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
