The big breakfast!

One of the main purposes of all the work we are doing is for our greater plan to get our home into a position that it could earn us a living and create a better lifestyle.  Running a B&B is one of the ideas we have to generate income as the house gets closer to completion I am getting more enthusiastic about running the B&B.......... that was until this morning!

Anyone who has had a fried breakfast in our home, which is a frequent occurrence, will have probably enjoyed a really well cooked breakfast.  However one thing is for sure and that is that will have not been cooked by me.  That's for three reasons, firstly fried breakfasts don't really rock my boat, secondly I hate cooking anything that has multiple items that all have to be ready at the same time and thirdly because G excels at it.  So for me the thought of cooking breakfast for six guests is very daunting.

To get over my fear and to give me some well needed practice this morning I invited Denise, Vicko, Kim, Carol and Horace over for a full fried breakfast G was under strict instructions that he was not to help in any way and was to relax and enjoy the breakfast as if he was one of my six guests (for G to relaxing and doing  nothing was probably more of a challenge than me cooking breakfast!). It was definitely good practice but I am not sure it has done anything to reduce my worries over cooking breakfast for six.

Leading up to the breakfast I enjoyed going to our local butchers and sourcing some local sausages and bacon.  The night before I enjoyed writing up the menu and designing a special order pad so that I could easily tick off what the guests wanted.  In the morning I was in my element cleaning the kitchen, mopping the floor, preparing all my ingredients and laying the breakfast table.  G noticed that I had put all our mismatched chipped mugs on the kitchen side because I couldn't bear to have them on the breakfast table that I had just laid so carefully.  Caught up in my enthusiasm he shot out to sainsburys and bought a new set of matching mugs so that that I could put them all on the table to complete the look.  What a star!

So with all the finishes touches complete 'Bude Bed and Board' was open for business!  I use the term business loosely seeing as it was five close friends who rocked up at 10:30 eager to see how I would cope.
When the guests arrived I was all smiles however my stress levels started to rise from then on.  Everyone loved the table and the menus that were at each setting.   I took every ones orders and from then I just felt hectic and very busy.  G say I did a great job and pulled it off.  If that's the case  I was like a duck on water calm on the surface but paddling like mad underneath.  I can't describe how hard I found it and was glad when the last breakfast was served.  That was for Billy who turned up unexpectedly at the last minute!  Its amazing how many friends you can have when people smell the bacon frying!

Its definitely going to be a steep learning curve for me - but also a challenge I am looking forward to  - its also good skills for me to have if we get to work a ski season as chalet hosts.  I think its fun to be learning new skills and our friends and G are all looking forward to some more practice breakfasts.  I am thinking of creating a different menu with some lighter (easier options) that may make it a bit less stressful for me.  This will please Mogsy as well as she is not a big fan of the full fry up and I need to keep our followers happy!

G made me smile when he came up with some terms and conditions for the B&B with some some house rules, notification of eviction of customers that don't behave, cancellation fees and charges etc.  All very important and essential stuff but things I probably wouldn't have focused on initially.  I would be more excited about choosing the best sausages!  I guess that's why we work well together :-).  Some days I have visions of him greeting our B&B guests at the door with a list of rules and sanctions if they don't comply.  I guess he probably has nightmares of me not greeting our guests at the door because I have quite managed to get the bedrooms tidy and beds made up because I got distracted doing something else!

Walking off breakfast!

After our breakfast we all walked down the beach to Sandy mouth as the tide was so low - it was a gorgeous day and very relaxing.  You may notice we didn't do much building work today - we are being held up because we have not managed to get the tiles for the new shower yet.  We are having a bit of a dilema choosing the right look  .. at least it is giving G a bit of a break.