Well it has been another mixed week in fact we didn’t run our Galway tour on Thursday as we had no passengers which meant I had an extra “day off!” I actually spent the day helping one of our friends in the trade as they were having one of those behind the scenes crisis’s that we are all too familiar with, they had a very expensive coach broken down on their busiest day and were in dire need of a trusty driver to look after the first day of a French tour so cometh the hour, cometh me! I spent a nice easy day driving a full size coach and even had the luxury of a guide – it made a nice change actually but felt strange not talking so much!
We had a nice meal out and an early night on Thursday because our main day off was looking rather hectic! Chris had been on tour with her coach on Thursday and managed to have a puncture (fortunately on the way back!) so I had nice big wheel to change! Also our small coach needed 2 new tyres so that was taken into town to our trusty tyre shop. Chris had also mentioned that her air con was not as cool as it should be so I took a look and found 2 fans not working and they were ordered to be changed next week! So all in all a busy day, and the cost of all this? – a cool Eu600.00 which we could well do without at the moment but we never skimp on maintenance – those 3 coaches cost too much for that!
Another cost of all that was that I managed to pull a muscle in my back and spent most of yesterday in agony (Chris covered my tour!) I’am inBlarney today and it feels much better, just as well as I’am heading to The Cliffs tomorrow with a largish group! Now I hope you can see why running tours every day is just not an option for safety or our sanity!
We are just putting the finishing touches to our new Limerick brochure and we think it is looking great the new brochure will also bring in some slight changes to our tours but I’am not going to divulge that just yet, after all it takes our competitors a few weeks to copy everything we do so we might as well surprise everyone this time!
Personally we are ok at the moment although I would be lying if I said that our current level of business isn’t a concern, indeed our biggest stress at the moment is because we are each working on projects to increase business well into the night and it does take its toll but if that’s what we need to do to stay in the business we love then so be it, we can always dream of holidays next January!
It sounds strange talking about the business as being the job we love but that really is the way we see it, some of our tripadvisor reviews mention our enthusiasm and passion for the business but the truth is we have worked very hard to get where we are now and we will fight tooth and nail to keep our little business, it has been really touching how people identify with our stuggle as more and more big brands try to dominate the world there does seem to be a genuine enthusiasm for smaller more “organic” businesses and long may it continue!
We are hoping to get a Thursday night off although we do have a transfer on Friday – a bit of live music could be just what we need to keep our spirits up, I will report next week!
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