Thursday promised to be another fine day although the haze persisted.  Two cottages out and two back in with two cleaners up.  No problems encountered.  With such nice weather I have been doing extra washing which has been, on the whole, allowed to dry outside.  The number of change overs as well as a higher towel usage due to towel hire and overseas guests has added to the volume.  One of the cottages arriving on Thursday was from Australia.  Both cottages in by 4pm so I did a little bit of housework.  In the evening I abandoned Chris and went with Joanna to the Ashford Arms in Ashford for the WI annual dinner.  Normally held in February it was nice to go out for the meal in summer attire rather than winter woollies!  The other thing I enjoy about these evenings is the local knowledge I pick up like one of our members is a direct descendant of the lady responsible for creating the Bakewell Pudding!  Friday carried on the warm trend at our peak district cottages and another two cottages out with two back in and two cleaners up.  First cottage arrived about 3pm and second one about 4.30, they had hoped to be here about 3pm but were held up by traffic.  Found a little time before dinner to do some bits around the house.  I’ve had a bad couple of days with hoovers.  The other day one of the bagless hoovers left some scratches on my hand when I reached in to pull the last bit of fluff out and on Friday I was investigating a hoover that was not sucking well when I knelt on the cord in such a way that I pulled the cable out of the hoover.  Oops!  Another item to replace!  One of those hidden costs guests never see!  One thing that never ceases to amaze me, and I am sure I have mentioned it before, is the number of oven gloves we go through.  We now consider them as  consumable items we go through so many.  I know guests deliberately don’t destroy the gloves, most of the times I am sure it is because they aren’t used to using electric hobs.  To a lesser extent I lose tea towels this way too, with curry and bolognese sauces being other culprits. Just thought you would like to know this.