AGE 57 ~ 70+ ... New Life ~ Work
Sue's Work
Towards the end of our time in Kent, Sue started doing some home care work for the elderly, and once on Skye, she was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time, to secure a similar job. Sue loves people. Her character and personality suit the Home Care service perfectly. She is organised, tireless and constantly cheerful (at least, she manages to give that impression...) but most of all, she genuinely CARES for the old folk she visits.
Sue does her care work part-time, leaving just about enough time for her to take her share in running our holiday cottage business, and we even occasionally get to go out together for a walk or a meal or even a little holiday, though we don't get out together anywhere near frequently enough.
Alongside her busy schedule, Sue manages to find the time to keep in touch with her many friends in the South. She travels down to Ashford every ten weeks or so, to stay with her Mum and catch up with her friends. At first, she did the journey by coach, but now uses the overnight train from Inverness to London, which is not much more expensive, and considerably more comfortable.
For the most part, and for now, hobbies get squeezed out of Sue's life. She can sometimes be found on her hands and knees weeding in the garden, or maybe in the kitchen with hands covered in flour, baking. Maybe one day she'll slow down a bit and give more time to herself.
But she does give time to me. I consider myself to be very fortunate to be living my life in the warm and comfortable company of such a lovely person as Sue.
Towards the end of our time in Kent, Sue started doing some home care work for the elderly, and once on Skye, she was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time, to secure a similar job. Sue loves people. Her character and personality suit the Home Care service perfectly. She is organised, tireless and constantly cheerful (at least, she manages to give that impression...) but most of all, she genuinely CARES for the old folk she visits.
Sue does her care work part-time, leaving just about enough time for her to take her share in running our holiday cottage business, and we even occasionally get to go out together for a walk or a meal or even a little holiday, though we don't get out together anywhere near frequently enough.
Alongside her busy schedule, Sue manages to find the time to keep in touch with her many friends in the South. She travels down to Ashford every ten weeks or so, to stay with her Mum and catch up with her friends. At first, she did the journey by coach, but now uses the overnight train from Inverness to London, which is not much more expensive, and considerably more comfortable.
For the most part, and for now, hobbies get squeezed out of Sue's life. She can sometimes be found on her hands and knees weeding in the garden, or maybe in the kitchen with hands covered in flour, baking. Maybe one day she'll slow down a bit and give more time to herself.
But she does give time to me. I consider myself to be very fortunate to be living my life in the warm and comfortable company of such a lovely person as Sue.
My Work
When I retired from teaching and we almost immediately moved to live on the wonderful Isle of Skye, I thought at first that I had finished with work for good. True, at 8.30am, as the school summer term got underway, I was still pottering around at home sipping my morning cup of tea and gazing out of our window over the moorland to the sparkling sea. I spared a thought for the poor souls who had already been up for two hours and coped with their commute along the thronging and polluted M20 to get to the school I had come to hate. That kind of work was certainly over for me. From now on, any work I did was going to be a pleasure.
OK, I'm romanticising a bit - it's not that great to have to clean toilets, make beds, vacuum carpets and so on, but when one is doing it entirely for ones own business, it really is not that much of a chore. And we don't scrub and polish all the time - mostly just once every few days.
When I retired from teaching and we almost immediately moved to live on the wonderful Isle of Skye, I thought at first that I had finished with work for good. True, at 8.30am, as the school summer term got underway, I was still pottering around at home sipping my morning cup of tea and gazing out of our window over the moorland to the sparkling sea. I spared a thought for the poor souls who had already been up for two hours and coped with their commute along the thronging and polluted M20 to get to the school I had come to hate. That kind of work was certainly over for me. From now on, any work I did was going to be a pleasure.
OK, I'm romanticising a bit - it's not that great to have to clean toilets, make beds, vacuum carpets and so on, but when one is doing it entirely for ones own business, it really is not that much of a chore. And we don't scrub and polish all the time - mostly just once every few days.
Working As A Holiday Cottage Landlord
Saturdays are the traditional change-over day for self catering cottages in these parts. When we started out, we went along with what everyone else did. We have always let Aird View and Rowan Cottage from Saturday to Saturday, which means that Saturday has always been our busiest day. Sue does her care work on a four-day rota covering weekends as well as weekdays. This means she often works Saturdays, so I then get two turn-rounds to do. One mistake we made when we bought our properties was to underestimate the distances between them. 20 miles didn't seem far when I was commuting to work in Kent, so we thought having to travel 29 miles between Skye cottages would not be a problem. However, on a on a busy Saturday it is not so good. The journey takes about 45 minutes, and we only have a six-hour gap between one group leaving and the next group arriving. Sometimes, the departing group are a bit slow to go, which can really put the pressure on to get the cottages properly cleaned. On an occasion when both Aird and Rowan have been fully occupied, so all the beds need changing, it is really not possible for one person to do both turn-rounds. On these rare occasions, Sue is able to swap a carework shift with a colleague and help out with the hoover. Turning round a cottage means changing all the beds that have been used, and then cleaning right through the house. The majority of our visitors leave the cottages is a fairly tidy state, but we still vacuum and dust throughout, and give the kitchen and bathroom a thorough going-over. We also try to check under and inside everywhere for forgotten items or a dropped sock, and go through the kitchen cupboards looking for carelessly washed-up crockery or items of food left behind. I occasionally attend to maintenance tasks as the need arises, though we hope that not too much will need doing during the season. For the 2013 season and onwards, we added Loch View Cottage to our 'portfolio' of properties. We knew we couldn't do any more turn-rounds on Saturdays, so from the start, we have sold holidays at Loch View with either a Friday or Monday start, which means some people book for just a short break, while others stay for seven or ten nights or more, but never leaving or arriving on a Saturday. This arrangement has worked well - people seem to like the flexibility. We also let the apartment at the Barn. We do this on a bed and breakfast basis, selling the apartment at a 'per person per night' rate, with a minimum stay of two nights. This means there is occasionally a Saturday turn-round here too, but Sue can cope with this one, as there is no travelling involved. We are closing the Barn apartment at the end of the 2014 season when we will be having the whole building re-converted into one house. This will make our lives a whole lot easier! |
Sue and I share the looking after of the gardens. Sue does the weeding and tidying, I cut the grass. Sometimes, I can get a lawn mown as well as doing a turn-round, but time restraints or the weather may not make this possible. Then I have to make a special weekday journey to a cottage or cottages with the mower and strimmer in the back of the van.
Laundry and ironing is another major task. Good drying weather is a big bonus, as it means I can get several washing-machine loads of sheets, duvet covers and towels washed and dried in a day. It's less easy when it rains. We don't make much use of the tumble drier - only putting towels in there to finish them off and fluff them up. Indoor drying of the washing on wet days involves the use of drying racks and a de-humidifier. We are both happy to wield the iron, and get stuck into a pile of ironing from time to time.
We also share the administrative tasks. Handling the bookings is surprisingly time-consuming. We use an online booking system now, but our visitors all get two or three emails before they visit, to arrange their payment and send directions and information. Some visitors start up email conversations, asking questions about shopping, walks, boat trips and so on. This is great - I am always happy to chat with people about this amazing island - but answering peoples questions adds to the tasks list.
And that's about it. It's nothing like teaching! No reports to write or targets to set. No worried parents to placate or sulking teenagers to motivate. No-one inspecting me. No wonder we came to name our arrival on Skye as our New Life.
Laundry and ironing is another major task. Good drying weather is a big bonus, as it means I can get several washing-machine loads of sheets, duvet covers and towels washed and dried in a day. It's less easy when it rains. We don't make much use of the tumble drier - only putting towels in there to finish them off and fluff them up. Indoor drying of the washing on wet days involves the use of drying racks and a de-humidifier. We are both happy to wield the iron, and get stuck into a pile of ironing from time to time.
We also share the administrative tasks. Handling the bookings is surprisingly time-consuming. We use an online booking system now, but our visitors all get two or three emails before they visit, to arrange their payment and send directions and information. Some visitors start up email conversations, asking questions about shopping, walks, boat trips and so on. This is great - I am always happy to chat with people about this amazing island - but answering peoples questions adds to the tasks list.
And that's about it. It's nothing like teaching! No reports to write or targets to set. No worried parents to placate or sulking teenagers to motivate. No-one inspecting me. No wonder we came to name our arrival on Skye as our New Life.