Sunday 31 January 2016

Good evening from a wet and windy Salcombe

Beautiful Barbados sunset

Good evening from a wet and windy Salcombe as there are just a few short hours left in January 2016, then it's on to my most hated month ever - FEBRUARY! There's something about February that I really dislike - it's still winter, we're still well away from Spring and I don't know quite why I don't like it - I just don't!! 

Anyway, that aside on the day that the legend Terry Wogan was taken from us (after a host of fantastic stars have also said goodbye this month) what can I write about to bring some joy and light relief to you my loyal readers.  I say that, because I've had so many guests say they read my blog I feel dreadfully guilty for not writing more often! 

Us watching the sunset!
Firstly SOH and I took ourselves off to Barbados with a couple of great friends for 2 weeks. A very nice time was had by all as well! Barbados was beautiful, full of hugely friendly people who showed the true meaning of hospitality and we came home refreshed and ready to face another year.  We've only just started having 'Big' holidays and it's certainly nice to see other beautiful parts of the world. It's also nice to take holidays together!

Home of course back to the wind and rain that seems to show no signs of abating and a pub that was shut for a week whilst our kitchen had a new drain cover and also new flooring laid. That bought back memories of the refurb 3 years ago, but the builders and floor fitters worked really hard and we were open again yesterday (blooming busy too!). 

Whilst we were closed we took some of our team to the Treby Arms in Plympton http://www.thetrebyarms.co.uk/
where we met the Chef Patron Anton Piotrowski who was a MasterChef winner in 2012 and is affectionately known as the ginger chef!  We've known Anton some time now and he agreed to give them a chat about his career, ethos of his food etc
etc and generally enthuse the team - which he did magnificently.  
We also had a chat from Ian the front of house manager about service etc. 

Lunch followed with 3 Amusee Bouches starting us off followed by a four course taster lunch with some of the team having the wine flight to go with it. 

Oh my word it was fabulous and the taste of his food (as well as phenomenal presentation) was amazing. Every single one of the team enjoyed the day and were amazed we had managed to keep it a secret from them.

This was then followed up by a curry and much drinking in the evening (them - not us!) where as usual there were many sore heads in the morning! 

2 days later we were at the Eden Project https://www.edenproject.com/  for the St Austell Estate Awards where we were absolutely thrilled to win the Wine House of the Year - we last won that particular award in 2010.  We certainly didn't expect to win this award and it was a great start to the New Year for all of us. I also highly recommend a visit to the Eden Project when you're next in our neck of the woods - it's an absolutely amazing place! 
 
Next week we're off to Exeter for the South West Tourism awards.  You may remember we won Silver in the Devon Tourism Awards but we have no idea if we'll win anything at all next week. But to be honest, I'm not pursuing so many awards this year. 

Last but not least, Champagne Sunday continues only we're extending it to be Champagne weekend - from Friday evening to Sunday evening - you can enjoy a glass of top class Joseph Perrier Champagne at just £4.95 a glass!! No better reason than the weekend to enjoy a glass of Champers! 

Then very, very lastly (promise) I've had a number of our guests ask about our dogs Rosie and Archie, so here they are. Both now 6 and every bit as mad and bad as they ever were. 

So, my promise is to try not to leave my blog writing for a month at a time but you can always keep up with activities at the Vic on our Face Book page https://www.facebook.com/The-Victoria-Inn-Salcombe-136141733123940/

Till next time my lovely readers, 

Liz XXX