Just Humans Being...

Every year it seems to come as a shock just how busy we get in August. We are working incredibly long hours... Holiday home owners are heading down & all the properties we take of are full. So there's lots of cleaning to be done, things to fix & guests (not all nice either) to deal with. We are getting very tired, but happy to see money coming in... Occasionally, we get time to pop home for lunch between jobs. (Kitties like us being home) All our work is very close to where we live, so the furthest we travel is just over 2 miles!   Sime's colourful lunch... On the days we don't manage to get home - we still have a break... And eat lots of fruit & nuts. This week started out lovely & hot, although the sea was really choppy... Portmellon - we seem to spend more time down there, than at home! Portmellon at night... The Donks  We stopped for a chat with their human friends after work... They are all wearing some fancy headgear to stop the flies from

Working all day sometimes means snacking on fruit & nuts until we get home... When we can enjoy 2 meals in one... Lunch - houmous, salad & pitta. Dinner - Chickpea & vegetable curry with turmeric basmati rice. All on 1 plate... Delicious!

A number of holiday let guests having been less than fastidious in their end of holiday clean ups, will now have to deal with... Our very own cleaner... Mr Smith. But underneath the shades... He's still a cuddly little bunny! Anyway, we'd better get cracking... Have a happy Saturday! Kay & Sime xx

Saw this rainbow on our way home from Stoke... And we think we found the end of it! We didn't find any gold, but since returning home - we've been inundated by calls & emails offering extra work... Didn't expect to have to work hard for that pot... Nevermind! This is what's waking us up this week. And we are feeling good... Especially in the odd bits of sunshine we keep getting! 5 properties to clean today & 2 others needing a quick visit... No idea when we'll be home - Hahaha! Hope you're all having a good week. Kay & Sime xx

We've cleaned 8 properties since Tuesday... Tomorrow we have 3 more & then we're having 4 days off - yippee! Hope the sun will continue to shine for us... Have a good weekend folks! Kay & Sime xx

After another very long day yesterday... We decided to just collapse in the garden of the big house we'd cleaned with a bottle of wine... Then we remembered that we didn't have anything to drink it from... So we swigged it... While enjoying the view... Nice... Today, we had to take the car into the garage. What we thought was a straightforward job has turned out to be more complicated... We've had to leave it in the garage overnight & hopefully tomorrow it will be ready! The problem is - we have 3 properties to clean... We returned home on the bus & when we got off at our stop - the vicar & husband were there & offered us a lift home (which is a mile away from the bus stop). They have also insisted on lending us their car for tomorrow, so we don't have to let anyone down...  Such lovely folks & they will soon be leaving for another parish... They will really be missed! So the show will go on tomorrow & we have 2 new jobs, one is a holiday

We are having our busiest week of the year so far... Every property we look after has guests or owners coming for the bank holiday. The house we've cleaned today is huge - 4 storeys, 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms & we haven't finished, even though we went back this evening - we still have to return tomorrow evening... It's our own fault really, as we'd vowed to there early & ended up messing around until after 11am. We've got 11 properties to prepare before Saturday, so it really is full on! The holiday let laundry is getting on top of us & the washer is constantly going, but we'll do it - we always do & just for a change, I'm actually quite chilled about it all (I'm usually the one who starts to panic about getting everything done).  Anyway, we wanted to share with you what happened on Saturday... We had 2 properties to clean & everything went very smoothly - which was wonderful because we had somewhere to go. Amazingly, we were home fo

Work Home Kneading Rising Grinding Puréeing Straining Soaking  Rinsing  Washing Spinning Whizzing Emailing Reading Watching Listening Talking (a lot) Laughing Playing Singing Cooking Eating  Drinking Showering snuggling Sleeping And then it starts all over again... It's all good, we're happy & that's the main thing. We are getting into our work rhythm, we're organised & achieving lots. We have energy & strength. We're eating well - sometimes late, but we feel good. We've spent quality time with Hugo, which has been nice & we are reminded of how lucky we are... We have such lovely buddies. Though the highlight of my week... For the first time in 26 years, I have been able to hold off Sime beating me in an arm wrestling match...Yes!!! I think it's all the spinach...Hahaha! My upper arm muscles have become rather large & it makes us laugh... But really it's great & just another sign that my body i

We've worked today, but it's been a wonderfully straightforward day... Our first B&B guests cancelled their stay with us - due to the weather... Luckily, we still got paid, so nevermind & it means I get to go out instead, as tonight Sime's off to the most westerly village in mainland Britain - where The Dolphins Fly have a gig... We've also got 2 days off - which is nice! Hope you're all having a lovely weekend. Kay & Sime  xx

Good Morning! We're still here... Just busy & about to go off to clean two cottages. Always lots to do & we have our first guests arriving in 2 weeks time... Spent 2 hours with our local vicar yesterday - not because we've found religion, but she wanted advice about cleaning her blinds! Instead of just popping in - we ended up chatting about everything & more. Consequently didn't get home until 7pm, made dinner & went straight to bed!  Feel better for the early night! Hope you've all had a good week & look forward to catching up soon. Kay & Sime  xx

We've had two really tough days of cleaning up after holidaymakers.  Yesterday we started at 7am & worked until 4pm, then Sime had a gig in North Cornwall & I was staying at home, until a neighbour persuaded me that I should go to see the band with her, so I got home at 12.30am & Sime returned after 1am... Today was the worst, as the apartment we cleaned this morning had been left in a terrible state - so a job which should normally take 5 hours between us, actually took nearly 9 hours... This then had a knock on effect on our next clean, we ended up being over an hour late & were still working when the guests arrived... This particular house, we have thought about giving up on several occasions - just because the house is a little out of the way & doesn't pay a great lot, but after Sime's outburst on arrival & his announcement that we want to finish, we were asked to join the owners for a cuppa afterwards...  Two hours later we emerged from their

Ever since I can remember, I've had allergic reactions to nasty chemicals in perfumes & detergents. As a child, I would break out in rashes from washing powder & anything perfumed, as did my siblings - in fact my Brother was even allergic to freshly cut grass! Little did my folks know about the body & health. My Dad was a heavy smoker & us kids had constant throat & chest infections, we lived on penicillin. Our bodies were continually stripped of antibodies & we all had an inability to cope with any toxins, so my Mum accepted that she had to buy particular brands of various soaps, cleaning & laundry products.   Today, I still have a problem with strong smelling perfumes, air freshners & detergents, so have just avoided them as far as possible... Even tampons & sanitary towels irritate me, so I've used a  Mooncup  &  reusable cloth pads  for a few years now.  Since becoming veggie over 20 years ago, I discovered that there were alternati

We have finished work for a few days & after another gruelling couple of days, we are out the other side... Think I need to put Sime to bed! We're looking forward to a lie-in tomorrow - if only the holidaymakers would keep quiet on their way down to the beach at the crack of dawn... It's that time of year when our hamlet swells from 30 to about 1000 at the campsite & hostel, so it's like living in a city all of a sudden! Hope you are all having a good weekend. Kay & Sime  xx

We are still upside down at home with builders in & out... We're also working lots too again - though this morning we're off to the home education group, as it's our turn today! A few tough days coming up again & then hopefully next week we can take some time to enjoy ourselves... Hope you're all having a good week. Kay & Sime xx

Another exhausting day today, but we did it! Time for bed again... Easier day tomorrow & then we're off to an Earth Hour celebration meal & bonfire (if we can stay awake)! Have a wonderful weekend! K&S xx

Yesterday - Rolling mist coming in from the sea. Within minutes we went from blue skies & warm sunshine to cold drizzle & fog!  Some little friends were waiting for us this morning... And gave us quite a greeting... We usually see them in the river... But it was the first time we've seen them out & sunning themselves so close by! Our simple lunch of brown basmati, garlic, sprouted mung beans, sweetcorn, miso & overly wilted rocket... Dessert - peanuts, raisins & dried apricots. So nice to be outside for our picnic today! We're off to bed any minute now...  We've prepared 4 flats today.  Hung curtains, put on mattress & duvet protectors, cleaned lots of windows, as well as doing the general cleaning - it's  been a long day!  This is our 5th season working here & today we've managed to do so much more than we've ever done in one day, we usually take a couple of weeks to get these flats ready... We're aching a bit now though!