Guests evening meal
Chicken pasta dish, Carrot bread
Rocket, Feta, Cucumber, Cherry plum tomato salad
Variety of cakes, Coffee
Guests breakfast
Frozen seeded bread rolls, Butter
Sliced Gouda, Eggs, Sliced rolled lamb
Cherry plum tomatoes, Cucumber
Chocolate muesli, Yogurt
Cherries, Bananas
Orange juice
Tasks for day
Shopping
Dust and check bedrooms
Lay table for evening meal, French pleat tablecloth
Prepare crockery for breakfast
Make coffee and cakes on arrival
Hoover and mop first floor living space
Finish tidying industrial kitchen
Clean industrial fridge
Tidy cafe area
Mop throughout cafe area including loos
Rearrange chairs into matching groups
Fold towels and put away
Replace spent candles
Water plants
Make sure my bedroom door is firmly shut!
Check curtains room 3, not handing straight from outside
Text Marit to check what to charge extra for evening meal
Check I have change to give when they pay
Send welcome reminder to four Airbnb guests arriving in Norwich on 18th
Send chatty welcome to new Airbnb booking for September that came in last night
Chase my lost Hermes delivery again
Check bus and ferry times for my departure
Progress
It's 9 am and time for my breakfast. The rooms are checked, allocated, dusted, curtains straightened and doors appropriately open or closed. My airbnb matters at home have been dispatched. With three floor levels to work on today, being methodical is key.
The day is overcast and grey, a perfect day for working. I choose to sit on the floor of the verandah with my back to the garden room to eat my breakfast. I think how strange that although there are two houses in very close proximity and we share the same parking space I've seen nothing of their occupants, don't know what they look like. Cars come and go but their owners seem to vanish.
I enjoy the chill of the air, one of those early morning autumnal airs back home. The plant pots that I carefully tended and freshened with new compost on my first day are sporting ash and have little matchstick forests growing in them. The leaves of the taller container plants move in the wind and I enjoy the sensation of having movement above my head. Most of the horizon is devoid of anything over six inches tall, there is something calming about leaves moving.
My plan is to go out to Gásadalur and take a proper look at that waterfall then shop on the way home. I plan to clean the first floor, prepare a coffee tray for guests arrival, before embarking on the ground floor which is technically off limits but inevitably guests will try the doors when they arrive. Many people have tried these door handles as I have been sitting downstairs writing, hoping for the cafe to be open, just as I did without success on my arrival. I have been saving the big clean of this space until now, I am effectively grounded after 2pm and must use time this morning for any explorations. I thought about repeating my walk to Trøllkunufingur but don't want to rush or be anxious when I do so, the drive to Gásadalur is a much simpler option.
I can't fault my iPad, find it indispensable. Unable to check timetables when offline, I pull them up and take screenshots to assist my bus and ferry be onward journey to Tvøroyri on Sudøroy. Intermingling a long working day with writing and travel plans suits me.
A wizened man staggers along the street, unsteady and lurching from side to side, a look of concentration on his face. It is before ten am. This place sometimes reminds me of finland.
The long arm of a JCB stretches and deposits bucketfuls of a rich dark earth into the walled garden of a wooden house, unusually painted white, wooden houses generally being painted with tar. I wonder what it might be like to have the money to buy imported topsoil for there is little soil in the Faroes and it is sandy brown not rich and dark. Flowers are commonplace, just as yarn is sold in every shop, so too are pot plants and cut flowers. Here and there, people tenderly care for their gardens planting them with flowers to brighten the grey days.
The sky looks threatening and I realise that I am both in my now impractical, sloppy shoes and without my waterproof. Bright sunshine slips from the cloud for a few minutes before I drive into the long cold shadow of the mountain. I wonder if it will still be shining when I emerge from the tunnel on the other side.
Looking out across the water, Mykines has been cropped by dense white cloud and I think my walk to the waterfall will not produce a stunning picture today.
I feel the vibrations of the wind buffet the car and as I walk, it blows right through my fleece and around my sloppy shoed ankles. Arctic terns protest my visit, perhaps I am the first visitor here this morning.
Reaching the viewing spot I am struck by the wildness of the ocean, rolling waves may not be crashing but the swell and turbulence are strong and I can see dips, crests, swell and foam, currents fighting each other.
The waterfalls look more dramatic than last evening, the scale of the mountain and falls in sharp contrast to the houses but I am more struck by the force of the wind and feel slightly anxious as I reach the precipitous edge to take a photo. The wind bites and my hands begin to fumble.
I cautiously descend until I decide the steps are too treacherous, today's gusts do not invite lingering and i ascend again to relative safety. A winching mechanism suggests something is landed below and winched up the rocky steps. Landing and unloading a boat must be precarious here.
Walking back, I see that my car has now been joined by six others, it is the beginning of another long day for the sheep that nibble at almost bare earth while the other side of the gate luscious grass and flowers just yearn to be cut.
Well after two pm and the Danish couple have not yet arrived. I'm loathe to leave my writing until I have greeted and settled them in but there is much to do downstairs and I must be careful not to spend too long day-dreaming.
Five o clock and there is nowhere comfortable to sit in this guesthouse. The old lumpy sofas have high wooden backs and an unsatisfactory seat. I have swept, moved, dusted, mopped and cleaned to the accompaniment of pneumatic drills as workmen wearing neither ear muffs, safety helmets or high vis jackets dig and fill the edges of a pedestrian crossing which looks identical before and after their intervention.
You know how it is when you have something that you love and you keep it even though it's a bit old and rickety, well that's how most things are here. Fragile, wobbly and oft times, broken, so when moving an ornament, the mans hat may fall off, the photo frame fall apart or the base falls from the lamp. Moving things and cleaning here requires more nimble fingers than i possess. I have already broken a vase and scratched the wooden floor by moving a cast iron bed. I lift chairs and move tables to clean the cafe, I turn a small tiled coffee table upside down on a sofa and three of the tiles fall crashing to the floor breaking in many pieces. I retrieve the pieces and move the invalid into the office. Another coffee table is pigeon toed, I dare not move it so clean carefully round it. It probably needs physiotherapy if not splints!
I am bored now,Mitsubishi five thirty and I want this to be over, I want the second lot of guests to arrive so I can be free. The Danish couple don't want to be fed this evening, hopefully the Icelandic foursome won't either. I thought they arrived earlier, heard feet echo on wooden floors but it turned out to be Dyoni, the aspergers lad, just wandering around.
Six fifteen and I'm on spider solitaire, fed up now. Seriously hope they dont want to eat this evening.
I found the red wine at about 8.30 after deciding the kitchen was closed. I had sent texts enquiring after what I should charge for wine and whether the wine in the carafes was fit to drink. She replied, I think so, if you need more, there's some by the oven. ohmygoodness so there is!! Do I sound vaguely alcoholic? I hope not, there is all manner of beer, wine and spirits here that I could drown myself in for a month but drinking alone, beyond a couple of bottles or glasses isn't likely to be helpful.
Mind you, now I've found the fresh wine.... who knows! My last attempt at drinking wine here, white wine from a carafe that had only been filled the night before, ended with me pouring it down the sink! Very unlike me. This red wine is much more pleasing and I think 10.30 with no phone calls means they are not coming.
Very annoyingly, expecting four for breakfast I had pre laid the small table a couple of days ago but had to then change and lay the big table instead when numbers grew to six. I've no idea whether I'll move it back to the small table in the morning, but if I don't, the Danish couple will be rattling around a bit on a table more suited for twelve. The garden room is a beautiful room though so I think I'll leave them there. Shame about the food shopping I did though for the no show guests.
Faeroes
- Wind
- Cyclonic 4 or 5, increasing 6 at times, becoming variable 3 for a time.
- Sea state
- Moderate or rough.
- Weather
- Rain or showers, fog patches.
- Visibility
- Moderate or good, occasionally very poor.
