The whole of Padstow is a bit quiet today, lots of people are still here but after all the May Day celebrations there is more than one sore head around town!

Visitors pour into Padstow for the day, many staying over for the event as there is so much to see:  the night singing is when everything starts as groups of “Mayers” go around and sing the night song under the windows of the older, established families.  Around 5.00 am more people go and collect green branches to decorate the town to go with all the bunting, flags and the May Pole, the town looks really great then, all fresh and clean in the morning sunlight. 

There are two or three kids osses who come out early and dance their way around the town, we were lucky enough to have two come in yesterday to dance for the residents during breakfast.  This starts things off in a great way for us.  As the parents and friends are with them we make sure the outside bar is open by 7.30 so they can all get a drink while they are here.

Once they have moved on there is a bit of a lull here until around 10.15 / 10.30 when the Blue Oss comes through on its way around Padstow.  As there is a whole army of followers the bar really gets hit so it is a case of head down and get on with serving the people in front of us.  I have to admit I’ve never seen much of the Oss itself while it is here as we are so busy.  Many people stay around after that, we have a BBQ going too and sell burgers, pasties and jacket potatoes, which makes a real change for the chefs who are out front with us, I think they enjoy the change and actually meeting some customers.

This year Ginty who works 2 nights a week and 3 days was the Master of Ceremonies for the Blue Oss, this is a real honour for him and he was really looking forward to leading the procession around Padstow.  We will be keeping a copy of today’s Western Morning News for him as he has a great picture on page 8.  The story may come up later on www.westernmorningnews.co.uk .

While we are now tidying up and putting things back to normal the committees for the 2 parties are already planning next year’s event.  If I can find some links to stories about it I’ll post them here later.

Here’s the article from the WMN with the picture of our Ginty looking very smart:

http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=248235&command=displayContent&sourceNode=248201&contentPK=20527708&folderPk=115131&pNodeId=249131

Peter, our winter painter, has finally finished his winter work.  We have worked with Peter over the last four or five winters to get on top of our redecorating work and he has just put the last drop of wallpaper up on the stairs today.  This means that we have done all the bedrooms and the hall, landings and stairs but as with all these old buildings it will be time to start again next November!

The look on around the hotel is getting much more contemporary without forgetting our classic roots, we are trying to make the hotel feel much lighter and fresher with much simpler designs and a cleaner look.  The task for Peter next winter will be to work on the Met Lounge, some of the premier rooms that we did first and I’m sure some of the new rooms will benefit from a touch up too.

We will leave the restaurant, lounge and bar for the moment as we have bigger plans for this area and may well need a larger firm to do this job.

One last job that Peter did, which provoked a tongue in cheek complaint from one guest, was to paint the window frames in the restaurant.  These have been crying out for some TLC for a while now and we decided we couldn’t wait until we do the big job next winter so we set Peter onto them and they now look great.  The complaint was that these windows had become so much a part of the hotel’s features over the last 15 years!

Very well indeed!  I was just chatting with Giles about the herbs he’s just bought and is putting in, we will have a really good selection for the kitchen this year: loads of marjoram, some thyme, flat leaf parsley and dill as well as different types of mint.

We will leave Miles to bring us in the more esoteric things that he forages but we should be able to grow all we need of most herbs that we use. 

Well, OK it’s blood donor day today not a Bramstoker Appreciation Society event.  Mel, Laura and I went along around 2pm, Cath and Tracey are going to go nearer tea time and I am hoping Joyce will be able to go today too.

That was the good start, I am now sitting here wearing my sticker but both Mel and Laura were sent on their way!  Not sure why, hope to find out when Laura comes back to work later on today.  I will update on the others when I find out but so far our average donation rate isn’t very good.

 Well I’m pleased to say that Tracey and Cath have done their bit and we now have a positive donation ratio.  The girls are both OK but Tracey did have a problem stopping bleeding - it is a long time since she’s given blood so I guess a bit more wanted to escape.  They assure me they haven’t gone to the pub to replace their lost fluid but…

I met a supplier called Miles this morning who has set up a great business selling wild, foraged foods.  He had a great range of seaweeds, wild garlic, sorrell and two sorts of samphire to show us.  Mark took a selection to try on tonight’s menu and I’m really looking forward to seeing what it is like. 

Some of it will be a salad or a vegetable part of the dish and others will just be for garnishing but it is really exciting to see these things on the menu.  Using local and sustainable produce is quite rightly all the rage at the moment and it is good for us to be able to play our part.

 Have a look at Miles’ web site to see what he sells http://mileslavers.googlepages.com/ towards the bottom are some thoughts and ideas about wild foods and then a couple of meat recipes, don’t worry - we’re not going this far!

I’ll let you know what the leaves are like later in the week.

April 22nd is the next time we will all go and give blood here in Padstow so we need to make sure our iron levels are good.  I must admit the Guinness is the most pleasant option above liver and spinach but I am happy to say I would happily have all three!

Cath is the team member who needs the most iron boosting ahead of the donor day but it wouldn’t hurt us all to build our red counts up.  I am hoping we will all be able to get appointments at a similar time and it would be reat if we can encourage a few more people from the hotel to go along.  At the moment there are at least five of us who go - it would look great if we could fill all the beds at the same time but that may be too much of a challenge.

I am going to let our local paper know we will be going - if it is a quiet news week we may make the middle pages!  Wish us luck and we’ll see how many pints we give between us.

While Amy was chatting with Matt in the kitchen about tonight’s menu she was asking about staff tea; tonight is pork stir fry which Amy likes but there is a perfumy taste which she’s not too sure of.

I went to see Matt to clarify a couple of questions I had and when I’d finished asked Matt for a piece of star anise to see if that was what Amy could smell.  We went through the changes and then I showed Amy the spice to ask her if this was what she could smell.  I must admit I did produce this quite quickly and she had to trun to look at it.  Her first reaction was to jump away very quickly - how am I supposed to know she has a phobia about spiders!

She has now calmed down, her pulse rate is back to normal and her eyes have stopped watering - I’ll know for next time - sorry!

For once it wasn’t me in a scrape nor me stuck in the bath!  One of the housekeeping staff came up to reception earlier in the week to report that somebody had said they were stuck in their bath so Joyce despatched Jackie to investigate.  Joyce had two reasons for sending Jackie, she was previously employed in a care home so is highly trained at lifting people and she has just started doing duty management shifts.

Jackie went down to the room, saw a do not disturb sign but had no option but to knock and enter, calling out that she was the receptionist.  When she got around to the bathroom she knocked on the door and the gentleman came out just in his boxers.  He was a little surprised to say the least but was able to reassure Jackie that neither he not his wife was stuck so Jackie was able to beat a retreat (swiftly!)

I was reminded to write about this because Jackie has just spoken to him again at reception - he was asking if she managed to find out where the stuck person was.  I appeared at the end of this conversation but Jackie was still very red.  At least he is now able to see the funny side of this but I am sure we will all tease Jackie mercilessly until the next incident involving somebody else.

Last week I had the great privilege to be taken on a visit to the Champagne region of Northern France by Carlsberg and Moet Hennessey.  The trip was for as many of our hotel managers who could go so the five of us from the southern hotels leapt at the chance.

We flew from Exeter Airport (another first) to Paris where we met up with Kevin from Moet, then a quick transfer to Reims and our hotel.  We managed to find a restaurant that was willing to stay open for us and we managed a great steak at around 11.30pm to start the trip off.  I must admit that after a long day travelling Jason and I preferred to start dinner with a local beer but it wasn’t long before Kevin started to explore his way around the champagnes on the list and we tried a couple later on with dinner.

This really set the tone for the next two days - breakfast was the only meal that we didn’t have champagne with!  Monday morning took us to Krug, this is a much smaller and more traditional champagne house, very much haute couture as our guide told us.  We tried a two of their wines which were lovely and were top of my list for the trip.

Lunch was at a local brasserie, excellent food in a simple way in a relaxed atmosphere, all the staff were good fun but also knew their stuff.  Pink champagne with lunch today!

The afternoon visit was to Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, this is a much larger operation than Krug and to continue the clothing analogy crossing between haute couture and pret a porter and very much at the top end of the ready to wear market.  The real highlight of this visit was meeting up with one of the senior winemakers and tasting the still, young wines that go to make up the blend.  I knew it was a skillful job before I went but now I underestand just how specialised it is:  the grapes form the different parcels of vineyards are vinified separately by location and grape type.  Tasting these wines unmatured was a real eyeopener as to their different characteristics and role in the end result.  Each year the starting off wines are different but the end result has to end up the same - allowing for blending with some reserve wine and then maturing for a few years in the bottles.  These guys tase 20 wines a day, 4 days a week for 3 months to get the balance right.

Dinner that night was a formal dinner with Veuve Clicquot at one of their houses near Epernay - a stunning evening in a real old wine makers chateau with all the French style you would expect.  We had different champagnes with the different courses, starting with the Grande Dame and canapes.  The menu planning happens in reverse with these dinners.  Normally the chef will right the menu and then the the sommelier will choose the wines.  Here the wines are chosen and then a menu written to go with them!  The last wine, a demi sec, was decanted.  This may seem a rather odd thing to do with a fizzy white wine but there are two reasons for this: it is done in honour of the Grande Dame herself as in the early days of champagne making all wines had to be decanted because they hadn’t worked out the remuage / degorgement technique then to remove the sediment and also to remove some of the fizz - after having had a lovely dinner with champagne at every course it is a good idea to get rid of some of the bubbles…..

We had a bit of a break on the Tuesday morning with the opportunity to have a look at Reims Cathedral.  This is a stunning building - it is where all but 2 of the French kings were crowned and it really looks and feels that grand.  Andrea managed to find a specialist chocolate shop and bakers too - not only spot it on the way up to the cathedral but find it again on the way back!

Another lovely lunch at La Table Kobus in Epernay - a choice of menus including one with chocolate in every course.  As the phrase goes “it had to be done” so I had a duck terrine with knobs of chocolate in, bream dusted with cocoa before being pan fried then a 72% chocolate creme brulee to finish.  We tried some Pol Roger to start with then moved on to some still wines just for a change.

That afternoon took us to Moet & Chandon, by far the biggest of the houses where we had anither amusing and informative tour, learning different things as we went.  The amazing fact from here was that in their cellars they have well over 3 million bottles of wine!

After this it was the trip back to the airport and the flight back home and an overnight at The Grand, far too late to start driving back to Cornwall then.  Going back to work the next day was a bit of a let down but I suppose if you were drinking champagne all the time it might lose some of it’s appeal!

A big thank you goes to Kevin from Moet for all his hospitality and also to David and Phil from Carlsberg for organising the event and looking after us on the way.  Looking forward to the next trip!!

One piece of good news that I was greeted with on my return from holiday was that Kristin has been succesful in getting her “unlimited leave to remain” in the UK.  She has been with us for a number of years now (with a couple of breaks) and has had to apply a couple of times previously for visa / work permit extensions.

Two years ago Kristin was able to apply for a two year extension and in this she was very well supported by many of our regular guests as well as our local MP and other people in the community.  Once this period was up she had to apply for her permanent leave to stay, part of this was her citizenship test which was quite challenging - I learned quite a lot while helping her revice - and then a full application with all the supporting statements.  This was quite a challenging and worrying time for Kristin and Mark but thankfully it came back positive and they can stay.

It really is good for us to see the system working well and somebody who wants to stay and is making a contribution to the local and national economies is allowed to.  We all look forward to seeing them here for a lot longer.