It´s a beautiful day, my back aches and my feet are sore!to

Gosh! Were we busy this morning in the breakfast room at Hótel Frón, Óskar and I...

The lobby at Hótel Frón - not Óskar sitting at he desk, though.
No photo available as yet of the hotel´s newly refurbished and extended breakfastroom.

When I arrived on the job at 6.30 a.m. Óskar had started preparing, laying tables and making coffee, and soon I got busy too putting everything on the table, cereals, milk, orange juice, bread ( white, brown and rye), butter, ham, cheese, smoked and sliced sauceage, sliced-up cucumber and tomatoes from Icelandic greenhouses, yoghurt (Spanish, in fact!), apples (whole), marmelade and jam. Freshly brewed coffee and hot water for tea from teabags. Jug with cold water from the tap, just some icecubes added; this is quite safe as we really have high quality water in Reykjavík.

This is what our continental breakfast consists of. There is self-service, except for that the tables have been layed to some extent. This is generally known as "hlaðborð" in Icelandic terms, direct translation of which is "a loaded table" (I don´t know what you would call it in English, maybe somebody can inform me! Maybe a buffet?)

Breakfast starts at 7.00 a.m. At first it was all quiet on this Sunday morning. At 8.00 heaps and heaps of people poured into room like an invasion from March, like Óskar put it. We have some big groups staying with us, all getting up early to go on sight-seeing and coming for breakfast first, all at the same time of course this morning, wanting to have something to eat NOW, before they went off on their tours.

So there I was, running about lika a speedboat (Óskar´s description again!), filling up the table with everything, everything disappearing a minute after I put it out, it seemed to me. Óskar in the kitchen making coffee, filling plates with ham, cheese and saugage and cutting up the vegs. Both trying to clear some tables and lay them again at the same time and Óskar even managed to wash some cups and plates and cutlery along with doing all the rest.

By 9.00 a.m. it was suddenly all quiet again! Just a few guest coming in, some of whom had patiently waited until the rush was over, sitting there relaxing in cosy conversation until closing hour at 10.00.

After closing Óskar went home, having been awake since 24.00 midnight. I went on to finish washing up, filling up, laying some of the tables, washing the floor, making a list for the lady who owns the place of things we have or are about to run out of and generally getting everything ready for tomorrow, when we are very likely getting the same rush again. Then again we might not, you can never know beforehand how the morning will turn out.

Finished at 14.00 p.m. and took the bus home. Óskar and I make shifts on using the car, he took the bus to work last night so I could use the car in the early morning. Then he took the car for going home after work.

It´s in many ways very practical to work together in the same place and usually it´s a lot of fun too. I was a little sorry though this morning that at one point I snapped at my best friend when I felt he was not being quick enough to serve and put out some things lacking. I could see it hurt him, but he just gave me a smile and a hug when I apologized afterwards and told him how sorry I was about my reaction. I´m not going to let it happen again. It does not pay to get all worked up and hissing and acting like a general even if you are very busy. Like it says in the Mary Poppins song from the film: "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down". That´s something Óskar is very good at but I sometimes have to be reminded about.

"A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down"