No courses. No hotel guests. Rushed off our feet!
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2007-01-05 19:10:46 - Graham EllisHave you noticed that this has been a very technical festive season here on The Horse's Mouth - in fact here we are 5 days into the new year and it's been "CSS this" and "PHP that". And there's probably a clue in that to tell you I've been beavering away with those technologies.
Traditionally, we have shut down for a two week period over Christmas and the New Year, and often gone ski-ing. It worked out well for us ... but now that we're truly empty-nesters, there aren't the same holiday time and access time issues involved. Add to that, we had such a busy time in the last half of 2006 - refurbishing and opening a hotel while running, without slackening off, our training business - that we really didn't have the heart to set off on major travels.
Tradition, modified. We still shut down - as far as courses and hotel are concerned - for 2 weeks. But we stayed at home and around, and used the opportunity to take a couple of days (but no more) as breaks, and to work on a major web site update, including online booking, that will be going live shortly. And on the hotel side, some we took the opportunity to do a few of the little jobs that have been on our "snagging" list.
"No-one wants a course during the first week back". It's something we've learnt over the years and we didn't schedule any public courses. And, surprise, surprise ... no-one booked any private training that week either. So we've just come to the end of another quiet week have we? Oh no we have not!
No-one is travelling on business yet. No-one is attending courses yet. BUT .. the first days back are a frenzy of people planning and booking. We've been busy, building up to a peak today. "Telephone calls are like London buses" I told a caller today, "you don't get one for hours, then 2 come together". Explaining that I couldn't put him through to Lisa as she was on another call, and that he would have to make do with me to help with his booking. But, truth be told, it was pretty busy all day - there weren't those gaps and one booking was scarcely complete before the next came in. "If it was like that every day" said Lisa "we couldn't cope with all the business".