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Published On: Jan 10, 2010 05:23 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Jan 10, 2010 05:23 PM
Now that the dust has settled....
Now that the dust has settled and the BIg Rush is
over, we begin to find time for our first report of the year. So Happy New Year
to you all!!
Now that the dust has settled and the BIg Rush is
over, we begin to find time for our first report of the year. So Happy New Year
to you all!!
After the slowish run-up to Christmas, business finally kicked in on the 28th, and we had an excellent week, including a record-breaking day shift for Jan 1st with Alan and 15 year-old son Sandy managing the cooking. Unfortunately we were unable to recover the loss of the previous two weeks, and we finished 10% down for the month, which is not as much as many other businesses that have been talking of a drop of 20%.
New Year's Eve had the usual rowdy gang of idiots and hooligans. Someone ripped up our bamboo while another person stole the tip jar. Fortunately, we had been pre-emptive and removed the computers and some of the paintings as well as anything else that could be stolen or broken. Only a couple of days previously, some guy nicked the WiFi dongle from one of our computers. Alan, spotting the loss first thing the following morning, remembered that he had an old broken laptop that had an internal WiFi card at home that he was able to install and therefore keep the machine going.
The whole period we were plagued with network crashes. Finally, after collaboration with the ISP, we discovered that we had an unusually high volume of uploads that bottlenecked the router and crashed the system. We have therefore quadrupled the debit and this seems to have sorted out most of the problem, though we still have the occasional crash, though that is more likely to be from a router overload.
With the New Year falling on the Friday, we were not able to take full advantage of the holiday period, as most people left on Saturday 2nd January. But we have otherwise consistently been above last year's turnover, even if this weekend is also a bit disappointing, probably due to the bad weather throughout Europe that has created travel chaos. It is rare to see the car park only three-quarters full on a Saturday evening in season.
The staff have been having it rough, especially the girls. Gaëlle pulled out for a few days at the end of December before rejoining on New Year's Eve. Sara has battled on despite feeling nauseous all week. Silvia is down with the flu and Izzy is not feeling too good either. Jamie was a bit down after Christmas but fortunately bounced back quickly. George has managed to stay away from sickness but has instead got a hairline fracture on his wrist from snowboarding, putting him out of action for a few days. Alan is the only one to come out unscathed, but it has meant that he has not had the chance to get any time off and he is feeling the need for a break.
The steamer has given out again. The on/off switch for the steam gave out while Alan was taking advantage of a quieter day to do some deep cleaning. The problem seems to come from the solenoid controller, so cannot be repaired in-house. It's a real nuisance not having it, as it is an excellent tool to keep the carpet clean (amongst other uses), especially when people have been spilling sauces and drinks on the floor, added to the salt that is being brought in from outside that has been sprinkled onto the roads.
After the slowish run-up to Christmas, business finally kicked in on the 28th, and we had an excellent week, including a record-breaking day shift for Jan 1st with Alan and 15 year-old son Sandy managing the cooking. Unfortunately we were unable to recover the loss of the previous two weeks, and we finished 10% down for the month, which is not as much as many other businesses that have been talking of a drop of 20%.
New Year's Eve had the usual rowdy gang of idiots and hooligans. Someone ripped up our bamboo while another person stole the tip jar. Fortunately, we had been pre-emptive and removed the computers and some of the paintings as well as anything else that could be stolen or broken. Only a couple of days previously, some guy nicked the WiFi dongle from one of our computers. Alan, spotting the loss first thing the following morning, remembered that he had an old broken laptop that had an internal WiFi card at home that he was able to install and therefore keep the machine going.
The whole period we were plagued with network crashes. Finally, after collaboration with the ISP, we discovered that we had an unusually high volume of uploads that bottlenecked the router and crashed the system. We have therefore quadrupled the debit and this seems to have sorted out most of the problem, though we still have the occasional crash, though that is more likely to be from a router overload.
With the New Year falling on the Friday, we were not able to take full advantage of the holiday period, as most people left on Saturday 2nd January. But we have otherwise consistently been above last year's turnover, even if this weekend is also a bit disappointing, probably due to the bad weather throughout Europe that has created travel chaos. It is rare to see the car park only three-quarters full on a Saturday evening in season.
The staff have been having it rough, especially the girls. Gaëlle pulled out for a few days at the end of December before rejoining on New Year's Eve. Sara has battled on despite feeling nauseous all week. Silvia is down with the flu and Izzy is not feeling too good either. Jamie was a bit down after Christmas but fortunately bounced back quickly. George has managed to stay away from sickness but has instead got a hairline fracture on his wrist from snowboarding, putting him out of action for a few days. Alan is the only one to come out unscathed, but it has meant that he has not had the chance to get any time off and he is feeling the need for a break.
The steamer has given out again. The on/off switch for the steam gave out while Alan was taking advantage of a quieter day to do some deep cleaning. The problem seems to come from the solenoid controller, so cannot be repaired in-house. It's a real nuisance not having it, as it is an excellent tool to keep the carpet clean (amongst other uses), especially when people have been spilling sauces and drinks on the floor, added to the salt that is being brought in from outside that has been sprinkled onto the roads.
Posted: Sun - January 10, 2010 at 05:18 PM