Boats and pool and weather and B&B.

Blue sky and sunshine, but it was nice crisp cool morning when I went out for a run. So the lady I see who walks her dog every morning was once again wrapped up in her jacket, buttoned up to the neck, around who h there was a scarf. This despite the temperature gauge saying 20 degrees. I wonder what she makes of me running in shorts and sleeveless top!

Down in the harbour there was one of those cruise boats as big as good-sized village. If it's the same one as was here on Tuesday then this is it's last visit until next spring. I read in the paper on Wednesday, while Phil was having his hair cut at the barbershop in town, that the P&O line's Ventura, with somewhere close to 4,000 passengers, was on it's penultimate visit of the year. Of course, today's boat might be a completely different monstrosity. Would the Ventura have had time to return to Southampton, or wherever, and come back here today? Goodness knows!

Down at the pool the Italian-Spanish lady confessed to being really glad to be able to go there in the morning when hardly anyone else goes. In the afternoon, she told me, it gets far too crowded and there are too many children jumping in and splashing. I refrained from commenting on the morning occasions when her grandson Enzo has been visiting and we have endured splashing and ball-games in the pool.

She also had a minor moan about the weather: all the sea mist that has been drifting in over the last few days. Then she commented that her Italian relatives think she is very lucky to have some respite from the heat. They are suffering with 40+ degrees and in Rome they have water shortages as well. The famous fountains have been turned off and the tourists have nowhere to wash their hot, tired feet. I bet they are still able to shower in their hotels though. And do they throw their towels on the floor every day as well, contributing further to the water shortage by creating extra washing?

Now, here's an item I "borrowed" from yesterday's Guardian, from the "What I am really thinking" section, which might be of interest to those involved with Air B&B:

"Anonymous
Saturday 5 August 2017

Ninety-five per cent of my guests are a delight. They appreciate my rural Cotswolds apartment, enjoy the breakfasts, chocolates, flowers and wine I provide, and treat the place as their home. Since my sons left home, I have had guests from all over the world. Families, babies, retired couples, therapy dogs, Olympic athletes, Hollywood actors, writers, young couples from London. Many return and have become friends. What could possibly go wrong? The guests who kept two barking dogs locked in for days. The cat that was smuggled in. The foursome that appeared on a booking for two. The woman who shouted at her crying husband all weekend. The famous playwright who left a trail of broken crockery. The discarded underwear of couples who are married, but not to each other. 

Nevertheless, people are surprising. The fashionistas who remained cheerful when evacuated outside for hours in November as a chimney fire filled the whole place with smoke. The American couple who were disappointed to find that the Cotswolds were not flat and that we have neither snakes nor raccoons. They didn’t like walking, so I drove them about. I didn’t mind: they were hilarious company. We really are more alike than we are different. I am glad to share my part of the world with visitors. Renting out my studio has given me another income and an extra string to my bow. My background is in design, so the endless cleaning and washing is not my first choice of career. But there is no such thing as a free lunch or, in this case, a free breakfast."

So, she provides chocolates, flowers and wine" as well as bed and breakfast? And she drives people around?

Does she make any profit out of this?

How very odd!