very late arrivals

[myrtle]

 I have lurked here for several years on and off, but last nights events have encouraged me to seek your views....

very late on saturday i took a three day booking for a family of 6, in our CdH due to arrive last evening,sunday, around teatime...they had chosen the furthest ferry route and had a 3 hour drive on both uk and french side to our normandy residence.  I was confirming the booking by email with full directions, way past my bedtime, and waited for a return receipt which came before I retired.....alls well then....?

At 4pm french time they had only just arrived at Dover so we estimated a 9pm ish arrival.  he also said he had not received my directions which were to a hotmail address needless to say, and had not bothered to bring a map of France.

Get to our nearest town and ring me again says I,   the phone rings at 10.30pm with a blase, "how are you" attitude...  they had just arrived at a city some 1 and a half hours away!!!!!!   no apologies, no excuse, just an assumption that Id wait up past midnight for them.   What would you people do??    We are NOT a Hotel, just busy small farmers with 2 rooms and, so far, a very busy summer booking list. . 

love myrtle

.

 

[Quillan]

Personally I like to go to bed around 10:00 but at a stretch will stay up till 10:30 if I don't fall asleep. On our confirmation letter we put that rooms are only available between 14:00 and 20:00 later than that is by arangement up till 22:30 after which it's just tough luck, get a hotel if you can find one open round here. I would of told him to find a hotel as if this sets the example of how the guy behaves you might have other problems during his stay. If its because of technical problems then of course it's different.

[Ejc]

These people sound as though they're daft - I mean going to a foreign country with no map........ I wouldn't have waited up for them - but suggested when they called you at that time that they check into a motel close to where thay are and continue in the morning. I can guess that at gone midnight you were trying to talk them in so to speak.......outrageous behaviour - but some people have no manners

[Levelstep]

[quote user="Ejc"]These people sound as though they're daft - I mean going to a foreign country with no map........  [/quote]The only calls that I receive from 'lost' clients are those that rely on Sat Nav.  I am in Huelgoat (Hwell-Gwatt) which is a difficult name to pronounce, even for non Breton French tourists.  One UK client arrived very annoyed.  He had asked a Gendarme for directions to Hule Goat and the copper had never heard of it even though it was only 15 Kms away.  "What sort of Police Force have you got here?" he asked on arrival!

[Cerise]

Ejc - there are loads of them - very daft.  No map, leave the directions at home, don't believe the directions.  Most recent asked his 'mate' in the village here how long it would take to get here from Marseilles (for a wedding).  Mate - who I happen to know has never been much further than the end of the road in his life - told them 4 hours.  We are actually 7 hours drive from Marseilles without stops.  So they eventually had the meal which they had booked at 10.00 pm.  I wasn't best pleased, but did know as they rang me at hourly intervals.  Now these folk are FRENCH so you might think they'd have a little idea of their own country's geography.  Ditto the family who I could actually see from the balcony who were calling me on mobile phone to ask our address to put into the SatNav to find us.  I kept saying that to cross the bridge over the rive (they were beside it) and they kept saying 'What bridge?'  This morning I have received a telephone call from someone - another wedding party - informing me that they are arriving by train and can I collect them.  They asked me to pick them up from nearest big town.  I suggested they get off train at village station which is less than a kilometre from our house. 'Oh - do you think we'll know which station that is?' she replied.  I tell you, there is no hope for some of them!![8-)]

[Chancer]

I often get asked for directions outside my house (on main road passing through village) it is always good practice for my french.

I am astounded by how often people have no map (sorry to say that it is usually the women drivers!) and when I get mine we cannot find their destination, using a bigger map I usually find that they have at least another 80km to go (across country mind you) and have often already travelled the same distance.

I wouldn't mind if they knew in what direction they were heading or perhaps had missed the signs to the next major town, but no, I think that they were navigating the whole journey by stopping and asking.

And as for sat-nav! - I flew to the alps to join some freinds ski-ing, they agreed to drop me back in La Somme on the way to Calais, no maps but european sat-nav on the brand new (UK bought) range rover, it couldnt find my village or the nearest town only the principal town (city?) of the departement Amiens (which is 40km away) so about as much use as a chocolate teapot. Contrast that to another friends UK bought Audi which even knew when to stop outside my house.

[myrtle]

oops sorry double posting!

[myrtle]

Thanks all, I'm glad I wasnt being unreasonable then, when I suggested that that they find a hotel as at 10.30 they were still 1.5hrs away and they weren't even lost at this point! (The complicated bit was yet to come probably in the wee small hours of 1 or 2am)

I think I was most annoyed because they obviously dilly dallied down to Dover, without a doubt stopped for a couple of hours for dinner on this side on what is a quite straightforward motorway route two thirds of the way here, and then were surprised when I asked them (yes somewhat sarcastically I admit) how long they would like me to wait up for them!

If they had said, "oh sorry we are so late but we got terribly lost, just had to stop for a wee/lunch/leg stretch", I might have been more generous but the assumption was that I had a 24hr receptionist, in fact, that I WAS the 24hr receptionist and that I would supply 70kms of directions was taking the proverbial surely.

And thank you Quilllan, I too need my kip, and so have now added to my Terms of Business along then lines that we respectfully remind guests that a Chambre d'Hote is a private home and not an hotel, therefore arrival times between 2 and 9pm are appreciated, later than 10pm may be refused except in exceptional circumstances.

Re SatNav...??  ....no please, dont get me started on the joys of satnav.....

On another note, this year started advertising more fully with french market and found how much less aggro they usually are, not always...just usually....

[Coco]

I do agree that if they had such a rude and inconsiderate attitude I would have told them to stop in a hotel for the night, but you people that go to bed at ten and run a CDH - how on earth do you manage it!!!!!  Especially if you do evening meals!  We have found that more than anything else, our guests love to chat to you and even if we manage to get them to sit down by 7.30 we have never totally finished the meal (coffee) before 10.30; occasionally we've sat down at about 7.45 and I have got them finished by 10 but it really does seem as though you're rushing them through everything.  And then of course there is the clearing up to be done, at least another half an hour and because some guests want breakfast at 7.45 I like to get breakfast laid up before I go to bed - just in case I oversleep (so far so good on that score though).  During the summer months, when guests sometimes don't get back from a day out til 7ish, then want to freshen up before dinner, we quite frequently find that it is impossible to get to bed before midnight.

We would also find that if we said no arrivals after 9 we'd lose a lot of our off-peak trade when we often have Belgians taking a weekend break and leaving say Brussels, after work on a Friday, which means 10pm arrival at the earliest.

As for maps, well they seem to have gone out with the Ark.  This week alone I've been asked to lend ours out 3 times.  People seem to forget that SatNav is all well and good if you know where you're going, but if you just want to tour round the area and perhaps find a beach or a small coastal town on spec then a good old Michelin yellow map never fails.  We won't be lending the map out next week - the last lot took it home with them![:@]

[Missy]

When I did do B&B, I stipulated that after 9.30pm, the door would be shut and they would have to wait in the yard in their cars until I got up next morning at 6.30/7am. It got people here on time!

As to the camping site!! Where shall I start?...

Arrival time : Please arrive NO later than 8/8.30pm whilst there is DAY light as there is no lighting on the site and we don't want other campers to be disturbed by your unpacking, your vocabulary etc... whilst putting a tent up in the dark...

Satnav :  'Please could we have your postcode for our satnav?' ... 'Of course! XY12 34Z, have a safe journey here!' ... I'll have people ringing me up to 3 times between the turning off the main road which is 1/3mile from the gate! only because they don't know a right turn off the main road from a left one!! which if they go left after the village (having been instructed to turn right!) the next turn left is some 5 miles up the road.... Once that mistake is realised and they are back on the proper course, they need to go over a tiny bridge...... The phone will ring...: 'Which bridge?? It's so lovely down here and ...oh such a pretty area by that little brook but we can't see no bridge'... 'Yes! lovely isn't it. Can't you see the little bridge over the little brook!'... and keep on the lane bearing left, ignoring all other turnings & farm gates on the right.'....... From the bridge about 300yards... then turn into the first left after the bridge which is the farmyard' 'Thank you, won't be a mo!' ......  The phone will ring again...'which farmyard? it didn't say on the satnav/tomtom thingy....we couldn't see any cows, tractor, farm activities..' .....GGGRRRRRR......'THE FARMYARD WITH THE NAME OF THE FARM ON A BIG SIGN BY THE WALL WHICH IS HOLDING THE GATES, SAYING CAMPING ETC..... 'oh sorry we didn't see that! We are in a village called ???... sorry can't pronouced this welsh word....Do you know how to say the word?'  .......        DO I KNOW HOW TO SAY THAT WORD!!???

Creditcard machines/ATM : I realise that we are on a race for the cashless society. That is fine if you (Mr and Mrs Tourist and your lovely rugrats) stay within your cities because us (Mr & Mrs Hard-at-work-Farmers) won't install one in our farmhouse kitchens for possibly 5 transactions a year!.... In the country : Cash/cheques rules OK! .... 

Rechargeable battery things! cellphones, cameras, ipods, etc.... and iceblocks to be frozen : Big poster on the notice board by the ablution block (as well as being told on arrival) : To bring any such items NO later than 9.30pm, recharged/frozen overnight FREE of charge! and to be collected between 8 and 10am next morning. I have had people getting me up at 3 in the morning because their mobile is on the blink or they have forgotten about the picnic next day and it is IMPERATIVE to charge up the cellphone and freeze up the things for 9 that morning as we are going to 'Back of Beyond' for an adventurous day walking!... Fine, big sleepy smile, good night... only that the fl****ng items are left unplugged-uncharged-unfrozen on the kitchen table till 9am!..... They don't make the same mistake twice....

Did anyone learn the motto : BE PREPARED!!

 

 

[Rob Roy]

Satnav? More like C**pnav most of the time it appears to me[:P] Our part-time (English) neighbours were here for a fortnight and were using it to go everywhere, but it seemed to be more trouble programming the blasted thing than opening a map book and following the route. I was out with them one day and the thing kept showing he should go right (which was correct), but telling him to go left.[8-)]

[Rosebud]

I would have been totally lost (quite literally!) without our satnav since we've lived in France, it's been a godsend.  Having said that, it does need to be used in conjunction with a bit of common sense.  That means if you're going somewhere very remote, always get some good old fashioned directions from your destination host first, including some landmarks to look out for,just in case!

We have a map in the car for emergencies, but we haven't needed it (yet!)

 

[:)]

 

 

[Quillan]

I feel obliged to jump to the defence of SatNav having read some of the negative comments here.

To keep within the thread we have found the best way for people to find us with a GPS is to give them the name and address of the Auberge located 150M away from us as it is always found as a Point of Interest (POI) on all GPS systems. We have placed a sign there to guide people the further 150M to our door. The reason we do this is because it's easy to find the Auberge and yes our road is not on the GPS but then it's a small private road.

The latest WAAS/EGNOS GPS units are accurate to within 1 to 3M and are that accurate that they are useable for 'life saving' operations and aircraft navigation including blind landing. The system is nearly at the end of its test period with the 'Blind Landing Unit' based at Bedford UK. If the system was that inaccurate then there will be a lot of aircraft crashing. This has been proved to work as long ago as May 2005 when a BAC111 from the Blind Landing Unit (without passengers) made a flight including landing from Dakar to Mombassa and was found to be around 1.25M out of position when it stopped a pre-designated position on the airfield.

So now we have dispelled the myth about it's accuracy we get on to the car bit. There is a computer word, GIGO, it means garbage in, garbage out. If you have not fully entered the correct information in to a GPS system then it cannot take you accurately to where you want to go. Likewise it also depends on the quality of 'mapping' that is available for your area. Most units have the country of origins maps plus basic maps for the rest of Europe which will only include cities and major road networks. People often mis read this and believe they have the full maps. To get full use you need to 'unlock' the rest of the maps for which you obviously have to pay. I have had two systems, the Becker as fitted to Land Rover vehicles and a PDA system made by ALK called CoPilot. I bought both these units because they have the best European maps (NavTec).

Most systems allow you to go the 'quickest' route or the most direct and include options such as don't use motorways and in Europe don't use toll roads. This means that even when you 'know' the way the system may wish to take you a different way because it has calculated its way whilst not the most direct is in fact quicker.

How good is it, well mine will put me in the correct bay for the next Euro Tunnel train departing and it's done it all three times I have crossed this way. It has let me down once when going to a rugby stadium here in France which turned out to be a car park. It was actually a new car park as the old Stad was knocked down 6 months previously and my map was a year old. So although my mates laughed it really was not the fault of the GPS after all the map I keep in the car for emergencies also showed the Stad in the same place as the GPS. So my point is that GPS units are as good as the maps and the person operating the equipment.

What I really can’t stand is those that say ‘my mates got one and it never works and so I won’t ever buy one’. It’s just ignorance really, if you never had one how do you know your mate has entered the information correctly and that he knows how to use it.

[Ejc]

We have satnav - and it's very good guiding us around some smaller roads that we wouldn't have taken with just the map - but we also have detailed road atlas of France in the car at all times and a selection of more detailed local maps - because if it's cloudy then you can't always get a good signal on the GPS.

If there's 2 of us in the car and we're following the GPS directions - we also follow on the map - just in case.... because otherwise you find yourself on a small road -and the clouds roll in and you're stuffed....

In the UK - I don't have a GPS unit - so have maps and make good use of internet directions using multimap or the AA - but maybe that's just because I hate getting lost ...... and hubby hates asking for directions

[myrtle]

St Amour said: but you people that go to bed at ten and run a CDH - how on earth do you manage it!!!!!  Especially if you do evening meals! 

Thats precisely why I DONT do evening meals!  Far rather give the restaurants the business, they cook better and more efficiently than I and they are also prepared to chat all evening.   If I have guests IN and booked we do of course, wait up for their return and have no qualms about locking up after midnight if they have been out late....this is NOT a problem, but waiting up for guests that cannot give you the courtesy of a sensible arrival time to hear all the necessary little quirks and bits of tourist info is beyond belief....as I said....I am NOT a fully equipped hotel and catering service just a little farmhouse B&B....I have to be up at 6 whether there is guests in or no.

[Miki]

I'm with Coco on this.

Getting to bed before midnight is pretty rare for us indeed. Most

nights the meals are not ready until around 7.30- 8pm. add a good 2

hours to that, time for a chat and coffee and chocs (Tina's Auntie but

same age, gets us hundreds from her place of work, very nice Belgian

mint or orange dark choc, they are like the ones that cafés give out

but she had our house put in silhouette on then with website and phone

number, nice little touch at little cost...who says we are not nice to

guests ! Oh me [;-)] ) then as stated, time to clear up, put things away,

clean and tidy the floor and tables, then set it all up again for

breakfasts. We never ever (well, once in a hundred years) go to bed

without the place cleaned, plates and cutlery etc either in the

dishwasher or hand washed and on the draining board and breakfast

places set ready for the morning.

I can't see any of our guests being happy if I take their plates at 9.45 pm and shoo them

up to bed or just depart, leaving them downstairs, either way, it does not look too

much like proper hosts.

We accept that now and again, some guests will leave Paris (or

Brussels) after work on Friday and arrive any time between 9.30 pm and

midnight. We accept that it is part of the biz. They have to inform us

of the ETA and keep us in constant touch as to their distance from us,

if they are still a million miles away and it is getting later than

their ETA, then once we warned a couple that sorry but no way were we

willing to stay up any longer, they lost their money in the end (we

always have a minimum one night payment for a deposit) As people on

here might know, I try hard not to let guests make the rules but a

booking once accepted, can come with aggravation, lets be fair here, it

is rare for a guest to arrive late, so we take that little bit of

rough, along with a fair amount of smooth !!

This afternoon we had to rush out to get a new mattress as we really

had not spotted that a sprung mattress had shot a spring through and a

lady had said how something had dug in to her in the night. We blamed

the husband but on investigation, we saw the problem, so goodbye to a

few euros, ! They will find a nice new mattress and rightly so, 

when they get back tonight and will not care that we spent all

afternoon trying to get a mattress from stock. Not grumbling, well yes

I am, as clients do not see how often we all (well most of us) jump

through hopps to keep things running smoothly and that has to include

on occasion working late in the night and partly why next July and

August we will not be serving evening meals !

Myrtle, Coco was not aiming anything directly at you but just as a

generalisation of any one who does do table d'hôte but can still get to

bed before 10 pm. As far as you are concerned, sorry but if you want to

do B&B, then we all  have accept  that

guests are paying you (us) money to stay, not vice-versa. What time you get to bed and get up is not,

sadly for you, any of their worry. By accepting to do B&B, you

either tell clients in all your guff  that you are farmers and

therefore go to bed early and rise early, so will not accept anyone

after "X" hour, or simply take the rough with the smooth, like many

others of us. Mind you, I do agree that guests who do not keep you in

touch when they finally realise they will be late are a pain in the

butt and pretty rude to boot.

[myrtle]

Miki - this is one reason why in 8 years Ive not dared post before now...I wasnt intending to be particularly defensive, merely pointing out that there are B&Bs and there are B&Bs !!

You, and a number of others here obviously work very hard to run it as a full time enterprise.   I on the otherhand do it because I like the extra cash, enjoy meeting some of the guests and they generally leave very happy having been entirely satisfied with knowing that they get Bed and a very hearty farmhouse breakfast, can make snacks in the guests dining room and drink their wine whenever they wish, and have a choice of some excellent french restaurants or cafe bars to eat out during the evening. 

I already DO put in my "guff" as you put it, that we are a "farm" house and this is actually part of our attraction....the animals the countryside the way of life.   We are not a ski resort, beach holiday or theme park and whether french or english clients arrive, in the past 5 years Ive only once before had to direct a lost guest at 11pm, and did it entirely willingly.

Do me the courtesy of reading more fully what I originally wrote and further replied, before assuming I'm Mrs Fawlty with an attitude if she misses her beauty sleep.....it simply is not true, and no guests have mine have ever been made to think that.

love mytle xxx

[Wendy]

Myrtle, you have posted a topic about one of my biggest gripes!. We have had ignoramus's stand at our door and ring our doorbell, then our phone, then our doorbell, etc, etc, over and over again at 5am! Last year though. This year we state absolutely crystal clear that we are not available after 11pm. In ANY circumstances. We get people hop in the car at Paris and drive through the night until they reach us in the south way after midnight and expect to get in. We get people driving from Alicante arriving way after midnight and want to get in. They dont now. Lights are out, complete darkness. It got through to two girls a few weeks back as they slept in their car in our carpark till we opened the next morning. Didnt know they were there though as they arrived waaay after we turned in. In June an american couple left Barcelona at 9pm, after emailing us they would arrive here at midday, and took every wrong turn, missed every exit on the freeway and then called us at 1.30 am as they had sailed straight passed Perpignan and were near Narbonne. "How do we get back?".  After giving them the best instructions we could they called again at just after 2.30am..."where are you, we are lost!". We said goodbye Im afraid as they were still nowhere near us. Plus, their phone battery gave out. They had the darn hide to call us the next day and accuse us of giving them misleading directions. I have no idea where they stayed and didnt care. So, now, after 11pm, doors locked, lights interior and exterior go out, and phone goes off the hook. When the hell do people expect us to sleep for gods sake?.

Myrtle, state very clearly in your advertising that all arrivals MUST be before your designated time and absolutely stick to it. It is no concern of yours where they end up or sleep. After that time dont even answer the phone, that gets the message through that your place is closed and its time to find an F1/Campanile or whatever. Of course Miki, we also state that very late arrivals must inform us beforehand, or at least, on their way. None did in those cases. I suspect we have got the message through to the rest though. We advise our guests to use Mappy.com from which you can print out an excellent map giving roads and driving times.

[Miki]

Can’t see why you have to say that. Lurking for 8 years, goodness, you don’t

sound like a shrinking violet to me, so don't use the old fear to post cobblers. !! If you ask for an opinion please state

clearly if you only want it to be answered

in your favour, otherwise you will get other B&B’ers answering it how they

see it.

No one said you don’t put it in your guff but you didn’t mention you did, so

one or two of us have said to put it in, so is that something to harp on about

?

I read exactly what you put in and shall reiterate, if you don’t like to see 

answers that may not be to your liking, then don’t ask the question. If you now decide to say just how friendly

you are and how good a breakfast you put on and how jolly you make them all,

then say in the first post. I read what I read and put my point of view, I didn’t

assume you were Sybil, you intimated it and  if that isn’t to your liking…tant ruddy pis.............

[myrtle]

Miki you are SO rude!

Not  afraid....certainly not afraid, I just object to rudeness like yours and dont see sense in putting myself up for the firing line from people I shall never meet and who will never know me. 

I asked what others would do.....thats all....I didnt ask for justification of what I might or might not do....or perhaps this is too complicated for you to digest as you are so obviously overworked and hard pressed with endless bookings?

.....and if your so b...y good at it why arent you serving dinner at 9pm this evening hhmm???

night night sleep tight, I shall thanks...

love Myrtle

[Miki]

[quote] Miki you are SO rude! [/quote]

Well I find that one tends to be rude to those who have originally

been rude

to me and indeed you last post is hardly the most courteous one has

ever witnessed but there you go....... I answered you in an honest and

fair way, you didn’t like the reply. No one put you in the firing line,

you

asked a question and was given an answer, but it was not the one you

wanted to

hear and was given purely on the statement of 

your original post.

[quote] What would you people

do??    We are NOT a Hotel, just busy small farmers with 2 rooms [/quote]

None of us are hotels, you claimed that you were only a farm and I answered thus:

Myrtle, Coco

was not aiming anything directly at you but just as a generalisation of any one

who does do table d'hôte but can still get to bed before 10 pm. As far as you

are concerned, sorry but if you want to do B&B, then we all  have

accept  that guests are paying you (us) money to stay, not vice-versa.

What time you get to bed and get up is not, sadly for you, any of their worry.

By accepting to do B&B, you either tell clients in all your guff  that

you are farmers and therefore go to bed early and rise early, so will not

accept anyone after "X" hour, or simply take the rough with the

smooth, like many others of us. Mind you, I do agree that guests who do not

keep you in touch when they finally realise they will be late are a pain in the

butt and pretty rude to boot.

 I see that as a fair way of seeing the

business some of us are in, you didn’t and you told me off rather rudely to my mind.

[quote] Do me the courtesy of reading more fully what I originally wrote and further

replied, before assuming I'm Mrs Fawlty with an attitude if she misses her

beauty sleep.....it simply is not true, and no guests have mine have ever been

made to think that. [/quote]

I replied you got snooty and put it all down to me, well as I said that’s too

bad, you wanted an answer I gave one, you didn’t like, so told me, I replied

and I end up being the rude one…..well there you go, no pleasing some folk !

 And we didn’t have anyone eating tonight because we

don’t want anyone to take evening meals and we hope we never get

another one. At the moment all 6

rooms are taken by two Spanish families who plan to be out nearly all

day every day and at night as well, GREAT and if YOU had bothered to

read previous posts, you would see that we are going or rather trying

(we are honouring those booked in advance so one can barely stop guests

who wish to book at breakfast) 

to stop table d’hôte and

every opportunity we get, not to do it now, we take, so please read

a little more before

jumping in with both big wellington booted feet !

[quote] I asked what others would do.....thats

all....I didnt ask for justification of what I might or might not do....or

perhaps this is too complicated for you to digest as you are so obviously

overworked and hard pressed with endless bookings? [/quote]

As for justification, what the hell has that got to

do with it…you asked,

you got a reply…simple ! You do what you like but it appears that

farming and getting up early makes pretty grumpy people to

me..................oh and I find your last post totally offensive and

as for endless bookings, we get by as they say and we sadly close for almost

5 months.

We hope to do a bit of busking this winter to tide us over, well

until the endless bookings come back really !! Just hope we can take

enough for a nice long holiday in the sun somewhere this winter [:)]

 

[myrtle]

Miki

were you bullied at school?

chill man its just a forum.....maybe the doctor can prescribe something?

[Ejc]

I find Miki's posts helpful and informative - reading this little contratemps - there's only 1 person who's being rather rude - and that's not Miki.  Myrtle you're getting unpleasant and personnal and it is not doing you any favours - maybe your late arrivals have put you in a bad mood......

[Miki]

I think I love you ejc [:D]

Normally a bunch of forum hoodlums run in about now and give me

"what an damned awful chap you are Miki, always rude, always this or

that" then disappear again....but you have cheered up a poor

B&B'ers cockles for sure [;-)]

I am well chilled welly boots, well, until some one asks a question but

doesn't like the reply, then gets terribly snotty !

And you call this post being chilled, sounds like a case of sell the farm quickly to me, after all,  it's only a forum welly boots  [:)]

[quote] Miki you are SO rude!

Not  afraid....certainly not afraid, I just object to rudeness like

yours and dont see sense in putting myself up for the firing line from

people I shall never meet and who will never know me. 

I asked what others would do.....thats all....I didnt ask for

justification of what I might or might not do....or perhaps this is too

complicated for you to digest as you are so obviously overworked and

hard pressed with endless bookings?

.....and if your so b...y good at it why arent you serving dinner at 9pm this evening hhmm???[/quote]

[Russethouse]

 Can we  all get away from discussing members, new and old,  various character attributes or lack of them, and back to the topic please ?