Gosh, it’s amazing how quickly we transform from ticking along nicely in June to complete madness in July. What I mean by this is that most nights we’re now very busy or completely full. Much as that’s obviously great as we finally make some money to get us through the long dark winter, but everything just ramps up so much.
Instead of using a tray or two of our farm eggs per week, we’re now on three or four. The bags of dirty laundry have trebled and I’m baking something every single morning before Julian makes it to the kitchen for his breakfast prep. We are getting through toilet rolls, shampoo, teabags and just about every other consumable you can think of at a ridiculous rate. Shopping has gone from a weekly job to almost daily and every day seems the same to us.
Thankfully, this year, the UK is benefiting from a great summer after the appalling weather we had over the winter. This boosts the British tourism economy – after all, why would you consider going abroad when there’s weather like this here? Guests were sitting on our sun terrace the other evening in 42 degrees!
It’s times like this you need to make sure your guests are comfortable and they’re particularly glad when they check in and find that we’re a B&B with air conditioning. Four of our rooms (Broadsands, Torre, Goodrington and Oddicombe) have air conditioning.
The other two rooms (our suites – Elberry and Watcombe) don’t have air conditioning but are much cooler as the bedrooms are on the back of the house and due to the shape of the house are sheltered from the sun light so they stay much cooler. We do still provide fans in both the bedroom and lounge of each though.
Another way to stay cool in this heat is with a nice drink. We’ll offer you a complimentary drink on arrival which you can take in the sun on the terrace if you prefer. We also have an honesty bar, so you can help yourselves to a refreshing beer, glass of wine or Prosecco, or even just a soft drink at any time you like.
One of the benefits of living on the English Riviera is that the weather is (generally) better than other places in the UK. Our new palm trees on the terrace are doing well and over the next few years we plan to turn our front garden and terrace into more of a tropical oasis.
If you don’t already follow us on Facebook, you should! You’ll not only find that we add updates almost daily about what’s happening in Torquay and some photos of delicious food, but we also advertise last minute deals if we have late availability or cancellations. We also occasionally have offers and competitions that you could be missing out on.
We often venture out ourselves on a hot afternoon to enjoy the sun – after all, what’s the point of living only a ten-minute stroll from the sea if you don’t make the most of it?
It’s lovely walking through the grounds of Torre Abbey with its façade all lit up in the sun, through the shaded area of trees next to the pitch and putt and tennis courts, past the bowling green and into the Italianate gardens to emerge at the sea front at Torre Abbey Sands – our closest beach.
If it was up to Julian, we’d always then end up along the new Abbey Sands development, maybe outside Pierre Bistro on their sun deck or maybe outside Coco cocktail bar with a cold drink in hand.
Much as I love a cold glass of wine or a G&T, I do also love an ice cream on the sea front. The shop opposite Coco sells “Mr Whippy” type ice cream cones including a mixed half strawberry and half vanilla flavour, as well as scoop ice cream. Further along at Pier Point, they also sell ice creams at the kiosk opposite the Princess Theatre.
So, no excuse for being too hot, but every excuse to come down here to the English Riviera and enjoy the sunshine. Hope to see you all soon.