The Giant Hamster Cage

is, thankfully, no more. We've had 15 strippers (wallpaper that is, rather than clothing) working in the hotel and have probably gained an inch on each wall as they took layers and layers and layers of paper off. It really did look like the inside of a giant rodent cage, and would have given the Fire Service nightmares if it hadn't been completely soaked from the steamers.


We managed to slope off for a much-needed break in the middle of all of this. Upper Gate Farm is just outside Hepworth, near Holmfirth in the Peak District. We had the cottage shown in the third picture on the page linked above, which comes with a private hot tub in the garden. What wasn't mentioned was the fact that the tub was at the bottom of the garden, necessitating a mad dash in the rain to get there and/or back.

Wonderful, and just what we needed, to spend a few days doing very little at all in peaceful surroundings.

Then we came back to the building site which is this place to discover:
1. We couldn't get into our quarters due to several large sacks of cement and two sawhorses piled up outside the door.
2. We couldn't work out how to get to our bathroom, which is almost directly above our quarters (yup, only guests get ensuite here!)


That's the view starting at the foot of the stairs outside our room, and moving up until you're looking across the scaffolding boards to the doorway to the bathroom.



This is where I have to do the 'get out of the swimming pool' climb off a spiral staircase onto scaffolding, after limbo-dancing underneath it to get to this stage.

You may not be completely astonished to hear that unless I need a shower, I'm using the public loo on the ground floor!



However, progress is being made. It had better be: we have guests on Friday week!