Ready for Kristen?!

So it's been 2 weeks since I last managed to post anything on here - it has been a bit hectic. The first of those weeks we were very full and then the last week we have been not so busy in terms of guests but we have seen progress in other areas. We have started to have more enquiries for future bookings and are already looking almost full around new year. My new menus arrived from Edu, a colleague I used to work with in London who has his own design business. They look fantastic but it will take me a week to prepare all of the inserts. We finally got our sign up today as well after endless days of varnishing, painting, re-varnishing and so on, now I just need somebody to turn up and say 'we would have just kept driving but then we saw your beautiful sign and decided to come down and see you'! and I'll be happy. I'll also be collecting 2000 flyers tomorrow to promote our thursday night of drumming/dancing and bbq and the hotel in general so we'll have to do some strategic advertising in the next few weeks to make sure they work.
Not before we have a holiday though. Well when I say holiday I mean go away for one night! Kristen arrives on Sunday, so we'll have a bbq for all the staff and guests to celebrate and then I'll let her orientate herself before taking her away for a night on Tuesday. Then from thursday it'll be all systems go again!
Amazingly we have managed to finish everything I wanted for her arrival - well we'll be putting the finishing touches in the next two days, but it WILL be ready. I can't wait to see her face when she sees all the changes we've made!

It has been very difficult being apart for so long but now we are almost together again I can look at the time I've spent here alone with fond memories, how we worked so well together in adversity and the different challenges we've overcome. From having no electricity to almost no money in the tin! But also the laughter I've shared with the staff and guests so far, and I feel really proud of myself for what I have achieved. We still have a long way to go before we can feel like the business will survive but we have made our first steps and every time we make any progress with anything it makes me feel that more confident that we can pull off what seemed the impossible when I arrived here. Whatever happens here I have learnt alot in the last three months and have had an incredible experience, and knowing that I have given myself a shot at making my dream come true is a truly wonderful feeling. One of my favourite sayings is 'in life you regret the things you didn't do rather than what you did' and I feel that so much. Even though this was an incredible gamble I now know I made the right choice.