Back to work

My third guests, since I restarted. are Valerie, John, and Malcolm, who are leaving on Saturday to go to Judith's B&B in Paris, just by coincidence. Valerie was here to be on the BBC show Buzzcocks. It is very much colder now, and am afraid my guests are feeling it. The heat is up high and on longer, but when John was wearing his overcoat and muffler indoors, I remembered how I felt when I first came here and had to sit by heaters.

So the laundry, ironing, cleaning, bed-making, mopping, dusting is all back in force, but am also banking some money, so I feel like I have employment. And I do find out things from some of the guests, such as the garden at Runnymeade which looks like a good trip in the warmer weather. My guests are all getting rained on.

Selling it and having it

The thing about real estate is that you can sell it, ie, rent space, but you still have it. I watch all the programs on auctions, car boot sales, and yard sales, and I have also sold my things at auctions, car boot sales, ebay and yard sales. Many of the things I sold, especially at auctions, I regret not having now. I lost Clarice Cliff to an auction house, when it didn't reach the reserve in San Francisco, and the agent there said her mother liked it and could she have it for, well, peanuts.

When I started renting some of the places that I owned, I almost felt like I was taking money for nothing, because I still own the places. All those financial equations about return on your money are just air bubbles to me, because I want to own the places whether it makes sense or not. So when I began the B&B rentals in London, this was just extra money for nothing, really. I've been a flat sharer and an advocate of it, but in a way, this is much better, because they come and go, and you aren't left with someone who feels they own the spot, too.

My friend in Paris who started this summer found it 'a wheeze', paid off her overdraft, and had all 'very nice people'.

This is the last day today of my summer rentals, and I am going to San Francisco, to rent out again the garden studio there. But I'll be back in November with more guests.

How Not to be a House Guest

I've found out that I am rated as one of the not so good house guests, since I don't: a. wash the dishes, b. vacuum, c. get up at the right time, d. make the bed properly, e. hesitate to ask for coffee when I get up, f. mind tieing up their computer line to read my email, and what else? I usually don't leave presents, and was stunned to find that my paying guests do. Received from guests have been: a box of wild salmon from Alaska, a naked lady plant bulb, three dragon flies on long wires to stick into the planter, a bouquet of flowers, a bottle of Spanish wine, an aloe plant of enormous proportions, an invitation to dinner, and a book called Small Island by Andrea Levy.

Ok, then I'll work on it and not rely of my prompt thank you notes to carry the day.

Hostel Night

Last night was my hostel night, as two young Canadian trekkers shared the front room and the upstairs bath, and a couple from New York were in the double bedroom. They didn't see each other, but may have heard each other since the hallway amplies all sounds in the flat. Every little bit helps, though, as there was another assessment on the apartment in New York. I might catch up by the time of the Olympics.

"the nuns told me it is good to share, but I want my own bathroom"

Today is a changing of the guests, as Neil, who was here with the Hyde Park concert, will leave, and Pepa from Barcelona will arrive. I started the b&b routine in mid-April of this year, and have been pretty much booked up. And one of my friends from Paris who was here in April started up in Paris to pay down her overdraft. I have been paying down mine, too. This is a large mansion flat, and when I was younger, I used to think that the pensioners in the block that complained about fixed incomes and rising service charges could have taken in lodgers. After all that is how everyone got started in London in the beginning, with flat sharing. So now that I am one, why not take in PGs? Coming through the doors have been: a candidate for Junior Entrepeneur of the Year, an actress who portrays Gitta Mallasz, an Australian designer for the Open, the LiveAction co-ordinator for the concert.

Now Pepa wants her own bathroom irrespective of what the nuns told her about sharing. And I am on her side. I couldn't do this until I completed a renovation that created a second bathroom.