Breakfast

I'm trying to focus on the screen before the first coffee of the morning kicks in and waiting for our two guests to come down for breakfast. The Scottish Borders Tourist Board (as it used to be called) is trying to get people to stay in Jedburgh for more than one night. They've spent lots of money telling people that the Borders is Scotland's leading short break destination, but recent research has shown that most people stay for one night and give "passing through" as their reason for staying. That's borne out by our limited experience here - mostly one or occasionally two night stays. That's a pain because it means that the room has to be completely made up every day.

So it's pleasing to have our current two guests who are staying for a week. We need more people like that!

Interesting people No 1: We had an Italian violin maker drop into the bar for coffee yesterday. From Calabria, but staying in Edinburgh. He pronounced our coffee good, though it isn't the coffee we'll be selling once we get our act together. We have taken delivery of a big shiny espresso machine and agreed to buy only Bei & Nannino's fab coffee. However, we are still using up our stock of Java beans from Thompson's of Glasgow, and I'm currently drinking Matthew Algie's Tinderbox coffee (the stuff they use in the shop of the same name in Glasgow)

Broadband has finally arrived in Jedburgh. It was a bit of a shock having to go back to dial-up when we moved down here. That'll allow us to get the (temporary but in danger of becoming permanent) website rewritten.