Happy birthday to my dad on his ninety-first birthday. He celebrated by accompanying my mother to Waitrose for the weekly shop. I’m sure the remainder of the day will be an endless round of excitement. Apparently, I am informed that he is quite junior in terms of the other inmates of the establishment.
The night was very warm again with temperatures around 28℃ until about 06:00 when it conveniently dropped to 25℃ as I ran. I’d be happier with 22℃ at night and for the morning walk. I end up dragging Luis around otherwise. Strangely, he becomes re-energised under some circumstances: other dogs, interesting smells, biscuits…
The mutts were let off the lead this morning and four of them disappeared. I didn’t hear any frantic barking although I later discovered FreeLoaders sleeping on the large beach and others, complete with dog, amongst the dunes near to the Grammeno Beach entrance. Only Pea made a huge fuss as I quelled the riot amongst the others and he had not yet returned to the fold.
As well as being hot and sticky today with a high of 34.6℃ which felt warmer due to 33% humidity which is high for here, I had a few IT requests and continued with the curation of my music collection. Yet more tracks have been added and I have removed duplicates and orphaned tracks. I don’t see the point in keeping a directory which has one track duplicated in another album by the same artist. It’s a bit of an ongoing task.
Maria called me during her break to discuss the French woman from the other day. I didn’t really feel I could help her much as I wasn’t present during the incident. I simply tried to mitigate the fallout from the adverse review on the Google Website. Fortunately, there have been several positive reviews which will help to push the more negative one down the queue. The Google default is to display the most appropriate which is usually something positive with a sensible comment. The user can reorder the reviews at will to see the most positive, most negative, most recent etc.
I told Maria that I’d replied to the comment by leaving a polite apology wrapped up in a neutral ‘we’ll try to do better next time’ statement. She said she wanted to put the record straight publicly, however, I suggested that getting into a firefight with a customer on Social Media was virtually guaranteed to end badly. I suggested she contacted the customer apologetically and offer to refund the deposit in full. The outcome could result in the removal or moderation of the review but better than doing nothing. In the grand scheme of things, 50€ is neither here nor there for the camping especially as the camping was really busy and the tent could be re-let ten-times over. I suggested that it’s better to try to resolve problems at the time or not get into them in the first place. The main impediment to this is that there are no systems in effect and Maria is run off her feet constantly firefighting whilst never getting ahead. Hardly surprising she can’t keep all the balls in the air and remain as fresh as a daisy at all times.
Maria asked if I’d like to come to the office after 20:00 to discuss it with her but I could see no value in that other than going around the same circuits over again. Hopefully, she will take my advice and make the best of a bad job.
The westerly wind is freshening and the forecast still talks about showers for Saturday night and Sunday morning. It would be a lot better if that didn’t happen as the camping is busy again for the weekend. I suspect that next weekend will be the final busy one for the season.
I still have no neighbours either to the north or to the south.
Time for the Evening Walk
22:00 and people are setting up their tents. I have new neighbours to the south but no close neighbours to the north at this time. They will pack up on Sunday afternoon and go home. This will be the story for the next few weekends until the kids go back to school. From then on it will be parents with young children or retired people taking a quiet off-season holiday.
I understand from Ursula they are still working hard in their garden. Tony is attacking the hedge and Ursula the grass. I think Heidi is raking up for everyone.
Almost full moon tonight at 97%. Soon I’ll be able to see in the mornings again!
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