What a horrible day!

Where has Mr Sunshine gone? Today it has rained and rained and rained and rained. I went out for about an hour first thing this morning and got soaked through to my skin. In fact I was so wet that even, though Ann had dried me, I was still damp when I went out for my afternoon walk. And then I got wet all over again because it was raining even harder than it was this morning. Our weather app is telling us it's going to be even worse tomorrow. Boohoo..................

Apart from two wet walks, I had to stay home alone while Ann nipped over to B&M in Penzance to stock up on a few things. Because we rent out our home to holiday makers, when we're not here, we generally have to replace a few bits & pieces every time we return. Nothing major. We have a fabulous housekeeper who looks after our home perfectly for us, but the other day when Ann went to peel a carrot for me, she discovered the potato peeler was blunt and it wouldn't peel my carrot. How does a potato peeler even get blunt? She can't test out the new one yet because I've eaten all my carrots!

Fortunately, Ann worked in a holiday letting agents for 10 years so (she's well aware of how stupid some holiday makers can be) she has tried to make our house as hassle free as possible. We don't have a TV with loads of remotes/sound sytems/wifi connections etc. We don't have heating that is operated remotely or have a coffee machine that requires one to have a degree to operate it. All we have is a little house in a seaside town with parking and wifi and an outside space for wine drinking. We've tried to be as minimalistic as possible and so far it seems to be working.

Having said that, renting to holiday makers isn't actually as easy as everyone seems to think it is. Our house is 2-bedroomed but we only rent it out as a one bedroomed property. Ann's bedroom is kept locked and we store all our cleaning products/toilet rolls/spare duvets etc in there. However you wouldn't believe the number of people who haven't a clue what they're talking about have told Ann that she could be making loads more money if she opened up her bedroom, put bunk beds in there and let people sleep on the sofa bed in the living room...................... Then we could have 6 people in our house instead of two.

Mmmmmmm..................... We only have one bathroom so that would greatly increase the usage of the toilet/shower (and we're on a water meter & also 6 people having a shower/using the toilet would put immense pressure on those amentities). The living room only has 'comfortable' seating for four people. And our breakfast bar only sits three (maybe four at a push) so no way would it come up to 'Visit Britain' standards. The linen/towel/rubbish removal costs for 6 people would be astronomical and there is absolutely no way that we would be able to charge three times as much as we do now for ramming 6 people into this tiny space. It's one of the things Ann could RANT about forever. She knows what she's doing. And she definitely doesn't want 6 people in her little home.

The only thing that Ann doesn't do, which she thinks she maybe should................... is charge visitors for bringing their pooches. We've had a lot of pooches come to stay over the last couple of months and even a £5-£10 charge per pooch per visit would make good business sense. On the other hand; this isn't a business. It's our Cornish home that we absolutely love and we totally understand that visitors want to bring their furry friends with them. And to be honest, unless our housekeeper tells us that the cleaning has taken her longer because of them, or they've chewed something or destroyed something or wee'd or poo'ed all over the house, we're happy to have them here. And for our non doggie loving visitors...................... our housekeeper is so amazing that when you walk into our house it will smell lovely. No way would you ever think a pooch had been in here.

OMG?! This is a long Blip today isn't it? My very lovely owner, Ann, is in 'RANT mode' because it's still raining and she has nothing better to do. I'm in snooze mode because I'm still a bit tired after having Jax (the 9 month old Romanian puppy) to stay for 4 days.

…..................And now Ann's going to feed me and then she's going to make a 'Prawn Green Thai Curry' for herself. How domesticated is she????

Happy Rainy Sunday Evening Blippers. xxx