but we now have a repetoire of excuses. It is much easier when they send an e-mail or, a once used to happen, a letter.
Mind you, if the e-mail is "We're in XYZ this week and thought we might drop in to see you tomorrow. Hope you'll be in at a)lunch time) b) drinks/dinner time or c) perhaps we could beg a bed for the next two nights ?" you can be in trouble.

A couple of times folk have even turned up on the door step.

[Lusciouslush Profile]

What is even worse is when they call you from your own doorstep - 'Hello, guess where we are?'...................

[Lusciouslush Profile]

Just catching up..........

Q - I can't believe you're not banged up for GBH - you're a Saint, you really are.....!

Petonius - Montenegro is stunning - well worth the visit

[Renée Profile]

What is even worse is when they call you from your own doorstep - 'Hello, guess where we are?'...................

To which I would reply "What a shame, I'm just on my way out". That's if it's someone that you really don't want to see.

[QinNortham Profile]

Petronious, agree with Renee about the photos - wonderful.

Joan, when we lived in Kew we were very handy for Heathrow, including picking up & dropping off as well as staying. We'd rather thought that a move to NW Devon we'd put a distance between ourselves and an endless stream of visitors, far from it, they appear to be queueing up in droves. Obviously many are very, very welcome. Sadly it's too far for our wonderful American friends who we'd love to have visit but they only get a week's holiday at a pop and need to visit family in Tunbridge Wells & Cheltenham. Added to which both their daughter and son have recently welcomed new additions to their families so a lot of time is spent darting around New England.

Lush, you know me, I'm no saint and I have thought about GBH, the only solution was to go and lie in a darkened room with a bottle of gin when they went out Yikes I would have a hissy fit if we got a call from the doorstep but on reflection we've sort of had one of those but they didn't want to stay and we like them very much.

Renee, I'm sure you are the perfect guest.

[Renée Profile]

Thank you nicenorthdevonwoman! Also, I would never, ever invite myself anywhere.

[Sakkarin Profile]

nicenorthdevonwoman

Ha!

[Stokey Sue Profile]

We used to get a bit of the guest on holiday syndrome when living on the south coast
Aunt and uncle were fairly welcome and it seemed reasonable recompense for her doing all the looking after of her and Dad's father as we were 130 miles away
My cousin used to come in her college vacations, she was welcome in her own right as part of the family and as baby sitter (she is 12 years older than me)

[Renée Profile]

nicenorthdevonwoman

Ha!

Hint ... hint ...

[Lusciouslush Profile]

Hint ... hint ...

Ooooohhh Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.....................................!!!!!!!!!


Q is definitely Q.......

[QinNortham Profile]

Well you'll all have to form an orderly queue whilst I consult the Head of Bookings (Mr GKW, I do everything else, well with the help of the wonderful JJ who cleans and keeps me sane). He may wish for a deposit in case of no shows or breakages. Goes without saying several references will also be required and CRB (not sure what they are now called) checks.

[jeral Profile]

...[clip]... and CRB (not sure what they are now called) checks.

Tee hee.
"Mad axe murderers need not apply. Any murdering to be done will be that by the hosts as might be justifiable during your stay."

Sorry, couldn't resist.
---

@ Petronius: Are you contemplating painting some of the vistas and detail in your travel photos? When I did a spot of painting myself, it was always the first thing I thought of.

[WhitefieldFoodie Profile]

I am a little late to the party on this thread, BUT. Me and Tiff have booked Croatia this year for our late summer get away. We are doing 11 nights at the end of August/start or September.

We are flying into Split, hiring a car and going Krka national park > Plitvice national park > Zadar > Trogir (drop the car off)> Hvar > Korcula > Dubrovnik > (hire a car from airport) > 3 day circle tour of Montengro > Fly back from Dubrovnik.

[Petronius Profile]

Jeral. Yes, the photo of the waterfalls with tree on the left hand side was taken with a view to paint. The tree gives a bit of darkness to contrast with all the light, the outline of the high grasses makes a lovely curve to the water running over rocks in the foreground and so on.

Renée, with friends we certainly don't invite ourselves, but if someone has said please visit (and meant it!) we'll get in touch with dates at some time.

Lovelynorthdevonwoman, I do hope your visit requests aren't based on the word 'Devon' with images of sandy beaches. If so send them to Clovelly!

WhitefieldFoodie, our trip sounds perfect – I'm sending it to someone whose asked us for suggestions.

At the moment we're on a real roller coaster – before Crotia OH had sciatic – we got through the trip at a more gentle pace than the rest, but despite Osteopath best efforts it's still there. This week is a significant birthday for me and the weekend was three days of family celebrations. A bit emotional at times etc., etc., but glorious.

Over the weekend OH's back started to spasm and last night, after everyone had gone, she could barely stand upright. Our Yorkshire family was taking us there for the week, granddaughter there was working, but travel is out of the question. She has an appointment with a Musculoskeletal Practitioner at our local surgery and we hope for the best.

Lovely holiday, lovely birthday and looking after OH. As they say, that's life.

[jeral Profile]

Yo! Happy Birthday Petronius and glad it was made special for you

Hope you survived, nay revelled, in the attention and enjoyed being pampered for a while

I have true sympathy for your Good Lady when a couple of pills and a good night's sleep is a very very long way away from an answer to what is not good even on good days. Hopefully someone will come up with something...

On travels, my dad once told me that everyone along the table was served a nice piece of fish but he was given the head (shock horror) which he tried politely to decline. I learned many years later that the fish head is reserved for the most important guest (an honour to receive the prized fish cheeks). I suppose cruise tour guides these days have that sort of thing covered.

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

Holidays.
We go soon, after I've finished an event in June. Tossa de Mar again for a short trip.

Then decisions will be made for September. We regularly get offered stays at homes abroad, but my husband won't do it.
He wants a hotel.
One lady has a place in Nice, but we won't ever go, despite repeated offers.

[QinNortham Profile]

Petronious, Happy Birthday but I'm sorry to hear Mrs P is suffering with her back, I do from time to time, so painful. The photo of the waterfall would make a wonderful painting.

Sadly we have sandy beaches very near to us. Although we don't have sea views from the house itself the moment you step on to street you can see the estuary, wonderful on a clear day which it isn't today!

Jeral, that would be Brian the mad axe murderer from Barnsley, an oft mentioned figure on another board. We had some wonderful NZ house sitters, known as The Girlies. When they came to meet us and more importantly the cats one of them mentioned that her mother had been utterly horrified when told they were coming round to our house, by the way it was a sunny Sunday morning in June, not exactly axe murderer weather and time. I mentioned Brian and Shell replied "Yep that just about up sums up Mum's reaction".

Gill, I'm afraid I'm with T on the hotel business.

Whitefieldfoodie, that sounds like a delightful trip.

[Lusciouslush Profile]

Another one here who likes my own hotel room - much as I like whoever I'm visiting, it's far more relaxing to close that hotel door & put my feet up!

Your new home sounds wonderful Q - definitely the right move How's the Devonshire accent coming along.....?

Bad backs are a bitch aren't they - no matter what you do you can't get comfortable, time seems to stand still, I had a trapped nerve a couple of months ago - and I wasn't charming at all - (some even mentioned 'bear' & 'sore head') just had to rest it & wait for it to eventually go on its own.

[Joanbunting Profile]

Belated Happy Birthday Dennis.

We had what I thought was an example of really good manners yesterday. Some old neighbours from Newcastle left a note in our post box yesterday. It said they were in the area and had located us but didn't want to call unexpectedly could they pop by to say hello today and gave their mobile number.

We haven't seen them for nearly 15 years so of course we said, yes come round for lunch but they said they had a rather tight timetable and could they just come for a drink. We are looking forward to seeing them this evening.