Where I normally clean the entire house on Sunday (after the last guests have checked out), this time I was able to finish everything on Saturday. That same morning my sister and her friends, who had stayed with us for a couple of days, left for the airport. So she could spend a few more days in the Netherlands before duty in Switzerland called to her again. And while she was able to relax a few days over there, I was very keen on finishing all the cleaning right away so I could do the same thing on Sunday here. Because a day of doing absolutely nothing at all is very rare, I couldn’t wait to keep the door closed for a day, sit on the couch in my pajamas all day and crawl under the warm covers of my bed as soon as the night fell. Great! Because where I was able (and allowed to) ignore my long to-do list on Sunday, I needed to get back to work again on Monday.
Because there is always something to be done. As soon as I cross off the last item on my list (which is actually a rare occurrence), I can’t resist the temptation to add ten more items to it. This week was no exception. While my father went to the shop to get new wire brushes so that I could help my parents sand the railings on the balconies of their new house, I impatiently refreshed the SES Hospedajes website for the umpteenth time. After I had established that our internet was working fine, I blamed the slow loading of the website on the fact that the new rules came into effect today. Like me, half of Spain is probably trying to register their accommodation at the last minute. Since I don’t have time to keep clicking ‘refresh’ in vain and my father hasn’t returned from his trip to the shops yet, I decided to start writing this blog. Tomorrow Lynn will come by to decorate the Bed & Breakfast in the much-needed Christmas atmosphere and on Wednesday I want to take care of the entire house so that I can receive the guests – who will be arriving from Thursday on – in a clean house again.
But as soon as I see my father’s Ford Transit parked on the other side of the street, I slam the laptop shut. By sanding the balcony, I hope to be able to cross off the first item on my long list. Only when I still haven’t finished the first balcony three hours later (why did the previous owner plaster not only the outside wall but also half the balcony?!), do I quickly spoon down two cups of soup and, in clean clothes, open the laptop in the office again. When it turns out that today’s most popular website finally does want to load, I register our accommodation at the last minute. While I then try to find out online which data I have to start collecting from now on, I see that it is almost time to go to Crossfit again. While it is slowly starting to get dark outside and I have started on quite a few different things today, I have not been able to actually cross off a single item on my list. Frustrating. And so, after an one hour work out, I decide to turn the lights in the office back on. Pretending to register a guest in the system, I carefully write down which details are mandatory and which are optional and update the current check-in form accordingly. It is a quarter to nine in the evening and happy that I have at least managed to complete one thing today, I bring my pen to the paper with the dreaded to-do list on it. Damn it. Registering our accommodation with SES Hospedajes is not even on it.