Oh, it's great to be back - or is it?
After a week's skiing in fabulous Italian snow, I returned to work with some trepidation - after all, 10 days away from a major construction-in-progress can amount to any number of surprises.
Fortunately for me, the majority of them have been of the smiley genre, so my re-acquaintance with the intimacies of Idle Rocks has been relatively painless thus far (touch wood).
On the one hand, we appear to be making great progress. The left-side water views are vastly improved thanks to the fact that half the building is missing. Alas, cranes next week will put an end to that and I'm sure we'll be the talk of the village (ouch!) as the new roof struts its stuff - it'll be the bones of what's to come.
Inside, progress seems to be much slower - or is it just that we're impatient? Old fittings and furniture mingle incongruously with new wallpaper, carpets, floors and finishes so it feels like we're working in a surreal, ever-evolving time warp.
The full impact of the work and the reality it means for us won't be evident until the chippies, sparkies and the like cease work. Until finishing-touch time is upon us, all we can do is dream and scheme. No one goes anywhere without a duster and we all try our polite best to ignore the dull throb and occasional roar of machinery that encroaches into the otherwise normal work routine we dutifully try to follow these days.
So far, the guests have been very accepting of our (and their) changing surroundings. The funny thing is that everything is still curiously comfortable. We're also relieved to note that there has been a mainly enthusiastic reaction to the hotel's emerging style - guided tours are a perk to paying guests.
My team speaks to me of a rosy future in terms of forward sales - and that's certainly enough to beat the post-holiday blues. Either my "chickens" (as I fondly refer to my Idle Rockers) have kept the nest well in my absence or they are trying gamely to smooth my return to work.
Now, let me just blow the dust off this mountain of paper and get to grips with what really happened while I was away. Hey, where has everyone gone?
Yvonne Scott is general manager of the Idle Rocks hotel in St Mawes, Cornwall, a privately owned, 27-bedroom property.