(Thursday 21, Friday 22, Saturday 23 May 2020)
I’ll be honest, the last few days have been an absolute roller coaster of emotions. From the enthusiastic highs to the lowest of lows. Having posted about our re-opening, board meeting planning episode and the shopping trip we were positive, motivated and in fearsome efficiency mode.
We spent a wonderful evening on Friday having an extremely tasty BBQ with friends in the village and returned in high spirits, having had copious quantities of food, drink and laughter. We were sitting outside with the boys before heading off to bed and catching up on FB when a random comment on my last update sent us both into an absolute tail spin.
We were forced into a heavy discussion about literally health vs money. That’s not a comfortable one to have, or be faced with. We need to re-open financially but the layout of our house is one which does not provide us personally with the best possible options for our own safety. I have no doubt that we can keep the guests safe with all the various measures in place to do so, but we have a slightly unusual layout for our own personal (and safe) space. We need to cross public areas for a variety of reasons, multiple times a day. Not least as our only bathroom is upstairs on the other side of the communal guest space.
In the middle of my full on meltdown, I posted in the local support network page on FB for advice and it was a random comment and my subsequent reply that sparked the light bulb moment. In constructing my reply, I’d inadvertently triggered something in my brain which provided us with the perfect solution. Isn’t it funny how that sometimes happens? You can wrack your brain for months, going backwards and forwards on an idea with no obvious solution and then suddenly, out of nowhere… and usually when you’re actually thinking about something else.. the solution comes to you! 💡
It’s always amused me when people refer to something as a ‘lightbulb moment’ but it really is like that, out of the darkness and quite suddenly a light goes on and you have complete clarity. I love those moments! 😁
For us, the lightbulb moment was both immediate and very welcome for our heavy hearts and troubled brains and was an instant return to mental equilibrium. With our moods lifted, we celebrated by spending the rest of yesterday afternoon essentially relaxing in the sunshine. Mark was laying in the sun with the boys, a beer and a book and I decided to wade around in the pool trying to clean it. Which is a nice combination of lazy activity and cooling, it was very hot!
Whilst we’re on the subject of the pool, we have a confession to make. We’d had no speakable rain, the odd bit here and there and had managed just shy of 10” with our elaborate rain water collection system. It was a start, but not enough and without getting the water levels over the skimmer outlets, we couldn’t clean it up. In danger of turning the thing over to a very murky wildlife sanctuary, we regrettably decided to top it up a bit more with the hose. The clean up operation is now in full swing. 😆
Having spent the whole day in the most beautiful sunshine, clear skies and clear air, none of us were expecting the storm that came in rapidly at around 5pm. We were lucky, we spotted the ominous looking clouds over weather mountain. We had enough time to quickly clear up outside, pull all the cushions in etc, run around the house closing windows and batten down the hatches as our clear view of the storm approaching had us both exclaiming “that looks like a big’un”. We were not wrong!
As is quite often the case, the clouds approach and the first sign of anything starting is a strong gust of wind. ‘Strong’ probably doesn’t begin to cover this one! Out of nowhere, a blast came through which rocked everything… and managed to blow over one of the extremely heavy doors (ex-woodshed) that are propped firmly against the garage. As I write this, Mark is out there picking up the broken glass that shattered from it and out across the drive.
Luckily, that was pretty much the only casualty we think…. 🤞 Again, lucky that the position of our house (and our terrace) meant that we were protected at the back of the house from the horizontal winds and rain that blasted down each side of it. It lasted all of 25 minutes and that was it, done and dusted and the calm returned, albeit still raining.
You’ve got to love mountain weather, it can change on a dime… and it does exactly that, quite regularly! 😂
Stay safe everyone xx
