who have been staying with us for the last 6
nights. ( French, Austrian, American, Russian, Swedish and Norwegian )
There's no doubt you snowboard enthusiasts have seen all their films ,
'Walk the Plank' is their latest and I believe 'Shoot your Friends' back
in 2003 was their first. Well they're at it again and have been filming
here in Tärnaby and Hemavan . They've just left heading to Lycksele for
some more urban tricks and then I believe they're off to Åre for a
premier-promotion night for their film. Some of the Swedish guys in the
group write a blog on www.Transition.se . Check it out !
We have some of their art-book DVD packs in our
book shop/café for sale. We played their movie on our new big screen ( Yes
we now have a big screen for movies and sports nights !) in our café
earlier in the week and I'm sure we'll be playing it again.
Well this weekend should be a fun with
International students from Umeå coming up , the Tjej ( Girl ) Jam
Snowboarding Camp is being held inTärnaby and on the music front, the sexy
and talented Carolina Miskovsky is back playing with her band.
Must fly... I'll be back soon ........
Sunday 28th October ( ... Especially for Malin
)
Where's the snow ?! It's just past midnight early
Sunday morning. We've kept the guest house empty this weekend so I can
continue with my new building projects without disturbing guests. However
I had to stop working on our new bathrooms as Lindy wasn't happy with the
noise I made drilling holes for pipes !...Typical ! I've been turning one
of our bedrooms on the ground floor into two bathrooms. Despite losing
rentable bed space, I believe guest comfort and convience with these extra
bathrooms is far more important. Basically I'm dividing the bedroom into
two rooms, making one of the bathrooms an ensuite off the 6 bed dorm room
/ family room and the other bathroom for general use for all guests . It
will mean knocking a hole in the 6 bed dorm room to put a door in. As
usual with any project I start doing, my plans change constantly ! ( * see
below ) I'm running out of time before our Russian Athletes arrive , so
I'm ( also as usual ) improvising a little as I go on. I might have to
postpone the dividing of the room into two and just have it as one large
bathroom for now. I'll then finish the job over Christmas .. Oh wont Lindy
be happy with me !
I’m also in the middle of enclosing the carport
under our café. I have the frame work and exterior panels on with the
cut-outs for a large window and door. I couldn’t get any builders in to
concrete/cement the floor as they were all just too busy building in
Hemavan. So this project is also 'on hold' .. I know … you’re starting to
sympathize with Lindy ! This large extra space ( about 6 by 7 meters )
will , like most of our areas, have multi purpose/functional uses. The
intended uses are top secret for the moment … in other words , I haven’t
decided yet ! ( *see above ! )
Ok, So yes the snow hasn’t arrived and the ski
slopes wont be open until next weekend. That’s the latest season start
since I’ve been here in Tärnaby. On a positive note, the lack of snow is
giving the engineers and builders more time to finish off installing the
new Linbanan on Hassebacken ( chair lift ) . Completion and opening is
still planned for he 28th December for the Linbanan. Very exciting to have
it back and working after being closed for 3 and a half years.
Tärnaby is heading back up towards it’s former
glory with new businesses and new developments in the area. A Norwegian
family bought the former ‘Sunds’ building in the village centre and have
exciting plans for the area. The forever-happy-and-laughing , Hans from
Statoil and Fjäll Sports Tärnaby ( Fjallsporttarnaby.se ) has moved his
very popular sports and clothes outlet center ( from Statoil ) to the
Sunds building and opened it just this weekend. We have also started to
manage four lovely apartments on the top of the building. It’s always
great to have more ‘warm beds’ in Tärnaby as Tärnaby in general still has
too few beds to let. These apartments are just being renovated and newly
furnished and are very conveniently situated . I was helping carry new
beds and mattresses in there on Friday night and the owners are working to
get them ready and available to rent from this Monday . We have booked
them out from about the 12th November to the 22nd to more international
athletes for F.I.S competitions. We’ll soon have some photos up on the
website. Prices for these Central Apartments are in our Tärnaby Apartment
section….
Breaking News ! I did manage to paint the front of
the guest house early October just before it got too cold. I think it was
the only two days in a row it hadn't rained for months . So the ugly
mustard colour has gone from the front .. I just need to do the sides and
the back now ! But even though it is now a multi-colored house, it still
presents a lot nicer.
We also did manage to ‘close’ for two weeks in
October . Well, we at least closed the café-restaurant for two weeks. The
first week was used to catch up on paperwork, renovations, repairs and
other tasks that we hadn’t time to do whilst fully open. Lindy then went
to spend time with her family and left me behind again to look after our
Vattenfall guests and other workers. It meant more getting up at 5.30 to
prepare breakfast for them. Thanks guys, I loved making you breakfast on
my supposed bloody break! I did though still escape from the business for
3 nights ! I Took the mini-bus to Ör-vik for it’s winter service and did
some much needed shopping for the business and had a fantastic 4 course
meal prepared for us by friends, Malin & Klas. Thank you so much guys,
It made such a lovely change for us to have someone cook for us ... and
the 'road-kill' marinated in vodka was especially tasty Klas - Cheers
!
Well that will have to do for now. I'm sure I've
left plenty of important updates out, so who knows, I might come back and
dribble on some more soon ... or it might be another 4 months
...
Friday the 25th May. ( We now have Wi-Fi broadband
! Yes, finally. For about a month now. )
Hello once again ! I missed a lot of details in my
last update as well as neglecting to mention some unforgettable guests.
Namely French Adventurer Christophe Castillon and his rather beautiful (
Ok very stunning ! ) girlfriend Johanne Ilbert. Admittedly Christophe (
according to Lindy ) was pretty good looking himself ( " a knee-trembling
sexy French man " I think she said ! ) Anyway .. Enough of that ! Let’s
get back to Johanne ! She joined Christophe in Tärnaby for a week , so he
could ' rest ' ( yeah right ! ) until he continued his epic solo journey
on cross country skis pulling his pulka behind him. To get an idea for
yourself, go to his fascinating website www.wildtrekker.com and check out
his ‘wild blog ‘. Follow his journey from the bottom of Sweden to Nordkapp
at the top of Norway. The website is in French, but you can still follow
his journey with maps and some wonderful photos. If you are French,
reading this, then it's a perfect if you're planning a holiday to Sweden
and Scandinavia in general.
Since then we’ve had some other ‘crazy’ adventurers
; A Danish couple who are doing the same type of journey, but had to swap
their ski’s here in Tärnaby to continue their travel by bicycle. ( no more
snow. Doh ! ) Apparently The Danes have very ‘special’ bikes there , so
they ordered new bikes from Denmark and had them sent to Sweden. Yeah -
whatever guys ! You can follow their journey on their website
www.knoell.dk
Just last week a cyclist from Holland popped in ,
who is also doing the 3000 km’s or so by bicycle. Not a young man either…
he even made me look like a spring chicken ! Obviously very young at heart
and very fit. ( I’m just young at heart .. Or " infantile " says Lindy !
).
Anyway, I always find these adventurers inspiring.
Not inspiring enough to make me want to do it .. But inspiring enough to
make we want to do the trip in summer on a motor bike ! .... On that
subject, it’s approaching that time of year when we get a lot of motorbike
riders touring Scandinavia. We always provide undercover parking for
motorbikes to keep them dry and safe. So if you’re planning a trip by
motorcycle , than pop on in ! We have undercover parking ( car port ) for
about 12 motorbikes and also our double garage ( in winter it's a ski
waxing room ) which can park another 5 or 6.
Back to the Easter wedding. Despite all the odds,
it was a huge success. All were very happy with the food and service. I
say " despite all the odds " , because gale-force winds and blizzards
meant that the wedding had to be postponed until the next day ! Most of
the grooms family made it the day before, after a very rough landing, but
the bride’s family were stranded at Stockholm Arlanda airport all the day,
waiting to catch a flight. So we were all on standby, at the mercy of
Mother Nature.
I have to thank Jacob and Eva for their very
professional organization and standard of service. They put the bride and
groom at ease .. and, yes , me and Lindy at ease ! It pays to bring in
people like Jacob. He runs the restaurant conference centre at Arctura in
Östersund Sweden. I recommend stopping by there on your journey. It is an
amazing concept ; A restaurant on top of a water tower that supplies
Östersund with hot water. Have a look here at www.arctura.se If you're
driving that way, have a coffee break or lunch or dinner break ... Ask for
Jacob, when you go in. You can’t miss his Californian big white smile ! (
I still think he's gay ! )
Ok, A few more things :
Miriam and Ann have turned out to be truely
wonderful assets to our business and for our guests. Ann has been cooking
mouth-watering Thai meals and despite Miriam's tender age of only 18, she
is also a whizz in the kitchen. She has also been fantastic with
marketing. But what else can say about 'our Miriam ' ? Well, she has that
whacky ( slightly deranged ! ) Gothenburg sense of humour and a
personality that just fills the air with exuberance. Positive, inspiring
and yes totally mad !
She and Ann have been running the café themselves
this last week as Lindy has managed to go and spend some time with Mary
her grandmother. All in all we have been blessed to have the girls helping
us. Unfortunately their time with us is about to expire, in about 3 weeks.
I'm trying to think of ways to keep them here ? Perhaps we could steal
their passports, legally adopt them ( Well they already call us " Daddy
and Mummy ! " ) or possibly kidnap their family ? If you have any
suggestions, feel free to email me !
Whoops I forgot to mention the celebrities that
have graced our café ! Womens World Champion and gold history maker , Anja
Pärsson ( www.anjapaerson.com) herself sat comfortably on our sofa giving
interviews to one of Sweden’s big newspapers, Expressen and enjoyed
Lindy’s home baked quiche. Like Ingemar Stenmark, she is also born and
bred in Tärnaby. Swedish Singer Tommy Nilsson also sat on our sofa with a
latte and cake. Tommy ( I chatted to him for a good hour … so I can call
him ‘ Tommy ‘ ! ) has been recording hits for over 25 years and has
produced countless albums. Unfortunately I think I was about the only
person living in Sweden who didn’t know who he was .. So I had to
apologize to him !
Oh yeah and also .. Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and
even Kylie herself turned up … Ok so I’m lying .. sue me !
I think it’s time for me to sign off again ! Until
next time ….
P.s. In summer we always welcome drop in guests ..
even if it is after 2 am ! Yes you know who you are ! ( two nights ago at
2.07 am , ( Yes I remember the bloody time ! ) a Norwegian couple who I
thought were burglars and they thought , I was a ghost ! ) When they
strolled in for a coffee at 11.30 am, I pulled the Basil Faulty card ,
making them feel suitable guilty after their good nine hours sleep .. and
I about 2 hours ! " Sleep well did you ? Lovely ! .. Me ? No I don't need
any sleep... Mahogany, teak or ... what wood would you like your breakfast
tray served on .. ? ! "
They may be coming back later on in summer with
their 4 kids ... and a dog ... Oh wonderful ! ( Just kidding guys .. or am
! ?! )
However for our future guests, please remember it's
not just us you wake up with your bell ringing, phone calls and then
carrying your bags in ... but our already comfortably sleeping other
guests ! So please plan a little better. I know with the 24 hour daylight
during the summer months it's easy to lose track of time, but please try
and call ahead and I will wait up for you... Lindy wont - but I will ! If
you still manage to forget, we usually have a note on our café restaurant
/ reception door asking guests to call a mobile number, or a sign to say
if we are full or not ... So go ahead and wake me up, but if you do happen
to wake Lindy up .. be afraid .. be very bloody afraid !!
Safe traveling !
Monday the 02 April 2007
The Easter Rush is upon us .. Help !!!
It's been over 3 months since my last informal
'blog' and what a hectic and hard season so far .. especially with our
Winter Café in full swing. We hadn't quite recovered from cooking every
day for our November ski athletes, before we threw ourselves into December
Christmas dinners and functions. Lindy did manage to go home to her family
for a few days over Christmas to recharge a little, leaving me to take
care of our international guests. When she came back we started to prepare
opening our Winter Café to the drop-in public.
It all started off very well with the help of our
chef friend, who we were really hoping would become part of the team.
However unfortunately , he couldn't dedicate enough time to our business
due to overbooking himself to other hotels... a good chef is always in
demand. .. so we had to struggle on with out him. Lindy is an exceptional
cook herself, but of course it's very exhausting 7 days a week 13 hours a
day in the kitchen. So we both suffered, but we're pretty sure our guests
didn't !
We were saved by a friend coming over from
Australia who became our 'right-hand man' . We couldn't have made it this
far with out Tim. Whilst I was helping Lindy in the café, he took over a
lot of the outdoor tasks ; clearing snow, preparing saunas for guests,
cleaning our apartments .. sorting the snow scooter rentals, picking up
guests .. sorting computing problems .. and much much more ... you name it
.. and he did it. Tim has been invaluable in every way. He will be leaving
us in 2 weeks ( sob ! ).
Now as indicated above, we are getting ready for
the busiest time of the year. So what do I do at this crazy period ? Agree
to organise a wedding ! Yes tomorrow the Bride and Groom arrive with a few
friends. On Wednesday close family to the Bride & Groom arrive and on
Thursday the rest of the 40 or so guests fly in just a few hours before
the wedding. I have a friend, Jacob, arriving on Wednesday who has had
much more experience than me, as a wedding planner ( I'm pretty sure he's
gay ! His 'girlfriend' Eva is just a smoke-screen ! ) so I'll hand most of
the responsibility over to him ! Lindy and I will still have to take care
of other guests ( who aren't party of the wedding group ) and customers in
the café during the day and then it'll be all hands on deck to make
Christian and Hannes Special Day , even more special and unforgettable ..
unforgettable in a good way , we hope !
So what's next for us ? Well another two or three
weeks to the season ends and then we'll start preparing for Tärnaby Bed
& Breakfast Spring Café . We will introduce/replace some menu items,
taking advantage of seasonal treats !
However the real great news for our business ( and
guests ) is that we will have two girls helping us for 10 weeks ( part of
an international exchange initiative ) Fantastic ! It means Lindy might be
able to take a few days off and spend some time with her grandmother and I
might also be able to 'escape' for few days !
One of the girls ( Miriam ) is Swedish and the
other ( Ann ) is Thai. So we might just be having Thai food nights as well
.. LOvely !
So that's about it for now .. until next time
...
Matt, Lindy, Tim, and soon Ann and Miriam
!
Sunday the 19th November
Hello again
previous guests and soon-to-be-guests ! I will have to keep this short as
I must help Lindy feed our hungry athletes. Yes it's that time of year
again when Tärnaby plays host to more Federation of International Skiing
competitions. ( F.I.S ) The village is buzzing with International teams
from Poland, Czech Republic, Russia, Belgium , Japan and Norway to name a
few. We have been fully booked with Russian and Czech teams. Our friendly
Federation of Pakistan Team didn't join us this November , however they
have booked for the end of January and early February to train. It will be
lovely to see the guys back in Lapland and I believe Zahid their leader is
bringing his wife to meet us !
Ok Let me tell you about our changes
quickly.... Our new building which has been used as hostel-style
accommodation as well as for conferences and also a luxury apartment has
now become our Café-Restaurant ! It was built and designed with this in
mind, so the transition/ evolvement has been relatively simple. Now to
compensate for the loss of beds we have purchased our neighbours house and
have already furnished and redecorated . This is an exciting addition to
the accommodation we can offer our guests . It is elevated slightly higher
than our main house so it also has spectacular views . It Enables us to
have more separate bedrooms for our guests , more communal areas
internally and externally with a wonderful large decking area for BBQs. It
will serve as bed & breakfast rooms or as a large apartment ,
depending on seasonal demands.
So there you have it ! That was the
big news . A new café-restaurant .. and another building ! For the moment
we haven't opened our café to the 'public´. It has just been for our
lodging guests.. For the last two and half weeks we have been serving
breakfast, lunch and dinner for our skiing athletes and other guests. The
transition to a Winter café (open to non-guests ) will be happening very
very soon with the arrival of our chef to help us with Christmas plates
and a Scrumptious Winter Menu. I still haven't found the time to update
our main website.
Friday the 29th September
Well Hello there !
It's been almost 6 weeks since my last update. The summer has gone by
so quickly with a very good season for our business and our guests. We've
met a lot of interesting people and have made many exciting changes to our
business with even more expansion going on at the moment in preparation
for the ski season . Yes, I know, "I really should finish off the painting
of the old house before I start with new projects ! " Lindy agrees with
you !
We have had a steady stream of guests which has made it
difficult to finish the exterior painting. Unfortunately we may have to
wait until next year now as the temperature has started to drop . It's
actually snowing lightly today , the first snowfall of the season . I
think we may have to close the business for a week or two next year so we
can really concentrate on the exterior decorating.
I can't use the
excuse of not getting the painting done due to 'socializing too much with
guests' as I suggested in my last update, as Lindy instructed me " To
behave ! ".
But back to our changes and expansion .... I'll tell
you about them soon ! One thing I can tell you though, is that we are
going to be so busy getting everything ready over the next month ... and
this expansion plan means that the day is drawing closer to where we may
have to start employing people to help us for the ski-season . It will be
a year earlier than I had anticipated , however as I indicated in a
previous update " When we feel that the comfort and enjoyment of our
guests may start to suffer , we will obviously start to employ someone to
help. " So there you go ! I'll come back soon with the details and at the
same time update / change the website with new pictures and two new
additions to Tärnaby Bed & Breakfast and TarnabyLapland.com , in
general .
Thursday 17th August 2006
It's been an
interesting last two weeks since my last update . Little has changed in
the way of our painting project of the old house, so I've been feeling a
little guilty in that respect.
Lindy spent a much needed week relaxing
at her Grandmothers whilst I held the fort. Some very busy days and nights
whilst she was away and then there was one night with no guests, giving me
time to catch up on washing and drying the sheets and towels . Oh the joy
! All of the accommodation businesses in the area send their laundry to
Norway to be washed and pressed, but we have always done our own washing (
well mainly Lindy ! ) . We figured initially that the extra cost of
sending our linen and towels to Norway would be too high and would thus
reflect the price we charge for our guests . As we have been running for
one and half years now and have expanded creating more than triple our
beds, ( and occupancy levels ) it is becoming much too time consuming to
do our own laundry . Even though a lot of guests do bring their own linen,
in the summer where most guests are just here for one or two nights, the
majority tend not to. Our time can be much better spent focusing on
improving other parts of our business. ...
Firstly our cafe side ;
Lindy's home-baked cakes were a real hit at the start of our business but
unfortunately ( due to time and energy restraints ) we haven't kept up
that tradition as often as we would have liked. Secondly our evening meals
; Again at the start of our business we had more time ( and energy ) to
prepare evening meals. That has also suffered. Coming into Autumn now,
time spent doing the laundry could be spent picking Mushrooms and berries
in the mountains. Relaxing and enjoying nature whilst we work , passing on
fresh produce and ingredients to you . I should be fishing more , so we
always have a fresh supply of fish available ... Of course this is all
idyllic in theory but still difficult to put into practice as someone has
to be here all the time... until we can afford to start employing staff.
We are still just a two-man show. When we feel that the comfort and
enjoyment of our guests may start to suffer , we will obviously start to
employ someone to help.
The time I could have spent painting the
house, admittedly, I've been socializing a little too much with some of
our guests ... I wont mention names .. but you know who you are ! 2 Motor
cycling brothers who kindly shared their single malt with me ... A Danish
Joiner who liked his piped tobacco and hip flasks of snaps .. Make mine a
'Single' sir ! ( Private joke ) our fishing guru from stockholm (
www.sportefiskbutiken.se ) who liked his wines and woman ! A man after my
own heart ! ... and of course not forgetting our world travelling Peruvian
guest