Flying the eagle

Bye bye blogger!

2007-02-18T09:05:00.000Z

We've moved! Have a look here for all future blog postings.

The fax of life

2007-02-12T21:49:00.000Z

Our fax machine is old and tired, so I've spent the past couple of days setting up a fax server on the computer. Partial success so far - it sends (as long as the file is of a particular type) and doesn't receive at all. So that's something to keep me occupied in all this free time I have:-(

Painters were here today and they have finished stripping the flood damaged back wall of the function room. One of the cellars underneath appears to have been plastered - the other one hasn't been yet.

The coke machine has been fixed (new fan) and I need a new part for the dishwasher. Not the same one as last time, but with the same general result (detergent all over the floor). The part will be with us tomorrow by which time I'll be safely up in Edinburgh again.

Bookings continue to arrive with several bookings for parties of golfers coming in. Someone's doing something right and for once it looks as though it might be us. Last night's laterooms debacle turns out not to have been their fault... or ours. Work that out if you will.

Very early rooms

2007-02-11T22:41:00.000Z

We took a booking yesterday via our internet selling agents laterooms. The booking was for the 11th of March.

The guests turned up this afternoon.

Go figure (as my US friend Frankie would say)

Meanwhile all the mechanical devices in the hotel are conspiring against us. The coke machine has gone up in smoke again, the dishwasher is squirting detergent all over the floor again and the smaller washing machine is making ominous grinding noises,

Still, the Welsh rugby fans were mightily impressed with the renovated hotel. Some of them have been coming here for 30 years and knew the place when it was not at its best. We look forward to seeing them again in two years time.

An area the size of Wales...

2007-02-09T23:10:00.000Z

Every two years lots of Welsh people come here to watch the Scotland v Wales game. Some go to Edinburgh to be there in person and the rest watch it on tv. The group we have this weekend last stayed here 6 years ago and seem to be pleasantly surprised by the improvements.

Meanwhile we took a booking for May tonight thanks to a recommendation from someone called Julie who works at the antique shop further down the High Street. Julie, I'm sorry to say that I haven't the faintest idea who you are, but thanks for the recommendation anyway.

We've also taken a booking for a golf party in September. Despite all the rude things we say about them it seems that visitscotland has its uses.

Snow in Jed today, but nothing like the quantity they've had in England. Or Wales.

Hair raising driving!

2007-02-06T22:25:00.000Z

Here's someone you don't want to run into, although he's more likely to run into you...

Removals

2007-02-03T18:18:00.000Z

Our furniture has been in store for nearly three years. The reason we didn't bring it down here was mainly because there was nowhere to put it. There still isn't, but the owner of the place it was being stored wanted the space back, so it all had to come out.

There still isn't anywhere to put it, but with the residents' lounge almost habitable, a lot has gone in there. There are numerous boxes of magazines, books, china and other things that you collect when you live somewhere for any length of time. We've put most of them into room 1 which is currently a stripped out shell and will remain so for the forseeable future. And we're going to freecycle some of it too. If you haven't heard about freecycle have a look here.

Progress has been good this week. The function room ceiling has been plasterboarded as have the two cellars underneath. The big meat hook had to be removed to allow the new plasterboarding to go in.

I won't mention the rugby.

Try new Blogger beta - It's rubbish!

2007-02-01T21:40:00.000Z

As you'll no doubt be aware if you've been trying to access any part of it today.

Things seem to be going well at the hotel. I say seem to be because I'm not there through the week. But the function room ceiling has been removed and partially reinstated and the new ceilings are going up in the two cellars that got flooded. In fact the main problem is getting some electrical work that was missed in the November done before everything gets covered over again.

Meanwhile here in Edinburgh I had an exam for the WSET level 2 certificate. Tomorrow we're doing canapes at the cook school which I'm sure will be popular in Jedburgh.

(Pause for laughter)

Bookings continue to come in. Many through our website (revised and updated version shortly to appear) and some through laterooms. We're going to upgrade the single rooms as letting rooms. These will not officially exist as visitscotland do not allow rooms with shared facilities, but they will be there as extras if anyone turns up after we're full.

Damp and dismal

2007-01-28T16:19:00.000Z

Not the weather, here...

This is the bottle store. The more perceptive of you will note that it doesn't have very many bottles in it. That's because the work on the flood repairs starts tomorrow and since this room is underneath the function room it got kind of wet. The ceiling has to come down in the function room, but also in this room and the cellar next door. With the best will in the world it'll be a bit messy.

Apart from the flood work there's some carpeting remaining to do, furniture to choose for the new dining room and function room, fitting out of the upstairs kitchen and some other minor work.

I'll be in Paisley tomorrow collecting the rest of our furniture and driving it back to Jed. I'll also be at a meeting with the folk who attended the Arran/Ayrshire trip last year to discuss a proposed Borders food network based on the Ayrshire one,

Birds of a feather

2007-01-19T22:32:00.001Z

Look what we've been given...

The larger pair are pheasants and the wee ones are partridges. They were shot today and will hang here quite happily for a week or more.
The room we've hung them in is the old meat store and the big iron ring covered in pointy hooks which is attached to the ceiling has been there since Victorian times.

Renovations
Well, the painters have finished for the moment and the plumber's connected up all the new stuff in the 1st floor bathroom. With the insurance work starting soon, there should be enough folk on site to attend to any unfinished business.

Some good news

2007-01-12T18:09:00.000Z

The insurance for the flood damage has been sorted out, so work on that can go ahead, and the VAT repayment has arrived so the work on the front of the building can proceed.

I've been away all week on a course (and will be for the next 11 weeks) so L's been minding the shop by herself. We'd both assumed that it would be quiet at this time of year, but she had 7 folk in on Wednesday night and 6 in last night. Most of them wanted early breakfasts too.
Meanwhile lots of small things have happened on the renovations front:

The flooring is down in the gents'
The 1st floor bathroom has had some work done
The 1st floor toilet has been stripped out, floor sheeted, walls painted
The top landing on the main stair is carpeted now
The little devices to hold the fire doors open have been attached
The light fittings are up in the new dining room
The front doors have been refitted to open outwards only

... and the Horseshoe bar has reinstated Scotch pies!

The Great New Year Pie Scandal

2007-01-06T14:14:00.000Z

The Horseshoe bar is one of Glasgow's most famous bars and the owners' decision to stop selling scotch pies is not going down well with the regulars. Seasoned Brit watchers will not be surprised to hear that someone's set up a petition to have them reinstated.

Here at the Spread it's fairly quiet after the pandemonium of new year. We've spent the past four days in the bar, but have staff this afternoon. L is working on our new website (complete with Polish translation courtesy of Magda). It should be ready before the end of January.

Renovations
No action this week. We are waiting for the green light from the insurance company before proceeding with the water damage work. We're also holding off the external work until we get the VAT refund for the last quarter. For those unfamiliar with VAT it's a sales tax on any value you add to a product. If you buy something for a pound and sell it for two, you pay 17.5% of the difference to customs and excise. At the moment with the renovation work going on we are spending a good deal more than we are earning and as a result customs and excise owes us around £11,000. That's more than enough for the external works.

Nerdy
I have finally got NIS to work. This is a system where you have several computers connected together, but no matter which one you log onto you always see your own files. It's used in big offices and is probably a bit over the top for ours.

New Year stampede

2007-01-02T04:39:00.000Z

I read here that someone's going to try to set a new record for squeezing as many people as possible into a telephone box. The current record is 14 apparently.

If you can't make it to that event, you might want to try the Spread bar at 10pm on New Year's day...

Lots of folk in Jedburgh only go to the pub once a year and today was the day. The evening saw a mix our younger regulars and some less familiar faces. Collecting glasses was a challenge! It was a good night.

Which is just as well because if 2007 follows the usual pattern the place will be dead for the next six weeks. From next Monday we'll be opening the bar at 4pm instead of noon. That'll be for 12 weeks while I'm on my course in Edinburgh.

The more perceptive of you will have noticed that it's ten to five in the morning. Maybe mooching around the office in the middle of the night isn't the best preparation for a good day's work. Time for bed (again).

Happy New Year from The Spread Eagle!

2007-01-01T01:12:00.000Z

Ha! What did I tell you?

So it was all a bit of a washout in Edinburgh (and Glasgow for that matter) but here in Jed we had a nice group of folk to see the new year in with and have just finished setting up for breakfast tomorrow. 14 folk staying though some are at the ceilidh at the town hall and may not make it down by 10am.

Happy New Year anyway. Whoever you are, have a good one. We intend to have a better one that last year!

Batten down the hatches

2006-12-31T18:22:00.000Z

Heave to starboard, splice the mainbrace and lash yourselves to the bar me hearties.
Yes, it looks like 2007 is going to begin in stormy style. The street parties planned for Stirling and Glasgow have been cancelled already and if the Edinburgh one doesn't follow soon I'll be surprised. It's a wild night in Jed with winds of 70mph forecast throughout Scotland. The lights have been dimming periodically but we hope that our emergency generator won't be called into service.

Looking at last year's post around this time I see that my new year resolution was not to make any new year resolutions. That one has been kept.

Happy New Year to all our readers. Stay tuned for exciting developments in 2007.

John & Lorna

Christmas is a time for giving...

2006-12-26T08:26:00.000Z

Nonsense! Christmas is a time for setting fire to things - as demonstrated last year.

This year's exploits involved less fire but a lot more smoke.

This device is called a salamander iron, but is usually sold as a creme brulee iron, which gives a clue to its function. Before the days of miniature blowlamps and electric grills this was how you got that nice dark caramel on top of your creme brulee. As you can see, the iron is heated until very hot...

then pressed onto the brown sugar on top of the brulee. White sugar does not work nearly as well due, L thinks, to its higher melting point. There is much bubbling and LOTS of smoke...

and here's the result.

Happy Christmas to all our readers

2006-12-25T00:13:00.000Z

Wherever you are, Whoever you are.

More deja vu

2006-12-23T21:59:00.000Z

Last year I wrote that going to Tesco in Galashiels three days before Christmas probably wasn't the smartest thing to do.
So have a guess what I was doing today, two days before Christmas...

Mad Friday
The last Friday before Christmas is called "mad Friday". The past two years haven't really lived up to the name, but last night did. We had staff, but it was so busy we both ended up helping with serving and glass collection. This morning only two of the guests made it down for breakfast.

Renovations
Work has finished for the holidays now. One of the last things to be done was this:

which means that most of the public areas now have new carpets. The front hall has intentionally been left until last. The workmen will be back in January, but before that the insurance company will be sending a loss adjuster to look at the flood damage. That'll be next Wednesday.

As I was sitting on the stair

2006-12-20T15:04:00.000Z

I found the carpet wasn't there

because the carpet fitters had removed it and taken it to the skip. They've now started fitting the new carpet from 1st to 2nd floor level.

Meanwhile I went to Kelso where a farmers' market was in full swing. Having tried and failed to find Brenda Leddy's farm (Stichill Daries) it was nice to meet the lady herself at one of the stalls. I bought some of her jersey cream and some other goodies. I also met Erica Garratt who lives near Hawick and makes handmade chocolates and puddings.

Renovations
Joiners and plumber(!) here today along with painters who are painting the area beside the front door. Tomorrow will be pretty well the last day's work before new year. Meanwhile estimates for the work on the outside of the hotel have arrived and are less than we thought they'd be. It's worth noting that we now regard any estimate with fewer than four zeros on the end as reasonable.

I'm skiving tomorrow. Off to Edinburgh for my niece's 19th.

Brrrr!

2006-12-19T18:03:00.000Z

Frosty in Jed (and most of the UK) last night and tonight isn't looking any warmer. I was up at 6 (completely unnecessarily - I just woke up) and had the beer lines and coffee machine cleaned by 8am. We had one guest who arrived late but declared the hotel "very nice in a wonky sort of way" but given that he was in Room 9, which hasn't got anything approaching a level surface, that's fair comment.

Renovations
Stop press, Shock! Plumber arrives! Hard to believe, but yes, the plumber put in an appearance and the first floor bath is almost connected. Some painting was done in the front hall and the joiner continued the fitting out of the dining room. Another joiner attended to the bedroom windows which were supposed to have been done earlier but weren't. They now all open and all the cracked panes (thank you previous joiners) have been replaced. The carpet fitter arrived and said that they would try to get the carpet laid on the second flight of the main stair. We'd like to leave the first flight and front hall until we're nearly finished. The quote for the flood repair is apparently nearly ready - all that remains is for the electrician to supply his quote,

Now pay attention

2006-12-18T19:40:00.000Z

You might remember me mentioning common reasons for fires in hotels and restaurants.

Well it seems like Cafe India weren't paying attention to that post since it went up in smoke yesterday. Reports in today's paper say that the fire began when the tandoori oven got out of hand and the flames spread to (wait for it) the extraction system. I'd intended to go there last Monday when I was in Glasgow but it was a wild windy night and we ended up
here instead.

Renovations
I called the plumber this morning. He said he couldn't get into his van. Some problem with the lock apparently. Full marks for originality anyway. Two electricians and four joiners did appear and we now have power in the new dining room. That's good because it means that the external floodlights are working again, so people walking down the street might just notice that we're here.

Penguin power

2006-12-17T09:10:00.000Z

Nerdy
Yes, Mandriva 2007 has finally arrived.

and very pretty it is too. Wizzy 3 dimensional desktops and stuff. And unlike 2006, file sharing seems to work too.

Renovations
There was a brief appearance from the plumber on Friday to fit the new bath in the 1st floor bathroom. Alarm engineers were at work reducing the number of bare wires hanging through the ceilings and the joiner was installing shelves in the new function room bar. Even Belhaven's technical services got in on the act and installed the new T bar font.

Shelf-ish behaviour

2006-12-14T22:45:00.000Z

Would you believe that this room used to be a bedroom? It's one of the three at the top of the main stair that we planned to turn into a double ensuite and a family ensuite. This room was going to be the ensuite of the double.

And the fact that it isn't is the main consequence of the structural work we did during the summer. While we're waiting to see if we will get any money from the structural engineers who failed to spot the very obvious fault we've put some shelving in the room. We spent yesterday assembling it.

This cactus is older than me. It was brought down to the Spread two years ago and treated with wanton cruelty. It got covered in plaster dust when the old kitchen ceiling was removed and I discovered it a couple of weeks ago lying on the floor in one of the unused bedrooms covered in old curtains. It had been there for a month.
And it's about to flower. Given that it's a Christmas flowering cactus that seems like a reasonable thing for it to do, but it would be just as understandable if it turned brown and died.

On the move

2006-12-13T18:24:00.000Z

Furniture removals
Although we've been in Jed for two years, a lot of our possessions are still in store in Paisley. Monday saw me driving a hired van to Paisley to collect some of it. I spent Monday evening in the Republic bier halle in Glasgow (Krusovice dark beer, most excellent - may be appearing at the Spread very soon). Drove back to Jed on Tuesday to unload and then took the van back today. The weather which was bad on Monday and worse on Tuesday was worse still today: howling gale and driving rain.

Renovations
Meanwhile we've got back to the situation where work is progressing so slowly that it's difficult to tell what, if anything has been done. Work on the servery in the dining room has ground to a halt, the plumber is nowhere to be seen, the electricians haven't been here for two weeks and the fire alarm engineers seem to have given up on us as well. And as for the function room- well don't try to book it any time soon.

Comments
Wicksie, thanks for your comment. No, despite being "transmitted to the logistical platform" there is no sign of the new Mandriva OS. An apologetic message from customer services about a week ago said that they were "restocking" or suchlike. How long does it take to burn a dvd I wonder.

Walter walter everywhere

2006-12-09T19:25:00.001Z

Well, not exactly. But Sir Walter Scott has been restored to his rightful position on the main stair now that the painting there is complete. Sir Walter was a frequent visitor to the Spread Eagle due to his work as a judge at the court in Jedburgh.

Two new supermarkets opened in Galashiels recently. Asda opened a couple of weeks ago and Tesco opened last week. Despite being a new building costing £ nmillion (where n is a large positive integer) I see from the local newspaper that they had problems with a leaking roof:-)

The public bar's busy tonight and, as the more perceptive of you will have noticed, I'm not working there tonight. Yay! I do like working Saturday evenings because it's busy, but equally it's nice to get an evening off once in a while.

Meanwhile we've been wasting our free time here. Very addictive!

For people wishing to leave comments
Apologies if you have not been able to do this. I switched to Blogger Beta a few weeks ago and noticed today that you have to explicitly allow comments on each post. I wondered where Aarlene had got to!

A tale of two stairs

2006-12-07T19:09:00.000Z

Renovations
Bad things have happened this week. Let's ignore them and concentrate on good things.
For example...

This is the main stair looking very pretty. It used to be dark wood and was extremely gloomy. Now it's the same colour scheme as the front hall, though since it was painted by proper painters it looks much better. You can also see the new handrail which was added last week. The only thing remaining to do here is the new carpet which will look something like this...

This is the stair leading to the bedrooms and it's been carpeted, painted and generally prettied up. We need to find something to stand in the little alcove in place of the green street lamp.
Elsewhere, the 1st floor bathroom is being fitted out. We'll be using that as our own bathroom in a few weeks.

Nerdy
I ordered a copy of the new Linux operating system from Mandriva and tonight I got an email telling me that my order had been "transmitted to our logistical platform".

Which means, I think, that it has been put on a lorry for delivery.
Lorna's uncle Guy has enlightened me on some of my networking problems. "Routers are a pain in the neck" and "internal wireless cards are pants" seemed to summarise the situation and I think I'd come to roughly the same conclusion myself.

Food fights

2006-12-05T19:33:00.000Z

Gastronomes should probably avoid Chicago now.
To see why have a look
here.

I don't actually like the stuff that much. We had some earlier in the year with a bottle of Chateau d'Yquem which was sublime and remains by far the most expensive bottle of wine I've ever bought. The ideal accompaniment for it is supposed to be foie gras so I scampered along to Jenners and got a little tin of it. They went together beautifully but I'm sure if we had to we could find something equally calorific to complement the wine.

Of course if they ever think about banning Chateau d'Yquem (cruelty to grapes etc) then I'll be first to man the barricades!

Cruelty to hotel owners, however appears to be perfectly acceptable and not yet outlawed by the European parliament. The function room is drying out nicely, but rumour has it that the whole ceiling will have to be replaced. It's an insurance job so cost is not the problem, but the mess and time delay are. The insurance company swore on their auntie's grave that they'd be in touch to arrange a time to come and see the damage, but there has been no sign of them.

Painting continues, carpeting of the back stair began today (about 2/3 done) and plumbing in the 1st floor bathroom continues. Two guests in.

Apres le deluge, moi

2006-12-04T21:59:00.000Z

Flood
Visits from joiners' and painters' supervisors today to view the depressing scene in the function room. All the ceiling paper will have to come off along with the paper on the end wall and the plasterboarding above the walkway to the beer garden. It's unclear at the moment whether the ceiling in the function room will have to be replaced. The insurance company are sending an assessor to have a look.

Guests
A family who stayed with us a week ago have written a very positive review of the hotel on laterooms. There have been times recently (lots of them) when we've had trouble remembering why on earth we're here and things like that help to remind us. Thank you!

Nerdy
I spent this morning (well, twenty minutes of it anyway) loading Linux Mandrake 8.2 on a spare PC. This is because Kylix, the development software I use is only certified to work on that version. It is possible to find workarounds for later distributions, but the number of annoying faults that this causes makes reverting to the earlier version worthwhile. 8.2 dates from 2002 (ancient history in software terms) and looks rather quaint - imagine the look of Windows 3.1 with the functionality of '98. It loads in a fraction of the time of the current version, though it has no idea what a DVD is! I look forward to being able to add a new form to a project without the whole thing hanging up.

Calamity

2006-12-03T18:51:00.000Z

Just when you think everything's under control...

At around 5pm tonight a 15 year old push fit connector on a 22mm hot water pipe under the bath in room 4 blew off. Fortunately (and completely accidentally) Lorna spotted it about twenty minutes later, but by then several hundred gallons of hot water had been dumped on the function room. Our plumber who we have been so rude about in the past attended within ten minutes and has now most favoured nation status.

Things could have been a lot worse. No paint finishes or carpets were damaged - the function room has not been carpeted yet. The room and everything in it is pretty soggy though. We'll need to wait until morning to assess any damage.

Time for another beer.

Let sleeping Poles lie

2006-11-30T17:20:00.000Z

We have four Polish guys staying with us and were (mis)informed that they needed a six thirty breakfast. So at 5.45 this morning I crawled out of bed and had four very nice looking cooked breakfasts waiting.

...and you've guessed it - no guests. After I'd been hanging around for around 90 minutes, they ambled into the front hall...

...and out of the front door.

I ditched the four (now congealed) breakfasts and went into the office to catch up on paperwork. About 8.30 the Poles returned looking for breakfast!

Sigh obviously some translation problems somewhere. I have checked with them that "Fruhstuck am halb neun" will be ok (they speak some German but no English) so tomorrow should be less of a pantomime.

Renovations
The plumber was in today and turned his attention to the bathroom on the first floor. This was originally part of the work to be done during the November closedown but was dropped from the schedule due to lack of time. It dates from the days when the hotel (like most others) didn't have ensuite rooms; now it's only used by rooms six and seven which are for staff and emergency visitors. He removed the bath and toilet to discover that the floorboards were severely woodwormed and/or rotted. So we need to get a joiner in to sort that out. The woodworm isn't active and compared to the kinds of woodborer you get in other countries is definitely the lesser of two weevils.

Sorry, couldn't resist that:-)

Meanwhile painting has continued and the servery in the new dining room continues to take shape. Carpets were supposed to be fitted to the stairs today, but weren't - not sure why.

Seven folk in tonight. In addition to the Poles there are two folk sent by the Glenbank and one other. Breakfast will be at a sensible time tomorrow!

Back to business

2006-11-28T23:25:00.000Z

There was a much smaller squad of painters and joiners today; a definite feeling of this phase of the work coming to an end. A lot of the painting was only done to undercoat level on Friday due to lack of time, so today it's had its second coat. The plastic handrail on the main stair was fitted and the other stair had its railings painted. Work continues on the servery in the new dining room. The remaining carpets will be fitted on Thursday. No plumber (are you surprised) but apparently he'll be putting in an appearance tomorrow. He may even fit the toilet seat in the gents that was meant to be done two weeks ago.

Meanwhile the rooms have been filling up. This morning we had only one guest booked in, but four others have turned up throughout the day. That happens a lot in the summer but not usually three days before the end of November.

And we have some Polish people here for three or four days cutting christmas trees. They arrive tomorrow and will be needing breakfast at 6.30 - Yuk!

Road test

2006-11-26T21:09:00.000Z

We were full last night and all the guests seemed to be deliriously happy or possibly just delirious due to solvent abuse. The furniture has been spray varnished, the wallboard in the showers was glued on with Evo stik and there are paint fumes to contend with as well. Shirley our cleaner left the windows open after resetting the rooms and things are improving.

The workmen are returning tomorrow. My highly selective pictures yesterday didn't show the fact that the wiring isn't completed and the fire alarm installation is extremely temporary, thought they did well to get a working system in the available time. A fair amount of the painting was only done to undercoat level so there's finishing to do there. The carpets are being fitted to the stairs on Wednesday and to the new dining room on Thursday. The function room will need to be cleared to allow the new dance floor to be laid.

Those of you looking to book the room with the four poster in - please note that the four poster is no more! There wasn't time to fit it on Friday and the room looks so much better without it that we will be leaving it with a normal bed. Pics tomorrow.

What a difference a day makes...

2006-11-25T13:29:00.000Z

Thursday November 23rd

Room 9 has some way to go...

Room 4's bathroom isn't quite there yet

and a shower in room 3 would be a bad idea!

The top landing is completely full with reels of vable and boxes...

and just when things can't get any more chaotic the furniture arrives.

Meanwhile carpets and being glued down,

wallpapering is finished,

and Lorna's busy making curtains!

Friday November 24th

There will be guests in this room in around five hours...

and the carpets continue their relentless march through the hotel.

Saturday November 25th

To the wire and beyond

2006-11-23T23:04:00.000Z

Busybusybusy. That's been us (and everyone else) today. The new furniture arrived in pouring rain and some unwitting bar customers who thought they'd come in for a quiet pint found themselves heaving big pieces of furniture up the stairs (while the carpet fitters were gluing carpets down.

Meanwhile the joiners have been joining, the decorators have been decorating, the plumber has been plumbing and the alarm people have been...

We spent the evening shifting some of the furniture into position. There's been a considerable time between our ordering the furniture and it's arriving. That means that a) we've forgotten what we ordered and b) we've forgotten where it was meant to go. Also we only intended to have minibars in two rooms because they're expensive, but then a load of second hand ones became available and we got one for each room.

Still to do - Plumber (of course) has to fit the shower screen in 3 and 4. Minor joinery remaining in all rooms. The big four poster bed has to go back in 9. The old furniture that we left in room 5 have to be moved out.

No pics tonight - We took a few today but I'm on the wrong computer and it takes time to resize them and post them onto Photobucket. Quite frankly I can't be bothered.

The Finishing Post

2006-11-22T21:12:00.000Z

is in sight. Here's a view of the main stair which makes us very happy

because there is no longer a big scaffolding tower on it. The tower on the bedroom stair has been removed too. Carpeting has been laid in the bedroom corridor and new flooring has been laid in all the bathrooms. The new locks arrived, the heated mirrors for the bathrooms arrived, the tv and internet wallplates arrived.

You've heard of the mad woman in the attic? Well here's a variation on that theme...

This is me attempting to attach connectors to the tv feeds for the bedrooms while choking to death on glassfibre insulation and getting completely filthy in the process. Also gives a view of the weird roof construction with these huge diagonal cross braces which make a journey across the attic a sort of 50 metre hurdle event. Glad that's done.

Tomorrow the furniture arrives. We have joiners on hand to attach headboards and help carry stuff, but there's a lot of furniture and it isn't going to be fun.

Water feature (reprise)

2006-11-21T21:32:00.000Z

Maintenance
The leak in the roof in the old owners' accommodation reared its ugly head again during very heavy rain on Thursday night. There was a small puddle of water on the kitchen floor. Seems it's all due to the window sill in the lower room. There isn't one and if the wind's in a particular direction the water gets blown underneath. The roofer has filled the gap with mastic and hopefully that's that. The minor leak that was mended last week seems to have been sorted as have all the other problem areas.

Renovation
Meanwhile the joiner who came a cropper yesterday has been patched up (five stitches) , though he wasn't here today. The decorators were finishing the final pieces of papering and the plaster was skim-plastering the new wall on the staircase. The electricians were fitting the light switches and sockets for a grand switch-on tomorrow. Even the plumber put in a special guest appearance.

Aerial view
An aerial engineer was here today. The existing installation consists of an aerial mounted high up on the side of the hotel and cables running around the side of the building and in below the windows. Our new flat screen tvs are going to be mounted on the walls and will be fed from above. So we wanted a new aerial fitted to the wall or chimney with a cable fed into the attic. The aerial engineer thought that we would get a perfectly good signal putting the aerial in the roof space and this proved to be correct. Suddenly the installation becomes very easy indeed. We just run a cable from the aerial to our little distribution amplifier thingy and then connect it to the tvs via the little conduits that the electrician has left for us.

What's left?
Well, the scaffolding towers come down tomorrow and the decoration should be finished then too. The furniture arrives on Thursday and most of the carpets in the public areas will be fitted that day too. There won't be time to fit the stair carpets until next week, so the existing ones will be cleaned.

Roll in the barrell
Meanwhile, two pins of ale have arrived from Wylam brewery.

Here's one. Isn't it a cute little thing. Wait until it grows up! This is "Pin No1" and, unlike Hadrian and Border Brewery there is also a "Pin No 2" not to mention 3, 4 and 5.

Continuation

2006-11-20T20:58:00.000Z

I have a warm glow inside tonight. This is probably due to lots of Jacaranda Hill rose from the co-op, but it could be due to good progress on the renovations front.

The bedrooms have doors.
The bedrooms have carpets
The staircase to the bedrooms has been plasterboarded
The servery in the new dining room is taking shape
Our heated mirrors for rooms 3 and 4 will be here in a couple of days
The locks for the bedrooms will be here tomorrow or Wednesday
The new flatscreen tvs for the bedrooms have arrived
Papering and painting continues apace
The electricians have been attaching light fittings and sockets and stuff
One of the joiners has attempted to remove his left arm with a Stanley knife

OK, so the last item isn't progress, but it's been a good day (unless you're that joiner). Tomorrow we are promised that the scaffolding towers will be removed. Imagine being able to get to the bathroom without aerial gymnastics!
D**** is here tomorrow. As the project nears completion it's worth mentioning that, stressed and frazzled as we are, things would have been infinitely worse if we had not had an extremely competent project manager to keep an eye on things. If there's anyone out there about to start the renovation of a large historic building we can unreservedly recommend...

...that you don't do it.

Beer today, gone tomorrow

2006-11-19T20:41:00.000Z

A few posts ago I mentioned that, during the winter we get our real ale in half size casks called pins. They hold 36 pints and we can just about sell that in a week. The problem is that Hadrian and Border brewery where we get most of our ale from only has one pin. That means that we either have to get a full size cask every second week (lots of waste) or get nothing (no beer). I've been trying to persuade H&B to get another pin, but they are reluctant to do so because they're difficult to find and very expensive. You can get a polypin which is plastic bag in a box - a bit like boxes of wine, but H&B don't like them as they are prone to exploding in their van, leaving beer sloshing all over the place.

Meantime I've stocked up on Black Sheep in bottles. We've also got hold of some of Wychwood's Hobgoblin in bottles. You might remember the poster I bought at the Edinburgh Ale festival in July.

Here he is. I'd never tried the beer until tonight. Quite amazing stuff - sort of burnt sugar-cane taste with lots of hops for balance. Definintely not a session beer unless you have a hospital nearby.

MEANWHILE...
This is the week when it all happens... The November renovations reach their thrilling climax this week with the massed painters and plasterers of Galashiels being joined by joiners, carpet fitters, furniture delivery people, plumbers, butchers, bakers, candlestick makers and whoever else happens to be passing. It'll be fun...

when it's all over.

Lucid interval

2006-11-17T22:15:00.000Z

OK, I've had dinner, I've had a couple of pints of Legion Ale (yum) and am feeling a bit better disposed to the world in general. It helps that the plumber phoned this evening to ask if he could work Saturday. He's a volunteer fireman and was called away to an incident this afternoon.

Meanwhile here are some pics of progress so far. There is more to see but the back staircase has been sprayed for dry rot, so I'm not allowed to go up there tonight.

This is the corridor leading to the bedrooms. If you scroll down a bit you'll find a picture of it last week which shows the progress to date. And this...

is what you see when you come up from the front hall.

Plumbing the depths

2006-11-17T09:11:00.000Z

My foot hurts. It hurts because I have been kicking things. I have been kicking things out of TOTAL frustration at the progress over the past week.

Which is strange, because viewed as a whole, it's been a good week. The painters have finished all the decoration in the bedrooms and the public rooms, the wallpapering and plastering is well under way in the public areas and we even have a carpet laid in the new residents' lounge.

But we closed last week to allow the renovation of the gents' toilet. It wasn't finished by the end of last week so we closed again this week Monday - Thursday.

The room is partially tiled. No new flooring has been laid. The water economiser has not been fitted to the urinal. The window fan has been broken. The soap dispenser is broken or missing. The radiator has not been fitted. The plumber occasionally ambles in with no sense of urgency and disappears without notice.

And we still have to climb a scaffolding tower to get to our bathroom. In the dark this evening because the electrician had forgotten to switch the circuit back on. He did come back and sort it out within half an hour of our calling.

Would someone please remind me what the point of all this was again...

Can we go away again please?

2006-11-12T16:28:00.000Z

We're back from a relaxing week spent doing very little. We stayed in a nice farm cottage with swimming pool and a hot tub lurking at the bottom of the garden.

We returned to this...

There were apparently 15 decorators working here at the start of the week. Layer after layer of paper has been removed from the walls and ceiling. Both staircases however have big scaffolding towers on them. This presents a problem because

our bathroom is at the top of the stair. To get there we have to duck under the scaffolding which you see above and then climb onto the platform at the top.

The back stair leading to the bedrooms also has a tower on it and the wall on the left has been stripped to remove the dry rot.

It all looks a bit scary, but a huge amount has happened in the past week. The painting in the public rooms is finished and the papering in the bedrooms is coming on.

The main job this week was the improvements to the gents' toilet. I've just realised that I didn't take a "before" picture of it, but the new stainless steel bits are fitted and working. There's still more to be done there and as a result we'll be closing the bar again Monday - Thursday this week.

Discoveries

2006-11-03T22:24:00.000Z

For once the sign does not lie! There were lots of men at work today and a certain amount of danger mostly to ourselves. While the painters were continuing the stripping of paper (and quite a lot of plaster) from the corridors, we were installing network cables to provide internet access in the bedrooms. The route to achieve this was not simple and we got thoroughly filthy in the process.

Here's the route to the bedrooms with the walls and ceiling stripped.

We discovered some little windows at the back of the function room bar

which add to my theory that this was originally an outside wall.

Originally there was one bathroom shared between all the bedrooms on the top floor. When the rooms were made ensuite the communal bathroom became the ensuite of Room 2.

and with the paper removed you can see where the original doorway was. Room 5's ensuite was also a bedroom (a very small one!).

Things have been going well this week. Almost all the walls in the whole hotel have been stripped The floors in three of the bedrooms have been covered with plywood sheeting and a lot of the rewiring has been completed. While we're away next week the public bar will be closed and the gents toilets on the ground floor will be renovated.

Steamy scenes at the Spread Eagle

2006-11-02T22:58:00.000Z

Strippers have been at work in the hotel this week. Lots of them. They have all kept their clothes on (to the best of our knowledge) and have removed the wallpaper from the bedrooms, staircase and most of the corridors. Progress has been good.

A few nasties have come to light, but nothing we didn't expect. There is some dry rot on the wall by the staircase to the bedrooms, but it is not active or extensive. The wall will need to be sprayed with nasty chemicals and new plasterboard fitted. Some plaster fell off in the corridors, but less than expected. Electricians have been making good progress and the plumber has stripped out the shower room in Room 3.

Flooring has been laid in the new kitchen which is now looking very nice indeed. The ceiling in the dining room has been repaired and work is under way to make room 9 ensuite. All in all a good week.

Next week will definitely be better, for the simple reason that we will not be here. We're taking a much needed holiday from Sunday to Friday and will be spending it doing as little as possible.

The lights are going out all over Jedburgh

2006-10-31T20:17:00.000Z

and to prove it...

here's the infamous street light about to be consigned to the scrap heap by Lorna...

and here it is on the skip. Guess who carried it downstairs (clue - he does not appear in the photos)

Meanwhile, our tepid hero continues his attempt to drag the Spread Eagle into the 21st century by installing network cables. He locates a position above the ceiling of the corridor leading to the bar, carefully measures the distance between spotlight and wall and drills a hole in the ceiling...

..which can't be found from above. Also, the drill bit seems to be drilling through lots of wood.

Much swearing (under breath of course - this is a family blog)

Another hole is drilled slightly closer to the spotlight. Distances are measured to the millimetre. Hole is not visible from above.

Much swearing (louder this time)

Her ladyship swans in in her dressing gown and asks stupid questions such as "Are you sure it's the right spotlight?" (there are three in a row)

Our hero goes very quiet, goes downstairs and re-measures everything from below, then drills yet another hole - this time next to the middle spotlight...

Returns to find her ladyship looking smug. This happens quite often.

The cables are now mostly installed...

Here is a picture showing both the network cables and the truly disastrous state of the floorboards. Visitors through the summer who noticed that the floor went "DOINK" when you stood on it - here's why.

Stand by to repel boarders

2006-10-30T11:29:00.000Z

We're closed. Well, the hotel is - until about four weeks on Friday. We've spent the morning clearing rooms 2 - 4. Some of the furniture was unceremonially dumped on the skip, the rest was put into room 5 for the time being. New furniture will arrive before the renovation work finishes, but being of a pessimistic nature we're assuming that something will go wrong.
But so far so good. Everyone's turned up - carpet fitters to remove carpets, electricians, plumbers, painters, joiners. D***** is here tomorrow to check that everything is happening as planned.

There is a green street lamp in the alcove on the stairs to the bedrooms. Why it's there is a mystery. Why it's still there after two years was even more of a mystery. It seems that L*** thought I liked it, while I thought she liked it. Today we realised that we both think it's horrible. So it's in the skip too:-)

Dismal days

2006-10-27T17:58:00.000+01:00

It was dark, drizzly and damp this morning. The bar's been very quiet for the past few days but hopefully Friday and Saturday will make up for it. When we were looking for a property we included a public bar as one of the essentials since it would bring in money during the quiet periods.

It wouldn't be included now.

Although it pays its way even in the darkest months of winter it's not a huge moneyspinner. It also means that at least one of us has to be here all the time. Standing in an almost empty bar for long periods is not the most exciting pastime and it promises to be a long winter.

But that quietness might just be a selling point. Lots of guests comment on how quiet the bedrooms are and there's a big potential market just an hour up the road in Edinburgh. With nice food, a comfortable lounge to... er lounge in, nice bedrooms and beautiful countryside who could resist:-)

Facing facts

2006-10-26T21:52:00.000+01:00

Yes, the door facings have been fitted! Only eight weeks late! They were subcontracted and the subcontractor... didn't. so these ones were made by our tame joiner. I would mention him by name, but I know he reads this and I don't want him to get big headed:-) Anyway "Be nice to joiners" week was last week.

Other stuff. The new light fittings are up in the function room and look fab, but I'm going to wait for completion before showing a photo. The painters have now moved next door and are working on the residents' lounge. There have been plasterers working in the new dining room too.

The new kitchen has power now and the extractor seems to extract. It's much less noisy than the current one as the motor is outside (and a lot quieter anyway) so we should be able to communicate without having to lip read.

Monday is the grand close down. We'll be shut until almost the end of November. The floors will be up which will give ample opportunity to run all those network and telephone cables that I meant to do last month.

Advertising

2006-10-25T09:50:00.000+01:00

A newspaper advertisement for an English ale has been banned, according to today's paper. The advert apparently showed a young girl dressed in low cut mediaeval dress sitting on a bale of hay with the caption "I love a session on the Bishop's Finger"

I suppose they have a point. (Bishop's finger is the name of the beer)

When we were thinking of advertising slogans, one early suggestion was "Come and get Spreadeagled in Jedburgh" which, on reflection would probably have attracted the wrong kind of customers.

A couple of walkers were in our bar the night before last - attracted by our real ale. They weren't staying with us though, because they'd looked on the website of the walk they were doing and we weren't on it.

Clearly we should be.

Comments
Aarlene - thanks for your comments. We have of course done a huge amount over the past year, but very little of it was planned or predicted at this time last year. It's been a very difficult year and behind all those (hopefully) entertaining blog postings have been two very stressed, very frazzled owners trying hard not to bite each other's heads off. There have been times (lots of them) during the past year when we felt like going for a long drive and not coming back. Hopefully things will be better this year.

The best laid plans of mice and men...

2006-10-24T20:37:00.000+01:00

End of year two. Here's what I predicted would happen this year. Let's see if any of it did happen.

*************************************
In the next 12 months we intend to...

Refurbish both kitchens
Almost finished one

Begin serving food in the rooms which are currently the lounge bar and tv room
That didn't happen. Forecast for Eater, but don't book just yet

Create two new bedrooms in the rooms at the top of the main stair
Nope, didn't do that either. We have done a lot of work in the other bedrooms though

Create a suite half way up the main stair (to be used by us in the medium term)
Amazingly enough that didn't happen either. It still looks like a mediaeval dungeon in there.

Replace the main stair railings
Not done due to excessive cost. We're planning to add a handrail to make the current railings look more finished, but no instruction has been issued.

Turn the current room 9 into an office
Oh, I remember that! We were going to turn the current office into the new ladies' toilet or something. Didn't happen.

Improve the toilets on the first floor
That's actually going to happen to a limited extent as part of the November works

Stabilise the derelict outbuildings
Nope

Improve the decor
Getting there!

Increase our customer base
From pretty close to zero. Yes, I suppose we have to some extent.

Best thing we've done in the last 12 months: Appointed JDI of Nottingham as our project managers.
Ah, what a difference a year makes! We had a bit of a falling out with them and now use D**** who was then employed as a consultant. JDI have since gone into receivership (Ahhh shame!)

Worst thing we've done in the last 12 months: Employed Roofing Direct of Edinburgh.
They've also gone into receivership. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of cowboys!

OK, so that was the year that was. With most of the scary building work nearing completion it's time to make predictions for 2006/7 Here we go:

1) We're going to start serving evening meals to residents only and bar meals to the general public in April 2007

2) We're going to attract the kind of people we want to stay here. That's walkers, cyclists, bikers, golfers and shooting and fishing folk.

3) We're going to improve occupancy outwith weekends by offering midweek dinner B&B packages.

4) We may get the outside of the hotel improved with new paint, lettering and lighting.

Last year's list was mostly concerned with renovation work and, apart from work already instructed, we're not planning to do any more in the coming year. So the list this year is a bit shorter. Let's have another look in 12 months time.

The long dark days of winter

2006-10-23T18:45:00.000+01:00

Remaining to do
A lot of painting has been done, but there's still a lot to do. The function room is nearly finished but the other two rooms (residents' lounge and new dining room) haven't been started yet.
New furniture for the bedrooms arrives in the second week of November and it'll be stored in the function room until the bedrooms are ready for it.

November closedown
We've just given the go-ahead for the last major work in the hotel. This includes rewiring and redecoration work in the bedrooms, renovation of the ground floor and first floor gents' toilet and new carpets almost everywhere. The only other thing we want to get done is new lettering, lighting and painting on the front of the hotel. That involves scaffolding the whole front of the building and will therefore be expensive. We'll need to wait until the November work is finished and paid before we make a decision to continue.

Advertising
"Loose the winter blues" urged an advertisement for Crieff Hydro which we spotted in the Saturday paper. We've got enough problems without winter blues on the loose!

Second anniversary
We've been here two years on Wednesday! Can you believe that? Time to make bold (and completely wrong) predictions for the coming year. Whatever happens it can't be as bad as this one!

Meanwhile it's been a beautiful day here in Jed. Lorna went out for a walk and took some pictures. Here's one I like...

Special delivery

2006-10-16T20:42:00.000+01:00

A week past Friday I ordered a reel of network cable so that I could have telephone and computer points in the bar, new breakfast room and other locations. I wanted to get it before the plywood sheeting was fixed to the floor in the breakfast room and was told that delivery would take 2 - 3 working days.

It hadn't arrived by Thursday so I checked the DHL parcel tracking service.
The parcel had started its journey in Manchester
Then it had travelled to Carlisle
Then it had travelled to Dumfries
Then it had taken fright and scuttled back to Manchester and finally had made its way to the south of England with its tail between its legs.

I emailed DHL asking what had happened and I got a reply

"We apologise for the delay of you parcel but we believe that the senders have put the
wrong postcode on the parcel and because our systems run off postcodes they can not recognise
it."

The parcel arrived today. It had the correct postcode on it.
Meanwhile the joiners have been busy laying plywood sheeting in the new breakfast room and fixing it to the floor with lots of screws.

*"&@!?

Bad words!

Empathy

2006-10-15T19:42:00.000+01:00

I was watching a report on News24 about the new Wembley stadium which is months behind schedule and squillions of pounds over budget.

It's not just us then.

Saturday was busy and just about made up for the shortcomings of the previous week. We have two guests tonight and the bar has been busy today too. We have a few bookings for the week ahead and then a busy weekend.

Renovations
The finishing tape is in sight, but doesn't seem to be getting any closer. The function room ceiling was papered and carpets and paint colours have been chosen. The second phase of work starts on the 30th of October which will probably be the same day as the first phase is signed off.

There are some big scary bills heading our way this week. The joiners, who are the main contractors didn't submit an invoice last month, so we have to pay for most of the work that's gone on over the summer. I won't go into details, but suffice to say it's going to cost considerably more than my first flat in Glasgow.

But the scope of work has increased - quite substantially - so that after the second stage of renovations in November we will have the majority of the hotel fully restored, with only the unused rooms on the main stair untouched. We'll have five refurbished ensuite bedrooms, a new function room, residents lounge (with woodstove) a new breakfast room (eventually becoming the dining room) and a small but perfectly formed kitchen.

We'll also have new carpets, new lighting, a substantial part of a new fire alarm system, new plumbing and improved decoration in the public corridors.

Mary Walker who lived here in the past (see here for details) dropped by last week on her way to a holiday. She was last here a year ago and was impressed by how much we'd done. Because we live here and see the progress or lack of it at first hand we tend to get a bit jaded and cynical (not that you could tell from my blog - Oh no!) about the whole thing. But two years ago we had no experience of running any business, none of running a hotel and limited experience of building works. It's nearly the end of our second year here, so it might soon be time to sit down and work out exactly what has happened this year.

First impressions

2006-10-13T22:05:00.000+01:00

The exterior of the hotel needs work. It currently looks at best run down and at worst closed. Until recently that reflected the actual state of the place pretty accurately but with our renovation of the bedrooms and public area entering its final stages we need to make improvements to what the visitors see as they approach.

What do they see at present?

The building is dark because the floodlights aren't working. That's temporary but it adds to the closed feeling. The front windows are dark because the rooms at the front are not in use and the lettering is falling to pieces.

So, you say. Why not just give it a lick of paint and some new lettering? Well, it's not that simple. Because it's a listed building we have to have paint colours, lettering and lighting approved both by Borders Council and Historic Scotland. I want to change the lighting - there are currently two big floodlights which light up the wall and nothing else.

Surprisingly the council approves of the kind of lights I want - small floodlights above the lettering. But we still need to submit pictures of what they look like. Then we have to get the front of the building scaffolded and while we're doing that we may as well get any roof repairs done.

We're going to close during November to get the remainder of the rewiring and redecoration of the bedrooms done. Once we've worked out how much money we have left we can decide whether or not to go ahead with the front.

Meanwhile it's been a truly crap week. I mean absolutely rubbish, About three hotel guests and not many more bar customers. Tonight is relatively busy and we hope tomorrow will go some way to making up for it.

board stiff

2006-10-10T20:36:00.000+01:00

If you didn't see yesterday's picture then you'll say "what a mess", but if you did, you'll say "what an improvement". Our plasterer has been a busy fellow and as well as plastering this entire wall he's also been filling in gaps and finishing off bits in the other rooms.

We've chosen some very nice light fittings for the three rooms. Frazer - you'll know what I mean...
To see a picture of them go to lighting styles website (the link is in the previous post) and type harlech into the "search for" box. We're getting the bronze finish ones.

The bar has been very quiet today and, due to the ongoing staff shortage we were doing the whole lot ourselves. We have a new start on Saturday though, so it looks as though we will have some help through the winter.

Traditional building methods

2006-10-08T18:38:00.000+01:00

Scotland beating France 1-0 at football? That's something you don't see very often.

Here's another thing you don't see very often

It's the new dining room and it's looking far from finished.

The wall to the left of the picture is called a "stud partition" and consists of wooden beams with wee strips of wood called lath attached to them. The plaster is applied to the lath and sticks to it.

Well, usually it does, but as you can see here it's all fallen off. The wall to the right of the picture didn't have any lath - the plaster was stuck straight onto the stone and, again, it's all fallen off.

Looking a bit less like a bomb site...

we have the function room nearing completion. The new bar is taking shape and the cornicing and ceiling are pretty well complete. We have to decide on colours. Soon.

Ages ago I promised you pictures of the bathroom of Room 5.

and here it is. The lighted mirrors are very pretty and less than £100 each. Available from lighting styles if you fancy one.

The bath looks pretty good as well. We'll be closing in November to complete the renovation of the other two bathrooms and the rest of the rewiring of that side of the building. Room 9 on the other side of the building will be made ensuite and the gents toilet on the ground floor will be getting renovated.

The perils of cleaning...

2006-10-02T19:17:00.000+01:00

CRASH!!! HOWWWWWLLLL!!!
"You alright?"
"Moan"
"Where are you?"
"Ladies toilet"
"Ah, you stood up underneath the hand dryer didn't you?"
"Whimper"

In case you're all getting worried about what I was doing in the ladies' toilet - I was cleaning the floor with a cloth. I have a large lump on my head to prove this and am generally not a happy bunny:-(

However...

Photos have returned from the chemist (how quaint) which show some views of Arran taken on my trip last week.

Back home, the niche discovered in the old lounge bar has now been uncovered in all its glory...

Stone soup

2006-10-01T20:50:00.000+01:00

I'm reading "Never had it so good", Dominic Sandbrook's history of postwar britain. It's a social as well as political history and contains this wonderful description (from Egon Ronay) of what was on offer in a West Country hotel in 1957:

"Grapefruit cut into segments which were put back with all the pith left on, sour but heavily sugared. Minestrone which was some sliced vegetables in coloured water. Scampi, the Mediterranean fish but still tough and tasteless, served with 'mayonnaise' poured from a bottle into a sauceboat round the corner. Roast beef, cut thin, overcooked to brownness, lying in weak beef extract gravy..."

My father used to like to go to places like that - starched tablecloths, shiny silverware, high prices and bloody awful food.

I get the feeling that this is the kind of stuff that the Spread Eagle would have been serving until quite recently. The setup in the old still room said it all: the dumbwaiter up which the unfortunate chunk of meat would be sent, the old hot cupboard to keep it warm and the wee aluminium rings that remind me of school dinners which were to keep the plates apart.

We've been mopping up the odd bottle of nice pink wine from the Co-op along with kettle chips and dips. Tonight we had run out of dips and chips and the co-op was shut (Sunday you see) so I went to Alldays which is open later. The only dip they had was a "Pringles sour cream and chive" dip which, when we opened it tasted like cheap salad cream mixed with wallpaper paste. L suggested adding yoghurt.
"What does it need now?"
"More yoghurt"
We added more yoghurt, paprika and lime juice after which it was just about edible. Perhaps they should put the following instructions on the jar:
Step 1: Open jar
Step 2: Empty jar down sink
Step 3: Fill jar with something that vaguely resembles sour cream and chive dip

Still, the pink wine and kettle chips were nice.

Getting the picture

2006-09-28T21:52:00.000+01:00

I didn't take the digital camera on my recent trip to Ayrshire for two reasons. The main one is that I forgot it, but the other one is that it takes enormous jpeg files and you can only get about 15 pictures on the memory card. So I bought one of these cheap single use film cameras and, like all film cameras there are still a few shots remaining before the film is finished. Hopefully that'll happen tomorrow. There is plenty to photograph - walls filled with straw, cornicing and the recently uncovered niche for example.

One of the people we met on our trip to Arran was Robin Gray who is occasional chef at the Wineport and also the owner of Kingscross herbs which supplies organic vegetables and, presumably, herbs to the catering trade. There used to be a restaurant in Glasgow called Mitchells which was run by two chefs. One was called Robin and had a smallholding on Arran. I wonder if it's the same person. Mitchells has closed now and despite extensive Googling I can't find any more information about it.

There were painters and joiners in today. The painters spent all day painstakingly filling all the cracks in the function room ceiling. The joiners were building the new bar. D***** will be here on Tueday to discuss the works planned for November. We're going to close completely during November to allow the remainder of the upgrading work to be completed.

Ayr, there and everywhere

2006-09-27T21:24:00.000+01:00

Just back from investigating the foodie paradise that is Ayrshire with a trip to Arran thrown in. We met some of the folk involved in the creation and running of the Ayrshire food network which encourages and promotes local artisan food producers and restaurants that use their produce. Sadly they don't have a website, but the link I've put above tells you a bit about them.

We also visited Arran to hear about the taste of Arran scheme which does have a website so I won't say any more about it. Go surfing!

Then headed to Glasgow which seemed to be very busy. All the hotels and B&Bs were full. Eventually I was enlightened - Celtic were playing in a European cup match. My enthusiasm and knowledge for football is such that I can't remember who they were playing, but they did win. Had a couple of pints here and then had a welcome bed for the night provided by a mate. Thanks Paul!

Spent a day nosing around Ottakars and stocking up on reading material for when the pub's empty (there aren't any book shops in Jedburgh) and then trundled homewards. L is getting a day off tomorrow - if you've read her blog you'll see why.

Food glorious food

2006-09-24T10:05:00.000+01:00

I'm off on a freebie tomorrow. It's organised by visitscotland and is to do with food tourism. It starts at 9am in Ardrossan and that means I've got to leave this afternoon (or 4 am tomorrow).

The trip takes in various food producers, restaurants and touristy places and I hope it'll give us some ideas for when we finally start serving meals other than breakfast.

After a long day and a reasonably busy night in the bar (we had the entire 12 hours to do ourselves due to staffing problems) we ambled off to bed around 12.30.

At 1.05 the phone rang. If the phone rings that late it's usually one of the guests with unwelcome news (building on fire/fallen down, wayward grandson of minor aristocrat running amok with fire extinguisher - that sort of thing). On this occasion it was the garage near the woollen mill who had a couple of tourists looking for rooms.

We were full, but that's a new record for our latest ever attempt at check-in. Please don't treat this as a challenge!

House of straw

2006-09-22T20:24:00.000+01:00

The old lounge bar which is going to be the new dining room is next door to the old residents lounge which is currently our living room. Are you following me so far? Well, these two rooms were originally a single room and at some point in the dim and distant past a wall was built dividing them. Fortunately for us, this wall is not a brick one and does not support the floor above, but it does have some interesting features which our electrician discovered today. The wall is what's called a "stud partition" which basically means there is a wooden frame, covered on each side with wooden lath (little strips of wood) with plaster on top. So far so good. But to provide insulation the now long-dead builders filled the space between the layers of plaster with...

... straw. Yes, the space is filled with close packed straw. Now the more perceptive of you will have noted the construction here: Straw, little strips of wood, bigger pieces of wood. Yes, this is not so much a wall as a bonfire in search of an ignition source. I'm not sure whether we can leave the straw in place or whether we need to strip it all out.

Electrical installation work continues in the new dining room. Joinery work continues elsewhere. No prospect of a finishing date this far.

Yuk!

2006-09-17T22:47:00.000+01:00

"The main cause of hotel fires" said John Webber of Nairn's cook school is not cleaning the grease filters in your extraction system. We hadn't cleaned ours for about three months mainly because we were expecting to be in the new kitchen two months ago. However, we're not and the grease filters were beyond disgusting. Once they get clogged with grease there is the danger of excessive heat causing the grease to ignite and, voila: hotel flambee.

That was never likely to happen here since frying a few eggs doesn't those cause huge flames that you see on tv programmes. Well, not unless I'm having a really bad morning:-/ However, the grease filters needed cleaned and, being old, they're enormous - far too big to fit in the dishwasher and almost too big to fit in the sink. A day's soaking in strong degreasing solution has got them to the stage where they are usable.

If you find yourself in the West End of Glasgow, visit Fi Buchanan who runs the best deli in Glasgow if not Scotland. Sales of cherry tarts have probably plummeted since I left the BBC nearby, but she has a fab selection of cheeses, cold meats, olives and, well almost anything you could possibly want and quite a lot you don't know you want because you didn't know it existed. There is a connection btw, Fi used to work for Nick Nairn before setting out on her own. His loss is everyone else's gain!

Washing daze

2006-09-17T14:01:00.000+01:00

The laundry monster duvecoverum giganticus is found in warm dark areas around hotels and guest houses. Given optimum conditions it can grow to twenty feet in height in a very short time. Treatment with biological washing powder is known to be effective, but can take a long time. If neglected it can take over the entire hotel and cause the fatal condition outoflinenitis.

Meanwhile, it's been a good weekend thanks to the dog trials in Kelso (they were all acquitted apart from one who was convicted of terrierism) but that finishes today and next week looks pretty quiet.
I'm escaping to Edinburgh on Tuesday and we have L's brother Rob with us this weekend before he flies back to South Africa to avoid having to suffer another dark cold Scottish winter... as opposed to a dark cold Scottish summer. Only kidding - it's nice today.

Rain, rain

2006-09-14T20:34:00.000+01:00

There's a dog show in Kelso just now and it means that we're full for three or four days. To mark the first day of the show there was heavy rain followed by thunder and lightning. The leak in the roof on the first floor corridor seems to have been fixed, but the small one in the old owners' rooms continues. D**** was here yesterday with the builder. Given available resources it seems likely that our only input to these rooms will be framing, plasterboarding and fitting out - the roofing work's too dangerous and the floor strengthening will take more man/woman power than we have available.

What we can get on with is one of the unused rooms on the top floor which used to be a bedroom and is going to become an ensuite for the next door room. There's little heavy joiner work needed and no building work. We need the plumber to supply a hot and cold feed, a drain and a central heating feed but we can do most of the rest.

Cornicing work is finished. The cornice company blotted their copy book by leaving the place a complete mess which L had to spend half an hour tidying up before the guests came back, but apart from that we're very happy with the result. Pictures later.

Staff shortages

2006-09-13T08:43:00.000+01:00

We've been lucky with the staff we've had during our (nearly) two years here, but it looks as though our luck has temporarily run out. We were already looking for a barperson to do 16 hours or so, but with little success (see previous postings both here and here ).

On Sunday night we had six people staying and at ten o'clock I'd set up for breakfast, got the laundry under control and settled down in the bar with a pint of frothy ale, at which point eight Brazilians turned up looking for accommodation. So suddenly we had 14 staying and all five rooms occupied.

On Monday morning after breakfast (the Brazilians devoured everything in sight!) one of our two remaining bar/cleaning staff turned up, told us she couldn't work for us anymore (personal reasons and not a complete surprise to us) and left.
That left us five rooms to strip,reset and clean followed by eleven hours in the bar. Oh Joy!
There was less cleaning yesterday, but we still had to do the whole 11 hours in the bar.

Until recently we had a more or less permanent advertisement in the job centre and a few weeks ago they called to ask if we had taken on any of the ten people who had applied for the job.

No-one had contacted us.

That's not entirely surprising since it's a condition of receiving unemployment benefit that you have to apply for any suitable jobs that come up. Of the ones who do contact us, very few bother to turn up for interview. Even weirder is the one or two who have shown up for interview, been given the job and not turned up on the day.

One of our ex employees has offered to do the occasional shift to help out. And Shirley who does the cleaning at weekends has offered to do cleaning through the week as well.

So where are all those friendly Eastern Europeans when you need them?

Delete existing partition? Y/N

2006-09-12T18:33:00.000+01:00

Since last May, the hall leading to the bedrooms has looked like this

and that's been a source of much annoyance during the tourist season since we have to keep apologising for the temporary boarding and explaining that it all should have been taken away ages ago.

Well, now it has been.

and things are starting to look a bit more normal. The work to finish the two rooms can now continue without causing any disruption - at the end of the day we can just close the doors to the rooms.

Using the carpet as a template you can see where the doors (and walls) originally were before the wall was replaced.

The function room door - to the right of the picture - is a bit further left, but since the position was no more than a guess it's fairly close.
The new residents' lounge (left door) has shifted a lot from its original position. Again, the positioning was a guess and doesn't cause any problems.

New cornicing was fitted in the hall yesterday

and looks pretty good. The new cornicing has been attached in the function room and the new residents' lounge will be done later in the week. In the new dining room there were a couple of bits of cornice removed when the bar was fitted and they'll need replaced. The cornicing folk (do you call them cornicers? Is that a word?) didn't know about that though, so it'll take a couple of weeks to make the new bits.

D**** is here tomorrow to see what's happening and discuss future plans.

Anniversary

2006-09-11T23:32:00.000+01:00

I was at work. Bored. Trawling through the Guardian website when a newsflash caught my eye.

I remember watching the events unfold on News 24, watching the black smoke issuing from the towers and thinking "it's going to take them days to put that out".

Of course it didn't. The whole event had a feeling of complete unreality about it. The French documentary shown about a year later had such a powerful effect largely because it had two elements that were missing from the original footage - proximity and sound. The long shot of the aircraft hitting the second tower had a dreamlike feeling - it seemed to happen in slow motion. It couldn't be real could it?

I'd been exchanging emails with my old school friend Frankie the day before - I was planning a trip to the states and spend most of the 10th checking flights and prices. Frankie was working in DC close to the Pentagon. We didn't hear anything for three of four days and were worried.

The silence was mainly because he had an inbox full of "are you alright" emails and it took a while to work through them all. He had a fairly good view of the Pentagon attack and when I went over the following February the area round the Pentagon was bristling with anti aircraft guns and there were concrete barriers around the area near the White house.

Travelling to, from and around the States took a while because of all the not-very-random-at-all-really security checks. I eventually discovered that I kept being searched because of the bottles of whisky I was carrying which appeared as mysterious cylindrical objects on xrays.

I didn't visit New York on that trip. Could have, but didn't.

What did I tell you?

2006-09-10T18:11:00.000+01:00

In a previous post I mentioned the fickleness of our younger drinkers. Three weeks ago we sold at least a bottle of Apple Sourz. The same two weeks ago. Last week we put it on optic and sold another bottle.

Last night - none. Not a single one. Everyone was back onto Blue WKD, or to be more exact Cheeky Vimto which is blue WKD and port.

It was a good night, though tiring as, due to the almost perpetual staff shortage, we had to do most of yesterday (and all of today) ourselves. The person we interviewed for the bar job was fine, but had had a trial elsewhere and decided to take that job instead of ours.

In celebratory mood

2006-09-07T20:10:00.000+01:00

Happy birthday to me! Yes another year older and not an hour richer. Her ladyship has cooked me a very tasty steak and Tracy our barmaid gave me a very nice bottle of red wine which I spent several minutes attempting to break my corkscrew on (it was a screw cap - it's been a long day).

And we're full. Largely due to the tup fair at Kelso which has resulted in the bar being full of people talking about sheep. Whatever the reason it's nice to be busy.

Unlike the workmen. Aarlene, the reason I avoid mentioning the workmen is that to do so results in uncontrollable wailing, possibly gnashing of teeth and certainly rending of garments. There was supposed to be a crew change this week - the workmen we had were supposed to leave and another lot were supposed to turn up. Well, you've guessed it, the old crew left yesterday, but the new one has failed to show up. So it's been strangely quiet today. D**** our project manager phoned the foreman of the joiner's firm to be told that he didn't know anything about it. "Bloody unbelievable" was, I think D****'s comment and I can't really improve on that.

Californians - an apology

2006-09-05T19:49:00.000+01:00

The previous post started with a representation of a telephone ringing which I originally put in triangular brackets. Blogger of course interpreted these as htm tags and fell over big style. In fact the whole west coast of America is probably in darkness as I speak. Sorry! I've changed them to dashes! And I won't do it again - promise!

Other jobs

2006-09-05T19:12:00.000+01:00

-Ring ring ----- Ring ring ------ Ring ring-

"Good Afternoon. Spread Eagle Hotel, John speaking, how can I help?"

"Hello, could I speak to Mr Campbell"

"That's me"

"Hello Mr Campbell, I'm calling from a call centre in the West Midlands and I'd like to ask you if you have a few minutes to answer some pointless questions about branded glasses"

"I... suppose so"

"What products do you sell in branded glasses?"

"Well, we've Tennents..."

"Er... is that the same as Carling?"

"Not if you're Scottish it isn't"

"It's not on my list. I'll put 'other'"

"OK, and we have John Smith's, Guinness, Weston's Cider, Belhaven Best"

"Belhaven? that's not on my list either"

"But you've heard of Weston's. This'll be an English survey then. You've heard of a microscopically small English cider maker, but not the best selling Scottish lager"

"Er No... Um... do your customers prefer their product served in a branded glass or a plain glass?"

"They've never mentioned it. They complain about the price but not the logo on the glass"

"Which products do you not sell in branded glasses?"

"Our cask ale which comes from a microbrewery in Newcastle."

"Why is that?

"They can't afford drip mats let alone glasses"

"Which of your glasses do your customers like best"

"They've never mentioned it. I think the Kronenbourg ones are pretty"

"Customers prefer beer in a branded glass. One is strongly disagree, five is strongly agree"

"Er well, I suppose it means they can tell them apart. Which was 'agree a bit' again?"

"That would be four"

"Right"

"Now, how much would you be prepared to pay for branded glasses"

"Nothing. If they aren't free we'll use plain ones"

"Er, ok. If the right glass isn't available we will use any one. One is strongly agree, five is strongly disagree"

"Hang on, I thought five was strongly agree. I'm confused. Erm, one"

"Is that strongly agree"

"I'm not sure anymore"

"Do you stock branded half pint glasses?"

"No"

"Which products do you serve in branded half pint glasses?"

"Oh, for goodness sake! I've just told you that we don't have any"

"So I'll put none then"

"There's an idea"

"er, and finally we may contact you later with some additional questions. Would that be alright?"

"I don't suppose it'll make the slightest difference what I say here. Oh alright"

"Thank you. Can I have your job description?"

"Dogsbody"

"Pardon"

"Sorry, owner/manager/scapegoat"

"Thank you for your time"

-Click-

Fads

2006-09-03T13:27:00.000+01:00

Young folk - tsk! They drink all sorts of wierd and wonderful things and it's a job trying to keep up with the latest "big thing". At the moment it's Apple Sourz which is bright green gunk that smells of apples and is, er, sour. We got through a bottle of it last week and bought another three. Last night we put it on an optic and sold another bottle of it.

Then there's WKD, available in Blue, Red and Iron Brew flavours. Though the blue one sells by the crate load the other two don't sell at all. So last night we tried to sell them off half price. The red ones disappeared quickly, but even at half price no-one was particularly interested in the iron brew ones.

We'll try weekly promotions either to get people to try stuff they don't usually try, or to get rid of slow sellers. We plan to try a "malt of the month" as well. No, Neil, it won't be Glenfarclas!

Tis the season to be empty

2006-09-02T08:14:00.000+01:00

Well, almost. We have two folk staying tonight. An Aussie bloke showed up earlier but we didn't have a twin room left and the price for the family room was too much for him.

Not that he said that of course. He said "I'll need to check with my mate"
That was the last we saw of him.

Occasionally people do say "That's more than I'm prepared to pay" or "Do you know anywhere cheaper" (we do).

Mostly though, it's "I'll think about it" or "I have to check with my wife/partner/pet hamster" and they don't come back.

Tonight we have a couple of rooms booked and, being Saturday there will probably be enough chance bookings to fill the rest. We've certainly more advance bookings than last year and the tie up with laterooms.com has been very successful so far (12 bookings in three weeks instead of 4 in a year with Tiscover!)

But we need to get people to come here instead of just stopping here. At the moment the vast majority of our guests stay one night and give "passing through" as their reason for staying. Some say that they are heading for Scotland and are quite surprised to be told that they're already there! Most people's image of Scotland is lochs and pointy hills and, while the scenery around here is beautiful it's gentler.

Blogging while drunk

2006-09-01T23:47:00.000+01:00

Yeah, I know - bad idea. I was wasting time earlier composing a whiny self indulgent post about how few customers there had been in the bar today. Fortunately that's been ditched and overall it's not been a bad evening. We have a nice bunch of folk having a semi-intelligent conversation and lots of frothy ale being sold.

We have two guests tonight who won't be here until after midnight (late pickup at Newcastle Airport) so we have to stay up until the wee hours to check em in.

Aarlene, the wireless network barely works in the bar - I have to wedge the kitchen door open with a beer crate and make sure I can physically see the wireless transmitter which is sitting on top of the fridge before I can be sure it'll work. The cellar cooler is working just fine - 15C and falling as we speak.

Renovations - well, the ventilation engineer turned up and finished the installation and some bits of door facing were nailed on.

Hmmm time for another beer,

Quiet night in the bar

2006-08-31T19:47:00.000+01:00

Just to prove that the wireless network works in the bar, here's a totally contrived picture of me blogging there.

Chill baby

2006-08-31T19:21:00.000+01:00

The new cellar cooler is running and already the cellar is down from 17C to 15C. That's a big improvement and is probably due to better insulation than the second fan unit. Both are cooling the air to 12C and dripping water enthusiastically all over the place as air conditioners tend to do.

What else today? Well, not a lot - there were no guests last night and none as yet tonight. There are a few bookings for the weekend but in general it's been a wretchedly slow season here and everywhere else.

Some Belgian bikers did turn up and ordered eight pints of real ale which flustered our barmaid slightly as we serve it from the cellar and usually sell no more than four or five pints in a day. Suddenly being asked for eight at once while welcome causes a fair amount of people scampering around clutching large numbers of pint glasses.

Work continues - Some plywood sheeting was fitted to the new kitchen floor today and some skirting and door facings were attached. D*** is coming up in a couple of weeks to see progress.

For the upgrading of the unused rooms we are seriously considering carrying out some of the joinery, plasterboarding and decoration work ourselves. We're fairly sure that we could do it to a better standard than the current workers and have a vested interest in finishing on time and to budget. D**** is not completely negative about this but has highlighted the fact that, particulary with Room 1 the work is quite complicated and may be too difficult for us to do ourselves.

Insult meets injury

2006-08-29T21:56:00.000+01:00

It seems to be "Injure John" week. Part of it's due to the cellar cooler which is nearing completion. That's MkII of course MKI having rotted to powder within eight weeks. So, while disassembling MKI I managed to knock a lump out of my finger on the edge of the laminate board. Then I picked up various other cuts and bruises while assembling MKII. MKII is now finished, filled with water and waiting for electrical wiring before the grand switch on.

Here it is in all its glory. The pipework and pump are now mounted vertically on laminate board and better insulated to avoid the condensation problem. You can see one of the little fan heater units at the right of the picture.

Tonight, to avoid any further injury, we went out for dinner . We went to Burt's Hotel in Melrose , parked just across the street and I somehow contrived to shut the car door without moving my left foot out of the way first. Owowowowoow!

Dinner was OK though rather heavy on dead animals and not much in the way of accompaniment. £Lots for three courses plus a half bottle of wine.

And it might have to serve as an early birthday present for me since one of our bar staff is signed off for ten days with stress - whether hers or ours is not clear. We interviewed for new staff today so the problem may be temporary. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

Wireless sort-of-work

2006-08-27T22:13:00.000+01:00

I'm writing this in the publc bar - Yay! Wireless networking works.

Well, not quite.

I'm writing this in the one very small part of the bar where I can get a connection - beside the door to the kitchen which is where the wireless router is sitting.
Everywhere else, there is a four foot thick sandstone wall in the way and that means there's no connection. Still, it's progress of a sort.

We were full last night, in fact if we'd had three times as many rooms we'd still have been full. Tonight at 8.30 we were empty.
Then a couple turned up followed by four Italians (without huge suitcases for once).

The workmen are back tomorrow. Oh joy!

...and so to bed

Wireless Not-work

2006-08-25T19:05:00.001+01:00

Blogger seems to be on a go-slow tonight. It took ages to load. Coincidentally I've spent most of the day raging against the machine. Well, one machine in particular - my laptop. Now, it's not a Dell, so it doesn't catch fire, but it does seem to have extreme difficulty in remembering just where it put its wireless connection (It's about here somewhere - I'm sure I saw it just a moment ago - Oh never mind I'll just tell him I can't find the website he's looking for)

Let me explain. We don't use the evil one's operating system because it is expensive, doesn't work very well and gets every virus going. Instead up until now we have used this version of the Linux operating system. It used to be called Mandrake and was one of the better commercial distributions of Linux. Then they tied up with a company called Connectiva, changed the name to Mandriva and frankly bits that used to work don't any more. And the bits that used not to work still don't. Most glaringly, file sharing doesn't work at all. That's kind of fundamental when you are trying to share files.

So I looked around and came across SuSE which used to be a German distribution, but was bought by Novell, a big US networking company. It got rave reviews from some people (others said it sucked) but I went ahead and bought it.

And most of it is a big improvement. It installs itself pretty painlessly, detects all the bits of the computer correctly and sets them up fairly well. But this wireless network has caused no end of grief. It's working now, but due to 6 foot stone walls it loses the signal occasionally.

And when that happens it doesn't bother to try to find it again. It just sits and sulks. You have to issue arcane commands in a terminal window to get it going again. Most annoying.

Continuing the technology theme, Lorna dropped one of our two way radios into a bucket of hot soapy water while cleaning one of the bathrooms. The radio has been strangely quiet ever since.

The mad inventor strikes again

2006-08-24T20:33:00.000+01:00

The cellar cooling device is undergoing a rebuild. The original had some drawbacks principally that it dripped condensation everywhere and, being built largely of mdf, turned blue and hairy and fell to pieces in no time. The new version has the pump assembly mounted vertically on laminate board (left over from the kitchen) and lots of pipe insulation which the Scottish & Newcastle tech services man left me. Progress has been good, but it will be a day or two until it's finished.

Mixed news on the staff front. Our job advertisement yielded four replies. One has found a job already, one is coming for interview and the other two didn't put a contact phone number on their application form. Giving someone the job because she's the only applicant is a bad idea.

The public bar was very quiet today. It would have been busier if we'd been serving meals since most of the folk who came in were looking for lunch/dinner. At the moment we seem to be acting as a redirection service for other restaurants!

Niche market

2006-08-23T16:32:00.000+01:00

I don't know what this mausoleum is called, but it's clearly visible on the A68 just before Lilliards Edge. I was in Galashiels and Melrose today. Got some stuff at the cash and carry and two half barrels at an "antique" shop in Melrose. They'll be used for plants in the beer garden.

Meanwhile, stripping is taking place in the function room. The decorator appears to be camera shy and objected to his left arm appearing in the picture hence the modifications!

That frieze is made of paper mache and comes off in very small pieces. Much muffled swearing from the decorators. Although fairly old it is not in keeping with the rest of the room and bits of it were missing. It made sense to take the rest off and have a plain frieze.

In the new kitchen, panelling continues:

but it's in the old lounge bar that interesting things have been discovered.

Here's the area where the bar was. Nice wallpaper isn't it(!?). But take a look at the middle of the picture where behind the wall we found a very ornate niche.

Here's a closer view. Was it a door? Was it put in when the lounge bar was created in the 1940s? Who knows?

Lies, damn lies and completion dates

2006-08-22T20:17:00.000+01:00

I don't know why I even bother to write "so and so work will be finished on such and such a day" because I know it won't happen and you know it won't happen. The temporary partition is still there although the reasons for its continued existence are good - they don't want to remove it until the new cornices are fitted because that's likely to generate some dust. The person who'll be doing cornice work was here today, hauled off a length of cornice to take a mould from and will be back, hopefully this week.

Meanwhile in the old kitchen the ventilation system is nearly complete. The installer had forgotten to write down the length of steel required, had cut it to size from memory and, well, you guess the rest! He'll be back sometime this week with a correctly measured piece. There's a new ceiling in the kitchen corridor, work is being done on the walls - no nasty surprises there thankfully - and the old central heating pipe was cut out with an angle grinder which made the most revolting smell of burning metal and burning wood.

I have switched off the cellar cooler and will start on a redesign tomorrow. There are two problems - condensation and lack of cooling power. I have salvaged some offcuts of the laminated wallboard from the kitchen and will add lots of pipe insulation and rockwool to try to prevent the condensation problem and I will add a second fan convector to double the size of the heat exchanger. If I could find the third one I'd add it too - it's somewhere about....

No pics today - none of today's progress is particularly photogenic.

Getting plastered

2006-08-19T20:47:00.000+01:00

The Jedburgh Co-op is doing a really nice Jacaranda Rose. There's a Shiraz and a white as well. Three bottles for a tenner. Yum!

Actually the title of this post was meant to relate to the fact that the plasterers showed up yesterday and made good progress.
We're on course to get the temporary partition removed next week and we're reaching the stage where we can see light at the end of the tunnel which for once isn't the headlamp of the oncoming train.

The bar is very quiet tonight. Apparently the Cross Keys in Ancrum are celebrating their 100th birthday and there are barbecues and bands and whatever. On the B&B side we're busy: we have ten guests eight of whom have turned up since lunchtime.

Order of work

2006-08-17T23:07:00.000+01:00

The ventilation engineers were back today and probably wished that they had spent the morning fitting the external fan unit and the afternoon doing the internal work. That's because the morning was dry and the afternoon... wasn't. They claim they'll be back on Monday to finish off.

Meanwhile the plasterers didn't show today, but the plasterboarding is complete in the function room and residents' lounge. If the plasterers come tomorrow then the temporary partition at the foot of the stairs can be removed.

We have three Aussies, two English and three workmen (painters working on the new Tesco in Galashiels) staying tonight.

I'm your number one fan!

2006-08-15T15:39:00.000+01:00

Remember that boring picture of the new kitchen?

Here it is now looking slightly less boring. The new extraction canopy is fixed to the wall. The stuff below is stainless steel sheeting - it's got a protective film on just now. The big square box in the corner on the floor is the fan unit which, I think, will be mounted outside to make it quieter. This is a centrifugal fan (cylindrical with lots of little blades) unlike the old one which is an axial fan (looks and sounds like an aeroplane propeller). The ventilation folk were supposed to be back yesterday to continue installation, but, guess what - they didn't show up. Meanwhile in the function room...

A lot has happened here. The doors are back on, the wall is plasterboarded on both sides and rockwool insulation has been fitted in the cavity. The big opening will eventually be for the double doors, but in the medium term it's just going to be plasterboarded.

Breakfast

2006-08-14T18:36:00.000+01:00

Catering
It's amazing. I've been looking through the catalogue from Brakes, one of the main suppliers to the catering trade. You can buy almost everything for breakfast ready cooked. All you need is a microwave and an Eastern European to operate it. Omelettes? Poached eggs? Two minutes in the microwave, open the bag and put it on the plate.
What do they taste like? Well, we don't know. And we intend to continue not to know.

We will be getting stuff from Brakes, but it'll be butter portions, jam portions, croissants (life is way too short to make croissants from first principles) and cereals.

We won't be going for the microwave omelettes though. Or scrambled eggs. I'm getting quite good at these (according to our guests)

Renovations
Bah, Humbug!

Goody goody Yum yum!

2006-08-09T21:38:00.000+01:00

To Edinburgh where there's some sort of arts festival taking place apparently. Saw Tim Brooke Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie (on video) with reminiscences and anecdotes about the Goodies (1970s tv show for non UK residents).
This morning I was going to see the Mueck exhibition at the National Galleries, but seeing in the morning paper that it had had 6000 visitors in 3 days I decided to give it a miss until after the festival (it's on until October).
The Royal Mile was teeming with people - all either tourists or arty types calling each other darling (and that was just the blokes) so I dived into an excellent coffee shop on Hunter Square (next to Starbucks) and settled down with a crossword and a giant cappuccino.
This was while waiting for Carphone Warehouse to open so that I could pick up our business mobile which had gone faulty and was being repaired. That done, I headed back to Jed and...

went to bed again. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

Full tonight. We had two booked in this morning and now we have 10. Did I mention that this happens from time to time?

Aarlene, the picture of Lindisfarne was from a Google image search with keyword "lindisfarne". The actual link is
here
We've yet to visit Lindisfarne but hopefully we'll manage it sometime this year.

The show's not over until the fat lady sings

2006-08-07T19:28:00.000+01:00

After a reasonably busy afternoon in the bar (football, pies etc) Sunday evening settled down into its usual pattern of no customers. We watched tv, read the Sunday papers and thought about closing early as has happened before.

But if we'd done that we'd have missed the two German lads who showed up looking for a room at quarter to eleven. Just starting their holiday and having driven from Prestwick airport hence the late arrival.

Five in so far tonight - a family of four from Brittany and a Canadian lady. The night is young, there may be more.

You'll have noticed that my enthusiasm for the renovations has reached a stage where I haven't even bothered to go and see what has or hasn't been done today.

I'm going to Edinburgh tomorrow to see this and quite possibly this.

Walking

2006-08-06T10:28:00.000+01:00

The St Cuthberts Way and the Borders Abbeys Way both run through Jedburgh. The St Cuthberts is celebrating its 10th anniversary and is becoming very popular judging by the numbers of visitors we're getting who are walking it. It's not difficult to see why this is - it's a manageable length, has some lovely scenery and there is usually somewhere to stay at the end of each stage. Here for example:-)

The Borders Abbeys Way was officially opened this year and we're starting to get bookings for people who are walking it. It's a bit contrived in places - it goes to Hawick which doesn't have an abbey - but again it's short stages, nice scenery and convenient places to stay at the end. Here for example:-))

Of last night's guests, six were walkers, four were holidaymakers passing through and two were the now obligatory Italians. And, yes - they had huge suitcases.

When in Rome...

2006-08-04T21:32:00.000+01:00

Rome must be empty just now because Scotland is full of people from Rome. We had 5 in a couple of nights ago and a family of four checked in this evening. We also have five others so there's only one double room left.

Two joiners here today. I assume they were doing something.

Plenty room at the inn

2006-08-04T10:10:00.000+01:00

After being full of chance guests on Wedneday night we had no-one in at all yesterday. Although this shouldn't be something we're happy with it does allow us to catch up on laundry, to sleep beyond 7am and to try to get some other stuff done around the hotel.

Which today means painting,

Posting late

2006-08-03T00:18:00.000+01:00

As predicted more chance guests arrived, though it's not every night that we're empty at 6 and full at 9, In addition to the two monolingual Dutch guests, we have five italians (living up to the stereotype with suitcases weighing several tons each), two weary walkers and two guys on motorbikes. Anyone with more than a smattering of English will be leaving before breakfast so L's lingustic skills will be stretched to the limit.

Pretty in pink

2006-08-02T18:04:00.000+01:00

Here's a picture of the upstairs kitchen, a hot contender for the most boring photo on the blog so far...

The only reason for showing it is that the kitchen is starting to take shape - the extraction system is being fitted next week - and it'll act as a "before" picture for reference.

The work in the function room is going OK too, but because all they were doing today was fitting a second sheet of plasterboard, it looks much the same as yesterday. However the holes in the ceiling which were made for the big props have been patched up.

The roofer came along today and did some bending, tweaking, readjusting, extending and clearing out of gutters, drainpipes and flashings. We'll have to wait for the next heavy rain to find out whether it has any effect or not.

Two Dutch people in tonight (well three really as they have a wee baby with them). There's still time for more to show up.

Getting away from it all

2006-08-01T21:21:00.000+01:00

Dinner with Tom, Magda and Neil was planned for this evening. It didn't happen, but we decided to head out for dinner anyway. We went to the Monte Cassino in Melrose old railway station which, in case it isn't obvious, is an Italian restaurant. We last went there on my birthday last September. When we got back we found that six guests had turned up and booked in. That happens a lot at this time of year,

On the renovations front...

It's beginning to look like a room. Walls, floors and other fripperies have been fitted. Actually only half the wall is there - the other side has been left off for now so that the electrician can run cables inside it and so that rockwool insulation can be fitted. Clever eh?

Sawed it

2006-08-01T11:28:00.000+01:00

Using time-lapse photography and sensitive motion detectors we have managed to get a picture of one of our joiners working.

This rare footage, never before seen shows the apprentice cutting floorboards to length. Quite possibly the correct length, but you never know.

The semi-torrential rain yesterday evening resulted in a few interesting water features within the hotel. We had hoped that our roofing woes were over, but evidently not. The roofers are coming out to have a look today.

Normal service has been resumed

2006-07-31T12:05:00.000+01:00

I think the heatwave might be over now...

A drink problem

2006-07-28T23:06:00.000+01:00

Keg beer is usually well behaved, but recently we have had more than our fair share of delinquent kegs. The main problem at the moment is what's called "fobbing" which means that the beer is over-gassed and therefore instead of a nice pint of lager with a frothy head on top, you get a pint of froth with a small amount of lager at the bottom. Tennents has been the main culprit this week, but a Kronenbourg also gave trouble two weeks ago. As long as we haven't used too much the brewery will normally credit us the amount of the keg, but it's a nuisance.

Also a nuisance is the postmix machine which normally produces cold fizzy drinks on tap. Yesterday it was producing warm flat ones which weren't too popular with the discerning drinkers of Jedburgh. The Coca cola engineer arrived and announced that the refrigeration unit was knackered but he couldn't mend it because he wasn't a refrigeration engineer. So we have bottles of coke behind the bar this weekend and a much quieter laundry (the machine is in there and usually makes a terrible racket)

Joinery work had continued at a funereal pace. I have given up even trying to estimate when the work will be complete. I think the framing for the new wall is finished, but haven't included a photo today because, frankly it looks exactly the same as it did yesterday,

And it's dark up there and I can't be bothered to go up and take a picture. So there!

We're full tonight. 12 for breakfast. Better go and get ready.

Over stressed

2006-07-27T20:13:00.000+01:00

Not me, the toilet seat in the new bathroom of room 5. The (not particularly heavy) guest came downstairs looking apologetic saying it had broken when he had sat on it. This seemed to be due to a bad design - the seat was supported at the front on two little rubber pads, but at the back the hinges held it slightly above the pan. Of course the plumber is on holiday for two weeks so it was off to Galashiels for a new seat.

The weather continues to be stewing hot and as a result I drove to Gala with both front windows and the sunroof fully open. Not quite a convertible but not far off it. There wasn't an exact replacement available, but the one I got is probably a better design. A small amount of flailing around with a hacksaw - oops I mean precision adjustment was required but at least we have a usable room.

And the shower control is mended. Amazing how all these things get sorted when the plumber's on holiday isn't it? I phoned Ideal Standard who made the unit and they sent a diagram of how it should look when assembled. What we had didn't quite match that, so they sent a missing part and all is well.

Not a lot of progress today on the joinery front

most of the work was concentrated on the framing that will form the doorway to the smaller function room.

Dwanging away

2006-07-26T19:20:00.000+01:00

You'll have to look carefully to see any progress here

... but progress there has been. For one thing there's a lot more pieces of wood there than there was yesterday. For another, there is some new woodwork at right angles to the main wall and that will form the doorway to the smaller room. The little horizontal braces are called "dwangs" in Scotland hence the title of the post. There will be some more flooring tomorrow before the plasterboard starts to go up.

D*** was here today and good progress was made in deciding the course of action for the next few months. Once the current work is over, nothing more will happen until the winter. Of course at the current rate of progress that may not leave much of a gap.

We've accepted the quote for the ventilation system and that'll be installed in a couple of weeks time. I'm going to sort the problem with the shower in Rm 5 (the handle falls off) myself as the plumber's on holiday for two weeks.

Late one evening...

2006-07-25T23:20:00.000+01:00

I drove up to Edinburgh yesterday evening. The view over the Leaderfoot viaduct and the Eildon hills was spectacular with a "Red sky at night - nuclear device detonated over Galashiels" type sunset. Sadly no pictures as I was driving (and didn't have a camera with me)

While I was away

this happened. I don't know if they got exact measurements for the door position or if they just guessed. I hope it was the former. D*****'s here tomorrow for a check on progress and I doubt if he'll be impressed. None of the problems in the new bathrooms have been sorted and while the windows now open, they aren't correctly weighted. Progress has been ridiculously slow and no-one on site seems to have much idea of what is expected.

Still. Mustn't grumble.

Early one morning

2006-07-24T07:23:00.000+01:00

Twenty past seven on a sunny Monday and I'm having an early breakfast consisting of a double shot cappuccino which will be followed by more of the same until the computer screen comes into focus.

It's cooler today which is most welcome -Aarlene, in case you hadn't noticed: we Brits spend most of the year complaining that it's cold and wet, and the remainder complaining that it's too hot and dry!

It was a busy weekend with 11 guests on Saturday only one of whom was a walk-in. The rest were all booked. We had another two couples looking for rooms after that and redirected them to other B&Bs. A pity we don't have the new rooms available yet. The Italian guests came down for breakfast an hour early having forgotten to change their watches - some Norwegian guests did the same last week. I'm usually very careful to say "breakfast is at 8.30" and not "half eight" because to Germans (and possibly others) "half eight" means half before eight (i.e. 7.30)

Most of our guests stay one night and their reason for staying is "passing through". It's better having guests for one night than not at all, but it would be nice if we got more guests who actually decided to base themselves in the Borders for a holiday.

So it's pleasing to report that on Saturday L took a booking for mid September for 5 people who want to stay for 5 nights. They're walking the Borders Abbey Way which was officially opened this year. The number of people walking the St Cuthberts' way is increasing too. Both these routes go through Jedburgh. We're getting a number of bookings for golfers too with the visitscotland golf guide being one of the more effective pieces of advertising they do.