Re-Furbishment Plans & Wedding Plans

The 4th January 2010 - that's the proposed date for the start of the Victoria Inn re-furbishment! Blimey, even seeing it written down like that gives me the colly wobbles......... so then what is planned to happen? Firstly - I told you in my previous blog post that we have a certain amount of wet rot in our downstairs restaurant - approximately 40 covers in there.

Until the flooring is taken up in it's entirety, we have no idea to the total extent of the problem - but it's likely to need a completely new floor. So, my military operation planning goes like this - afternoon of the 3rd, strip room completely - morning of the 4th stand with builder as he sucks air in through his teeth and tell's me A) 'oh dear love - it's not looking good' or B) 'oh dear love - thats looking bad'........ either way, I'm working on the principle of expect the worst!! Evening of the 4th - stand quietly sobbing in corner of bar cuddling a large G & T!

All of the fittings will have to be stripped out INCLUDING the wood panelling round the walls (further mutterings about water pressure!) and the alcove panellings then the floor will be dug up, dryed out, new floor laid, damproof membrane put down, followed by new black slate flooring, wall coverings replaced, wood panelling put back! Probable total time to achieve these works - 3 maybe 4 weeks! Ok - have just read that back and that sounds pretty simple - doesn't it?? So, why then am I filled with a deep sense of foreboding?? Probably, because in all my years working for local councils etc I don't think I knew one building project that went through without hiccups in one way or another.......But this is so very different from anything I've done before - this time our own income is at stake here.

THEN whilst all this is going on - the whole of the downstairs bar areas will be re-painted from top to bottom, upstairs restaurant will be stripped (doing a lot of that aren't we!?!) a hole knocked in a central wall for a more 'natural walking space' (that's designer speak!) out with the old furniture and carpet and in with new, decorated in it's entirety - oh yes, and new stair carpet as well............more mirrors, plants, candles etc etc etc!!

Not finished yet - THEN - new slabbing to the paved terrace, followed by the erection of an awning - a 'delightful outside dining experience' (sales person speak!) followed by two bedroom accomodation provison above the cellar! Things to consider - how many days will we have to shut the pub for, how much revenue will it cost by being closed and how much weight am I likely to put on as a result of the stress?? So dear blog readers - rest assured that you'll hear a lot about this re-furb between now and Easter.

As well as all of that, we are really quite busy for this time of the year - SOOOOO busy at the weekend, I had to work behind the bar!! Haven't done that for a little while - well not with any great intent anyway! The Victoria Inn has also been shortlisted for StAustell Wine Pub of the Year so we've been cleaning, tidying, putting up blackboards, re-vamping the wine menu for our official judging in a couple of weeks time and also trying to ensure all staff know what they're talking about regarding wine as we're expected to be 'mystery shopped' any day.

Then there's the wedding planning - got the shoes, sorted out the invitations (at last!) 'done' the flowers and discussed with James our chef the catering requirements for the big day! Just the Order of Service to do, and I'm (well actually WE'RE - SOH has really played a full role in this wedding!!) almost there!!

Lastly - but in no way least, we've also had Rosie to look after and start to learn to live with each other! My good Lord - it has been every inch like having a baby in the house!! But she is just adorable..... absolutely adorable! I love her to peices and SOH is smitten as well, despite his mutterings of it being 'just a dog'....... I'm sure you can see from the photo that she's growing fast, and we have had quite a few people come in to the pub just to see her!! I have never seen anything as funny as her little bottom bouncing up the stairs. Very, very lastly - hasn't it been the most awful weather?? I've never seen swell out in the Estuary as strong as it has been the last few days - and the Lifeboat is still moored out there, rather in it's mooring round the corner, so more bad weather and high winds to come I suspect.

So, lots on the go at the moment one way and another but I can always spare half an hour to write on here!!

Puppy Dog Tales...........

Good morning from a blowy but not too cold Salcombe - a bit of a different story from yesterday when we were lashed by rain and gales and yet oddly enough had one of our best Saturdays trading wise for a few week. Mind you - I say oddly enough, but I guess if you're a visitor in a small town and you've 'done' the shops that are here, then what better than to snuggle up in a beautiful St Austell pub like the Victoria Inn, where we had our real log fire sizzling in the bar, plump cushions to relax against, little t-lights in red holders giving an even better ambiance - fantastic ales, great wines (of yes, and Champagne by the glass!) and hot chocolates that are a work of art!! Something for everyone - perfect!! We had lots of happy customers yesterday who seemed to be enjoying the bad weather..... lots of 2nd home owners were down and it's so lovely to catch up with all our old friends. Everyone loves Rosie - but more of her in a minute............ I just thought I'd open this weeks blog with a picture of the flowers on my kitchen window - they're from SOH, who as we start our fifth year together is still as thoughtful as he was in our early days. You can just see the estuary behind the flowers - and that's our view every single morning (when the tree has no leaves that is!), how lucky are we...............

Anyway - a little more about the Victoria Inn before I go on to coo and ah about Rosie - firstly, I think I told you last time that I'm also writing a regular blog entry for the Good Pub Guide. This guide really should be one of the things you first consult (on-line or hard back) http://www.thegoodpubguide.co.uk/ if you're not sure whats going to be in the destination of your choice. I especially like the GPG as it's completely un-compromising and it's not wooed by licensee's - all reviews come from anonymous visits and paid for by the reviewer. So in my opinion well worth a look at. This is my round-about way of saying that there'll be 2 blogs for you to look at now!! So whats going on at the Victoria then work wise - well the week itself was reasonable but Wednesday was dead....... from start to finish! Even now, I still can't settle to the fact that if we have a quiet day - then we're having a quiet day, I always think no lone likes us any more. So a quick trip round the town generally re-assures me we're not alone in being quiet.

Still as I say Friday and Saturday were bumper days, lots of lovely return customers - some on their last visit to their houses until the New Year (so they were telling me). Talking to our guests you can see that even those with what you consider (well I would consider) to be a comfortable lifestyle are feeling the credit crunch - maybe only eating out a couple of times on their visit down and doing more cooking in their home - so it's nice they choose us to come too. Also talking about the sorts of holidays they won't have next year - sounds like Salcombe will be having plenty of people again as they choose to stay at home...??!!

A great meeting in the week with our maintenance manager Graham, the proposed building contractor Carl and our own business development manager Jim - and just me as Tim has been away all week on BII business and other stuff. This kick started our own plans for the Victoria to decorate and update....... firstly - the real bad news - we have wet rot in the restaurant (I might have mentioned this previously). This is a real horror and not only vastly expensive for St Austell, but also going to be a mighty big job to sort out and that's before we even think about re-decorating etc...... I loved this meeting - it took me right back to my local authority days of meetings, negotiating and planning but this time because it's for us, it was important to have as much firm input as possible! We hope to start the work early January - it means our downstairs restaurant will be out of action for about 3 weeks so we will have to be creative in using the bar area and upstairs if needed...... who knows really. Last year January was really quiet - but our figures so far this year are showing a small growth - so it's a bit of a grey area. What we do know is that we won't want to lose anymore trade than is really necessary.

The rot has completely knackered our plans for a lovely wood floor though which is disappointing, but St Austell will make good with a beautiful black slate floor carrying through the theme from the bar and cosy corner area. I think that will look as good - maybe better........

Next thing for us to do this weekend is make decisions about furniture - we have decided (I think!) to invest in all new furniture for our upstairs restaurant - with the planned re-dec, new carpeting etc it means we wwill have a superb up to date additional dining space and function room. We're using H J Berry & Sons of Preston and they have provided us with beautiful sample materials for the seats - I sense great discussion today! We're really excited by the whole re-furb process - but I have plenty of Paracetamol on standby.......

Then last but not least - there's Rosie........ oh my goodness the girl is ADORABLE!! Full of fun and mischief and what is sooooooooooo fabulous is how pleased she is to see you - even if you've only been out of her sight for a few minutes!! Whats more - she's sleeping at night now - HALLELUJAH!!!!!! We've even had vistors to the pub just to see her..... She's in to the lets chew anything that moves stage, charges up and down the garden, launches herself at the chicken wire - they're just not so keen on her! She also snores.....cuddled up on one of the wet and windy afternoons this week she was snuffling and snorting - it was really funny to listen to, and I have to say she is turning in to a bit of a Mummy's girl...... the pic with the blue spool of rope is in our office - the rope stops her chewing the mat!! Just the 'house training' to achieve next though.......... not such good fun!

Thats it for now then - till next time friends, shield yourself from the awful weather we're having - Christmas is round the corner............. X

Prague and Puppy!!

I have so much to talk about I hardly know where to begin, but I just have to start with the most adorable puppy you have ever seen - ladies and gentlemen, readers of this blog, let me introduce you to our new dog ROSIE. She's an 8 week old Cockerpoo - a cross breed of dog especially good for asthmatics like me as they shed very little hair, if at all. As you can see she is jet black with just a tiny tuft of white hair on her chin and just at the top of her tummy - she's already been trod on twice (not hurt - don't panic) as she is a bit hard to see. She's playful and cute and everything that puppies are!! We already love her to bits and though she will never take the place of our old dog Beth, she's a very welcome addition to our household and pub.

Now then - our few days away in Prague - what a brilliant, exhilarating, enthralling time we had. To say we loved Prague just doesn't do it justice, we adored it......... out of all the European capital cities I've been too Prague counts as an all time favourite. I can't say that I can say the same about the flights - I thought flying with Easy Jet was not one of the most pleasurable experiences I've ever had. You don't get given seat no's, you're herded on by group and then it's a free for all as to where you sit! Given the choice, I probably wouldn't fly with them again if I could help it - but I guess it's the old saying of 'you get what you pay for'.......

Anyway - back to Prague, if you ever get to go there you simply must stay at the Hotel Jalta. A great hotel slap bang in Wencelas Square, central for all the sights. The staff and bedroom were first class and the standard of food was absolutely brilliant - far higher than we ever expected. Waiting staff were wonderful and the waitress on our last night - Katerina - was a real credit to the Hotel. We walked and walked and walked some more - not one tram or taxi, and thankfully the weather was kind. Cold and sharp but dry. The picture of us is on my birthday itself enjoying coffee and apple strudel...... Yum!!

We went to a Jewish Synagogue memorial for the dead from the holocaust and the Russian Gulags - it was hugely powerful to see all the many thousands of names, birth dates and death dates - all with Jewish music and a voice speaking the names of the dead. That moved me to tears at mans inhumanities to man, we also saw an actual train truck that had been used to move people to the camps..... just horrid, but important to remember. That evening a few more tears as we watched a ballet - Cinderella- in the state opera house, and I was transported back to being a child in a magical world of make believe.

A huge walk up the hill to the Castle, lots of puppet shops (slightly creepy!) and yes - more coffee and pastry shops. Another coffee stop at a prime tourist location that cost £8 for just 2 coffees, and a quick visit to the local Sex Museum....... naughty and not especially nice!! Lots and lots of tat in tourist shops, but we got a great original Russian hat for a dear friend of ours who collects them - I'm sure the shopkeeper thought SOH and I were into something kinky by my insisting on trying the hats on first!!

Loads of great food and just a little bit too much drink - a visit to a fab Jazz Club: AghaRTA Jazz Centrum. I wasn't too sure about that to start with, but it's funny how a few Gins can make you relax into the music and atmosphere!! :) Visited the monastery where they have a small brewery, ate giant sausages at huge roadside stalls, bought a few Christmas Decorations in the market, read the story boards in the streets about the history of Prague, had afternoon tea in a theatre restaurant where waiters in white aprons treated us like royalty!

All in all - an absolutely brilliantly break - and oh yes, a pair of dazzlingly beautiful diamond earrings from SOH as a birthday pressie........... lucky spoilt lady or what!!!

Next blog I'm going to tell you all about our visit to St Austell Brewery for a food / wine tasting get together this week with other publicans, an announcement from the brewery to us (got you guessing hasn't it!) our trip to Mevagissy and why we were there and last but not least the news that I'm also going to be writing a blog page for The Good Pub Guide.

Have a good weekend from us here at the Victoria Inn, Salcombe where the winds are currently force 10/11 and gusts of 70mph - we stand a good chance of being flooded in the early hours of the morning, so I'll let you know how we get on next time............... X

Only a few more sleeps...........

Sorry - does that start to this blog entry sound a bit childish?? Na, na na na nah.........I don't care! It is only a few more sleeps till SOH and I set off for a few days holiday in Prague - and am I excited?? Um, YES - just a tad.................................... !!!!

Yes, we're off to Prague for my birthday and our first holiday together since we came to Salcombe. I've checked the weather every day now and it's certainly going to be much colder than here - but very hopefully dry. SOH has booked us in to see the ballet Cinderella on one of our nights there as a birthday treat for me - as an aside, the first ballet I ever saw was Les Sylphides as a small child and as we got in the taxi to come home (I know - there's posh isn't it!!) the driver was talking about President Kennedy being assassinated.... they say you remember all the catastrophic events like that!! and I've booked us in to a jazz club as a treat for him, loads of walking I expect (new - but walked in - trainers at the ready), sight seeing, eating and drinking and shopping - hopefully!! Eating and drinking will be (I've read) not cordon bleu but good hearty stews and dumplings and a lot of pork!?! Oh and lagers and beers....

As with anything we do in the pub it all has to be planned so I've been busy making lists for our

friend who will be house sitting, (you can never - well should never leave a pub empty - insurance purposes - that's another pain in taking a holiday together!) making sure that all is neat and tidy, wages done, beer orders sorted (that's SOH's job) banking and finances left in good order and the list goes on and on and on and on............................... So you can see - you can't ever spontaneously say - 'oh, lets go away for a couple of days'. This will be the last blog for a couple of weeks, so savour every line dear friends..........

Workwise, the Victoria Inn has had a magnificent couple of weeks trading, the half term has been very kind to us. Lots and lots of old friends have been back including Martin, Katie and family and their lovely Alsatian, Colin - have you ever seen such a magnificent dog in all your life?? They say he listens out for my voice - control yourselves oh sarcastic ones!! He is the friendliest most gorgeous dog you could ever meet and I took him for a walk one night -well rather he took me for a walk actually.........and we also did a birthday dinner for 2 of the children in their family - Grace and Alexandra. Twins - but totally different with Grace being about a foot taller than her sister - but gorgeous girls who are going to break hearts!! So we had 12 children for their birthday dinner - and blimey, talk about polite........all the staff and other guests commented on them.

The weather has also been good this week - one day went a bit pear shaped but on the whole it's been good.

Now for some news on the renovations we're having at the pub in January / February - I've been busy seeing contractors and trying to get the best possible prices for all the work that will be done; full painting job through the pub - upstairs and down. New wooden flooring will go down in the downstairs restaurant - but first there are some serious flooring issues to be dealt with - and we'll know the seriousness of that next week. We are also going to have new carpet upstairs........... we weren't, but then SOH said we could just about afford it, so now we are!! New lighting up there as well and possibly even completely new furniture..............we already have 2 new (ish) leather comfy chairs with two more to come from one of the pubs in Cornwall - they are gorgeous and sooooooooo stylish!!

I must admit to getting completely terrified at the amount of money WE will be spending ourselves, let alone the money St Austell will be investing in the pub as well, so, it's really important that all my old values of Local Govt come in to play and we get the best possible value for all of us! On top of that, we've at last begun to work on the wedding proper - with quotes for marquee's, evening hog roast, wording for Order of Service sheets, accommodation for guests - and on and on etc, etc......... is it any wonder I'm not sleeping!

I must just leave you with a little nugget from a conversation that some traders and I were having today regarding the clientele that Salcombe gets. Generally it was agreed that most of the holidaymakers are absolute darlings and no trouble - just here for a rest, a good time and enjoy what we have every day......... but, boy, did this make me smile! It was recounted that one tourist was overheard to say the following............ ' I always knew Salcombe was posh - but look, they even get the boats to face the same way'.

On that note dear readers far and wide (Hi to Mick - Tim's long lost friend in Australia, who tracked Tim down via Google!!) try not to miss me tooooooooo much,

I'll soon be back, Inshallah (I'm flying to Prague - I never take anything for granted!!) :)

Where to start......

Ok - well let's start with the thing that is most on my mind at the moment - a Dog. Fact of the matter is, I miss our dog Beth very, very, very much. Not just a little or every now and then, but a lot!! She wasn't mine to start with she was Tim's, but she became very much mine and I bloody well miss her - in fact even typing those words have put me close to tears......... But the trouble is - do we really want another dog, if so, what sort of dog and when?? What sort of dog is because of my troublesome Asthma, and there's no denying that Beth did upset it.... regularly!

So, if we have another dog we have to have one of the non allergy dogs (think President Obama and what he had to go through to find one for his allergic children!!) and there are 2 things about that ('cos there always are....) firstly, I almost begrudge some of the prices for what are essentially mongrels, but have become fashionable, i.e, Labradoodles, Cockerpoo (!) etc, etc - at £750 plus - they ain't cheap!! Then there are the true breeds such as Schnauzers (too small for SOH) Lurcher type things (too skinny for me) Poodles ('over my dead body' - SOH) or Tibetan Terrier - Bingo!!!! Now there's a dog that ticks all the boxes, but is as hard to find as snow in the Sahara...... apparently there are waiting lists with breeders for a number of years!

So, possibly back to a Labradoodle...... I know there's a place in Somerset where there is a little black Labradoodle with the sign on it saying ' Liz and Tim come and get me'................at £500 it's not cheap, but the breeder sounds lovely, talked to me about allergies etc etc, and now I'm a bit torn???? They also grow to be about 20 inches high, good temperament etc, so cuddly safe for me and big enough for SOH not to feel a berk walking it! Should we get one now, or should we wait till after our wedding in March??? Decisions, decisions................. and I'm no nearer making that decision than I was a couple of days ago!!!!

Talking of the wedding I've started on the invitations to the chosen hundreds.... (it's starting to feel like that!), we've chosen the hymns (almost), the entrance music for church and now only the exit music to deliberate over. Next comes the discussion over the Bible reading, and a not so traditional 'love' reading. You may chuckle, but SOH and I virtually debate every single decision we make, good fun mostly but tedious (for both of us) on occasions..... we have SUCH differing approaches to almost everything - I'm 'bling' he's subtle, I'm 'grand' he's refined and subtle, I'm 'loud' and he's soft, gentle and yes, subtle!!! He also has a way of making me like what he likes................I well remember standing in a huge store a few months ago trying to find a new rug for our flat. This was our second visit, the first visit we couldn't even decide on the size let alone the colour (!), this time we knew the size and shape, but colour AND pattern - oh God help me! After much arguing (not serious arguing, but gentle persuasion - on both sides) we came away with the one HE liked the most, as always........... know what? The one I really liked would have actually looked horrific! So, lesson learnt, is that whilst SOH is not always right, he's not far off it...........

Almost lastly, a very pleasant evening out this week at a Dinner and Dance in Plymouth, not having done much dressing up in my life, I love the fact I'm making up for lost time now. One of the highlights for me was a drum corps from HM Royal Marines who marched us in to Dinner and then did a 'routine' for the assembled diners. They were brilliant - a tiny slip of a young girl in the group as well and what a great bunch they were - took me right back to my Pompey naval roots and made me realise I do actually quite miss Portsmouth on occasions.

Now, absolutely lastly, we've had a bit of excitement in Salcombe this week as there has been a film crew in town!! Primarily German, and conflicting stories on quite what the storyline involves - but it took an awful lot of people to film one man walking past the Victoria Inn, peer through the window, take a picture with a small camera and walk off.......so great publicity for our pub, as apparently it's a film for German TV based on Rosalind Pilcher stories and attracts a good few million viewers! They filmed inside our pub and outside, and it was certainly interesting to watch them. Enjoy the pics.........I like the one of the 2 (yes 2) make up women trying to make the stars hair stay in place on a hugely windy afternoon!!

Hi Meg............

Hi Meg and all your friends and David, Jackie and all the other lovely people who have been into the pub over the last couple of weeks and said 'Hello, I/We've been reading your blog'! I still can't quite get used to complete strangers saying that to me and realising they know all about me/us/the Victoria because of my various ramblings...... but I have to be honest and say it gives me a bit of a thrill as well, particularly when they usually say how much they enjoy reading the blog!!

So then, what shall I talk about this time - well, lets start with business. Firstly, we have now started to see a drop off in the day time....... but evenings continue to be quite reasonable 30 - 40 covers most evenings and weekends pretty much fully booked, with 60/70 covers on a Sunday lunch hour still. Our Sunday roast stills seems to draw the customers in and we've decided to keep the price at £9.95 - that's a choice of 2 Roasts, usually Beef and 1 other - Lamb or Pork generally, homemade Onion pudding or Yorkshire pudding and a gravy that James starts to make about the middle of the week....everything goes in it and by the time Sunday comes it's just absolutely delicious!! As well as the roast we also do a selection from our 'ordinary' menu, and it's really interesting watching people decide what to have on the Sunday. We've also introduced a fabulous Carrot Cake and Coffee or Tea as an alternative drink / snack and blimey, that's going really well - hoorah!

This time of year bring is bringing really great customers....... many remember us coming to the pub last year and still being in the 'settling in phase' - needless to say I haven't remembered many of them, but they've been most gracious about that fact! Talking of which the new winter menu is doing really, really well - the Steak & Kidney pudding in particular selling very well....suspect James our Head Chef may be sick of them by Christmas..... :) But it proves all that I thought - customers like good traditional home cooked pub food - and our winter 'British Classics' reflect that.

The Victoria is still without it's huge roaring fire as the fan (draws the smoke up and out - means the pub stays a smoke free zone! lol) is still waiting to be fixed.... but as I sit here typing this afternoon, there are two chaps drilling and muttering, so I know that once that's fixed and the fire is up and running that will encourage visitors to come in and then stay in!

The Victoria Inn website has been re-vamped over the last couple of weeks for the Winter and the young man Daniel who has done this for me has certainly not found it to be straightforward, but with his perseverance and my nagging, he's done a great job. Do have a look at the dog friendly page - there is a video montage of some of our favourite dog visitors on the page. Talking of websites, I was thrilled to see we've had a couple of recent comments on the 'Beer in the Evening' site, saying we're their favourite pub in Salcombe......... all of those sorts of things are free advertising and help increase visitors to the Victoria.

We had a visit this week from Catherine of the wine department at St Austell - a fantastically enthusiastic lady, who certainly knew her business and was very complimentary on our wine list (SOH's choices - he knows his wines that's for sure!) and our back bar display, and she is going to do some training with us all before Christmas, and she had some great ideas for a couple of alternative wines which I think we'll use. Out of that meeting has come one of the few wines we sell by the bottle going to by the glass as well - a great New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, so it'll be interesting to see how that now sells, and although she liked our display we've just had a little change round, and also re-typed up the wine menu to reflect some of her comments regarding ease of reading. So a short meeting gave us a lot of food for thought!

Our very best friend Mark came to stay for a couple of nights - one of those nights he and I managed to do a fair bit of damage to a bottle of Gin - for which I paid the price for at least 2 days! Mark has very kindly agreed to give me away for our wedding next year (He reckons he could have got a good price though!?!) so naturally enough there was a lot of wedding talk - I'm now mildly panicked as I realise there is still a lot of organising to do.........although, we have booked our honeymoon - a few days in the Calvados region of France.

We are planning for Half Term starting the end of next week - we have a huge under 13 Rugby team booked in for 1 of the evenings, so that will be great for us and them - I love those sort of functions. Traditionally, this October half term is seen as being quite busy as many of the 2nd homeowners come down and it's the last big break before Christmas..... so staff rota's to do next today! In between then and now SOH and I have a dinner / dance to go to next week - and I'm really looking forward to that. It's in Plymouth at a nice hotel - so should be a good bash!

Before I finish this post - have a look at the photo here. Yet another water problem in Fore Street, just up from the Victoria, only a fortnight after the last burst - this time a water stop cock blew its top - literally, and we had our very own 10 foot high Trevi Fountain in the street............now then where did we put our wellies...????

What a Birthday celebration......

What a Birthday celebration and in fact what a great few days we've had altogether really..... after trade dying off quite suddenly around Tuesday / Wednesday - come Thursday, pow - back to being really, really busy, amazing!

Anyway - back to the beginning.........Thursday was just incredible. As usual with these sorts of things the evening started off fairly quiet and I did the usual 'no one's coming' routine.......but of course they did, and not only did our friends turn up so did a complete restaurant (and then some) full of customers. I don't know if it was the balloons or the general party atmosphere - but we never expected to be as busy as we were. Of course we had launched our new winter menu that day as well so that had a bit more impact as well I think. Here are a couple of photo's of the Victoria Inn and some of our lovely friends helping us celebrate the 1 year event in style! Here's to the second year..........

Now then, although we eat quite often from our menu, this Friday, SOH and I became 'customers' to test out not only the new menu, but also young Damian who is training up to be able to cook for when James our Head Chef is off. He also who wants to become a fully fledged Chef - so we are supporting him with training and much more importantly the experience and confidence that this will then bring to him. Also, doing this 'secret' tasting, mean's that we get exactly what the paying customers should be receiving - not any thing extra or different because we're 'the boss'........ plus, it gives us the opportunity to sit and listen in to the comments of other diners!

We swore the waiting staff to secrecy and had the order put through the till just like any other customer order........... Scallops simply pan fried in a light Garlic dressing to start - wow, cooked to perfection! Scallops can go a bit rubbery if you overcook - but these were fantastic, and bursting with flavour. Next, Devilled Kidneys for SOH and Marinated Steak for me............ oh YUMMY is all I can say - constructively - the sauce on the steak could have been a fraction hotter, and the sauce with the kidneys a fraction less - but overall a fantastic 9 /10 - and my steak cooked EXACTLY as I like it! Pud for me only - but I chose our new Lemon Syllabub with crushed Amaretti biscuits.........oh my goodness! It was sublime..........just delicious.!!

We were SOOOOO proud of young Damian - and it wasn't as though we were quiet - we had almost 70 covers for his first night! he handled it like an old timer - took it all in his stride (including the critique!) and since then did another similar service Saturday night and an even busier Sunday lunchtime today...... I think he'll go far!

So yes, the new menu has been well received - my idea of a classical British Pub menu is going down very well - the slow roasted half shoulders of Lamb are selling probably the best and the marinated Rib Eye Steak a close second, with the home made Steak and Kidney puds not far behind - and with nothing more expensive than £15.95 - I think great value for money as well.

What else..........??? Well, our lovely area manager Jim paid us a visit on Thursday to talk about some planned maintenance and improvements to the Victoria that we shall hopefully be starting in January - I promise to talk a bit more about that in the next post. We've had various contractors coming in to give us quotes for pieces of work - so that's been quite interesting, and then it will be sifting through for not only the cost but workmanship as well.

We both realised today that since we lost our Beth we hardly go out any more - at least with her we had the excuse for a walk - so today while the sun was still shining we sat down by the lifeboat and had ice creams and generally watched the world in Salcombe harbour drift by for a little while - and very pleasant it was as well (although SOH has the cold I had!). There's no doubt about it Salcombe is best in this season, and the customers are mostly older or young with families and really just delightful! Now it's a little quieter as well, you can give a much better level of personalised customer service, and I don't mind being in the bar all day every day when it's like this....

For now though - I have to go and watch one of two shows I just can't miss - X Factor......... who gets through to the final 12 and who doesn't!! I think I can already predict the winner.....!

Have a great week my lovely friends - I'll post again next weekend.... X