arisaig

here we are now at arisaig house: a stately 250 year old estate set on sort of a peninsula type of land mass, surrounded on most sides by sea lochs, or narrow channels of ocean that run up and down this area.  the house now functions as a bed and breakfast (as it has for the last two years) with sarah in charge– i can’t believe she manages to almost singlehandedly run this place.  there are other lovely folk who work here part-time: a gardener, two ladies that make up the beds, then there is breakfast and dinner service served daily– dinner especially is quite a big to-do.  it is held in a beautiful large formal dining hall that looks to be straight from the late 19th century bedecked with candelabras.  

so far a lot of our tasks involve dinner service, a period of time which typically takes a couple hours to set up, begins at 7pm and goes until maybe 9 or 9:30pm.  there is a multi-c ourse dinner served every night (that is allllways exquisitely gourmet and artistic, i swear sarah  must have been a chef before taking on this position).  i have never waitressed in my life, but hey… just taking care not to trip with steady hands, and remembering which wines are red and white and i think i’ll be okay.  alex seems content as being the main dishwashing dude in this situation, as he isn’t as keen to go front of house. it’s been great to work on a team with him again, as we haven’t since starbucks and we definitely work well together.

other tasks here we’ve taken on include LOTS of dishwashing, cleaning, sorting wines, harvesting fruits and vegetables from the big gardens on the estate, landscaping, making up beds, and really any other odd jobs.  the cottage we are staying in is beyond our expectations, a multi-level fully functioning apartment, essentially.  couldn’t be happier with that.  weather is to be expected… the rains are coming in now so i think this week will bring a lot of “indoor time” with the weekend hopefully clearing up enough that we can go out on a day trip on sunday, one of our days off.

also of note: the scots drink SO much tea!!!  i’m loving it!  also, there as an adorable golden lab puppy here to play with and plenty good food to eat.  so bottomline, we are quite pleased!  it is beautiful here.