A Pub Landlady's Life........

One of my favourite people!

2012-01-19T17:52:00.000Z

So along with my favourite places in Salcombe there are some very special people here in Salcombe that I/we've become good friends with and like very much. Some of these people went out of their way right at the beginning to come and say hello, introduce themselves and generally make us feel at home right from day 1!

One of these people is 'Tricky Clayton' - to many people who know Salcombe you'll know him and his gorgeous blackspaniel Frodo as the'Ferryman' and it was Tricky who took me out to show me Salcombe from the sea in the early days of being here. In fact if you look at the photo's on the side bar of this blog you'll see one of the first pictures is of Frodo.

Tricky is one of those nice quiet, totally unassuming men and is so well liked by everyone! But what I hadn't realised until last week is that he is also a fantastic photographer!! The two pictures of the seals are two that he took and are of our resident seal in the estuary (which I am yet still to see!!), don't you think they are just amazing pictures!!!!
I have also seen some land/seascape pictures that he has taken and they are truly awesome!! So not only is he a lovely bloke he also has the most incredible talent..................

Now then, did I manage to escape with my chest infection? In short - no!!! A day in and out of hospital and at the moment recovering feeling like I've done a few rounds with a big hefty boxer.

Trade is remarkably good considering the state of Salcombe at the moment with road works, sewers, gas pipes etc etc............ I've instigated a 'Fabulous Friday' where we take 4 items and put them at half price for the lunchtime trade on Friday lunchtime - and that went really well last week so we'll see how that goes this week.

That's all I can do for now folks, but I'll blog again in the next couple of weeks - in the meantime enjoy looking at the incredible photo's ................

Thats it then!

2012-01-04T13:43:00.000Z

All over, done and dusted for yet another year............. Hope you all had a great night celebrating the New Years arrival? We had a great time here at the Victoria Inn, fantastically full - I think we fed in excess of 50 and with the Old Gaffers and Alan Dark, Magician for entertainment. Eventually got to bed and asleep about 2.30 so not too bad really, but could have done with a longer lay in on New Years days:( After a relatively poor run up to Christmas trade wise we were certainly surprised and delighted to see so many people descend on Salcombe from Boxing Day onwards - so many lovely old friends and new faces who became friends. The usual dramas on the day before NY eve of the blooming drains becoming blocked! What would my life be like without the drains in Salcombe to give me sleepless nights! Salcombe just can't cope with these old drains and sudden influxes of people and also all the rainwater........... but thanks to a lovely on call 'jetter' he found and sorted the problem really quickly. Then bless me if the lights didn't fuse on NY day for the ladies loo's - but again, thanks to the lovely Steve Doyle electrician the problem was soon sorted!

Lee and David

So then, 2012 and it's onwards and upwards and I'd like to introduce you to 2 of our newer full time permanent staff - Lee Flynn and David Gravett (purple shirt). David has worked on and off with us for some time now, but November last year he joined us as a permanent full time front of house member of staff. He's already done some formal training with the St Austell brewery and because of exams he's passed he's now entitled to apply for his own personal license. A lovely young man with a great skill for serving customers and adapting his style to the very different types of customers we have, he's going to be a huge asset to the team. He also has a wickedly dry sense of humour and is well liked by all the team.

Lee Flynn is our new Assistant Manager and he will also be our live - in manager when we (eventually) move into our new little house. Lee has a well travelled background and is fluent in Spanish - which may come in handy as more and more overseas visitors seem to be coming to Salcombe. He has a great background in the hospitality trade and even better he is a local lad. Another one with a lively but dry sense of humour and he's proving to be great with customers, Lee has settled in fast and is already popular and a great part of our team. We're delighted to have 2 such lovely young men working with us and we are both sure that the contributions they are making to our business will continue to enhance what we're trying to achieve.
We also had a couple of our summer staff come back at Christmas to work young Alex and Sam, and hopefully they will return at Easter and Summer as well. Already we have one eye towards what we are sure will be a busy summer - Olympics and Royal celebrations - and how we can maximise our offering to the customer and go on to bigger and better things.

Personally I start this new year with a chest infection, but hopefully I've caught it in the early stages and it will pass as soon as possible - but for the time being I'm taking a few days off to get over it.

Road works have started in Salcombe with parts of the main street being closed off for up to 8 weeks - so we expect bedlam!!! I'm off to put my feet up now................see you all again soon.

Happy New Year

2011-12-30T21:30:00.000Z

Well almost...............not quite there yet though are we - one more day to go!! I've never been a festive season sort of gal - but being with SOH this last few years has altered all that, as much for being in the business and HAVING to like this time as it is to be in love with someone so very, very gorgeous and who makes every day of our lives together so special!

Nowadays, I tend to look back at the previous year with a great deal more contentment in my heart and an awful lot of pride again this year at what we have achieved together and with the assistance of our fantastic team of colleagues who help us each and every day to make the Victoria Inn the fabulous pub that it is. Every single one of them - front of house, kitchen, cleaners and holiday staff - they all work to help us achieve our aim of running a busy, vibrant, successful and fantastic pub. Both Tim & I know how lucky we are to have these people supporting us, and I hope that in return they continue to enjoy working with us.

We've spent a lot of money on training this year, but we are both committed to having a highly skilled team and we believe it has paid dividends and we are hopeful of continuing this in 2012. The garden has grown and thrived with even more planting and additional work done at the top of the garden to give even more pleasure to our visitors.

We personally enjoyed the success of being St Austell's 'Tenanted Wine House of the Year' for 2010 (awarded at the start of 2011) and the amazing visit to Champagne as our prize in September. Despite being in the middle of the most awful recession we have continued to see our hard work pay off with a steady trade, many repeat customers and lots and lots of new ones as well!

I continue to slave away at the social media side, facebooking, twittering and blogging..... It all takes time but I think it's worth it. It doesn't come without it's pitfalls though and I have just had to put up with the fact that if you put yourself 'out there', you have to accept the 'brick bats' as well as the praise. I know I sometimes get tetchy about Trip Advisor but unjustified criticism will always wound me, whereas a true complaint (and we are no more perfect than any one else) will spur me on to make sure it doesn't happen again or that we try to make amends there and then. In the summer particularly when you are sending out in excess of 300 meals some days - try as we might we will just never please everyone all the time.

I've had a few issues about my blog at times - 99.5% love it and I get loads and loads of messages of support and soooooo many customers say that it helps them keep in touch with their beloved Salcombe - especially now I've branched out a little with more photo's and some of MY favourite places in Salcombe. I'll try and perfect my photographic skills in 2012 and take and publish even more pictures of this beautiful area.

What else about 2011 has been memorable for me???????? Well we sold Captain Morgans, we had a whole weeks holiday together, I went to Greece on my own (and probably wouldn't go again), I continued to cultivate friendships with some very special ladies here in Salcombe and worked to keep the threads of friendship with dear friends far away. My Church and it's people keeps growing in my heart and soul, my driving continues to take me to places previously unvisited and the freedom I now have continues to astound me - particularly being able to pop to Portsmouth to see my son Paul and his wife Caroline - who I continue to miss badly. Lastly, we have of course bought our very first house together (me a born and bred council tenant - who'd have thought it!!) and we are both very excited at the prospect of another chapter of our life together starting. Unbelieveably I thought I was going to have my first ever nervous breakdown this year when life seemed to get completely on top of me, but I didn't, with the help and love of those around me and a little time to myself I came through and I'm all the stronger for it. In fact I was talking to a young Salcombe man last week and he said some very, very wise words: He said that every one who comes to Salcombe goes through three phases - firstly, they LOVE it! Then they don't love it and then they fall back in love with it....... and thats where I am right now....... falling in love with it all over again!

So to all of you who read my meanderings on a regular basis or as one person wrote to me the other day - they were 'blog walking' (!!) and stumbled upon my blog and loved it. May I wish you all a very peaceful, prosperous and a very, VERY happy 2012.

I hope you will continue to enjoy reading this blog as much as I enjoy writing it Xxx

My VERY favourite place...........

2011-12-22T20:10:00.000Z

Well then peeps, my last blog before Christmas and hopefully as a business we enter a busy period - this really is my most favourite place in Salcombe - Holy Trinity Church.

The top picture is of the Lady Chapel within the Church and the 2nd picture is of the stained glass window at the top end of the Church. The Church of Holy Trinity was consecrated to God in 1844, and I am always struck by this feeling of real history emanating from its very core. Of Salcombe people and it's visitors making memories through the years - celebrating sad and happy times. I have visited a lot of Churches through the years always seeking THAT feeling and never found it until we came here to Salcombe. It is an absolutely beautiful Church - a Grade 2 listed building with many interesting features and memorials. In the Lady Chapel East window there is a Russian Icon designed by N.H.Westlake and the most stunning and unusual copper sheather art nouveau chancel gates beautifully decorated with enamels at the main alter. The wooden alter was made by Salcombe craftsmen in 1900 and there are 10 painted depicting angels with musical instruments - a truly gorgeous work of art.

For those of you who've read my blog since I began, you'll know that my 'relationship' with God has not always been an easy one over the years - and it has to be said there are still times I sit in the peace of Holy Trinity and have more questions than answers swirling round my head - but on the whole I think I now understand what He wants of me and more importantly what I can do for Him.

So when I sit in one of the chairs in Church and I stare at this beautiful window, absolutely nothing else matters - all that matters is that I try to be the best person I can possibly be for Him and the world that I live in. As we enter the Christmas period full on, and we all get caught up in the whole consumer experience it's easy to lose sight of why we're celebrating Christmas at all - is it really about the amount of food and drink we can consume?? Is it really about partying and buying the most lavish and expensive gifts we possibly can't afford? Or is it about remembering the start of a magical journey.............

So, if the Church is my favourite place - then some of my favourite people just have to be Father Daniel and his lovely wife Fran......... great people who make the Church a living, breathing place of love and life and we are very blessed to have them for our guidance and our friends.

It's now onto the business in hand of running a business. We are hopeful of a busy Christmas with people visiting friends and relatives and probably an even busier New Year. Christmas Eve we still have a few tables left for you to come and eat with us, but New Years Eve we are fully booked!! We will open for just 2 hours on Christmas Day and it's only SOH and me............... but it's usually very good fun, and better still - SOH cooks my Christmas dinner! I'll write again if I possibly can before the start of another wonderful Year!

I'd like to say a very, very Happy Christmas to all of you who either read my blog on a regular basis or just wander by every now and then. I hope you get everything you hope to get, lots of love,laughs and kindness and hopefully the company of those you love the most. X

MY Favourite things - part 2

2011-12-18T17:31:00.000Z

I almost feel as though I should start this with music from The Sound of Music - My Favourite Things..... there is no doubt that there is a theme of food and beautiful things in these threads and today my chosen Favourite Things is: Cranch's Pantry run by Suzanne, Angela, Peter and a host of other lovely helpful and friendly people. I remember when we first moved here being absolutely mortified that I was so far away from my usual stomping ground of Marks & Spencer, Waitrose etc and wondering how on earth I was going to survive without those Gods of shopping............... I stocked up with lots of foodstuffs to bring with us convinced my days would never be the same without the staples of foods I had come to rely on and that clearly we were going almost to the ends of the earth! But oh my goodness, once again all my pre-conceived ideas flew out of the window the first day I walked into Cranch's Pantry - firstly, to see the foods laid out in front of the shop was a joy to behold and then the smells as you enter the shop is practically indescribable! As to how they can stock almost anything you could ever ask for and it has to be said for very little extra (if at all in many cases - particularly with fuels costs factored in!) is amazing! As for those Marks & Sparks staple foods I talked about - let me tell you there is a certain brand of fruit cake that Cranch's stock which knocks spots of M & S!!!! Then of course there is Chanch's sweetshop next door - a veritable Mecca to all that is holy in terms of sweets, chocolate and other confectionery............. you can have 20p's worth of this or a fiver for something else. Gorgeous pale brown/dark brown/ coloured fudges - so you can a little of each if you like............ and lets be honest, when it comes to the sweet stuff what isn't there to like??

But once again, what makes this shop so special and used to be replicated throughout our land in thousands of other similar small towns and villages? Well, it's that old magic called 'Customer Service'. Staff and customers knowing each other, feeling like you're a valued customer and not just a number to make up the profits, a place to meet and discuss the weather and any other dozen numbers of discussion points. Even if you're only walking past the door with the dogs there's inevitably a cheery wave and a 'hiya'..... I defy you to try that with one of the big supermarkets......

So what else - well the weather has cranked down a good few gears with face startling cold winds and freezing rains, but at last the visitors appear to have started to return ready for the testive season. Good news for us is that we are SOLD OUT for dining New Years Eve but we will still have room for you to come and join us for drinking and frolics with the Old Gaffers - our sea shanty singers, and maybe have Alan Dark amaze you with some Magic!!

We fed about 80 people from local business's on Friday and had nothing but compliments, so huge rounds of applause to our great staff - especially Chef and his team for making it happen!! 'Hoorah.'........

SOH & I have been busy 'matchpotting' in our new house and planning for our future - all very exciting and frankly a little tiny bit terrifying as we start to see what we need to spend and where we will have to make economies - but the house is generally in really good nick, its a couple of major jobs and a few minor things - but with all meeting to make a substantial whole in our pockets! Scarey!

Then this time next week, where will we all be?? I predict we'll both be slumped in front of a very quiet TV with our 2 babies, Rosie & Archie snuggled up having opened for just a couple of hours in the lunchtime, followed by great food (which SOH will cook for us) a bottle of good wine, Christmas Pud and a large liqueur??

I hope to get one more blog post in this week about another favourite and VERY special place in Salcombe of mine this week.......... Until then, take care and be kind to each other - life is too short to do anything else X

Excited? Moi?

2011-12-15T19:24:00.000Z

Actually I don't think I can tell you just how excited I am right now.............. We have this week completed on our little dream house!!!! I swear if I get any more excited about it all I shall just burst!!!! In a few short months of talking about getting our own place to live in and then actually doing it, here we are - homeowners! We completed on Monday, with Tuesday seeing us go out and starting to buy furniture and lighting, Wednesday saw a succession of tradesmen to quote for a myriad of jobs we shall need doing and the buying of paint 'match pots' to see if the reality will live up to the colours in our heads. Because of dreaded planning application rules and our desire for a couple of new windows it's unlikely we'll move in until end of February but I just know that this time is going to fly by in a rush of on line buying and shopping in the sales for all those things we need (no really, we do!!) to make our new home perfect. There have been so many times in my life when things seemed pretty bleak and I could never have imagined that I would feel this overwhelming happiness that I seem to feel so much of the time these days - but I DO, and I constantly thank the Big Man upstairs for it! In one of my next blog posts I want to introduce you to Lee, the young man working for us now as assistant manager and who will take the live-in role when we move. But trust me - we will still be around lots and lots - in fact I bet you'll see more of us than ever..... no intention of taking our foot of the gas too much!!!

Trade is incredibly quiet again this week - with the awful weather not helping much either, but tomorrow we have the Island Street bash at the Victoria Inn. This all the traders like boat builders, craftesmen, fishermen etc. They take it in turns to go to one of the pubs in town every year and this is our first ever year - so I'm determined we'll give them the best pre-Christmas meal ever. I think we're catering for just over 80 so should be a great buzz about the place tomorrow!

If you're still debating where to spend Christmas Eve Dinner or New Years Eve Dinner - then you really need to get on to the phone to us fast as we have only a few tables free for Christmas Eve and for New Year we only have 2 tables left! New Years Eve we have the Old Gaffers and Alan Dark with his 'Touch of Magic'.

Christmas Day it's just SOH and I working from 12 - 2 only - so come in and say Happy Christmas and enjoy a pre-lunch drink why don't you???

Also again this year we are doing our fabulous Homemade Curry Buffet but ONLY on New Years Day: 12 - 3!!! £10.95 with a choice of 3 or 4 curries including a great vegetarian Balti, Chutney and Poppadum............ every year the numbers grow and grow for this - so don't miss out!

Right then - I still have some cards to write, a couple of pressies to wrap and tomorrows paty to sort out for seating and crackers etc.......... If I can manage another blog before the big day then I will.

Keep warm and dry my lovelies x

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.........

2011-12-10T15:48:00.000Z

Well that's what Michael Buble was singing just now on my Ipod in the pub!!! First time of putting the Christmas music on in the Victoria Inn this year and we certainly had some very jolly customers and staff at lunchtime! The pub looks gorgeous as usual with even more decorations in the restaurant this year - so looking festive and smelling festive with the great mulled wine that we're selling! It's been a very (and I mean VERY) quiet week this week at some stages - a couple of lunchtimes that we didn't see half a dozen people come over the threshold and then a couple of evenings where we did really, really well - so it's very hard to call at the moment as to what trade will be like over Christmas and new Year - but today has been exceptionally good with quite a few bookings in for tonight - so it's any ones guess really. I can't help it, but whenever we have a quiet spell I always worry that it's us, what we're doing etc etc - but then when you speak to other traders and they are saying the same thing - I calm down a little. The menus are written and up for Christmas Eve & New Years Eve, and I have had a major triumph with SOH about putting together a special children's menu for this holiday period............. He wasn't at all happy about it, but I just want to see how a good, wholesome and healthy Children's menu will work??

Think he's trying to tell me how to play!

We had a great night out in 'Plymuff' last night with 2 friends of our who run the restaurant Catch in Salcombe - we went to a Casino. First time for both men and I have to say it was a fairly eye opening experience for many reasons............. Firstly, may I say that I have a fairly limited experience of Casino's myself. I used to love to go to the casino in Gibraltar when it was next to the posh Rock Hotel but on my visit back last year it had moved to being part of a huge marina complex and it was decidedly down market! Anyway - back to last night.......... I was really disappointed in the fact that people just don't dress up to go out anymore - unless you count dresses that are showing bottoms (& Tattoo's) and men in tatty jeans. Oh my - now I sound dreadfully old AND old fashioned, but where has the glamour gone from our lives???? Then there were the people you see in all casino's across the world - the ones with the haunted pallid look, inwardly praying for THEIR numbers to come out and that look writ large across every muscle of their face! The orientals who would bet on the first thing that moves and the little old ladies spending dead husbands money and maybe their pensions. The drunk blokes blowing their wages ( & their wives housekeeping) and then those men with an eye out looking for the main chance. I can say this as a man stepped forward from the shadows and commented on my diamond earrings............. and I quickly commented back on my Husband less than 10 yards away!!! So as much as I really enjoyed the evening and our £25 quids worth of fun - I walked away slightly unsettled at the overall experience. As for Plymouth late at night...?? Less said the better.......... Anyway, I must go as I have Christmas cards to write still and just a couple of pressies left to wrap!

What jollity!

2011-11-27T15:40:00.000Z

Heavens - it's either all or nothing in our lives at the moment! Been to not 1 but 2 bashes this week - the first one being very grand indeed at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich, in the painted hall. The entrance in to this hall certainly gave us both the wow factor and we were not disappointed. We were there for the BII's (British Institute of Inn Keeping) 30th anniversary. A truly memorable evening in great company and a performance by the Band of the Welsh Guards. I had a lovely day before this event playing at being a true tourist and cruising up the Thames!

Then last night we went to a Help for Heroes Ball in a nearby hotel - Soar Mill Cove. This time with a Michael Buble tribute act, and wow, that young man could sing!! I'm sure that lots and lots of money was raised (as I was under instruction my arms were mostly pretty firmly down by my side!) but again, I just could not help feeling that this sort of support shouldn't come from charitable donations but from Central Government......... What do you think???

The Victoria Inn has been a bit up and down this week, but very busy last night and hugely busy again this lunch-hour, so I think we're just trying to see how things go at the moment and keep staff costs (hourly paid) and other costs to a minimum where possible. We are almost fully booked for New Years Eve, and as well as the Old Gaffers appearing, I'm hopeful that we're also going to have another quite special act - so watch this space!

On the positive side of things, it looks (Please God, Touch Wood, etc etc etc) like all our water issues and boiler issues are nearly sorted - 2 out of the 3 fixed with only the main pub boiler to be mended now. Also and at last, we have a shower that's neither scalding us or freezing us!!! A pump has been fitted that allows us to shower when we want, rather than around the opening hours of the pub and the usage by the kitchen!! Hoorah - only taken 3 years to get it figured out and sorted, but done now!!!

An end is in sight for our house buying with a completion date of the 9th on the cards, but with a lot to do the house (it's in good nick - but it's what we want to do to make it ours) I doubt we'll be in much before end of February, however, the fun part of planning and spending money will start soon. As it is, there are already a good few parcels arriving and I am pretty much on first name terms with the delivery men! :)))

Anyway - I have to go now, Christmas cards to start writing as I am determined that it won't get left to the last minute this year..................

My favourite Salcombe Places Part 1

2011-11-19T18:12:00.000Z

So, in keeping with the fact I'm going to talk about Salcombe as much as the Victoria Inn and my own goings on, I'm going to start tonight with 2 of my favourite things in life these days (well no 1 has always been a favourite part of my life!) Food and Jewellery! The first 2 photo's are of Pam and Pete Bennets place - the Salcombe Yawl Sandwich Shop and Deli in town - but sooooo much more there than sandwiches!! We're very blessed in this part of Devon to have some of the most amazing produce I've ever been lucky enough to taste - and this shop is no exception......... we're fortunate in as much as living in a pub we can pretty much eat and drink anything but even we get a bit tired of having OUR food all the time so we sometimes treat ourselves to either a tasty Salcombe Crab tart, or a pastie or hot sausage roll or one of their dozens of sandwich/baguette fillings or simply do what I did this week and that's wander in and buy great unusual cheeses, olives and fantastic homemade coleslaw then get some crusty bread and have a 'carpet' picnic! They stock the fantastic Cornish Yarg, wonderful Devon Ham and great Scottish Oak Smoked Salmon. They also supplied the buffet at a meeting I went to recently and that was excellent!! So maybe worth thinking about if you come down on holiday and you're having a birthday or celebration in your house???

My next favourite place in Salcombe is Michael (Mike) Yeomans place in Island Street - Salcombe Antiques. When we first came down to Salcombe I didn't really take too much notice of this little shop and then like a piece of metal drawn slowly to a magnet I started to be attracted to the beautiful jewellery in his window. Now, there are a couple of really nice things about this shop - firstly, you are never ever going to see the same things in his window year in and year out. This is because all of his jewellery are one offs! New or secondhand he has beautiful pieces and I have to say I have become ever so slightly addicted........ Secondly - he is never ever pushy! If you want to browse, feel and just try on and admire then you can. He has even let me take a ring home to see if I really liked it when I got it home - BEFORE paying!!! Then lastly - if you want to sell items or sell back to part exchange, then he really does give great prices - in fact he buys back at what he sold it for. I've had a couple of people say that surely in the middle of Salcombe Mike must be expensive?? All I can say is that if you want classic, classy items of jewellery you'll go to Mike - if you want rubbish and to see the same on any other woman......think High Street names! I can't speak about his antiques because I know nothing at all about antiques - but I have seen one or two silver picture frames I quite fancy!!!

So thats the first of my favourite Salcombe places and there are many more to come...... I hope you enjoy this little deviation from my normal blog!

This Blog's future

2011-11-15T10:57:00.000Z

Just a short quick blog to say thanks to everyone who replied to me when I asked about the future of this blog - and general opinion is that it should remain but be a mix of goings on at the pub, a bit more about happenings in Salcombe and the usual drivel about my life!!! So that's what it'll be, and I'm also going to try to include a lot more photo's - but instead of clogging up the blog post I'll put a link like the one on today's post to Picasa (oh get me eh!!!) and you can choose to look or not then! Hopefully this will be popular and also means Salcombe gets a bit more publicity when anyone goes to Google..... well at least I think that's how it works!!

https://picasaweb.google.com/117609484765390678979/RemembranceSunday13112011#

Weekend just gone was of course Remembrance Sunday and the weather was breathtakingly gorgeous up at Cliff House and in the 2 minute silence all you could here were the seagulls............ really moving as usual.

The Victoria Inn continues to be awash with builders trying to locate leaks and fix boilers..... one boiler fixed and one to go with the leak almost sorted - well, that's the thinking so far..................

As for me? Well I'm off out today for a girlie lunch with 2 fabulous friends and a good old natter planned!!

There are times...........

2011-11-11T14:29:00.000Z

There are times when being a pub landlady drives me flipping nuts!!! Just this week we've had the Hobbit House boiler break down and a new one installed only for that to break down the following day. The pub boiler is on a temporary mend as we await parts for that. A water bill for £4k more than it should be as there's a leak - Lord only knows where, because a succession of workmen have failed to locate it yet..... etc, etc, etc and yet, there are other times like yesterday when this job is just perfect!!

In the picture above you can see my SOH (looking awfully intelligent - don't you think) with James Fineman from St Austell Brewery wine division and the gorgeous dark haired gentleman opposite them is Roberta Perez from Bodegas Santalba, http://santalba.com/vinos/?acc=vinos&fam=6&idv=14&idc=8

They were here for James to talk through with Tim about changing some of our wines - although both men congratulated SOH on his excellent choice of existing wines and then also to introduce us to Roberto's wines. The company is run by him and his Father and the wines are not only gorgeous but totally organic as well. We tasted about 5 from the Ermita range and we were particularly taken by the Tinto, but also the Crianza and the Reserva - I think we shall be stocking the Crianza and hopefully the Rose when it comes to St Austell - maybe a couple of bottles of the Reserva for our own collection!!

It was a thoroughly enjoyable lunchtime and as usual I learnt so much about the product from Roberto who's enthusiasm and passion just shone through in everything he talked about! Roberto kindly gave us a bottle of the Rose as a gift and we shall enjoy drinking that at some stage this weekend I'm sure.

It's been a strange old week - markedly quiet from Monday and it looks like the closure of Salcombe Harbour Hotel (for renovation work) will hit the town hard this winter - and yet we have lots and lots of bookings for the weekend in both the Hobbit House and the Restaurant - so all may not be so gloomy after all.

Seven weeks to Christmas and a couple of bookings in the diary for parties - in particular the big Town Bash for fishermen etc - and as for New Year? Well, we have just 3 tables to spare - so if you're thinking of coming to us for New Year, you're going to have to book fast!!! The Old Gaffers are going to be entertaining us that night so I have a feeling it's going to be a terrific end to a terrific year................

Captain Morgans is no longer ours..................

2011-11-02T21:37:00.000Z

And it has to be said I'm not particularly sad.......First of all a great photo on the side of the interior of Captain Morgans taken by my lovely friend Scott Baston at http://zooming-feet.com/Portraits/index.html another photographer friend of ours whose work you really should look at!

So back to Captain Morgans. I remember sitting outside CM's with my lovely brother in law Richard when he was down here on his hols some two and a half years ago and a small for sale notice in the window caught my eye. SOH and I knew that we ran a really successful business in the Victoria Inn and the more we thought about it the more we though we could transfer those skills in to making CM a success. Fast forward a few months and the involvement of 2 sleeping partners to make the numbers add up and we found ourselves stood inside CM just a couple of days before Christmas faced with the prospect of opening at one of the years busiest times and not really knowing where to even start!

Staff transferred over from the Vic (it was quieter and they could be spared) economies of scale for purchasing were great, a re-vamp of the menu to give even better value for money and off we went! In theory all should have been wonderful and we should have been 'sat on a goldmine' as I've often heard said to me over the last almost 2 years............. But what didn't we take into account?? Well firstly we didn't take into account just how much of a 'family' business it had been run as previously and also how much work the main person put in. So staffing (and the associated staff costs) was always a huge issue for us right from the off - and in the end was the thing that killed it off for us.

We know that customers loved our breakfast offering and they liked the prices and the inclusion of free teas and coffee's with breakfasts - but they didn't like long waits whilst staff tried to get to grips with the peaks and troughs of service. Try as we might we just could never seem to get the staffing just right - that is when we could get the right staff in the first place.

We didn't like that on occasions some staff just didn't turn in when they should have done - believe me, getting a call at 7.15 to say the cafe wasn't open was no fun.. especially when we had perhaps only got to bed at 1.30 during the summer after a very long day at the Victoria. Then this summer when we seemed to have the staffing just as we wanted it and we were ready to rock into the summer not one, but two members of staff left............ and for both of us that was really the end of the matter.

So we sat and talked about what had driven us to Salcombe in the first place........??? A great business opportunity in the Victoria - which we have both worked very, very hard at and the results speak for themselves. The opportunity to enjoy this glorious countryside and the sea and for SOH to get a little boat and have some fun. Fun?? For very many months we have barely had a day off together, and half the time have not even had time to walk our little dogs - a very good friend does it for us more often than not. So tough business decisions had too be made - did we stay and limp on in the vain hope that eventually we'd get the staffing and those associated costs right or should we just make a clean break regardless???

So here we are - Captain Morgans is no longer ours - it has passed in to the hands of Susan & Michael Fink, names well associated with Salcombe and we know from all there relevant catering / hospitality experience that they are going to make a massive success of it. But before I finish I must say a huge thank you especially to Marcus Lewis who had done an excellent job of looking after it for us for the last 9 months - many times he has kept it afloat and done over and above what he had to do. We also still have the Hobbitt House (the accommodation at the Victoria Inn) but its on a room only basis now.

It's been a challenging, frustrating and difficult time for us - but it was a business opportunity we thought would be good for us and whilst we didn't get it all right I don't think we got it all totally wrong either.

Our next exciting challenge is to buy a little house in Salcombe and start to get our work/life balance better and better and better and enjoy a little bit more of what we originally came down here for. Not take our foot off the gas in any way - oh no (if anything we'll probably be around more as we'll be more structured!) but work at the business much more as a job than a way of life and enjoy our own lives just a bit more!

On that note - I am yet another year older on Sunday (groans not so silently) and I am looking forward to a little celebration time with the man who makes me so happy - my scrumptious other half!!

Afternoon all!

2011-10-30T16:40:00.000Z

Afternoon all - blimey the first day after the clocks going back, and already at just gone 4 there is a familiar gloomy darkness settling over the estuary. I have to say that the Autumn early Winter is a time of year I quite like, except that next weekend I'll be yet another year older.. :(

I hope you like the photo on the side of the Victoria Inn in all her summer glory. This photo was taken by a delightful woman called Sam Appa who is a professional photographer and here is a link to her website: http://www.appature.com/

I get lots of people taking pics of the Vic and most of the time we never get to see the finished article but true to her word Sam sent me a CD with some images on and I chose this one because I like the angle, it shows off the window boxes and frontage of the pub really well and I just think it's a great photo - so thanks Sam.

I'm aware that I'm not blogging as much as I used to and I think that's 2 fold - firstly we've been pretty consistently busy for almost the last 5 months (hallelujah) and secondly, its becoming just harder and harder to write about new things. I don't want this blog to become just a repetition of previous blog posts and despite having a couple of people ask me to talk more about Salcombe - that could also be difficult as I don't want this blog to be associated with 'gossip' - because God knows there's enough of that in this town!

So then - we've been really busy again since the end of the summer hols...... talking to James our Chef he was saying that before we took over here you could pretty much say that at the end of the 'season' and after the last half term trade virtually died until Christmas - well, we're pleased to say that doesn't happen any more and that if you want to be sure of a table with us if you want to dine at any time of the year now really, then you must book. This last half term we had quite a few disappointed would be diners and I hate turning trade away when I have a great restaurant upstairs that could seat customers - but sadly, I don't have the staff to facilitate that choice. Said it before and I'll say it again - getting good quality staff for the Victoria Inn is not always easy, and we are remarkably choosy as well!

Talking of staff, Tim & I are very very proud of 2 of our team who undertook 4 days training at St Austell Brewery in Cornwall - Jessie Day & David Gravitt. They can now hold their own personal licenses and learnt loads about various functions of running a pub and will get a certificate to prove it! Training staff is such an important part of running a successful business such as ours and you have to be prepared to put in the time, money and energy into your staff to get the best out of them. They also came back bubbling with enthusiasm about their new found learning.

But on that note we have 2 delightful e mails this week from very happy customers and here is a little text from them:

Having just returned from a short break in Salcombe, we would like to respond to a wonderful evening we spent in your restaurant, Tuesday 18 October. You were very busy but made us welcome and provided us with a table. We were not disappointed. Everything was excellent-the food, the staff were very attentive and worked hard to ensure our needs were met . We thoroughly enjoyed the meal and it was one of the highlights of our stay in Salcombe.

We have just spent a couple of days in South Devon revisiting places from holidays of a few years ago, enjoying the scenery and sunshine. The Victoria was recommended to us by a friend so we called in Thursday (20th) lunchtime to have a drink and book a table for that evening. When travelling around it is usual for us to try different places to eat and we had intended to go elsewhere on Friday. However we felt that it would be difficult to better the time we spent at the Victoria hence our easy decision to return and we managed to get a table at a moments notice. The reason for this mail is to compliment you on your pub and to ask that you convey our thanks to all your staff for being both professional and very welcoming.The whole experience was a total pleasure due to the staff and enhanced by excellent food and drink. Next time we are in the area you will see us again and we will recommend the Victoria to anyone we know visiting the South Hams

I always print off any e mails such as these so that all the staff know the good reports that they, their service and the food receive - it more than makes up for some of the smaller niggles we sometimes get!

Now then, what else??? Well the Hobbitt House is shut for a few days to allow a bit of repair work on them - some new flooring in the en-suites, re-doing the sealants round the showers and then a good Autumn clean. They have had such good use since we opened it's no wonder we have got give them a bit of an overhaul really.

The garden is now shut as well - SOH has re-seeded the grass (vaguely resembles a war zone at the moment with mud, mud and more mud as far as the eye can see) so that it has the Autumn/Winter to repair itself, and get all beautiful for next year!

We have decided our opening and closing times for Christmas & New Year and what we're going to do food wise - this year we are doing our normal menu on Boxing Day lunchtime and NO FOOD in the evening. Last year we only sold a portion of chips! Then New Years Day we will be serving our legendary Curry Buffet! The Old Gaffers will be here Christmas Eve doing Christmas carol stuff and then we're going to have a party with them on NY Eve!!! And we have loads of NY bookings already!!!

Christmas - can you bear to hear that word yet??? Now then, where's my Christmas pressie list........

Till later friends...................

It's Autumn - the fire's lit!

2011-10-09T14:39:00.000+01:00

Not lit large yet, but certainly alight and taking off the chill thats just started to be in the air!! It's no good I absolutely love the Victoria Inn at this time of the year - I know I should like it best when it's the height of summer and we're really busy, but now when it's all the regular people coming in (Holiday homes / regular visitors/people from the top of town) it's just like welcoming back old friends and I absolutely love it!!

In fact can I just share how happy I am with life on the whole at the moment - business continues to be blooming excellent and our new Autumn/Winter menu is going down a storm as well as our new approach to the Specials menu. Now, EVERYTHING on our specials menu is just £10.95 - lots of fresh fish, and that all depends on what our suppliers have on THEIR catch menu. Some great winter warmers like Chilli and Curry, as well as home made pies etc. We no longer have the IPA on our drinks list but we now have St Austell Dartmoor - a fantastic alternative and still only £2.40 a pint! A couple of the local men have been in to see me and they want their annual Christmas bash at the Vic this year so thats great news as well! We'll shut the pub just for them for a lunchtime and give them a pre-Christmas party to set them up a treat!

A couple of days in Portsmouth last weekend and I do love going to see my family in Portsmouth but I hated driving in such a busy town, and yesterday I was driving through our luscious countryside with my little dogs and with cows and sheep looking at me and passing tractors and people who smile at you and I just thought....... My God but I'm lucky to live in such a beautiful place!!!! My first chest infection of the season is slowly (very slowly) passing and it just feels that all is well with the world!

I've been inspired by the 'Great British Bake Off' programme with Mary Berry (she's been in the Vic!) & Paul Hollywood and the last couple of days have seen me making Bread, Cakes and Flapjacks as well as main meals.......... My chef James is being used as my own personal tutor and I'm determined to prove my worth in my own kitchen!! The staff seem to like my offerings as well............ But you're ok general public - shan't unleash myself on the real world of paying customers!!!

Last part of France and Duncan Bannatyne

2011-10-05T15:44:00.000+01:00

Blimey this has turned into a mammoth blogging post.......... sorry dear readers the Victoria is still really busy and I have been hit with my first bad chest infection of the season, so not getting on to do my tasks as fast I would have wanted.

So where the heck was I??? Ok yes, in France. We did a huge tour of the De Castelnau winery and saw thousands and thousands of bottles Champagne being filled, stacked, stored. saw the library where bottles go back to the 1940's - absolutely fascinating. The process from start to finish is highly complex and I understand now why Champagne is the price it is - but I honestly think I love it more than ever! We had the most amazing Michelin Star 'packed lunch' that you could ever imagine and with yet more Champagne............. everyone at the winery was so welcoming and friendly and Pascal the MD shook hands with every member of staff he met! A great lesson in staff management! What was even more amazing was that a member of staff knew about our 'Man Creche' sign at the Victoria as his family were in Salcombe in the summer.. how cool was that! So ended our Champagne tour and our biggest thanks to everyone who made it so special for us.

I will gloss over our second night in Reading and move on to the next part of our road trip - 2 nights at Charlton House Hotel - part of Duncan Bannatynes group (him from Dragons Den who doesn't tolerate fools with no business plans!!). There's no doubt that because of who he is (and I do Twitter with him) that this influenced our decision to go to Charlton House in Somerset, and I am soooooo glad we did because what a great experience it was.

Right from the centralised booking system where I was guided through a maze of deals to the right one for us right up to the warm welcome we received at reception - we knew we had booked well! We were upgraded to a super four poster room with a claw bath situated right in front of huge windows, fabulous shower room and a private balcony area. Food and service was first class and we both enjoyed the pampering at the Spa that we received..... although I wasn't so keen on the flotation thingy - but I'm assured I wasn't the first to say STOP!! Get me up!!! Girls in the spa were lovely - no snideness that you sometimes get and they seemed to genuinely want to do a great job.

Food and service was excellent but a couple of diners left a lot to be desired on the first night as they discussed birthing plans loudly during dinner despite a few coughs/splutters from me coupled with a filthy look - no hint was taken. Time and place people, time and place or at least keep your voices down!!! Barman made a great Hendricks G & T - almost as good as me I may say!!

Beautiful grounds and noise from the road was minimal - thoroughly enjoyed sitting in the massive four poster bed with a large glass of wine imagining this was how I always spent my leisure time!!

I'd just like to say a word or three about Mr Bannatyne (I respectfully call him Mr B) - several people have said how he comes across as a bit of a git on Dragons Den, and maybe he does (and is!?) but he actually has a huge heart of gold and does an awful lot of charity work that like a lot of famous / wealthy people goes unsung. He works a lot with Harry Mosely and his family. Harry has a brain tumour and is the sweetest little boy going - please do what you can to support this cause: http://www.helpharryhelpothers.com/ Mtr B also works with our injured armed forces personnel from conflicts abroad - a thoroughly nice bloke!!!

Moving on, the 2 days at Charlton House flew by and our last port of call was North Walk House in Lynton, North Devon. A delightful B and B run by Ian & Sarah majoring on Organic produce. Lovely rooms overlooking the Bristol Channel with home made flap jacks to accompany your tea and coffee! Dinner was round a large table and you shared it with complete strangers - yikes!! That's a bit of a challenge to English reserve, but it was actually very entertaining and interesting. The food itself - well, absolutely fabulous and as for Ian's porridge in the morning? Yum scrum!! Give it a try if you're ever in North Devon: http://www.northwalkhouse.co.uk/index.htm

So there we go - and t last we're back to normal here at the Victoria - visitors are still here in big numbers thanks to the glorious weather we've had and we start to think of winter..... yuk, what a depressing thought! But I have lots of exciting things in the pipeline which will be shared with you in due course!!!!

LIZ & Tim's great trip! Part 2

2011-09-21T23:17:00.000+01:00

So where was I??? Oh yes, we arrived in Calais and started our journey onto Riemes and Eperney travelling on near empty toll roads at a reasonably swift pace - UK - There is such a lesson to be learnt from other European roadways!! Anyway, I digress........ we stopped for lunch in Eperney before starting our tour of the vineyards at a charming and very typical french corner restaurant and I just could NOT resist taking a camera picture of the menu above - have a close look! It certainly made us laugh......... and there was also a Sephora cosmetic shop (my absolute favourite grown up version of a sweetie shop!!) across the road from the restaurant so a fabulous start for me - food and make up!!!

After our lunch break we headed for the vineyards passing most of the big name Champagne houses and what seemed like dozens and dozens of smaller ones and some in what seemed just like private houses...... an amazing thing to see I must say! Out in the countryside in some areas all you could see for miles in each direction were rows upon rows of vines.......... absolutely amazing! We were taken to see Dom Perignon's burial site with in a church and there some really beautiful old pews with what now would be classed as graffitti but all sorts of dates scrawled on them. As we drove through the various areas Charles Ancliffe our host explained to us about the chalkiness of the soil and the effect this has on the grapes and their taste, he told us about the different types of grapes and that 1and a half kilo's go into just 1 bottle of Champagne........... we learnt all about first and second pressings and oh yes, had another bottle of Champagne on a hill top overlooking the most spectacular view and listening to the wind rustling through the tree's.......... very, very romantic (well for me anyway - not sure about my 3 male companions!).

Our third and last stop before hitting the hotel and trying to get just 40 winks before a night on the town beckoned was on a hill top where the Mumm windmill is and time for our last Champagne of the day (not the whole day you understand - just the daylight hours part!!) this time a Vintage de Castelneau... ohh I didn't half like that one!!!!! By the way, that's a bunch of grapes you might just see that Charles is holding behind my head.......

We were booked in to the Hotel de la Paix and my goodness, what a fantastic hotel!! www.hotel-lapaix.fr A hotel used by many of the big Champagne houses to put guests in and recently renovated, we were pleasantly surprised and delighted by our room. Now this one could be called a real Boutique room and guess what?? A bottle of Champagne from Monsieur Pascal Prudhomme the Directeur Generale of De Castelnau was waiting for us in our room..............

Part 3 and I'll tell you about the fab meal we had that night (what I can remember of it!) and our tour of the winery............

LIZ & Tim's great trip! Part one

2011-09-19T22:34:00.000+01:00

This great trip of ours is going to have to be done in tiny pieces as it was sooooo fantastic and I don't want to spare you any of the fantabulous details!!!

So lets start with day one. Tuesday 6th September saw us get off eventually after having done all the 'pubby' things and leaving all in good order, getting a couple of miles up the road in my neatly packed Betsy (Smart Car) and then having to turn back as I'd forgotten to pack the Sat Nav............. well it was only a couple of miles - no big deal (!). SOH wasn't over amused but I only had to remind him of the numerous occasions we have had to turn round because HE'S forgotten something and all was well in the Hore household very quickly!!

First thing was to drive to the Wee Waif in Reading where our brewery St Austell had paid for us to have the first night of our prize winning 'Wine House of the Year' last year and then the actual Champagne tour was hosted by Champagne de Castelnau.

Now then what can I say about the Wee Waif in Reading - clean, reasonably comfortable and frankly, you get what you pay for! The room on this our first night was far better than the one we given on our return, but for what we wanted for the few hours we were there it was perfectly acceptable. It was also close for our host Charles Ancliffe from Patriarch Wines, and quite a central location to get us to Folkestone the next morning for the 'chunnel'. With us was James Finneman who is a wine development manager for St Austell, so I was quite pleased to find myself the only lady amongst three such charming gentleman.

Our first meal was at the St George & Dragon in Reading, www.stgeorgeanddragon.co.uk a dinner for four in a very relaxed setting with exceptionally good food and a prime example of not believing all you read on Trip Advisor!! However, we were relatively modest with the alcohol as I think we sensed it was going to be a heavy few days..............

The next day at 6.30A.M we were packing our thing into Charles's car who was going to be our chauffeur for the next 24 hours and off we set for Folkestone. A beautiful sunny (ish) day and a congenial host who told us how many times he had done this before and how much he loved showing Champagne country to people like us. So accomplished at this was he that when we got to the port and he asked me to put his credit card in to gain access on the booking he was staggered to find he hadn't actually booked the train.........!!!! Doh. and there's me thinking I'm the only one who could do something like that!!

However eventually and safely ensconced on Le Shuttle at 9.a.m and heading into the bowels of the earth Charles announced it was our first Champagne of the day - a charming De Castleneau Rose Champagne. Bearing in mind we had only had 2 coffees, half a kit kat each and a small croissant - 2 glasses had the desired effect of going straight to my knees!!! A remarkable short trip saw us on French soil within about 35 minutes - my how time flies when you're having fun!!

Part two to follow in the next couple of days....................

In the meantime I'm glad to say that whilst the summer 'silly' season has ended, the Victoria is as busy as ever - so if you are coming to visit and you want to eat with us I would recommend that you really do book :)

Wine Pub of the Year 2010

2011-09-04T23:30:00.000+01:00

Do you remember that we won an award from St Austell for being the Wine Pub of the Year 2010?? Well, we are off on our prize trip this week to Reims sponsored by Champagne de Castelneau combined with a couple of days in Duncan Bannatynes Charlton Spa Hotel when home and a cliff top B & B in North Devon - so next blog I write I'll have a load of things to tell you..........I'm very very glad we're having a week off, we are both exhausted and so far this year whilst we've had a few breaks apart we've only been away together for about 5 days..... So I'm very much looking forward to some time together and away from the pressures of business. Now that a lot of the holidaymakers have gone home we haven't really taken our foot of the gas as yet - yesterday I was at the Kingsbridge show advertising our newly re-furbished upstairs restaurant and it's suitability for functions/weddings etc.

How big??

Ooohhhhh

Happy as pigs in ????

Ok - I'm ready!!

Really good fun and Glo, my bar manager and I made some good contacts I think! Certainly made us think about doing a wedding fair proper.....??? For a previous Big City girl (and I think still one to some extent) I have a real liking for the County Fairs. I've always been quite opinionated about fox hunting and hunting in general but when you start to talk to country people about the ban and the effect its had on local communities etc and I saw a hunt in action yesterday I'm tending to not be so small minded about it............ When I was a very small girl and my Daddy died, my Mum used to send me to Selsey in Sussex to be looked after in the summer holidays by my lovely Auntie Doris & Uncle Edgar. I can remember thinking it was all such a great adventure and you were so safe to walk through the village and to the sea in 'those days'........ and there was always a village fair, and I'm sure it's that memory that triggered so many of the feelings I had yesterday as I browsed round the stalls and 'best of's' - cakes/flowers/marrows and onions etc etc. I felt quite weepy at one stage - I think it was the realisation of passing time and old memories.

So there you are - another summer season over and done with - our 3rd! I must say I think it's been very hard work this year for lots of reasons, but as I sit here tonight with a distinct autumnal nip in the air around me I'm grateful that we've done as well as we have and that our customers still rate us and like us. All we must do now is keep in touch with our market conditions, keep on giving our customers what they want: Value, great service and a pub they want to spend time in!!

Not long now.............

2011-08-26T21:04:00.000+01:00

Till it's all over that is! What?? Oh sorry, the 'Season'!! What a weird one its been as well........ You can see that many of the visitors are watching their pennies - here at the Victoria we can gauge it by a few things:

NO amount of the bottles of Champagne being sold as there was in our first year
Nowhere near the amount of 'doubles' being asked for
Nowhere near the amounts of Cokes/J20's etc being sold for the children - but lots and lots of jugs of tap water.................
Our St Austell ales are going well though as are the more reasonable wines etc, but very few customers are having 3 courses - lots of 2 courses or sharing desserts. I'm really glad that I won the battle with Chef to keep our food prices at a reasonable level - although having said that the Lobster and dressed Crab, both a good price have been selling really well! The next challenge will be to get the Autumn/Winter menu's right, both in content and price - so if you have Victoria Inn favourites you'd like to see on the menu PLEASE tell me!

The Hobbitt House has been fully booked all of August and looks set to do the same for September, and yet no takers for our November special deal of £50 a nt for a minimum 2 night break. Having said all of that we are almost booked out for NEXT July already.............

On another note Archie and Rosie become firm favourites of our Hobbit guests and just recently 2 delightful ladies who stayed with us for a week took them out for very long walks on a couple of occasions - look at the pictures of 2 very happy dogs and enjoy the enjoyment on their faces after a fantastic afternoon on the beach............. !

To speak or not to speak?

2011-08-15T21:05:00.000+01:00

Well, I think I really have to after having witnessed some of the most awful things happening in my country over the last week or so.............

So many words have been spoken, so many pictures taken. So many depressing images of buildings burning, young and old being injured and murdered. I think I will never forget seeing the images of a young man, obviously injured and traumatised being mugged for what little he possessed in his back pack. So many young people (and now being seen through arrests the not so young!) displaying such violence and disregard for the property and lives of others.

Of course the Police were criticised - too slow to react, too few, not tough enough........... yet how many remember the awful death of PC Keith Blakelock on the 6th October 1985, when he was practically de-capitated and knifed to death as he entered a part of the riot with little or no back-up. A not too dissimilar story of violent riots on the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham following the death of a black woman who had a heart attack after Police raided her home.

However, they were riots of a quintisenntially racial nature - these riots that started in London and spread out to other major cities like a virulent cancer growth were not. But then, what were they?? Were they dissaffected youth protesting at injustice? Were they poor people with no other means of showing anger at there impoverished lives? Were they true anarchists intent of destroying the very fabric of our lives?

Following the arrests and subsequent trials it would appear that very little of the above can be applied to these people as we see 'normal' people being charged and tried. Nursery nurses, teaching assistant and even a millionaires daughter amongst them...............

I have said loud & often, I am not from a rich or middle class background, I am working class and lived all my formative years on a Council Estate. We had very, very little and my Dad was a coal miner, then in the 2nd world war and lastly a postman. My Mum worked 'in service' (cleaner) and did any job possible to get food on the table. But I never recall being angry about it (apart from the school trips that Mum just couldn't afford!). I may well have had a cry and a sulk but I don't recall feeling the urge to go and smash windows and reek havoc.

So why is this happening as it is? Is it to do with expectation? Have we all become so wrapped up in our lives and a culture of 'I want it and I want it now'..................??? Is it about a lack of regard for 'normal' behaviours and values? Is it because we are no longer a predominantly Christian society with the values that go with believing and trying to be a 'good' person??? Is it simply that the moral values I believe I grew up with are no longer given to our young people??

I wish someone could give me answers as I sit here puzzled and anxious for the future of my once wonderful country, my own future as I get older and my childrens children in this emerging lawless and violent society that seems to know no boundaries.......

Grey clouds lifting.............

2011-07-31T16:20:00.000+01:00

Yep, metaphorically the grey clouds that have loomed large over my head for the past 6 to 8 weeks or so have started to lift. The awful gut wrenching tiredness and apathy that I was experiencing have started to move away........... Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am a 90m.p.h person. I rarely sit still and when I do I am planning/working on paper or on the computer, nearly always something to do with the business etc. So in my 19 year old head I'm good to go for a 16 hour day with irregular meals and little sleep, but in my 50 something body I was on the road to being quite ill. So with a few words of advice from my Doc (and a few pills which I didn't take for very long!) 2 whole weeks away from the 'shop' (staying in our flat listening to relaxation tapes, sleeping and reading BOOKS) and 4 days staring at the sea and sun in Spain I am starting to feel a whole lot more human - trick for me now is to keep things that way........... So for all of you who have asked why no blog posting recently and who have said 'what- another holiday' that's the reason behind my 'holiday' last week. Having said all of that, I'm off to my friends canal boat next weekend for 2 nights -pure unadulterated pleasure, but more on that little jaunt when I post next time.

So back to the Victoria and business. Well, what a strange old week we had last week............!! An incredibly great Sunday followed by 4 days that were so quiet I was re-checking my menu in case people had gone off us! But speaking to colleagues in town, nearly all (certainly in the hospitality sector) have reported a poor season so far. Then from Friday, the visitors started to arrive, but it has to be said that it is not so far the bumper 'staycation' expected or talked about. So we'll see what happens this week with the Regatta's kicking off. Having said all of that we are doing about 260 - 300 meals most days, but people are thinking very hard about where to spend their money. Our seafood BBQ kicks off this coming week - Thurs to Saturday - so I'm hopeful that this will be popular!

In an effort to keep prices affordable in our menu, this week we have put on some really reasonable specials and one of them has been putting Mussels on the menu. They have just flown right out - and it has to be said that they have been the tastiest I have ever had! Superb taste and really fat and juicy, simply cooked in white wine, with Garlic and Onions, served with a crusty baguette and only £9.95.............

Our Head Chef James has been on holiday leaving my 2nd chef Tanya in charge and she and the kitchen team have done an absolutely amazing job. Tanya says she has never worked cooking with the sorts of numbers that we now do here - but she has done so well and SOH and I are very, very proud of her!!

Talking of staff, nearly all of our summer staff are in place and what a lovely bunch they are! Most of them I take on unseen as their family have holiday homes down here and therefore they just e mail me for a job. So always a bit risky, but once again this year, I've got great kids who pick up the work really easily, work hard and have fantastic positive attitudes!

The Hobbitt House is doing really well, fully booked for the whole of August and the delightful picture above is of Georgie - one of a charming family who stayed with us for a fortnight. As you can see, Archie welcomes and gets lots of cuddles from guests but Rosie is a little bit more discerning and not quite so easily won over. Rosie remains her Mummy's dog and as I sit typing she is laying right by my side with one eye almost constantly on me! In fact I may take her on to the Canal Boat with me to test how she settles on it as we have been talking seriously about our future and where / how we may want to live. Quite a lot of options on the table, but a wide beam canal boat (no smutty comments please!) is top of our list right now............... SOH doesn't want to live anywhere too 'ordinary' and I don't want to sacrifice too much luxury. I tell you what though, there are some amazingly beautiful and palatial boats around AND at a very good price! So - we'll see what the next few months bring.

On that note - I'm off to follow my plan of making sure I don't see an early grave by having an afternoon rest, cup of fruit tea with honey and then a look through the Sunday papers................. Take care friends x

P.S Our newest addition to the Garden - Our Budgies - have 2 little eggs.............!!! We'll have little baby Budgies!!! Just not sure when........???

November Newsflash

2011-07-24T14:06:00.001+01:00

Ok - I know we're only in July but thinking ahead, we've decided to offer a great deal on the 'HOBBITT HOUSE' for the month of November:

Stay any TWO nights for only £50 per night!!!! Still includes a great start to the day with breakfast at Captain Morgans and it doesn't matter if it's single of double occupancy. It'll make a great break for the period leading up to Christmas - a chance to do a bit of Christmas shopping maybe??

Don't spend too long thinking about it - I think this will be a very popular offer.

What a day!!!

2011-07-15T21:51:00.000+01:00

HRH talking to me before starting his visit!

Wow - what a fantastic day Monday 11th was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HRH Prince Charles and Camilla came to Salcombe. The excitement started on the Sunday evening when one of the Royal security squad asked if we would let the Royal party use our 'facilities'........ Would I???? You're joking! If I'd had my way SOH would have been gold leafing the loos over night!!!

So when will I know when HRH wants to use the loos then says I to the (very slightly gorgeous!) security man - 'oh about 30 seconds before the event' says he............. Ok then!! After about 3 hrs sleep (I was excited ok! I admit it!!) the day started with the most beautiful sunrise - yes I saw the sun rise, and the arrival of Radio Devon to use the Victoria as a base for their Royal transmissions. SOH was interviewed about his new role as a First Responder and I was interviewed about what the visit meant to me! I tried to hide my excitement but I don't think I did a very good job.............

Then walking down the street about 2hrs before came all the suited and booted security blokes..... It was like a scene from Reservoir Dogs!! Then the people who were going to be officially presented arrived in the square, with hundreds more starting to throng the streets. Dead on the dot (and I mean to the second!!) the royal party turned up on my doorstep at 10.30!! Prince Charles got our of the car (the photo at the top is taken by Janice King who runs one of Salcombes superb B & B's) and turned in my direction - imagine my heart at that precise moment!!! I said 'Good Morning Sir' he said 'Good Morning - business good for you I hope' I said' Very good thank you Sir', he said 'Jolly Good' turned and buggered off into the crowds.................... The disappointment was like finding out Father Christmas didn't exist!!! But I had just had a conversation with the future King of England so that made up for not using our loo somewhat!!!!!

Anyway - they did their walkabout in the square (SOH was introduced and had a conversation - the contents of which he found hard to remember - Doh!!) and then they came back down and round the crowds......... and I got a 2nd bite of the cherry. A hand shake from Camilla and another short chat with Prince Charles as you can see by the photo's below - where I swear it looks like he's pointing his finger at me?? I have to say that both Prince Charles and Camilla came across as 2 very nice individuals and you couldn't help but catch a bit of the magic dust that was around that morning. EVERYONE I spoke to who spoke to them or shook hands was made too feel very special and individual and for me personally it was a great moment and made the dark clouds that have hung over my head for the last few weeks temporarily disappear.

Right then - no more from me for a week or 2 as I'm off to Spain on Monday to get my head cleared and batteries re-charged in time for the Summer rush.

The start of a fabulous day!

Mike from Radio Devon

What a magical moment!

Salcombe's First Responders - what a great bunch of people!

Here comes the Summer.............

2011-07-08T20:37:00.000+01:00

Well if the rain stops and we actually get a few days continuous sun that is! The weather is just so changeable right now isn't it......?? But it doesn't seem to be stopping tourists from coming down so thats something.

Monday is expected to be hugely busy here in Salcombe for the Royal visit of Charles & Camilla. We're hosting BBC Radio Devon from 7.a.m to hold their interviews with excited Royal watchers - sp it'll be a very long day fro us here. Staff have to be on site early because of security issues and I think we'll open at about 10 to catch all those people wanting early cuppas etc............... lets hope it doesn't rain on Monday!!

SOH & I have been busy re-planting in the garden as all of a sudden our spring plants keeled over, so yet another few bob spent at the local nursery - we've gone for Begonias and Busy Lizzies (appropriate really!!) this time with a sprinkling of Marigolds.

Our new menu is live from this week and with specials of local Lamb and Salcombe LOBSTER amongst others .......... it's drawing a great deal of interest!! If you want to check it out here's the link to our website: http://www.victoriainn-salcombe.co.uk/

Our budgies now have a couple of nesting boxes in their cage as they are showing signs of wanting to mate (so says SOH - wouldn't know myself!!) so hopefully we'll have little baby budgies in the future. The Seagulls have been a nightmare this year - so daring and so viscious but I can't help being entranced by the baby seagulls trying to fly and making such pitifull little noises. Not quite so enchanting are the noises that the seagulls make so early in the morning and even in the middle of the night. Our Chickens are one less as one departed for that big chicken shed in the sky - so we're back to eight again now, but they're laying as good as ever.

Merlin Rocket (sailing) is this week coming, so we expect to be even busier - here's to a great week for all of us!

Newsflash - A Royal Visit to Salcombe

2011-06-30T19:19:00.000+01:00

Just to let you know that Salcombe is having a Royal visit on Monday 11th July - and anyone that knows me knows I am a complete and utter Royalist............. and it's HRH Charles and Mrs HRH coming to town.

Coming from Portsmouth we were well used to Royal visits, but it's doubly exciting here as it's so small and Whitestrand dead opposite the Victoria will be the focal point (or one of them!!!)

Wow - how exciting...........................

A Pub Landlady's life

2011-06-28T21:06:00.000+01:00

Wine in the sun in our beautiful garden

Ok - I thought I'd go back to basics on my blog............ the working title is ' A Pub Landlady's Life'. So let's have a look at a weekend day in this particular landladies life:

Saturday:
8.00a.m Get up
8.30 - first phone call of the day regarding a room reservation for September. Yes 8.30 and yes September!! Blimey - do people think we work 24 hours a day!!
8.40 - 2nd phone call of the day regarding a booking for that evening. Who in God's name wakes up and thinks 'Oh, I must phone the pub and book a table for tonight'........ at 8.40 in the morning!! Yep - people think we do work 24 hours a day!!
8.45 Shower, clean teeth and put a bit of slap on!
9.15 (A bit of 'slap' is a little bit of an understatement given my advancing age!!) Go to office and start cashing up. Bum! Can't make it tally.... call SOH and he spots my deliberate mistake!! Do associated paperwork etc etc.
10.30 Phonecall received from member of staff now not now coming in (growl!!!) so as 2 members of staff are on holiday we are really stuffed. It means SOH AND I will have to work today, particularly as we have summer staff in and being trained up still, so they can't be let loose on their own completely yet
11.30 Pub ready to open - check? Open doors - here we go.
11.35 Bugger - realise I've not had breakfast! Run upstairs for yet another coffee, Banana and a cheeky couple of biscuits. Not the best nutritional start - but hey, it's something
11.45 Call restaurant we were planning to go to tonight and cancel! Another potential night off buggered........
2.30 At last - time to sit and have a bite to eat with SOH. Discuss the possibility for a poorly staffed pub on the following day - must call in 3rd reserve and she says yes! Hallelujah!

4.00 I have to have a rest if I'm working all day and so its a case of telling the staff that unless there is a death, fire or flood we are NOT to be disturbed!! But just in case - I disconnect all the (3) phones in our flat. If it's that urgent I'll be woken up by sirens.
6.30 Off to the bar I jolly well go. Best face forward and a smile to welcome warmly the 150 plus customers who are about to come through our doors in the next couple of hours and eat and drink with us. Being behind a bar is absolutely like being on a stage - customers don't care if you're worn out/clapped out/knackered - and why should they. So for me, it's often like putting on a mask and being sure not to let it slip. Not always easy I can tell you.........
9.00 Not time to stop and eat properly so grab a sandwich on the go
11.30 Last customers leave the pub swaying gently and wishing us a cheery good night
11.45 SOH and I start to clean the pub as weekend cleaner on holiday

12.45a.m SUNDAY morning Coffee in hand we slump on the settee with our little dogs and contemplate our lot knowing that we shall do the same again tomorrow and the next day etc etc.........

A Pub Landlady's life.......In between those times there is all the stuff that's too trivial to even mention - but suffice to say there are not many unoccupied minutes.

A 17 hour day? Sometimes a 12 if we're lucky and not always as frantic as I've outlined above, but not far off it! Still think you might fancy being behind the bar and not in front?????

In my next blog post I'll share with you our fabulous new summer menu's and the new menu format! Very exciting..........

Summer? Don't make me laugh!!!

2011-06-20T20:42:00.000+01:00

Thought it would be a good idea to put a picture of the sun on this blog post - just in case we don't see it again this summer!!!

Flippin heck - that's what it's starting to feel like, don't you think??? How much more rain can be up in that sky???

Anyway - in preparation for the 'summer' James our Chef and I are working on the summer menus - and I'm trying to steer us away from some of the same old, same old! For a start we're almost certainly moving away from Cod to Haddock. More sustainable and generally a lot easier to get hold of the quantities that we have to buy in. I've been doing a bit of market research and customers don't seem to be too bothered. We also did a taste test and I thought it tasted as good if not better. what are your thoughts my lovelies??? I also think that this year we are going to have 'printed' menu's for the summer period - hopefully they will last a bit better than the ones in folders we currently use.

Then last week of course I said we were having a rent review. For those of you that don't know - if you're a tenant to a brewery such as we are (St Austell) you pay an amount of rent and you have to buy all your drink through them - but any profits from food etc after you've paid your bills are yours. Simplistically put - but that's it in a nutshell!! Every 3 years our Brewery puts the rent up - they're a business and that's what they do. But I think the difference with a family Brewery such as ours and other business's who aren't Brewers but simply have a chain of public houses as business's is that St Austell are not in the business of ripping us off. It's not in their interest to put us out of business by making the rents untenable, or making us feel that hard work is only rewarded by massive rent hikes.

So there really has been a fair and honest 2 way consultation and discussion - the brewery came up with a 'shadow' set of figures that they believe are where we're at trading wise, we looked at them and discussed them and generally agreed that the proposed rent they had on the table was fair. We're happy (well as happy as you can be with any planned rise!) to stay and to continue making a success of our pub, St Austell are happy that we stay where we are and continue to sell the beer and make the Victoria Inn a continued success...................

If you want to have a look at what unhappy tenants of some chains are saying about unfair rent rises etc have a look at the Morning Advertiser or The Publican or BII magazine..........

Tomorrow I'm off to Cornwall for the day on a marketing course - I'm really looking forward to having a day away and being hopefully with dynamic and enthusiastic people who's enthusiasm will rub off on me and I'll come home brimming with ideas!!

Phew - Thank Goodness THAT week is over!!

2011-06-17T10:16:00.000+01:00

Phew - what a week that was!!! SOH had his weeks holiday in the sun last week - but we didn't check our calendar properly and I was left to deal with a hugely busy music festival weekend on my own!! But I did it.................. not only that, we raised funds for the Royal British Legion 'Poppy Party' appeal and we raised £900!!!! Our customers were soooooooooooo generous - well, 99.9 % of them - I won't bore you with the appalling behaviour of the party of 6 at the weekend who behaved so despicably. A huge thank you to Rob and David from Blue Water Salcombe who generously donated £150 to the evening. Anyway - the Old Gaffers entertained us in the garden on the Friday night, followed by Danny Jones singing in the pub on the Saturday. It was an amazing sight to see so many people crammed into our small bar area dancing, singing and enjoying themselves as they were listening to Danny sing!! The rest of the weekend and the week itself pretty much disappeared into a blur of working, sleeping and fundraising..........................But I was pretty chuffed to get the amount to £900. Thats this blog done for now - the next one will be about focussing on the summer and rent rises!!!

Royal British Legion 90th Birthday - Poppy Party at the Victoria Inn

2011-06-06T20:23:00.000+01:00

If you are in my neck of the woods I'd love you to put the date of Friday 10th June in your diary and come and join us for a big birthday party - it's the Royal British Legion's 90th year and they are having celebratory Poppy Parties all over the place. We are spearheading the West with our party on the 10th - which incidentally is the same day as the start of the Salcombe Music Festival - so should be a great atmosphere. I have always thought that the RBL does a fantastic job in supporting elderly ex-servicemen, as well as some of the younger ones and the difficulties they face when coming out into 'civvy street', particularly with so many ongoing conflicts and men & women being injured, as well as drink, drugs and mental health issues through Post Traumatic Stress.

When I ran a huge benefits take up campaign for Portsmouth City Council I know for certain that there were many of my clients helped by the RBL in many ways.

My family and I were also personally helped by the RBL in 1978 when our 2nd child, Carole was born with Cerebral Palsy. She was sadly very, very ill and only lived to just over 8 months old. With an ex-services unemployed Husband and no money in the bank, the funeral was yet another huge worry at an already traumatic time. We were advised by a hospital Social Worker that the RBL may well be able to help because of my Husbands Royal Navy career. Help us they certainly did............. they paid for the entire funeral and I for one have never ever forgotten that act of kindness and generosity that eased away a little of the pain. If I can raise lots of money from this party I will feel that I have been able to repay that act of kindness from so long ago but still often feeling like yesterday.

So, Poppy Party on the 10th July - BBQ starting at 6.30 p.m with choice of 100% Beef Burger or Chicken Breast marinated in Lime & Chilli or Haloumi. Served with New Potatoes and Salad and followed by Summer Fruits and Devon Double Cream for the amazing price of £9.50 - a saving of about £6 on our normal prices. Then the 'Old Gaffers' will be entertaining us from about 7.30 and we have some amazing Raffle Prizes - not just from us personally, but St Austell brewery have generously donated a lovely Camera and some of the local shops have contributed generously as well - should be about 20 prizes altogether. If it rains - we'll cook outside and just move the fun indoors to our upstairs restaurant...........................

The rest of our news? Well for the other part of the Salcombe Music festival weekend, I have Danny Jones singing for us again on Saturday and our Harpist Symon Paul on Sunday - so a good mix of entertainment once again!

May Bank holiday was fabulously busy again and even now there are a good many people around! Hoorah! Wish me luck for Friday and fingers crossed for a whole heap of money to be raised.......

Let me get this off my chest.................

2011-05-31T21:59:00.000+01:00

Ok - take a look at the basket of toiletries in this picture.............. (I know it's a little dark) but it's just a little basket containing a few bits and pieces of baby things - lotion, powder, nappy bags etc upstairs in our baby change area. Do you know what?? Some mean spirited Bugger (yes Bugger - I actually wanted to write something far stronger but thought better of it!!) has stolen from this basket 3 times!! In fact the last time, except for the few remaining nappy bags the basket was completely emptied. Emptied I tell you!! Now if this was an inner city pub in an area of extreme poverty I could understand it - but this is Salcombe for Gods sake! Home to some very rich people....... Not only that, but our blanket box with 6 blankets in to keep people warm in the garden? Yep, 2 blankets stolen from that! The basket of glasses on the counter for customers to use when they've forgotten their glasses? Yep - been replenished at least half a dozen times because customers have 'forgotten' to return them!
Now I don't care that all these things are reasonably inexpensive - but why do it??? The fact these things are cheap (ish) makes it even harder to understand............... and now I'm getting really hacked off with it. Ok - rant over and done with. Well almost ...............

The May Bank holiday weekend has been oh so busy yet again - dissapointing weather, but that doesn't seem to have put our lovely visitors off. We have been packed to the rafters - all day, every day.

Friday night saw a session with the gorgeous 'Old Gaffers' who just seem to get better and better each time they sing at the Victoria. Then Saturday night we let our young new barman Danny Jones sing for a couple of hours. He's an 'X Factor' hopeful and really wants to break in to the world of music - but like many he's not finding it at all easy. I have to say I don't know why, because he has a spectacular voice and he sings lots of great easy to listen to pieces from Mr Buble and Adele to name just a a few. The customers just wouldn't let him come off - it was, '1 more' '1 more', so I'm pleased to say that he'll be back with us on the 11th April during the Salcombe Music festival. Then on Sunday we had Symon Paul a truly unique Harpist entertain our Sunday lunch guests - no one can say we don't diversify thats for sure.

Also on Saturday we had yet another lovely wedding reception held upstairs at the Victoria Inn - this time it was Emma (below) and Chris and a wedding that been at least 12 months in the making. Cream Teas and a Hog Roast made this special for them, with hot pasties at 10.30 to see everyone off with a bang. The weather wasn't up to much but they and their guests had a great time and I hope to be able to use some of their wedding photo's on our website and in future advertising. But right now, it's back to the bar and carry on selling lots of lovely St Austell ales etc.............

A hog roast mans life is NOT always a happy one!!

A radiant bride - Emma

Did the earth move for you???

2011-05-25T18:41:00.000+01:00

Mmmnnnn, well we'll talk about that a bit later shall we........!! So Greece?? My 'Shirley' holiday...... Well, lets talk about it:

Loved the people! Particularly the 2 smashing ladies in my Hotel - Le Citie, Lixouri. Janet & Gerry - those two ladies just couldn't do enough for you and how they knew everyones name I'll never know!! The hotel itself was pretty fair for the money that I paid for it - the breakfast could have been more varied and the rooms could have been 'prettier' but it was spotlessly clean and as I say, the friendliness made up for any shortcomings.

The pool area was great, and the gardens surrounding them with their bottle brush red plants and lemon trees with the biggest lemons I've ever, ever seen were beautiful. In fact the girls cut up the white pithe of a huge lemon I picked up off the grass and it was as sweet as sweet could be! Lush!! No beach to speak of which was a shame - but not the end of the world.

The area I stayed in was ok. Just ok really. Very, very quiet - I couldn't help feeling it was the recession rather than not just the season started. Most restaurants had barely a quarter of tables full every single night. I wasn't overly struck on some of the food, but I did enjoy the starters and the ice cream....... However, it was a Greek quiet - if that makes sense. It was somehow still noisy with their way of making themselves heard and the square itself was filled with some remarkable characters that makes people watching the art form it is! This gentleman was some sort of young priest - but I was really taken with his amazing face and a real serenity and kindness about him.

The weather was a bit hit and miss - with an amazing thunderstorm over another part of the Island one night and huge amounts of rainfall. But when the sun deemed to shine, then it was very warm indeed and yes, I do have quite a tan to show for it.

The other guests were mainly British, with a huge walking party making up the main bunch and the ever present Northern contingent........ Now that really was the Shirley bit!! A twosome (one of whom the gentleman spoke some basic Greek - but he was quite impressive) and a delightful party of 4. I shared a meal with both lots and it made for a very pleasant change. Vince and his wife (whose name absolutely escapes me - sorry!!) were there with her Mum & Dad & it was delightful to see a family so caring of each other and so happy to spend time in each others company. Vince was the archetypal story teller and a thoroughly great bloke. Thanks to him (oh yes it was!!!) I had quite the worst hangover in my history of hangovers. An Ouzo hangover is not one that should be repeated twice!!! By rights I of course shouldn't have let it happen in the first place - but you know how these things happen................!!

I found somethings to be ridiculously expensive - 2 Satsumas and a very small Banana (see, a little bit of healthiness!) were 1 - yes 1 - Euro!! And as for the airport over there - well, don't get me started!! Oh yes, and the taxi driver (same one both ways) who transferred me from airport to hotel and vice versa - drove virtually one handed nearly all the way whilst making many telephone calls and shouting down the phone!! I closed my eyes and prayed hard (quietly) on several occasions!

Would I go to Greece again? Probably but to an area with a beach ...... although I would like to visit Athens. Did I have a nice time? Yes I certainly did, and I did (note the past tense) feel rested and relaxed - but real life has caught up with me already! Next stop May Bank holiday.

Oh yes! As for the earth moving bit??? Well, I was sat by the pool - on my own and we had a tremor (save the jokes about turning over on the lounger or any others - I've heard them all!) A throaty rumble from the earth made me sit up with a sharp intake of breath, followed by my table and the bottle of water on it wobbling all over the place - all of about 5 seconds and the longest, scariest 5 seconds I've ever encountered. Oh that's ok says Gerry - better 1 or 2 small ones than the big one of the 50's that wiped us out!!!!

Shirley Valentine - Not me!

2011-05-12T15:40:00.000+01:00

Shirley Valentine - Not me!! But some years ago had I had the courage that our 'Shirley' had then it might well have been!! As it is - I'm off tomorrow for a whole week to Greece............ just me, myself and I! A few (well actually, quite a lot!!) of Euro's, 4 thumping good books (1 self help - of course!) and an Ipod full of tunes. I'm going for Sea, Sun and absolutely none of the other............. :)

I watched Shirley Valentine many years ago and always wanted to be (in her words) 'Shirley the brave'....... she used to talk to the 'wall' and get great satisfaction - talking to the wall didn't do it for me I must admit, but I certainly used to lose myself in daydreams of a better sunnier life. Now I'm living my better sunnier life but because of work SOH and I can't go away together this time - so he's paid for me to have a week of this dream. So now - 'Liz - the brave' is driving herself in her car to Gatwick, going for a whole weeks worth of rest and sleep and great healthy (I'll try!) food. Drink in moderation (thats the plan!) and hopefully lots and lots of sun..........a little shopping maybe, some exploring and some culture. You can be sure there'll be a blog post when I get back and lots of pics.

Till then - stay healthy and happy.................. X

Ένα μεγάλο κρασί παρακαλώ CostOS -ευχαριστώ'

A very quick one!

2011-05-07T22:42:00.000+01:00

Royal Wedding at the Victoria Inn, Salcombe

Blog post that is.... naughty!!! oh Missus..........

Although we're quieter than we were in April - we're still pretty busy!! Thankfully.............Tonight a very full restaurant and a bar still rocking away tonight as i sit here typing.

So what a fantastic Royal Wedding we had didn't we?!? Didn't you just love the whole thing. Ahhhhh .............

What started out as a whole lot of apathy to the event (here at least) ended up a real humdinger (well, for us - anyway!) From 10.00a.m to nearly midnight we never stopped. The photo opposite really doesn't do it justice as to how busy we were - but trust me, we were!

We'd also had the local Rugby 7's in the last week or 2 where a visiting team (who shall remain un-named) disgraced themselves in the highest order (doesn't matter - you really DON'T want to know what!) in our pub - and following a letter to various local officials a letter of apology and a cheque were swiftly received. An artifact from our pub was also nicked and thanks to another pub's staff member coming and telling me I was able to march off to their last watering hole in town - a lot like Peggy Mitchell out of Eastenders - and retrieve it from them.............. Little ba****ds!!!

We had a fantastic Trip Advisor from the sister of the Bride who's wedding was held at the Victoria recently http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g190768-d1821467-r106814408-The_Victoria_Inn-Salcombe_Devon_England.html#REVIEWS in fact we've had a couple of nice reviews recently................ fingers crossed they continue! So I'm really hoping that we can start to build that side of our business up next year.

SOH and I are away for a couple of days from tomorrow - and then my big adventure to Greece next week..... as well as the decision to drive myself to Gatwick and back! But I am sooo looking forward to my holiday.

So thats it peeps - a quick blog as I said!! Take care - it's heaving it down with rain at the moment - lets hope the sunshine comes back soon - waste of time having cleaned my Betsy!!!! X

Phew - what an Easter

2011-04-27T21:30:00.000+01:00

Our function room ready for the event!

Well, I hardly know where to start - what an Easter it's been.................... Firstly lets start with the catering we did for the re-launch of Blue Water Salcombe. This gave our Chef James the chance to show his expertise in Canapes - and blimey what a great job he did!! http://www.bluewatersalcombe.com/

We've since had very positive feedback and it was clearly worth him starting at 5a.m two mornings running. Our very best wishes to Rob & David the new major shareholders of the business! Have a look at their website. it's well worth a view!!

We next had the wedding of Rachel and John, 40 guests and about 10 children ..... I was very pleased with how the room looked and how splendid the food was (more work for James and his team)! No complaints, very happy guests and best of all a children's entertainer who kept the children happy! It has made me determined to use the upstairs function room more - so I think a planned advertising schedule is called for in the Autumn.

Our Bride Rachels place settings

Alongside that - we've also had Easter and the MOST glorious weather you could have asked for........ the bluest skies, the warmest of April suns. Lots and lots of customers and children in our gardens and dogs of every shape and size! We did almost 300 meals every single day and come Easter Monday we were all very very tired.............. and still its continuing (thanks Kate & Wills!) with THE wedding on Friday morning - a 10.00a.m start with two parties already booked in for bubbles and croissants , then another Bank Holiday weekend. Phew!!!!

But, back to Easter - I also did my Church Warden stuff on the Sunday, and I have to say that it helped me feel quite grounded about all the frantic activity in our pub and allowed me the time to give thanks to God. Because, despite all the tiredness, the petty town politics, the often little amount of quality 'us' time that SOH and I actually spend together, the poor amount of time I see my son - I do have an awful lot to be grateful to God for. I have fair health right now, I have a very loving Husband (I'll show you THE ring next time) a fabulous family, a business that is thriving, great hard working committed staff and lovely customers.

Then I got on the scales this week and realised (with the help of JC and his data bank!) that I have lost just 1 pound short of three stone in a year. so that helped me walk with a spring in my step!! So I hope you all enjoy the rest of the sunshine and here are a few more pics from the wedding and our garden in the Easter break................

One of 40 Strawberry Meringues

The function room

One very happy child!!

MANY happy children.........

Salcombe gets it's own - Tandoori Nights!

2011-04-19T12:57:00.000+01:00

Have a quick look at this link - can't wait to do this in Salcombe..... it's going to be fun!! Victoria Inn is absoluteky mad busy - so will post after the weekend when I have more time. In the garden is our friend Mark doing us great new signs for the pub! See you all soon lovely friends...............

http://captainmorgans-salcombe.blogspot.com/2011/04/salcombes-own-tandoori-nights.html

Oh I forgot to tell you.............

2011-04-10T12:23:00.000+01:00

Oh I forgot to tell you this hugely funny (unfunny for me but my staff thought it was hilarious!) story............ It's a well recognised fact in the Victoria Inn that I treat the Vic much more like my home than a business, because indeed it is!

As such, staff are very used to seeing me floating around in a dressing gown till about 10a.m - thick fleecy in the winter and thinnish jersey in the summer.....every now and then I try to resolve to get up, shower, breakfast, make up and dress - THEN go down to the bar (by the way we're not talking pub open yet - just in case you were wondering!!).

One day last week I was sitting in bed with my first delicious coffee of the day (no one makes that first coffee like SOH!) and checking my Face Book and Twitter - both of which I do avidly. Anyway - (I'm getting there...Patience!) on my Twitter account I see a tweet from Good Morning Devon regarding Cream Teas and the fact that Cornwall got voted the best - again! So off I tweet back about how marvelous we are at the Victoria with our Cream Teas etc etc................

Not 10 minutes later there is a lovely reporter Sophie from the radio station actually in the Victoria who just happens to be in Salcombe for another reason and wonders if I'd like to say Hi and talk about the pub and cream teas...............Would I??? Hell yes!!! Just one small problem - bed head, no make up and grubby dressing gown :( But I just couldn't turn down the opportunity for free publicity - hence I did a radio interview at about 9.15 in the morning sat in my garden in my slightly grubby dressing gown and slippers trying to look as though it was something I did every day. Not only that, I completely fluffed it not once but TWICE!!!! Oh the shame...........................

But Sophie was lovely and if you fancy having a look at what she does in HER spare time you can read it in her blog! http://devondispatches.blogspot.com/

Enjoy the sun today - it looks like we're in for another glorious day - and yes I am up, dressed and working!!!

Oh my feet..................

2011-04-09T16:19:00.000+01:00

Well I have to say it's a blessed relief to sit and write this log - my feet are flipping well killing me!! We are (I'm very pleased to say!) exceedingly busy. Saturday lunchtime and not even Easter yet and we've done 80 lunch covers today............. would help my poor kitchen staff if the kitchen extractor fan hadn't gone bang yesterday and is going to cost us Lord only knows how much to fix!! So they are gently glowing and do you know what? Not a moan from any of them.......Bless 'em.

The garden is finally finished and I'm almost ready to open it up in it's entirety - that's probably going to be next weekend - in the meantime the terraces and children's area is open and absolutely rocking!! Whats so incredible is that it's not even properly the 'season' yet.......... so long may the good weather continue!

The person in this picture is Victoria - and she stands guard proudly at the entrance to the path that leads to our garden - she has a label round her neck inviting you to walk up the path and come and look at the Chickens and our Budgies and for all the children to enjoy the climbing frame and slide...........

The orders have been placed for all our staff to have new shirts for the summer - we've gone for good quality polo shirts this time in bright colours, although the boys have stuck to Black and Purple, the girls are having Raspberries and Limes - should look gorgeous!

We also now have our new seating in place - the boats and their seat as tables and chairs, as well as the boat at the foot of the garden for some very interesting evenings we plan to have in the summer...... how does the sound of fish cooked over coals (just like they do in Spain) appeal to you??? We also have a few more surprises up our sleeve but not saying what just yet - otherwise, they're not a surprise!! By the way - if you like the look of 'Victoria' you can buy one just like her from Blue Water Salcombe, in Island Street - a re-branded new venture in Salcombe being led by some friends of ours. You really need to have a look when you're next down here...... not only have they got some great new clothing lines and all the things you need to go on the water (far too technical for me to talk about on here - but all the stuff for boats!!) and lots of toys, they are also having a great NEW Internet cafe. I've been in and had a nosy at it's going to look fab-u-lous!!!

What else - well SOH has taken a rare day off today to go sailing today - although I virtually had to put his arm up behind his back to make him go - it's all too easy to get caught up in the day to day work of pub life and remember we came down here to enjoy ourselves as well! I am having a day off on Monday to go clothes shopping for my Greek holiday in 6 weeks....... I am starting to get very excited already and the weight is still coming off!!! I did my first night time drive this week - and I didn't like it at all. but I've done it and if I have to do it again it won't be quite so frightening.

Later on this week I'm off to Manchester for just 2 nights to see my Brother who's a little bit poorly. Not driving though - letting the train take the strain! Right then, I'm off to help tidy up the remnants of late lunches in the garden and get ready for the evening onslaught! Keep well everyone and enjoy the early much needed sun!

Spain - where???

2011-03-28T19:56:00.000+01:00

Before the waves and wind came!

Well then - we went to Spain for a few days last weekend and I'm starting to think I dreamt the whole thing - but looking at the photo's it's clear I didn't!! We went away to celebrate our first whole year of marriage and we had an absolutely brilliant time. Weather was a bit pants, 1 really sunny day but after that huge winds and massive waves the like of which I've never seen before............... In fact all I could think about was the recent Tsunami in Japan. It actually made me quite depressed because the waves in Spain were really huge powerful things which were uprooting beach umbrella stands and throwing them out to sea and all I could think about was how the people that were affected by that dreadful tsunami must have felt and the dreadful devastation it caused. So many thousands of innocent lives taken away in a heartbeat - I actually sat on the sea wall and cried with the wind drying my tears! Anyway - apart from that, SOH and I had a lovely break - asleep till about 10.30 every morning except one (unheard of in our business!) delicious lazy breakfasts on the balcony, strolls along the promenade, and then quite delectable meals out in the evening! Oh and fabulous wines!! The Gin was quite nice as well............... :) Had two wonderful Tapas meals - I adore Tapas, just love the whole concept of picking at lots of little different tastes and textures. Discovered I LOVED the Spanish Black Pudding! Ole!!

Anyway - so back to normality now and back to the rush and hurry of getting every thing just right for the Easter break............. and I just cannot believe how busy we are right now! (neither can the staff!) Yesterday (Sunday) we did almost 150 meals - 150!!! We're not even in the 'season' yet either!! I'm going to be bulk buying pro-plus and caffeine drinks for us all........ only joking! But I do think we're going to have to revise our staffing levels quite soon. So I already have a couple of new people with us, and a couple more interested in coming to work with us - so I think we'll be ok. Our sea corner of the garden is almost done and just the other boat to come in for us to be able to offer cooked fish in the garden just like that offered in Spain - barbecued Sardines! Yum......... as well as another surprise for the garden in the offing!

We had the Old Gaffers back to sing on Friday - what a fantastic night especially as some of the Harbour and Rugby boys came in and then a complete change of pace with Symon- Paul a Harpist in the pub on Sunday! Both delightful in their own unique way. Both of them are going to be here on a monthly (or more) basis, so we are offering just that little bit extra and pleasing many (I HOPE!).

Um - and oh yes - a holiday in Greece for me (alone) in 6 weeks time!! Now, where did I put my Apple and Ryvita's.........????

What a great start to the season!!

2011-03-12T14:24:00.000Z

Crikey - if this is the start of the season Salcombe should be in for a good year! Yesterday we had standing room only in the bar and again last night we were really busy! Seems to be people taking 3/4 day breaks and really treating themselves. We've seen a rise in the numbers of puddings being sold (always a sign people are 'treating' themselves) and also the more expensive wines are being asked for.

I had hoped to be able to put a photo of exciting developments in our garden on this blog post - but, technology is resolutely determined to not allow me to upload anything today......... We're having the most amazing feature created at the top of our garden from hundred year old sailing boats, sailing artifacts and sails etc! Just wait till it's all finished!! We've also got some work coming in to provide food for the opening of a new business as well as the hosting of a Festival event in June. We're also going to be doing a 'Poppy Party' on the 10th June to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Royal British Legion. More of all that as the year progresses.

There seems to be a general consensus that people are staying home again this year - finance, airport delays, terrible weathers and disasters in far away places - I think they're all conspiring to encourage people to stay in UK again this year?? We have lots and lots of advance bookings for the Hobbit House and we're signing up to an electronic booking system as well which will make it even easier for potential guests to see if we have vacancies and if so, to be able to book on line.

I popped off down to Portsmouth again last weekend - my little car is giving me the most amazing freedom, and whilst I still don't like the motorway driving it is all starting to feel a little bit more natural. But Guy my driving instructor was absolutely right when he said that getting your license was only the start.......I've seen some bonkers driving and I am only surprised there are not more accidents on the road! Also discovered I can get lost even WITH a sat nav!!

I suppose it doesn't matter what business you're in, but particularly the hospitality business, I tend to be quite critical of the service I receive. Never more so than when I was in Pompey again last week. A huge world Hotel chain and the girl behind the bar couldn't even mix a Campari & Soda, the barman in a Harbour side pub who just sloshed the wine into a spritzer (I didn't complain - I was on the receiving end of a VERY large spritzer - but I bet his bosses stock take is a pickle!) and the slip shod service all round in the various establishments I visited. Tables not cleared and wiped down etc etc.........a poor indictment of our industry

SOH and I are bucking the trend of staying in the UK and we are going to have a short break next weekend in Spain for a couple of days to celebrate our 1st Wedding anniversary. Yes - a whole year since we said 'I Do' - where does the time go?? Scary isn't it! Then it's only 9 weeks till I go off for a whole week to Greece - Kefalonia actually, followed by SOH and his friends back to Spain for a week.    Sounds like we're permanently away but thats how it seems to go sometimes and then nothing for ages after that - we'll be too busy working (hopefully!).

So it's a determined effort now to lose at least another stone before I go to Greece - so although I'm not having my personal trainer again (JC) right now, I AM trying to remember all that he taught me! I'm using the gymn in the hotel at the top of the road and trying very very hard to eat healthily. Back on the wagon - on the water and off the wine! In fact, munching a very healthy apple as I type. So all being equal my efforts should pay off - I'm just 1 pound off what I was before Christmas last year, so I'm ok with that. So on that note, as the sun has gone in and the rain is starting I'm off to the gymn and also a sauna and steam today - so see you all again soon my lovelies!

P.S Huge Happy Birthday love to my big son Paul for tomorrow the 13th! Here's to a fantastic year for you son! X

Computers!

2011-03-02T15:32:00.000Z

Well all I seem to have done this last few days is work on the computer..........either uploading, downloading or transferring data! Replying to emails, writing e mails, writing a cancellation policy and compiling lists!!! Frankly, all a bit tedious and not overly exciting. One of the most frustrating things was uploading this video (link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkY4h-XYon ) of the 'Old Gaffers' who came to the Victoria to sing last week. It took close on 5 hours to upload to You Tube!! I thought these things were supposed to be easy................. I've also been playing around with our Victoria Inn website and after a couple of false starts I think I've got the hang of it now!

Anyway what a fantastic evening we all had last week and what great blokes the Old Gaffers are!! They are all local men and they bill themselves as: Men of the Sea singing Songs of the Sea, and my goodness they did just that. After the event a few of them stayed on and after just a couple of pints started singing again and at gone 10.30 we were all still singing and customers were still walking through the doors! In all of our three years here that evening ranked as one of the best ever and we can't wait to repeat it again and again - here's to the Old Gaffers becoming regular fixtures at the Vic!

What else? Well half term was an amazing week for trade. We were very, very busy almost every day of the half term break and it was fabulous as usual to see so many old faces coming in to say hello and spend time with us. Consequently, we were both a bit shattered after such a busy week, half term is normally agentle introduction to the season to come, but not so last week!

The weekend was particularly busy with about 80 covers downstairs and a private Birthday party upstairs in our function room for 'Bruce' and 16 of his friends and family. The function room lends itself really well to this type of intimate gathering - good light, great views out over the harbour - and of course great food and service! What more could you want??

Our new 'special' specials board was also a great success last week with new Lamb and fish dishes flying off the board. You may recall I've talked about ensuring that our main menu reflects a good 'pub grub' approach with dishes for most pockets and tastes. But to run beside that we wanted our 'specials' board to be really special and reflect not only our Chef's James greater cooking talents, but also dishes that are that bit more complex in content and taste and reflect that we can offer a more refined menu as well. You can see the new menu's in full on the Vic's website - http://www.victoriainn-salcombe.co.uk/ On another foodie note, James and I have been mulling over the idea of working with more sustainable fish other than Cod or Plaice etc, so on tonights menu we are trialling Gurnard with sauteed Leeks and Chorizo on crushed Garlic Potatoes - guess what I'm having for Dinner tonight?!

More work has started today on the garden, this time the very top end of our garden - we are going to transform a dull patch of garden that hardly anyone ever sits in - to a place of nautical interest.......! Boats, ropes and watery artifacts......... You'll just have to wait for the pictures! Better still come and see progress for yourself!

I'm off again this weekend to Portsmouth to see my son and his wife, and as it's the second time I've driven there on my own I'm not feeling so anxious about it and in fact I'm looking forward to it this time - and beter still - the weather forecast is good!!!!

Just before I finish for todays entry I thought you'd like to see a picture of some of our hardworking staff from last Sunday........... captions on a suitable postcard please!?!

Jessie, Karen and Alex - Great youngsters!

Tanya our second Chef and the boys: Mattie and little James

Hoorah it's half term

2011-02-18T17:22:00.000Z

Victoria Inn Frontage

Hoorah it's half term and we're all ready to welcome our guests and give them a great time!

The new spring menu is up and running and wow, it's been given the thumbs up by everyone who's eaten with us - absolutely everything is selling well. The closed sandwiches with new exciting fillings are proving hugely popular especially the Chorizo & Brie and the Crayfish Tails. The Steak & Onion Baguettes are to die for......... they are juicy and full of flavour - it's difficult keeping me away from them!

As for puds - well the Pan Seared Pineapple with Lime & Chilli Ice Cream is amazing. As well as a great new menu we have an improved 'specials' board and high upon it are Scallops, Monkfish and a wonderful Rack of Lamb with fresh Asparagus at the moment......Crikey, I'm salivating!

Other new ideas to look out for at the 'Vic' are firstly, a basket of reading glasses - how often do you get to a pub or a restaurant and you've forgotten your specs (all the time in my case!) well, know we have a basket of reading specs on the bar for you to help you see the menus or papers. Then if you want to sit out on the terraces right now, well it's still very cold - but we have some really colourful blankets for you to wrap yourself in and enjoy the fresh clean salcombe air.

Next, my lovely SOH has been working hard , planting up the tubs, and great new boxes we had especially made for the garden - and very nice they're starting to look as well. We also have something really, really exciting going to take shape in our garden, but until; it's done and looks as fabulous as we think it's going to look it's staying a secret - but I think all of the visitors to our garden will LOVE IT!!!!

SOH has also been working on the wine lists to make sure that they are reflecting what's popular and what people are drinking - AND - we've also introduced a loyalty card! You nominate just one item, and that could be a pint, a glass of wine or a Steak meal, but you pay for 9 and we give you the 10th one - COMPLETELY FREE!! Anyone who comes in the Victoria will offered a loyalty card as a way of us saying 'thank you' for their custom. On the Ales front we have the utterly amazing Admirals Ale on the pumps as a spring 'special'. I'm especially excited about Thursday 24th February at 8.00p.m - we have our first visit from the OLD GAFFERS! Devonian Men of the Sea singing singing Sea Songs (try saying that when you've had a few!!)

The Victoria 's own 'Likely Lads'!

Behind the scenes there's a lot going on as well and here are a couple of boys you'll be unlikely to see 'front of house' but this is Mattie and James - 2 of our kitchen hands who work their socks off ensuring the kitchen works to full capacity, they do most of the prep, cold section and the washing up and clearing down.

Our lovely Jessie

This young lady Jessie - well you will see her... she's one of our front of house staff and is really great either behind the bar or serving in the restaurant! Always a cheery smile and although quite shy, we think she has great potential in the hospitality business - in fact we're going on a 1 day course together in March (now I can drive I think there'll be more courses to go to!). Jessie is also very talented at writing the blackboards - an art all in itself! Lastly, of course there is James our Executive Chef with his back to the camera - working hard as always making sure that we have enough dishes to satisfy our guests! So it's off to the bar I go now - see what's going on, check up on the bookings for tonight and the weekend...... Hope we'll see some of you very soon!

Chef James doing what he does best!

The Dash

2011-02-12T17:08:00.000Z

Since I've been officially sworn in as Church Warden at Holy Trinity Church in Salcombe I have pottered about a bit in the Church, attended a couple of meetings, sat and had informal meetings with Father Daniel our Vicar but not much else yet really, except sadly having to 'look after' two very large funerals for local people. The Verger is the person who does the hard work of getting the Church tidy and ready - tidying and sorting etc - but I had to be around as the 'face' of the Church. The two funerals I've attended in that capacity were for people who were much loved in Salcombe and who made great contributions to Salcombe as a small town.

The funeral this week was for a lady called Jean Furness. I only met Jean a handful of times and found her in some respects to be a quite formidable lady - she had a great sense of humour and she was polite to me, but I always felt she was also a little guarded with me. I suspect that this guardedness was about us being outsiders coming into her beloved Salcombe, but the one thing I think we both had in common was our love of her home town - Salcombe! As well as a wife and mother she had been a councillor for many years, Vice Mayor and Mayor of the town and was instrumental in homes for local people as well as other important town decision making.

But until the tributes were read out I was unaware quite what part she'd played in the traditions of Salcombe and it's young peoples welfare. She'd been part of the Regatta committee ( a massive part of Salcombe tradition) since she was a very young girl, and played a huge role in making sure the event happened year in and year out as well as numerous other activities including the local swimming baths and the local Brownies etc.

It got me thinking about what small communities will do as the stalwarts of our communities start to disappear through age and death.  Who will take up the mantle of ensuring that traditions carry on for generations to come. Does anyone care enough to step up to the plate and take on the responsibilities?? My own Church is a very good example of this (as I expect it is up and down the land) the average age of the congregation can't be much under 55 and for tasks around the Church I seem to be calling upon the same people time and time again - for that, I guess we need to look at how we get younger people to attend the Church - but is there that spiritual draw for people? I don't know the answer - do you...??

Anyway, back to the funeral - of course a very sad affair but with a Church absolutely full of people eager to show their love and pay their respects to Jean and to support her grieving family.  I was reasonably detached through out the proceedings until a poem was read out called 'The Dash' by Linda Ellis, which moved me to tears with it's beautiful, simplistic message.

For me personally, this poem has been a sure sign from God that He is watching over me, as in the last couple of weeks when I've been mulling (short hand for worrying/anxious/stressed!) over various financial, business and personal matters it has put my life completely into perspective - and I'm really grateful that I was able to be at Jeans funeral to hear this poem.    So there is no more in this blog post except for this short poem that I want to share with you, and I hope it moves you to reflect on what your life is and what you can do with your 'Dash'!

The Dash

Linda Ellis

I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend.

He referred to the dates on her tombstone from the beginning to the end.

He noted that first came the date of her birth and spoke of the following date with tears,

But he said what mattered most of all was the Dash between those years.

For that Dash represents all the time that she spent alive on Earth,

And now only those who loved her know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own, the cars, the house, the cash,

What matter is how we live and love and how we spend our Dash.

So think about this long and hard; Are there things you’d like to change?

For you never know how much time is left that can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough to consider what’s true and real

And always try to understand the way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger and show appreciation more

And love the people in our lives like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect and more often wear a smile,

Remembering that this special dash might only last a little while.

So when your eulogy is being read with your life’s actions to rehash

Would you be proud of the things they say about how you spent your Dash?

Good evening from the Victoria Inn

2011-02-06T22:26:00.000Z

Good evening blog readers and what I thought was going to be a straight forward normal Sunday evening blog write is anything but as the B*****ds at Google have changed the way you add text and photo's and not told me!!! Hence this is my third attempt and as for photo's?? Well, that's going to be more luck than judgement and all because I have got a new camera and lots of pics to show you!! Growl............. Why change things when they're working so well......... I just don't get it! And I don't like it either!

OK - moving swiftly on - otherwise you'll think I'm auditioning for Grumpy Old Women! No thank you, I am not quite one of those just yet but I'm sure getting close!

Firstly, have you seen anything of two great TV programmes on recently - Mary Portas and Michel Roux? Both about customer service in their own way and both quite fabulous!

Mary shows customer service at its worst and how she would put things right and Michel Roux has taken a bunch of kids who've barely been in any thing other than McDonalds and turned them into good waiting staff with some showing signs of a great career in hospitality. But he's done it in such a lovely way - no hysterics, no Mr Ramsey swearing episodes and I think even I learnt a lot from the series - and even though I think we're great at customer service here at the Victoria I'm going to try to put some of his ideas in action. I started today with talking to a customer about Champagnes and then taking a glass to the table (we sell it individually) and going back to check she was happy etc ( ala Michel Roux's sommelier) and really enjoying doing it all a bit more fully! I've even got staff enthused about a different kind of customer 'experience' so watch out for some changes!!

Also I have a new camera thanks to SOH, so I've been out and about happily snapping away....... whether I can get them loaded on here is a different matter tonight! So here goes..........Ah - now I have to load the photos on to the net to load them on to the blog! Ah well - I have nothing else to be doing..... so then, here are some of my first offerings!

The gentleman here is Mr Smith MBE - known to all as Smee! He had a very prestigious Lifeboat career here in Salcombe and is a thoroughly nice man - photo taken obviously in the Victoria Inn bar. Great character and it was him who supplied the tractor for our wedding. The scenic one is of Salcombe 'bar' this week, the entrance to the Estuary - very wet, very windy, very wild and fantastic - Salcombe at it's best as far as I'm concerned. Lastly our little dogs: Rosie and Archie, both under 18 months and harder work than any child alone!! But we love them to death! The photo at the top is of our great sign outside the pub.

That's it for tonight - putting those 4 photo's on has taken me the best part of 30 minutes, loss of temper, a bar of chocolate and a glass of wine!!!! Hopefully next time will be easier.......................Night night all. X

Introducing Captain Morgans

2011-02-05T21:47:00.004Z

Just a quick blog tonight to let you know I've started a second blog - I know I can hear you - where do I get the time!!! I have to make the time to advertise our business's and blogging is a great way to do it! Plus, I think the Pub Landladys blog is getting a bit crowded with all the things I have/want/need to write about.......... hence the new blog: http://captainmorgans-salcombe.blogspot.com/

This new blog is all about our other business Captain Morgans - the breakfast cafe over the road from the Victoria.

I hope you like it and will follow it.................... I will write another exciting episode on the Pub Landlady's Life hopefully tomorrow! But for tonight, I need to go and sit down and let my dinner go down - I cooked for a change and it's nearly always calorie laden, tonight, was no real exception to that!!

Night all x

Wine House of the Year 2010

2011-01-29T20:21:00.017Z

That's right - we've won another award!! Not just us but all our wonderful staff as well! That's right, at the St Austell Tribute Estate awards (held at the Great Western Hotel in Newquay - very nice as well if you're ever in that neck of the woods!) last week we were delighted to find we had been short listed for 2 awards again this year - Marketing & Innovation (which we won last year) and Wine House of the Year - which we were shortlisted for last year but didn't win.

We were both really excited to see our shortlisting again this year (but soh who keeps my feet on the ground where he can!) advised caution against getting too excited........... the Marketing and Innovation came and went, and I sort of settled myself into the mindset of not being disappointed. This year the Wine House of the Year had 2 runners up - and when our name wasn't read out, I was almost sure we hadn't got it - needless to say when our name WAS read out - was I demure and gently pleased?? Hell NO!!! I let out a big whooop of delight and grinned from ear to ear!!

The award is a great for all of us at the Victoria Inn - it is judged on display, sales, knowledge etc and our staff certainly know their stuff when it comes to selling our wines so I am as pleased for them as I was for us........ it's a great all round achievement! The main picture is of us with Kathryn from the wine department at St Austell and Charles from De Castelnau - the sponsors of the award, and the smaller picture is of our friend Jim on the stage reading out the awards.

We were awarded a beautiful crystal trophy, a magnum of Champagne from De Castelnau, a weekend in Champagne later this year and a substantial monetary award - which I'm sure we will put too good use!

Of course, I stayed reasonably sober for the rest of the event.........(!) and I'm sure I must have eaten something that disagreed with me and made me feel so unwell for the next 2 days (coughs very loudly from SOH behind me as I say that!!). Needless to say, the last hour or so the evening are just a little tiny bit blurred....... :)

So then that's January and all of it's excitement almost over and done with - and my goodness, what a great month trading wise we have had.......... even today, when it's been freezing cold and blowing an absolute gale we have done almost 90 covers in the lunch hour! Without doubt our best January since we started here in Salcombe, and I'm absolutely sure it's down to the 2 new big hotel's that have opened here - The Marine Hotel and South Sands. Both great hotels, attracting the sort of visitors to them that are our type of visitor and the whole town feeling a boost because of it! Hoorah!!

Our bookings for the Hobbit House are coming in quite fast so far and February is fully booked up with a couple of workmen here doing some work on the Estuary, so all told, a good start to the year!

James (our Head Chef) and I have been working hard the last couple of weeks at introducing a Spring menu as I want to move away from just 2 new menu's a year to 4. This time we're also moving away from the open sandwiches to closed - but fantastic choices (Chorizo & Brie and Roast Beef & Creamed Horesradish to name 2 new ones) and also to a smaller main menu but more varied 'specials'. Great puds as always - Pan seared Pineapple with Cracked Black Pepper and White Chocolate & Raspberry Mousse to tickle your fancy amongst others, and we've desperately tried to keep the prices down as far as possible whilst having to work with the blessed VAT rise!

The new menu's come in on the 10th February - just in time for the half term, so it'll be interesting to see what our visitors think...............??

What does this week bring us then? Well, I think we're going to the EXPO 2011 show at Exeter - a trade show that's always worth a look round - with lots of free samples of all sorts of things as well as food tasting - memo to self: Pace yourself this year!! Remember that too much Ice Cream is a bad idea!! Then we may have to do a bit of cover at Captain Morgans because of staff changes and holidays etc - that might be a bit of fun as well! 2nd memo to self - Bacon Sarnies are lovely, but again - you can have too much of a good thing!!

Talking of food I've got my head back into gear about eating healthily and doing some exercise again - I have this great app on my IPhone which gets me walking and running, but the biting winds the last couple of days have hindered me somewhat, but I'm not getting too anxious about it - I know I can do it, just need the better weather really!

The following week my little Betsy is going to have to go to Smart for a bit of a once over - a most peculiar burning rubber smell from her engine every now and then (which is at the back of the car!) so as I'm off to Portsmouth again at the beginning of March I thought I should get her looked at in good time! I'm already at the stage of wondering how on earth I ever managed with out being able to drive and have a car, it already feels so natural to be able to zip here there and everywhere! I do hope they look after her............................

Till next time lovelies x

What an exciting January

2011-01-25T18:51:00.012Z

What an exciting January it's been! Following on from our big staff party was my first solo drive to Portsmouth to see my son.....(one of the really good reasons for learning to drive!) I'm not going to lie and say it was a total breeze because it wasn't - especially at the beginning!!!

I pulled in to the first available bus stop out of Salcombe and gave myself a right good talking to. The nerves of steel that propelled me through the lessons and the test deserted me at the last minute as the realisation of driving that distance alone and new to driving suddenly belted me across the head! My plan was to drive to Totnes and then round to Dartington and join the dual carriage way as far away as possible so I could be on it the least possible time! Then stay in the left lane all the way there never moving from that position for love nor money..........Mmm wonder why on earth I thought that!

So after the severe mental thrashing I gave myself, I set off proper..... and guess what? Just like on loads of other occasions the nerves disappeared and I drove like I'd been born to do it. The plan of sticking to the left lane didn't last long as I actually wanted to overtake, couldn't be sitting behind someone poodling along at 50mph...... and it was ok! I could do it. The more I did it the easier I realised it was.......... well, almost - until a very large Jaguar car that wasn't there was there as I started to move out! Oops...... but a good natured smile from the driver indicated he didn't think I was a complete moron!! I thought I was, but he didn't!! I also didn't like the heavy and dense fog patches I entered near Dorset way nor did I like the gusts of wind that I thought threatened to send me and my Betsy flying and resulted in very sweaty palms and a few words in His ear to please stop these extra tests on my nerves!

Then there was the slip road turning to a loo that didn't appear to be anywhere near where it should have been that resulted in a couple of miles detour - oh and lets not forget the fiasco that was the M & S at Exeter services which I completely missed and went round the roundabout in a complete circle!!!

But apart from that, it gave me a huge sense of achievement to be able to drive that distance, and then to also drive around my hometown - not only a sense of achievement, but also one of sadness at may be if I could have driven sooner doors would have opened to me in my career, I could have taken my darling Mum out and about, etc etc........ But I've done it now, so the next time can only be easier still. Since then, I've been out and about loads in Betsy - taking the dogs to the local beaches, using any excuse to do friends favours and generally just enjoying my new found freedom. Not tooooooo keen on driving with SOH though..................!

So a lovely short break with my boy and his wife, and also a delightful catch up at Brasserie Blanc at Gunwharf with an old friend of mine Pam. The first real catch up since our wedding last year and lots of 'do you remembers' and memories I'd completely forgotten. Pam and I shared a couple of great holidays together so there were lots of good times to recall.

But the most exciting news of all has to be our latest award - we won Wine House of the Year from the St Austell Tribute awards evening last week - and I'll blog again soon with photo's and details! I've aslo got my pre-summer break sorted - Greece!!

Till then good blog readers, keep smiling - the month of January is nearly gone!!

There's a lot happening

2011-01-18T20:42:00.021Z

So once again I'm not to sure where to start really...........??? This is going to be a relatively short blog post - but I hope you get the taste of what a night it was.

Our annual post Christmas staff party - and crikey me - what a party it was!!

We went to the Harbour Hotel at the top of the road, and they certainly looked after us! It was a nice change for our team who spend their working life making sure customers are well looked after to be waited on.

We had great food, lovely wine, lots of laughs and SOH & I didn't get landed with a too massive bill!!

This is a picture of most of our staff (before the drink flowed toooo much!) from both of our business's but 3 key figures were missing because of the dreaded flu bug that's going around........

The other photo's are when the drink had started to flow............ it was a really, really great night and everyone enjoyed themselves - the obligatory hangovers the next day proved it!!!

So thats the last year celebrated, our success, our challenges and now our future in a 2011 - hopefully onwards and upwards to even better things for both the Victoria Inn and Captain Morgans.

The next blog post will be about my drive to Portsmouth and some of the things that happened to me there................!

Soooo much news.

2011-01-11T19:02:00.029Z

I really don't know where to start!?!? First of all I suppose I ought to start with the traditional 'Happy New Year' to you all - OK, we're 11 days into 2011 but I think it's still appropriate don't you?

Lots of pics on this blog post so lets start with this fabulous picture of a celeb and me! None other than the gorgeous Ian Wright came into the Victoria again the other evening just before the NY. I say again, as this is the second time he's been in - he seems to like our pub, and after his performance that evening we really like him as well!

What a true gent he was! I confess to not being too sure who he was first time round, but this time I was better acquainted with his history, and he was by far (apart from Nick Knowles of course - swoon/sigh) the nicest 'celeb' we've had in the Victoria. He spoke to customers who came up to him, he made a huge fuss of a little lad who was a Man City supporter (his son is a footballer for the team, so I was told) even stopping on his way out to shake hands and say goodbye to everyone.

Next - our New Years Eve was an absolutely total rip roaring success.......... the bookings were a bit slow off the mark at first, but we went from half empty to full in about a day and a half and there was a fantastic atmosphere. A great party of drinkers that came in and stayed in, diners that also stayed and made the most of the evening and overall we were very happy with events, although I thought that Salcombe as a whole was a lot quieter this year. I love this picture of my very dear friend Theresa and I ............

Then for weeks now I've been keeping a secret........ for anyone that knows me, you'll know that this is almost an impossibility for me, but keep it I did! My best friend Tanya got married to Peter, with SOH and I just two of a select group invited up to London too be part of this fantastic event. Tanya and I have been through so much together in our twenty odd years of friendship, and my greatest wish in the last couple of years since her previous Husband died was that she would find the sort of happiness that I found with my Tim - and now she has!

The wedding was at Kensington & Chelsea Registry Office on a very wet day, but my goodness the love from all the guests soon outweighed what was falling from the sky!

Tanya looked stunning in her knee length designer dress, Versace shoes (an impossible 5 inches high - at least!!) her hair dressed up and make up (she hardly ever wears any - doesn't need too......!) just perfect. The groom as you can see, scrubbed up pretty well also!

The reception was at 'Toms Kitchen' in a private dining room - and I have to say it was an excellent bash all the way round - great food, excellent service and really lovely surroundings! I hope Tanya & Peter have a great long life together, filled with even more of the happiness and love that they AND all of us felt and witnessed on their wedding day.

To round off such a fabulous and memorable day, I treated SOH to seats to see Les Miserables in the West End in the evening, and flip me, what seats they were! Front row Circle almost directly in front of the stage..... I've never had such good seats to anything and they were worth every penny! Well, maybe lets not talk pennies - but hey, it's only money!!

Also, despite it being my third time of seeing this fabulous show, it still made me cry.......... with a woman sat on the right of Tim who was also crying at various points. He found that quite amusing!!! After the show, neither of us was particularly hungry (thanks to the lavish food at the wedding reception) so we had a very romantic hand in hand walk around London's sights ending up at the back of Harrods looking at the very expensive cars parked outside of the very expensive houses!! I'm sure we looked like a couple of crooks casing the place!!

So a pretty amazing start to the New Year of 2011, with a staff party that I'll talk about in the next blog. In the mean time I'm out practicing my driving skills as I'm driving myself to Portsmouth (at last!) this weekend to see my lovely son and his wife - my first ever long drive and solo as well..... so wish me luck people!!

Farewell 2010 - What a Year!!

2010-12-31T18:27:00.014Z

Farewell 2010 - What a year it's been, what a flipping year!!!! It's almost like an inventory when you look back on previous years isn't it..??? The good the bad and the ugly - and this year I'm so happy there's been so little bad or ugly!

In 2010 there have been great moments of joy and pure pleasure.......not least of course our marriage in March! Apart from the birth of my beautiful children my wedding to Tim was the greatest day of my life.....

I loved every moment and if I could live it all again I would!! Someone said to me that it was the most incredible informal / formal wedding they'd ever been to - it was everything we wanted it to be.. it was our dream come true!

I've proved to myself that if I really want to, then I can put my mind to do anything! I really concentrated on getting fitter and healthier this year - and the result was I lost almost 2 stone and was so fit at one stage I could do a good hour of exercise with 15 minutes of steps.

2010 was the year I decided to stop hiding behind different hair colours and show my true colours - and again, I wish I'd gone grey a long time ago!! Everyone comments on how it suits me, it's cheaper and it means I'm not spending valuable time sitting in hairdressers chairs - as much as I love you Leah!!

I also showed that by really concentrating and conquering an innate lifelong nervousness that I COULD learn to drive - and I did!! Passing as you know first time.

We also got our little Archie - a perfect playmate for Rosie and two little dogs who couldn't be loved anymore than they are......... and 2 little loves who give us so much joy and pleasure.

The Victoria Inn grew even more business this year and we cemented great friendships with people from all over the country. Considering we've been in the worst recession in living memory, business was frankly amazing at times. We are also both so grateful to all of our amazing staff at the Vic who deliver our vision of a fantastic pub.

Captain Morgans is at last finding it's feet and we have found our way with it........ some hiccups and frustrations along the way, but it's now feeling like it's ours in it's own right! Again - huge thanks must go to our staff over there who are making it work how we want it to work!

So what for 2011?? Firstly and as always in my life: My son, and now of course his wife have always been my top priority - so as always I hope that life continues to be kind to them in 2011 and that good health and happiness (and maybe just a little extra money!) continue to be theirs.

For SOH - I hope that he achieves things he has planned and that the love we have now continues and grows even more!

For the Vic we hope that customers continue to like what we're giving them.......... we already have some great ideas for the next year, which we'll uncover as we go on. We never rest on our laurels and we are constantly seeking to improve.

I hope that for my friends it's a year of joy - for one in particular I hope it's the start of the best years of your life, you so deserve love and happiness.................YOU know who you are!

For me? Well I have 3 resolutions this year:

To stop giving a toss this year about what people do or don't think of me

To live every single day that God gives me this year as fully and as joyfully as possible

To lose another 2 stone and get even fitter ....................!

I hope you have great New Year celebrations and that 2011 will be good for all of us - giving you all good health, fair wealth and huge happiness.

X X X X X X X X X X X X X

Happy Christmas everyone.........

2010-12-26T20:59:00.007Z

Well, I don't know about you dear readers but we had a perfectly splendid Christmas..... hope you all did too!

After such a truly awful trading week last week as the rest of the country struggled with freezing cold temperatures and unprecedented snowfalls and people were unable to travel, it was looking as though we were in for a quiet Christmas - and we had resigned ourselves to it being so........ but no, on Thursday the faithful Salcombe visitors started to arrive and what a welcome sight they were! Following a couple of Christmas parties the Victoria quickly got it's Christmas sparkle and a lovely 'buzz' went through the pub. What followed was a couple of days with old faces popping in and saying hello, I had a great time with my staff behind the bar spreading joy and goodwill(!) giving out packets of Christmas sweets to the children and generally having a lovely time as pub landlady.

Christmas Day we opened our pub from 11.30 to 2 - and my goodness what a great session!!! We were packed out and had a fantastic atmosphere in the pub. After that we were able to take our lovely Archie and Rosie out for a quick walk before going home and having OUR lunch...... Roast Duck (cooked by my handsome Husband) and all the trimmings followed by one of our chefs Xmas Puds............ some gorgeous pink fizz and a big snooze!! Pure heaven........

Talking of heaven, I did my bit at Church on Christmas Eve. My new found spirituality is fast becoming so very important to me and there is a communion service most mornings which I try to go to at least once a week. In that forty minutes or so I find great peace - I am at last learning to lose myself into Him. We sadly have a funeral next week for someone in our community who was very much loved and respected and I'm 'doing' it as Church Warden......... so I'm hoping that God will guide me and look after me and help me do the best job I can.

Aside from all of this I've only managed to go out in my little Betsy once........... I was quite nervous to start with as it was a little icy, but I settled int o it after a while and all was good. Such a great freedom to be able to just hop into her and go to the shops.... no more waiting for buses at cold bus stops or asking SOH for lifts! My next big challenge will be when I eventually get to go to Portsmouth to visit my son - a 3 and a bit hour drive...........

So for now that's about it - I'll do a quick blog before the end of the year, but in the meantime there are New Year menu's to sort and finalise, staff rota's to finish, business plan for 2011 to start and at least another dozen tasks to do!!!!

Let it snow, let it snow etc, etc................

2010-12-21T17:20:00.013Z

And so on and so on................... my goodness what disruption the recent snowfall across the UK has caused, and as much down here as anywhere I think?? Salcombe has certainly seen it's fair share of the snow plus hailstorms, thunder and lightening storms and some of the coldest winds I've felt in a very long time!! But worse still (and in common with a lot of the country) what a dreadful effect it's having on our business (as well as the rest of the town)! We regularly do between 70 - 90 covers every Sunday lunchtime - what did we do this last Sunday?? 8! Yes 8 - EIGHT!!! Yikes!!! Visitors of course have been unable / unwilling to take the risk of getting down here and then worry about being able to get home. Exeter / Halden way has been blocked and the outlying villages around us have been completely cut off. 15 minute trips into Kingsbridge have spread into an hour and cars being abandoned became less isolated incidents. I drove a little in the snow and ice - but called it quits at an early stage......... no point denting a confidence just yet!!

Local people have been slipping and sliding their way around and who can blame them for not wanting to break a leg getting down into town. However, I'm really pleased to tell all of you potential visitors to Salcombe this Christmas and New Year that things down here are slowly but surely getting back to normal - snow is still on the fields but roads (particularly the major roads) are fine and even the minor roads are far easier to get through on than they were, so please don't be to worried about travel when you get down here

So then moving on - Salcombe had it's first ever Christmas Street Party on Saturday and what an amazing day it was........ the picture above from http://www.explosures.co.uk/ is my SOH dressed up and ready to man our Mulled Wine / Roast Chestnuts and Hot Chocolate stand with James our chef, and they were kept very busy thank you! The picture of Whitestrand (opposite the Victoria) gives you a flavour of what had to be done to get the area cleared of snow and ice to able to lay the ice-rink and erect various marquee's / stalls etc.

The Victoria held a children craft 'shed' upstairs and my goodness, we were very pleasantly surprised how many children visited....... that was a great success!! The children made Mint Creams and craft'y stuff!

Father Christmas made an appearance in the square by sledge and stayed for several hours - and for me, it was the start of Christmas, particularly when I took little Franscesca's hand (main picture at the top - her Daddy is Father Daniel my friend) and took her up to him to say hello...... I had to gulp back a sob that threatened to escape :( The magic of Christmas that is children!!

But everyone played their part in the day and it all came together exceedingly well. It was especially fantastic to see so many local people, whole families out enjoying themselves and making for a great atmosphere! Hopefully it's the start of a bigger and better Christmas Party next year and maybe, just maybe also some sort of regular street market, which would be absolutely amazing for Salcombe, but there's a fair bit of negotiation and work to be done yet.......... so watch this space!

In common with many thousands of people, my own travel plans were disrupted and I wasn't able to go to Portsmouth on Sunday to see and have an early Christmas with my son and his wife, so SOH and I took ourselves off to the Harbour Hotel (formerly the Marine Hotel)

www.salcombe-harbour-hotel.co.uk for a rare Sunday lunch treat. We had a lovely large G & T, a very nice bottle of Rose and an even nicer 3 course lunch, (very tasty!!) followed by liquer chocs at home, a delicious nap and snuggles watching dreadful Christmas slush.......... but it was a great way to make me feel less miserable!! Even if at about 5.30 I remembered why I no longer drink in the day time!! Closely followed by a beautiful Carol Service at Holy Trinity Church that evening, and the spirit of Christmas slowly but surely came into our home on Sunday...........

We also had a really nice impromptu evening last week with our friends Donna & Micha from Catch, whose travel plans to Germany were also disrupted, where I cooked far more food than was needed but somehow all got ate! Don't you think that those times when it just happens are often so much better than the planned events??

What else?? Well thats about it really...........just hope that all our planned visitors are able to come down for the festive period. We have quite a few bookings for the Christmas Eve and NY Eve, but it's all in the lap of the Gods of the weather at the moment, so it's fingers crossed and a keen eye to the weather forecasts!!

Wow...... I passed!!!

2010-12-13T16:58:00.004Z

Wow - I passed my driving test today!! I can hardly believe it........

My biggest thanks go to Guy Parfett who was my instructor - I've spoken before on my blog about him & I couldn't have wished for a better instructor. No messing around, make it simple and don't make mountains out of molehills....... that was my Guy!! Despite having had three nearly four weeks of being really terribly unwell (ending with acute bronchitis at the end of last week!) I was totally fixated on getting to do my driving test, in fact it really gave me the impetus to get better almost! A mock test 2 days ago was a fail and I was on the verge of cancelling, but a 3 hour lesson yesterday saw me drive like an old hand and my confidence soared................. This morning it was like preparing for a job interview, a high level of excitement but not nerves until about 10 minutes before the test and then the nerves hit me like a steam train!!

Six of us waiting to take the test - I was by far the oldest, the others were really young men & women, slightly bored looking instructors, and then the examiners walked in and picked us off one by one! It turns out I had a senior examiner who tried really hard to put me at ease (reminding me to breath at one stage!!) and off we went. Both questions about the car and how it worked done, turn left onto the dreadful Pen Inn roundabout (Newton Abbott, Devon) hoorah we did this the other day and that was it really.................. a turn in the road (Thank you God for not letting it be a parallel park!!) drive back round the Pen Inn and off on the dual carriageway to Exeter...........it was here that I convinced myself I'd gone wrong but it was only here that I picked up 2 of the 3 fault points for late signal and a mirror. After that, I figured I couldn't do much more and just about relaxed when we got back to the test centre.

He said congratulations - I screeched, burst into tears and he said I'd had 'a good drive'............ You're not advised to drive home after a test, whether you fail or pass, and I can see why now!! I don't think I stopped shaking for about 3 hours afterwards..........So that's it, the fun really starts now doesn't it. I would quite like a Guy cardboard cut out to have in the passenger seat, but I will just have to put up with talking to myself the first few times I go out.

A huge thank you then to Guy - who kept saying it was just his job - well, yes it was, but he was genuinely nice, very good at instructing and I have his number if anyone local wants a great instructor.

Secondly and as always to SOH for encouraging me and also putting up with me (!) and now lastly to ME!!! In future in my life I just have to remember that there is very little I can't do if I put my mind to it - the only person stopping me achieving anything in my life in future IS ME!!!

Now then - where did I put my car keys............................. X

Good Morning Salcombe...........

2010-12-04T12:36:00.007Z

Its nice to be back!! Oh sorry, you don't know do you???? I've been back in to the delights of the hospital in Plymouth known as Derriford......... Went downhill from writing my last blog and feeling fairly positive to gagging for breath and wondering if I'd see Christmas this year! Of course I will - but I do love a bit of drama!

Seriously - this is all getting a bit repetitive isn't it, but I think my mental attitude (and physical aptitude) is a whole more different to January when I was last in for any length of time.

So then, Wednesday started with me feeling rubbish and practically unable to keep a breath in me - so a quick, (well, nothings quick down here in Salcombe really!) quick'ish trip to the chest clinic, a couple of tests confirmed my breathing ability had been reduced by about 2/3rds (yikes!!) and then a 7 hour wait in MAU to find me a bed............... SOH agreed to stay with me - that in itself a bit of a feat as he's not best keen on hospitals and there he observed that in previous ramblings I hadn't exaggerated one bit about the horrors of the NHS! In fairness the staff are battling against 'the system', the lady sure ain't for turning and almost nothing goes out of the routine procedures and system.

If I was asked 3 / 4 times my whole symptoms and medications etc, then you may understand why I snapped at a Nurse on the umpteenth time of asking if I took 'blue and brown inhalers dear?' that surely she had my notes to read... (oops, sorry Nurse!)

Despite having been referred to MAU by a hugely experienced (and absolutely lovely Asthma Sister - Beverley) I still had to be 'assessed' by a junior (very) Dr who then had to 'present' me to the duty Consultant many hours later............ who in several short sentences advised (as by the terribly lovely Beverley even more hours earlier) that I needed to be admitted for a little while! Sorry, but no shit Sherlock!!!!!!!!

Still at least I had a bed in MAU ( a feat in itself!!, off toddled SOH (about £10 lighter due to parking charges - thats another whole new story!!) and I thought I'd attempt some kip.......... nope! Just couldn't..... totally exhausted, eyeballs hanging out with tiredness, but no such luck! About 1.am I felt my eyelids start to be successful in closing - then guess what? Yep, they come to tell me they've found a proper bed for me on the chest ward - so at 2a.m I'm off!!!!!

I have to say that on this stay I have felt quite well looked after, as opposed to my previous experience. I guess it helps that I saw my own consultant both days - Dr Matt Masoli - and he's not only very good at what he does, he has a very 'human' face and approach and he's quite dishy as well.............But the NHS continues to have its challenges. Still no where near enough staff - the majority of those I saw were very dedicated to what they did, but they are (as so oft reported) rushed mad off their feet, just completely chasing their tails. There needs to be far more privacy, and there has to be a line of accountability. I saw several patients having to wait far longer than they should for meds etc.

On the plus side, I thought the ward was kept far cleaner and I saw much more evidence of addressing infection issues by hand cleaning etc. Some bonkers stuff though - a new inhaler Dr M wants me to have - the hospital don't stock it!! Have to wait now for my GP to prescribe it. Running out of bedpans for the elderly who can't go to the loo......?? Having to wait nearly 4 hrs for meds to take home - but not being able to release my bed????

So then - now I'm home again, rest, rest and a bit more rest, but already (I think) apart from retaining the cough (that'll last for weeks now) I'm pretty much on the road to recovery........... and the one single thing spurring me on is my driving test!! Very close now (not saying quite how close to you lot though) and I'm absolutely totally determined to take it.!!!

Keep warm, safe and dry lovely readers - till the next time and a whole lot less drama in between - God willing!!

De-Ja-Vu.............. or what!!

2010-11-30T13:35:00.016Z

Well I should have blogged a good week ago - but you know what? Life has a funny way of going 'just stop right there'! And so this last couple of days has seen me bouncing in and out of hospital again with my chest playing silly buggers already into this winter. Back from Jersey just two days and a quick treble nine into Torbay hospital to try to get me breathing properly, followed by another visit Sunday. This is the third time my chest has been poorly following flying, but what are you supposed to do - live in a bubble??? Anyway, as I sit here in our office snuggled up in scarf, thick socks and long woolly pully, (as well as other clothes of course!) my breathing is showing signs of being a bit more normal today and so hopefully I'm on the road to recovery again.

So lets start with that irony of irony's - the fundraising night for Salcombe First Responders - my very own personal ambulance service - or at least its starting to feel that way..... a fantastic night with £1500 raised and a photo and write up in the local paper the day after I had to use them again.......... Local traders and hoteliers, St Austell brewery and individuals were so very generous with gifts and customers were buying £20 - £30 worth of tickets at a time. We donated every single penny or prize money as well as providing the buffet and entertainment, and everyone agreed that it was a totally splendid night. Here are two of my friends JD and Debbie enjoying a chat at the bar of our newly re-furbished function room.

After that, well off to Jersey for a nice long romantic weekend together - Jersey at its best? Well maybe not at it's best but it was certainly nice enough. Mind you for what we spent we could have had a week in the Maldives probably but let's not dwell on that shall we!!

We stayed at a superb hotel - Hotel de France - in St Helier. I should know better than to believe what Trip Advisor says given my previous love / hate relationship with TA but the hotel had certainly had a couple of dodgy reviews, but I'm relieved and delighted that any fears I had were completely unjustified!

The hotel was very central and whilst not quite a 5 star in my opinion it was an excellent 4 star. Lovely staff, great food and an end bedroom away from the lifts........ A previous bad experience next to a lift has scarred us for life!!!!!! There is nothing worse than laying awake at one in the morning listening to lift shafts clanking away!

The main restaurant in this hotel is 'Saffron' a spice / Indian themed place, in which we had some of the best flavours ever in that style of food. But it was Saturday that was to give us the most incredible food experience ever.......... And that experience was 'Bohemia'!

Set in the main area of St Helier, Bohemia is a Michelin star restaurant led by Sean Rankin, one of the better celeb chefs. With the best customer service I've experienced
In a long time, our evening started with the most delicious canapes and pre-dinner drinks, and the whole evening was one of pure food theatre.

My personal favourite was the smoked Chocolate Tortellini with Venison - all I can say is wow!!! And a Cheese board (to die for - see pic of my choices....... can't you almost smell it???!). SOH's favourite part of the meal was the whole package - but his pudding which was a Pear / Frangipan dish was just fabulous and my pictures in no way do the food justice.

Dining in a Michelin starred restaurant is something that I've only ever dreamt about but I loved every moment of our evening at Bohemia. It was romantic, we were looked after, there was absolutely nothing to fault. The food itself was sublime and really reasonable at just under £50 each for the 3 courses, but supplements and of course the drinks made it a night you couldn't afford too often........ But truly a night to remember!

I'm pleased to report that we made a difference to the Jersey economy with a few purchases, particularly in the Jersey Pearl area where SOH bought me the most beautiful Gold, Diamond and Pearl earings and the use of a hire car meant we saw most parts of this pretty island including some of the pretty amazing war tunnels.

So then, for the time being it's continued rest , but hopefully cracking on with the driving lessons later this week and a test somewhere before Christmas, as well as think about Christmas itself...... the planned trip to Portsmouth this week to say hello to my gorgeous son and his wife will have to wait now but hopefully we can find a Sunday before Christmas to have our own little Christmas together.......Till then everyone, keep warm and as dry as possible in this icy snap!

Much Love x x x

Lest we forget..........

2010-11-14T22:39:00.012Z

It really must be something to do with getting older but for the last few years in particular I have found Remembrance Sunday to be particularly poignant, and I have spent a lot of time today trying to think why that is............There is certainly the element of my new found spirituality, but there is also something I guess about getting older and have a much better understanding of life in general - at least I think that's what it is............

I can remember my dear Mum watching the telly and getting a little bit 'sniffly' over this special Sunday but never wanting to talk about 'the old days' or be seen to be getting to 'soppy' about it. I can also remember being vaguely bored by the whole process of old men marching and much preferring to read a book or go and moon over the latest 'Jackie' magazine...........

Yet nowadays, I feel myself more and more drawn to wanting to know and be able to understand more about the terrible first and second world wars and the conflicts in between and those going on today. I suppose there is also a certain understanding of how dreadful Mans inhumanity to Man can be, and a certain sadness that I as an individual can do so little to stop it happening??

Today up at the Salcombe Remembrance Sunday Service I looked out across the 'Bar' at the entrance to our harbour during the two minutes silence, where the waves where crashing across it, the rain was lashing down and the wind blowing a gale and I thought of my own dear Father: Ernest Samuel Williams. A Welsh miner who served in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) for 3 years in the war and then went on to be part of the D Day landings. I can never begin to think what life must have be like for him and some of the sheer terror he would have known. So my thoughts were of my Daddy - they were also for all the Mum's today who have lost their beautiful young sons in more recent conflicts. Those who will never again be able to pick up the phone and say 'I Love you Son'.

So I guess today's blog is a little sad and possibly even self indulgent, but I so wanted to share with you 2 poems that have been written by children from schools in the Ivybridge area and organised (I think) by the Royal British Legion, Ivybridge. my SOH bought a copy at a recent meeting he went too in Ivybridge.

But first, let me urge all of you to consider the great work that the Royal British Legion do for Servicemen, ex-servicemen and their families. The RBL is not a great sexy 'in' charity, this is a long burning charity with great history itself. They work quietly and with amazing fortitude. They help those of all ages and in all circumstances. They help get monies from the Government that otherwise would go unclaimed, they help ex-servicemen & women who have fallen on hard times, who need assistance with medical and housing issues - and sadly as wars continue to happen and our service people get ever more injured or killed leaving families that need their help - then theirs is a Charity needed more now than ever. Please remember to support them as much as possible.

Now to these two amazing poems out of many very simple but incredibly moving poems, written I think by children of Primary School age. If after you've read them you would like a copy for yourself, then they are just £3 and if you send me your address I would be happy to get you a copy.

'Mixed Emotions' - Callum Duffy

Mixed emotion is light Blue
It tastes like sweet chilli sauce dancing on my tongue
It smells like musty perfume
Mixed emotion looks like a rainbow on a stormy day glinting in the sky!
Mixed emotion makes me feel like I am in a tropical thunderstorm
Mixed emotion makes me thank all the soldiers that have lost their lives
Sadness brews in my belly as I put that Poppy upon my body
As I feel the sadness grow and grow
I will know to thank you though

'Remember Me' - Bethany Madge

Seasons may pass, yet I am always here
Underneath this grave I shed a small tear
But do not cry for me my dear wife
Although, I am not alive my spirit is still full of life
Still remembering every kind thing that you do
You remember me and I will always remember you

Mountains and Molehills...............

2010-11-05T17:18:00.007Z

This is my last blog post before I'm yet another year older tomorrow, and this is the picture I liked most with as many candles as possible............ No kidding around - I'm 54 tomorrow, and you know what? Where the heck have the last 4 years gone since I turned 50???? I'll tell you where they've gone........... they've turned into a million differing memories! Most of those 4 years memories are really lovely, happy and exciting, a few are so awful and so horrendous I wish that I could forget them, whilst some are downright mundane but mostly it's been 4 years of fun, love, happiness, new friendships and exciting new adventures! I just hope the next 6 don't go as fast.........

Our great friends Lisa & Phil visited the other week (remember she's the professional photographer who did our wedding pics - http://www.lisabeaneyphotography.com/ ) and I got her to take a couple of shots of me to celebrate being a good stone and a half lighter now than I was this time last year - I particularly love this black and white one ........... Now don't you think that's the smile of a woman who's happy with her life???

Talking of new adventures etc - I had a couple of firsts yesterday.......... the biggest, I passed my driving theory exam!! Phew - now I've got to pass the big proper one, and all I'll say is that it's before Christmas (it's great for the diet!!) and secondly, last night I went to my first proper wine tasting event with SOH and our great friends Carl & Clare.

Now, having been to a distillery in Scotland a couple of years ago and getting distinctly pie eyed very quickly you would think I might have learnt??? Um No................ I went out with great intentions - a little sip, then make some comments about the clarity and smell etc and move on?

Yes?? NOOOOOO!! Firstly, the gentlemen pouring the drinks were fairly generous and secondly, there were over 70 wines, assorted Champagnes and spirits!! Well I ask you - whats a woman to do???

Our glorious local Sharpham Vineyard were there and I fell in love with their Rose and Pinot Noir, then there were some fabulous new World wines, then of course there were the French wines, the Argentinian wines oh yes, and the pudding wines...................then some superb Strawberry Liqueur, Marmalade Vodka, £50 Gin (that's its name) and then of course I just had to taste at least 4 maybe 5 whiskies......... do you get the picture????? Oh - did I mention the Plum Saki as well - I had seconds of that..........Needless to say, I had a good rosy glow on me and the journey home was amazingly fast! NO - of course I wasn't driving!!!!

What else this week - I was sworn in as Church Warden on Sunday by the Arch Deacon. I know, you're thinking how will she find the time?? Well, I want to put something back into my Church - it's given me a lot and now I can give a bit back. Church Warden means you're responsible for the smooth running of the Church, getting jobs done that need doing and ejecting drunks - eh voila I have the perfect job experience!! Yes and just re-reading this, I wonder how appropriate it is to talk about being tiddled and a Church Warden in the same blog post.......... ho hum........

Moving on, next week (Saturday 13th) we are having a special Gala evening at the Victoria for my favourite charity - Salcombe First Responders. Tickets have sold out and the shops and business's have been exceedingly generous with raffle prizes and gifts. My favourite celeb Nick Knowles has donated a signed DIY SOS tee shirt and picture - all I have to do now is find a way of making sure I put the highest bid in for it! St Austell brewery have also donated an Ipod shuffle, so it should be a fantastic evening.

Now then, going back to the title of my blog this week - Mountains and Molehills. This refers to my driving. I plucked up the courage to go out in Betsy last week without my instructor Guy and have been out 3 times now - twice with girl friends and once with SOH! I think driving with SOH in the passenger seat may well be the quickest way to a divorce, so I don't think we'll do it too often - but I am absolutely loving the driving........ the driving that is - NOT the reversing! So today, my lovely instructor Guy, says 'well we'll just practice that then won't we'..... and considering I need to be able to reverse for the test (oh yes, and driving in general!) that's what we did!

Oh dear - I had a little bit of a tantrum.........I couldn't get that little 8ft 8inches of car into 2 parallel lines!! To the point I almost burst into tears...... :( But did Guy flinch?? Not a bit of it. he made me do it again. And again. And again................ and I BLOODY WELL DID IT!!!! I at last got it!!! What did he say??? I quote' Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill!' unquote....... Bless him!!

So on that happy note - it's goodnight from me and it's goodnight from Rosie sat curled up at my feet with one beady eye watching every move I make hoping I'll stand up, get my coat and take her out...... come on then Rosie get your lead.

Till the next one dear lovely readers............ X

Happy, Happy, Happy???

2010-10-19T17:12:00.005+01:00

This is quite a personal post for me this time - so swap pages if you're not that interested in me as a person.............! Oh dear , that sounds a bit confrontational doesn't it.???? Don't mean it to be.

Most people when they meet me either like me or hate me - I'm a definite Marmite person! I have always come across as a very larger than life character, full of life and oomph, very much in control and not scared of anything or anyone......... I once had a manager tell me that I certainly didn't need an assertiveness course as any more assertive and I'd be aggressive.........So you can see my starting block can't you. It's true there are certainly few people I'd afraid of and in my life that has served me well.

When I was about eight years old, my darling Daddy died and it was left to my Mum to bring me up. In common with a lot of kids in that situation I was severely bullied about it and that bullying carried on it to my adult life in one form or another. I was in Junior school - I think about the 2nd term and I was really struggling to understand life. No Daddy and a Mum who was forced to go back to the workplace to support us. I remember so clearly being in a needlework lesson (yea - that's how old I am!!) and I had tried so hard to make this apron, but when cutting a thread I cut the apron itself! My teacher (Miss Stewart) snatched the apron, told me I was 'a stupid girl and that I would never make anything of myself'......................

For most of my adult life I've been surrounded by that sort of re-inforced message from many people in one way or another - until, I met SOH (by the way - that now stands for Scrumptious Official Husband) who immediately seemed to see something in me that few other people saw. So it started - my first ever flight and holiday away, fixing things that previously a male had done, instilling a confidence to do things previously I'd have shied away from. Now, I realise I've got a few important men in my life and they are all bringing something pretty unique to my life:

First and foremost, there is of course SOH - encouraging me (and chivvying me) where I need it and constantly re-assuring me of my right to be in this life.

Then there is my personal trainer JC - who not only trains me but helps me see things from a different perspective. So this last week or two has been a bit difficult - I had a weeks holiday, ate and drank too much so the training was hard - and now of course, its that time of year when my Asthma will be a bit twitchy, and the weight loss has stalled .......... but he understands me - he 'gets' me, and he brings me books and articles to read that help re-inforce the good messages and take away the bad. He has patience when I can't quite do the reps and real delight when I succeed.

Now there is also my driving instructor - Guy! A Saint in disguise I think.................. I've had about 12 lessons so far - and don't forget we live in the land of hill starts, bendy lanes and winding roads. Now I'm driving in my own car, I seem to have had a little set back in confidence..... does he care? He certainly does and with a smile on his face we trot round and round the car parks of Kingsbridge (a local town) until I'm 'Happy, Happy, Happy'. Today gave me an everlasting memory - going across a junction, I decide to go in front of a 4x4 which was a bit closer than I guessed - the driver gave me a look that said 'I can't believe you just did that', Guy very gently said ' I probably would have waited till he'd gone past'........ and I am still smiling at that instead of berating myself for ever!

Lastly of course, I have the big Man upstairs on my side as well........... a new(ish) addition to my life but a huge part of it.

So with all these lovely blokes in my life I believe a new more confident chapter in my life is slowly but surely opening up before me - don't you think??? As for needlework - I still don't do it..................

P.S The picture is of Rosie and Archie in the back of Betsy my Smart car................ Cute or what??

Well - we do feel rested.............

2010-10-14T16:24:00.013+01:00

Thanks to this gorgeous cottage in West Wales and called Murmer y Ceri. We rented the cottage through a firm called http://www.qualitycottages.co.uk/ and we all (we took the dogs) had a fantastic 6 night break. I would recommend the firm to anyone looking to have a break away, they had some great properties in their portfolio and it took us ages to choose - but I'm so glad we settled on this one. It was surrounded by fields and the Teifi river - Archie & Rosie Posie were in heaven!

The owners Alan and Meirion had left us a welcome hospitality tray complete with welsh cakes, and a vase of fresh flowers...... what a nice touch and just what we needed after almost 5 hours on the road. The house itself was absolutely spotless and they had thought of everything - including a blanket and towels for the dogs. What was really interesting, was that although we spend 24 hours a day with each other, we haven't actually had more than a couple of holidays over 3 days together since we met, so to spend 'proper' leisure time together is a new experience - but I'm pleased to report that we still were as much in love at the end of the holiday as we were at the start! Because we don't cook much at our home in Salcombe, it was a real novelty to cook and eat together in the evenings - so I treated us to great food and lovely wine and then SOH cooked breakfast.......... well, I say breakfast - we actually didn't surface much before 10.30 most days!!!

We're used to lovely beaches and scenery here in Devon now, but some of the beaches we visited in Wales were exquisite! Aberporth was gorgeous, Cenarth had a river that roared as it went past you and we looked hard for the Salmon leaping but to no avail! It was at Cenarth that we experienced a meal of Cowl or Cawl - basically a meal of chopped gammon in a stew and served with a roll, butter and a piece of cheese - £9.00 for lunch!! Fabulous and we were full for hours after that! I have to say that except for one lunch in a seaside pub - The Ship Inn, Tresaith - we didn't even venture near a pub. Firstly, I have to say that on the whole (sorry!) they looked decidedly grotty, but we didn't want to go in one on our holidays anyway! We'd only have been comparing and talking business anyway!! We went to St Davids and did lots of walking and just enjoying fresh air and relaxation.

The weather was a bit iffy to start with, but rained mostly at night and we were able to get out and about in the day time. On the way home we took a detour round Cardiff (mmnn, less said about that the better!) but I was delighted to look up at the precise moment we passed the birthplace of the singer Ivor Novello - his Mother gave my Father some singing lessons apparently, so that was quite special for me!!

James our Chef looked after the Victoria admirably, and we have taken a decision to do something like this at least twice a year. Life is just too short not to!! So I think it'll be Cornwall in February after the half term next year! But of course we have our romantic weekend in Jersey to look forward to in November first........

Then this week we had a lovely evening away for a Dinner Dance in Plymouth as guests of our friend Keith de Bruin (and his wife) the Chairman of the BII in the West. Frank Carson (yes, he is still alive!) was the entertainment of the evening and he was really quite funny with a fantastic memory - which for someone knocking on the door of 84 made it even more incredible! We ended up going to a pub open till 4 in the morning and not calling it a day until almost 3a.m - I was a little 'tired' yesterday that's for sure.............. :)

So then - back to work! The White Hart is over and done with - just some remaining bills to pay and that's that! I must confess to a feeling of relief now that we're back to just the 2 business's, and talking of which they are doing ok! The fire is lit at the Victoria in the fantastic fireplace and already with the weather turned a lot cooler its a huge draw for customers - this photo was taken this afternoon. The new Autumn / Winter menu is selling well and James has put a fantastic Lamb Hot Pot and Chicken Chausseur on the specials........... good rib sticking food for this time of year. The accommodation is doing reasonably well - weekends in particular, but again tonight both rooms are booked - hoorah!!

Captain Morgans is quieter than I'd like it to be, but still ticking over and I'm looking forward to planning a bit of a make over for December! I think the main part of the Cafe needs a whole new look - and we have plans...???? But not telling you what they are for now - you'll have to wait and see.

We are already looking to the future for the Victoria - work is starting in the garden this week to brighten it up a bit, do a little landscaping and also sort out some of the grassed area where the intense rain we had in the summer combined with hundreds of pairs of feet walking up and down has rendered a particular area of the garden into a mud bath. We're also going to be doing some work with WaterAid - a charity that is dedicated to providing safe domestic water to the poorest parts of the world. We are just waiting for the pack but I think it will be a great way to make some contribution to people who don't have access to the thing we take most for granted!

Lastly, we are having a gala night here at the Victoria on the 13th November for my favourite local charity - Salcombe First Responders, and we're going to donate every single penny of the tickets and raffle money to the charity. Think that'll do for now - I really need to get down down to a bit of tidying up in the office!

Till later my dear friends......................... X

Miss Betsy Smart

2010-09-30T21:18:00.010+01:00

Here she is - the latest addition to our household - Miss Betsy Smart! At around about 8ft 8ins long and nowhere near as wide, she's just under 3 years old and has only done 22,000 miles. She's a gorgeous jet black polished exterior and inside she's a fabulous orange / red. Of course - 'she's' a car, and she's all mine!!!!! When we went to Mercedes Benz showroom in Exeter last week we met with the Manager - Jo. A lovely young man and very enthusiastic about his job and getting the right car for the person concerned - namely me!

I was drawn between Betsy and a bright yellow Smart (oh and a metallic blue one as well) - but the yellow one had peculiar chevron things as adornments and I thought that while I'm bright and bubbly, the yellow was a bridge too far. As soon as I sat on Betsy's seat and felt her warmth envelop me - I was truly in love............! Just have to pass the test now - well actually, have to do a few more lessons now as well........ but only one more proper manoeuvre to learn and then out on the dual carriageway - eek!!! Then it'll be a case of practice, practice and more practice - but I've been learning about visualisation and positive thought with a good friend and I think that's really helped. How about this for a saying (amongst others): If you think you can - you will........................ not bad eh! Works for me!!

Then this other photo is of my gorgeous son at our wedding in March - he only sent me it a little while ago - and I just wanted to share it with you! Handsome bloke don't you think......???

What else - well the workouts continue at a pace, in fact a singularly splendid session yesterday surprised me for just what I have achieved and what I can do now. The weight loss has come to a bit of a standstill, so I'm having a break for a week or two and then crack back on with it.

Talking about having a break - we're all of on our hols on Saturday - to Wales for a week and lo! What is that I can hear on the forecast? Rain! Surely not in Wales................laughing aloud as I type!!! Of course it'll bloody rain - not that I give a hoot! We've hired a cottage in deepest darkest proper Wales - where Welsh is spoken first, last and at all times I think (looking at the websites) where we look as though we're in the middle of fields with no neighbours, no phone signal and only a stream and grass to keep us company - BLISS!!!!! We've both bought lots of books - I have a self help book from my trainer (to help my head - AND my body), a 'Put Heads on your Beds' book (to increase profits) and a couple of girly books (to send me to sleep). Lots of DVD's, a bottle of Gin (purely night cap stuff!) a list of things to take for the dogs and hey hey - we're off............Well almost - there's walking boots, trainers, posh shoes, ordinary boots - then there's wet weather gear, dry weather gear, linen trousers just in case, thick dressing gown and thin dressing gown, one set of 'posh' clothes just in case and lots of sloppies for the more obvous Welsh delights! Mmmnnn - and thats just me - SOH will probably just have the usual one small holdall................

So on Saturday morning as we head off into the sunrise on only our second proper holiday TOGETHER since we met, I'll leave all thoughts of Salcombe and Modbury and everywhere else behind, all in the capable hands of our Chef, James and the rest of our wonderful staff safe in the knowledge it'll all be looked after and here to come home to, too start all over again.

Canfod 'ch mewn wythnosau amsera x

Then on to Autumn........

2010-09-19T18:38:00.011+01:00

Don't you think there's a bit of a nip in the air in the mornings and evening's.....?? I love the Autumn - it's my favourite time of the year, and I especially love Autumn in Salcombe. There are still quite a few people in town but it's lost that huge hustle and bustle and a feeling of not being able to move for hordes or cars and tourists. It's not quite lazy and yet the town has a nice gentle feel to it - locals are coming back into the Victoria and old faces who love this time of year here are appearing for their 2 or 3 week sabbatical. Now then, where shall I start - well, firstly my training with JC is paying off dividends..... I'm now a whole 20lbs lighter than I was when we started! He also has these amazing scales that show not only weight loss but water, fat round your organs, bone mass etc - very interesting actually - so you get a whole picture. Then there's my new short hair with its natural colour that I'm really starting to love as well as receiving lots of lovely compliments on how well I'm looking so that's all very lovely!!! On top of that, I have started driving lessons - and I am chuffed with how well I'm doing. Guy is my instructor and after a couple of dodgy moments in the first lesson I've one what he said - relaxed, thought about my positioning in the road and used my mirrors, and on Friday I drove all the way home from Kingsbridge! SOH has even started looking for a little SMART car for me......................

Work wise, we've been making some serious business decisions - particularly about the White Hart. When we took on the temporary tenancy we did it for a couple of reasons; firstly the challenge of taking a pub from scratch and making it work, secondly, we rather liked the idea of being 'multiple operators' for the brewery - taking this pub and then using the business model for maybe 2 or 3 others. Well, we soon discovered that for us, the dreams didn't match the reality! Immediate issues with staffing made it all very difficult right from the off - as well as the usual teething problems with appliances that every pub suffers, getting the pub up and off the ground when the last 2 owners had gone bankrupt meant we had a hard audience in Modbury to try to impress - I'll never forget the 'interview' with a local before being allowed to do a wake!! It's also been much more difficult than we thought in trying to get the right mix of time at both pubs - being 'seen' at both was proving almost impossible! Great in theory but bloody difficult to achieve in reality.

So we have asked the brewery to accept our notice, which they have done and I'm absolutely delighted to say that Mark & Christine (our current managers) have been selected by the brewery to become tenants in their own right of the White Hart from the end of September. We are so pleased for them, they have worked really hard for us in achieving the start of a great local customer base; the pub has a sound regular clientele now, the hotel rooms have come 6th in the Trip Advisor rankings for the whole of the UK, with the breakfasts often being cited in reviews as the best ever and I know it's only a matter of time before the beautiful function room upstairs starts to get regular bookings.

I still believe that the White Hart has huge potential and that they are completely the right people to do it, but for us.......? Well, we'll go back full time to our lovely Victoria Inn and of course Captain Morgans! We didn't come down to Salcombe to kill ourselves, we tried with the WH and I don't feel we've failed, but being multiple pub operators is perhaps just not the lifestyle we want after all.

So here's a toast to Mark & Christine and the White Hart Hotel, Modbury and lots of good wishes for it's continued future success.

Great times in Portsmouth

2010-09-08T20:28:00.014+01:00

Or should that read - great shopping times in Portsmouth!! Evening dear friends - its me with my ramblings for another half hour or so! Yes, I've been in Portsmouth for a couple of days and what a lovely time I had....... I stayed at a fabulous guest house in Southsea called The Retreat, http://www.theretreatguesthouse.co.uk/ and all I can say is sod the big hotels in future where the prices are high and the service is low, it'll be The Retreat for me from now on when I visit Portsmouth. I had a lovely, airy room - it felt really french, and I had to almost climb on to the bed. Very odd though being back near a main road and in the middle of hustle and bustle after the peace of Salcombe, but I did loads and loads of walking, but better still, loads and loads of shopping! Yes, this shop starved little soul hit the shops with a vengeance and with a couple of bits of plastic, a few bob from the bank (thank you hole in the wall!) AND a slightly smaller body (thank you JC!) I had fun............ and fun for me constituted: 3 pairs of boots, 2 pairs of trainers, 1 pair of walking shoes, a dress, several tops, several items of costume jewellery and other assorted goodies!! Now then, what was not quite so much fun was hauling that lot on and off the train.

Spent time with my lovely son Paul & his wife (pic above) met with my fabulous friend Tanya, did a fair bit of eating out and generally had a cracking couple of days! Came back to Salcombe to find summer had officially ended - the town was just SOOOOO much quieter, but it's settled down to a normal (ish) September - I would say it feels a little quieter than last year, but overall ok.

We had a super 'celeb' at the Victoria recently - the utterly gorgeous and very charming Nick Knowles from DIY SOS etc. Yes folks, he really is that gorgeous....... I would go so far as to say that he is my favourite 'celeb' in our pub so far. Polite and friendly, spoke to staff so easily and he also had a crackingly gorgeous lady with him as well....... I hope he comes back another day very soon! Thanks to Mr Knowles SOH got a new Quba coat! Nick had bought a new edition that day - a lovely Red Quba coat http://www.quba.com/ from one of their fabulous shops here in Salcombe and SOH said how much he liked it, so blow it, I bought one for him...... We also had the footballer Ian Wright in as well, so us women have had plenty to swoon about over the last few weeks!! A shortage of female celebs though for the boys..............

Back to business - The White Hart Hotel has come 6th on Trip Advisor out of the entire countries B & B's / Hotels that serve real ales...... that's a remarkable achievement and our Manager's Chris & Mark have worked so hard to get there, so a massive well done to them.

Here at the Victoria I had one of my favourite jobs this week - menu planning for the Winter with James our Chef, and also working on Christmas menu's which will go out this weekend, looking with Saltaire Garden Services to re-work certain aspects of our garden here to make it even more fabulous for next summer. SOH has re-designed the wine lay out in the bar area and very good it looks as well........ Our main aim for the winter has to be to ensure that despite the worst recession in history, we continue to stay at the top of our game and offer the best we possibly can in all aspects of our business! On that note, the rooms continue to do really well, but we are shutting for a week in October when we go to Wales for a holiday so that the ghastly green can become a more subtle Buttermilk! Oh blow, I should have asked Nick's advice..............

Then on to my next own personal challenge - I AM going to learn to drive! A couple of hesitant calls this week and I have my first lesson booked for Monday and SOH bless him, has already looked at little SMART cars for me!! Dependant on whether Monday proves I'm totally unteachable or not! But I have a new mantra posted up in several places (office/flat etc)to help re-inforce a positive attitude:

I Can and WILL Succeed at Everything I Do

I think that is about all for now then - I have new menu's to type up and driving theory tests to practice!!

Just a quickie..............

2010-08-26T23:09:00.006+01:00

Well then - we're almost through the holidays!! A last hoorah this weekend with the Bank Holiday and then it will be a gradual return to the newly weds and the more mature couples.

It's been a pretty horrendous week weather wise, with rain water cascading down the middle of the street. I had to take the dogs out in the middle of it all (dogs bladders wait for no one - rain or not!) and stepped straight off the kerb and into an ankle deep puddle....... trust me, the words 'f'ing hell' came out a lot louder than I meant them to!!!! But the Bank Hols promise better weather apparently.

Talking of the dogs they both had haircuts today, as did I yesterday - pictures of both to follow next blog. Suffice to tell you that I have gone from long flowing blonde locks as per the wedding photo's to growing all of the colour out and a very short crop........... But I love it, and more to the point so does SOH!!

My latest love arrived this week at the Victoria - a York Fitness Bench!! Whoever would have thought that I would EVER get so excited about a piece of fitness equipment........ and oh yes, 5kg weights as well!! When the weights arrived I could barely lift the box - now JC has me using them like they're feather dusters..... ok, a slight exaggeration, but still can't believe how easy I've got to grips with all of this training malarky - and I'm still loving it!!!!! A record 6 minutes on the 'step' today and I could still talk and breath at the same time!! No respite for the poor man..................

After the Bank Hols I'm off to Portsmouth for a few days to see my lovely son & his wife, catch up with some old friends I haven't seen for a while, spend time with my bestest mate and hear all her news and probably (hello - probably!!) do a little incy, wincy, tiny bit of retail therapy.

Until the next time dear readers ...........................

In the words of Andy Williams

2010-08-21T23:03:00.016+01:00

'We're almost there' ............... through the summer 'season' that is! About another fortnight to go that's all. I have to say that its been quite a mixed bag! We have had most days when you haven't been able to see past the bar at the Victoria Inn as the customers just kept appearing and we ran out (almost) of glasses on a number of occasions and all was as you would expect it to be at this time of year and yet a few others when it's been eerily quiet and we've wondered if that's it! Our BBQ hasn't gone so well this year, but talking to our Butcher he told me that a lot of customers having been buying their own BBQ stuff - so maybe (and with the dodgy weather as well!) it just wasn't our year for that this year. Having our new upstairs restaurant open as much as possible has paid off dividends though and most people have really liked it - a couple have said they missed the 'buzz' of the main downstairs bar but most like the gentleness and peace of the upstairs restaurant and although I love the fact we're a child and dog friendly sort of place we tend not to put children up there (no dogs at all).

The town in my opinion doesn't seem anywhere near as busy as it was last year in our first ever season, and talking to some of the other shopkeepers etc it's evidently been a pretty odd time all round. Some have openly said to me that they are as much as 20% down, while others have said they're holding their own..... who knows, but in the worst recession this country has ever known - holding your own can't be bad - can it?

We had a Restaurant/ Travel critic review us this week - Anthea Gerrie, (she writes for on line publications, The Independent etc and the Jewish Chronicle) her Husband and gorgeous big old dog! Now I can't lie and say that these sorts of visits don't fill me with dread but I have the confidence in my staff here at the Victoria to know that they will deliver - and boy, deliver they did! Just as they always do with all our customers................. but suffice to say there was just a little more cleaning done that day than perhaps nomal!! :) Fortunately, they seemed to like us and actually, I warmed to her much more than I expected to - she was really down to earth!

Here is her review: http://www .thetraveleditor.com/article/5709/Restaurant_Reviews_Pub_Bar_Victoria_Inn_Salcombe_south_Devon.html

In another article, she puts the Victoria as the best pub in Salcombe - with even Captain Morgans getting a few words......http://www.thejc.com/travel/holidays/36269/its-no-mystery-why-christie-loved-devon considering the controversial reviews we've had on Trip Advisor lately it was heartening to read such a nice, unsolicited review.

The White Hart in Modbury has told a similar tale trade wise, but the Hotel and the rooms part of it are particularly busy, and Sunday lunch trade is growing a treat. Finding staff for the pub is proving just as hard as getting staff for the Victoria - I've been searching for a cook for the last 3 weeks now - countless newspaper adverts and chivvying calls to the Job Centre have not attracted one single applicant. Not one!! For God's sake - there's a recession and (supposedly) record unemployment.......... With the Victoria being so full on we haven't spent much time there at all, but Christine and Mark are doing a fantastic job and I know that the White Hart is in safe hands!

Captain Morgans is doing well - the last couple of weeks have seen record numbers, but I want us to do some work on this place over the winter and try to re-organise the (exceptionally) small kitchen so it all works smoother and is more streamlined. It's hot, hard work though for our boys and girls over there and I have the deepest admiration for them.

As for SOH and I, well, we had a whole day off yesterday (well almost a whole day!) and we went for a jaunt into Cornwall......... we couldn't have chosen a worse day if we'd tried! It poured with rain and in places we couldn't see 6 feet in front of us in the country lanes - but we had a fab time. We went to a place called Seaton, Portwrinkle, Corsand and then back to Torpoint for the car ferry back to Plymouth.

The photo is of us at Seaton - a fantastic beach where yesterday the waves were like full on winter ones! As you can see, the sand on the beach is almost black in colour - and the sea really was that grey!!

But I came away feeling totally exhilarated -for someone who can't swim a stroke and who is totally terrified if the sea has more than a gentle swell when I'm paddling, I do absolutely adore the sea when it's at it's roughest and most dangerous like that. We sat in the car after our walk eating sandwiches and crisps (sorry JC!!) like a pair of pensioners - but it was the best time in ages!!

We've also started to seriously consider where we might buy a house for our future, so this visit took on the timbre of other similar explorations - house looking.......... too small, too new, definitely too expensive etc etc....... by the sea or in the country? 6 months in Spain and 6 months in UK? Buy a plot of land and build or get an old country cottage?? How about a marine apartment....... Devon, Cornwall - Wales?? Who knows?? I blame 'A Home in the Country' (a late tea time TV programme) for our debates!!! All I do know is that I think we're going to have fun finding our dream home........must make sure there's room for our matching Zimmer Frames though :) :)

Then last night we ate out at a great Italian restaurant in Salcombe, 'Catch' run by our lovely mates Micha & Donna, wearing trousers and a top that I've not worn in a long time thanks to my new fitness regime. They joined us after our meal and we went for cocktails at the newest establishment in town - The Island Street Bar & Grill. We ended up having a slightly raucous night thanks to a couple of 'Long Island Teas' (sorry again JC!!) and Mojito's (my fav!!) but felt surprisingly ok this morning! Our first proper day off in almost 5 weeks was celebrated in style and I feel ready to take on the world again...........

The Sun will come out - Tomorrow!

2010-08-06T11:29:00.016+01:00

Because right now in Salcombe as I sit typing this blog it's hissing down with rain!! Lots of wet holidaymakers with quite glum faces....... but here's something to put a smile on YOUR faces - my lovely two little doggies......sitting very patiently on the stairs of our flat while I took their picture and Archie being carried out for his nightly 'P' before going 'night night's'..... because he flatly refuses to get up and walk out once he's settled! He's a very stubborn little character! Rosie had an appointment last week with a special lady called Kirsty Peake.

Kirsty has her own firm called http://www.peakeservices.co.uk/ and she is a qualified Animal Behaviourist and she came out to see our Rosie who has 'Seperation Anxiety' in English terms, she gets upset when not attached to my lap! Almost from the minute Kirsty walked in through the door Rosie behaved like a different dog...... and all those dog training programmes that I've ever seen was happening in my kitchen!! She taught me such a lot about Rosie and why she behaves as she does, and what I need to do to stop her behaving like it - it involves a lot of turning my back on her, ignoring her but then rewarding her with treats and cuddles when she's good.

Now it's not been an overnight success and there's clearly a road to travel yet, but Rosie is noticeably calmer and a lot less fractious - so money well spent in my view. Plus Kirsty was incredibly nice and has since sent some great follow up notes and advice. She's very famous as well - the day before she was in our pub she was on BBC Breakfast Time!!

What else - well I can't just ignore my rant on the last blog post can I.......... I'm not too sure where to start but I will start with saying what a lot of lovely people read my blog! I was inundated with e mails, texts and comments regarding the horrible Trip Advisor post - I learnt there are some really nice people who counteract the nastiness such as that post. I also learnt that I really do have to stop taking things quite so much to heart or I might as well bugger off from this business now! I also have taken the time this last week or so to come out of the office go back to the 'shop floor' and check in with customers on a much more regular basis that all is ok and all our old friends (customers) have been arriving and making me feel that all is ok... we're sending out about 250 covers some days and that is exceptionally good....... poor James our wonderful Chef is at least a stone lighter already!

By the way I got the right of reply from Trip Advisor and I did send a reasonably polite private message to the reviewer but needless to say I have not had a response!!! Any way moving on..............

We had our first live music evening at the Victoria Inn last week - a delightful woman called Becky Brine and a chap called Jason - they did Jazz / Swing etc and they were brilliant...... they're coming back at the end of August and I'm going to have them half-term in October. They were very 'right' for the Victoria and they were very well received by the customers in the pub! We're having some other music this year as well during the summer and I'll tell you more later.

Slightly interesting Sunday last week - a darling little girl got herself locked in the loo and decided to crawl out under it - only found she couldn't get more than half way and was then very firmly wedged in!! Hour and a half later, 1 visit from the Salcombe Fire Brigade (love all of them) and an Ambulance to check her over, one door off its hinges and all was well in the Victoria once again! I have to say we both saw the funny side of it when we sat and relaxed after the evening, poor little girl, but believe it or not - it actually made the front page of our local paper this week........ shows you what Salcombe is like for news compared to cities!!!

SOH & I are not getting out much at the moment as we are of course bogged down in work - but we are off out with some new Salcombe friends tonight and we are both very much looking forward to a little break.

Tradewise it is a great summer season so far....... as I say the weather if foul today - but hopefully it's just passing through and we can go back to the glorious summer we were having! The White Hart Hotel has also a good holiday trade coming through their doors and Mark & Chris continue to go from strength to strength. An old friend of ours from our last pub in Winchester played at the White Hart last week - Sydney Harbour - a musicla urine extract performer.... as lovely and as funny as ever! Last Minute.com while it continues to send us custom also continues to be a logistical nightmare...... makes filling in Government returns in the old days look easy.................

Captain Morgans - well what can I say - that is now flourishing in this summer season! I can judge this not just from the takings but the knackered looks on the staffs faces....... bless 'em.......!

My training with JC has been a bit odd really....... I've had some sessions where I could have gone on and conquered the world and others where I've felt as though my legs are 3 stone heavier than they ever were and that I couldn't possible take another step! BUT - I am losing weight (quite a bit actually!)and the other things that JC checks on is water, visceral fat, progress against previous sessions and oh - lots of other things that are all showing a good increase / de-crease so JC is happy with me and actually I'M pretty happy with me!

Our training also has an element of counselling as I can really talk to him about all sorts of things and following our chats and as I learn (at the age of 53) a lot about myself and my body, I'm learning to accept that I am an ok sort of person - I have some good traits, that I have a stressful and very busy life which impacts sometimes on my ability to train as hard sometimes as others as well as understanding that I have to find the level of tiredness that I respond to before it drives me over the edge as it seems to at the moment. The legs that I sometimes moan at in the mirror for not being shapely enough are actually pretty strong, and I'm a lot more supple than I give myself credit for!

I also really enjoy the fact that all JC does is support and encourage me (makes me do one or two more of an exercise if I get lippy though!) and he never berates me or lets me talk myself down..... It makes me wonder what else I may have achieved in this life if I'd had more people like JC and SOH over the years encouraging and pushing me on in a positive way??? Something to ponder on..........

Till next time lovelies..................... x

My Right of reply............

2010-07-27T20:13:00.004+01:00

There are days (in fact there have been a few of them just lately) when I wonder what I'm doing in this job. When something so horrid and awful just makes me want to A: be sick and then B) pack a bag and dissapear. Please read this from an anonymous contributor to Trip Advisor:

“Dire. Ghastly over friendly landlady, service station tables and chairs and poor quality re-heated pub food.”
The Victoria Inn

Wodehouse9 1 contribution
London, United Kingdom
Jul 24, 2010
If you enjoy sharing your meal with the smells of wet dogs and chickens and accompanied by screaming children then this is the place for you. Awful over friendly and intrusive landlady has spoilt what was once a great, traditional, fishing village pub.The decor is now of the typical bland pub chain type where terrible tables and chairs have now appeared in the restaurant upstairs. The landlady comes from Portsmouth local government so that will give an indication of the quality to expect when it comes to decor and food. Overpriced and mass produced food that had clearly been re-heated, in the case of the lamb and vegetables many times, is being passed off as some sort of new gourmet experience. Is it necessary to plonk frozen oven-chips on everything? Mind you, they obviously came from the same supermarket freezer cabinet as the puddings. Avoid anything on the menu that contains the words "scrummy" or "yummy" - yes it is that sort of place. Slow service and staff who have obviously been trained to smile but who are pretty clue-less at explaining either the food on offer, other than "It comes with chips", or the wine list, other than to point to the most expensive one rather desperately. Great shame as this used to be a great pub in the old days when it was run as a pub and not as some sort of theme park for the masses. Avoid at all costs.

Now then counter balancing that is this review:

“The above person is talking rubbish...”
The Victoria Inn

OOdevon 3 contributions
Salcombe
Jul 26, 2010
The Victoria (Burners to the locals) has filled a big gap in the Salcombe market, namely providing for families, hence the chickens, play area etc...if you have kids they will absolutely love this place! Liz the landlady is a star and the place is regularly packed during peak times.The summer BBQ is excellent value and again the kids will love it.To top it all the beer garden is about the only place in Salcombe that gets the evening sun! So as parents you can enjoy a cold beer and relax safe in the knowledge your kids are enjoying themselves and won't come to any harm.You don't go to this place expecting Gordon Ramsey style food, just good simple pub food.

I'm very thankful to 00Devon for writing that to re-dress the comments (again, whoever he or she is) but all I can see and read is the first review...... and the worst of it is that I have absolutely no right of reply in an open forum.

Where we've spent so much of our own personal money re-decorating the pub and making the garden so lovely, where all of our food is home made and cooked from fresh, my staff are wonderful and well trained, and me personally - well I love what I do (or it's starting to feel like did!) and we work our socks off regularly working a 15 - 17 hour day - do you know how it feels tonight to read something like that?

As I sit here tonight tired and stressed from another exceptionally long hard day and now having shed more than a few tears all I can sit and wonder is why am I bothering?????

WHY?????????

What a July!!!

2010-07-17T22:20:00.012+01:00

Before I launch into a blog post proper - just have a look at young Archibold........... It was the morning after one of the worst storms I've seen since we moved to Salcombe, and Archie was out in the wet, sodden garden for an awful long time.

I called and I called and I called and eventually I heard the tinkle of his tag round his neck and he came hurtling into the back of the pub. I took one look at this object in front of me and screamed at him to sit and stay.... for once he actually did and there is the result for all to see! He is actually looking at our pub cleaner as much as to say 'what's all the fuss about'???? He had been digging and I found two lovely holes in the garden - I think burrowing to Australia was on his mind.....

I picked him up as far away from my body as possible, but he wriggled out of my arms and proceeded to run up and down the stairs of our flat and enjoy this jolly game of chase as I desperately tried to get hold of him again! Eventually I got him by the scruff of his neck and took him upstairs for a shower - where the bathroom quickly looked a little like Hiroshima after the fall out. The whole flat was covered in paw prints and the bathroom was speckled brown dirt everywhere - and I do mean EVERYWHERE. I have to say that although I did see the funny side of this and looking at the picture now it doesn't seem quite so awful as it was, but, at the time I was not a happy bunny!!

So then - we're in July proper and what a July we're having! I seem to have spent a lot of time on staffing issues - and oh yes.........on top of everything else, I am now a hotel receptionist! Well at least that's what it feels like some days. I have put the White Hart Hotel, Modbury on to http://www.laterooms.com/ and I have to say that it's paying off in dividends! Getting at least 2 enquiries every day from that for the WH and as for the Hobbit House, well, we are being inundated with calls and business for the 2 rooms here.

This weekend I could have sold the rooms at the Victoria at least 6 or 7 times over, and I just wish I could have talked the brewery round to seeing that the idea of beautiful 'boutique' style bedrooms instead of the upstairs restaurant at the Victoria was a good one.... still, maybe if we can prove the viability for them, we may have a better chance of securing finance in another financial year. Certainly, the majority of our guests are staying in both pubs and eating and drinking with us. Both business's have had great Trip Advisor reviews - and I just wish customers knew how important Trip Advisor is to business's especially fledgling business's like ours!

What else - well apart from last Sunday when the World Cup AND the Grand Prix were on the box and we were deafeningly quiet, we're having a rocking old time! The summer menu is absolutely spot on at the Victoria this year and I uncovered a great new special this week - 'Afternoon Tea at the Victoria'.........Smoked Salmon, fresh Salcombe Crab or Cucumber & Tomato sandwiches, pots of Tea, homemade scones and a glass of cold Prosecco if you feel like a little bubbly to go with it........... very well received this has been as well!!

Captain Morgans is also doing hugely well - another learning curve for us both, but now really settled and maintaining a great reputation!

Then apart from work SOH has had his break in the sun - mind you he's not come home as tanned as I thought he might...... It would appear he spent an awful lot of time under the shade on the beach! I reckon him and his mate were in the bar most of the time actually - but he strenuously denies it!! Oh I do miss him when he's not here.

Then there's me.... well I am seeing my personal trainer 3 times a week now! Yes, I know, this really is Liz writing this blog and not a re-incarnation!! My trainer doesn't seem keen on being known as Reg (truth to be told he doesn't look remotely like a Reg!!) so I'm going to call him JC (for when I'm muttering J**us C***st under my breath - sorry Lord!) in the future - and when I am a true success story maybe he'll let me unmask him, but until then his reputation is intact!!

So then - this new person is inhabiting my body (and mind I might add!), is getting up at 7a.m (yes - you read right!) to train at 8.30 today - a SATURDAY. No longer is the Lurpack butter mountain slowly being reduced by our (me) household, but Cadburys will soon be out of business, and as for Hendricks Gin - I hear that profits have nose-dived!

Oh yes, this new person when wanting something sweet is nibbling raisins and apricots, chewing an assortment of seeds and nuts (that previously surely were only meant for birds!!) and heavens forbid, only a very occasional ice cream! As for the dreaded booze....... apart from selling it I have a VERY occasional glass of something - I am almost tea total!!!

As for the exercise - well, I have re-discovered a streak in me that I always knew was there as I've always been hugely competitive; I HAVE to succeed (I once cheated on a management course in order that my team won - but got caught! I thought I showed initiative!!) it's in my blood and I am really loving challenging myself.

If you remember, I spent the first 2 weeks of this year in hospital, incredibly ill and I don't think I'll ever forget the experience of laying in bed for nearly 2 hours next to the body of the poor woman in the bed next to me who had died. I was on oxygen then for 5 days and yet do you know what I did this week??

I climbed four steps in my garden for 3 lots of 3 minutes.......... can you believe that??? Even better - I really, really, really enjoyed it!!!! The other thing is this stubborn streak in me that refuses to be beaten by any part of the routine that JC puts together for me. Better still............. I have lost 5 whole pounds!! Not by starvation or faddy diets, but solid exercise and really healthy eating, and oh yes, listening to someone who's trained hard to do the job he does - JC!!!!

So then blog readers - it's onwards and upwards, next week schools break up proper and I probably won't get to write a blog for a while as we will (should) be really mad busy......... enjoy the summer everyone!!

He has no idea...........

2010-07-11T22:15:00.003+01:00

I saw this on someone elses blog post - and unashamedly I nicked it......

He has no idea how many times a day

I look at him

just to

look at him

I absolutely love this love this photo of SOH taken on our wedding morning, and I'm happy to share it!

White Hart Hotel - Progress report!

2010-07-03T22:28:00.019+01:00

Well then, some 2 months plus how are we doing at the White Hart Hotel?? The answer - not too bad at all thank you.......... It's certainly been a learning curve for SOH and I, and we've had to learn to not to be afraid to say that we've not always got it right and we've had to make some hard business decisions.

There's no doubt that the first couple of weeks we were at the White Hart they were probably some of the most fraught times we'd had for a very long time - but you just seem to know when you've turned the corner - and it's starting to show that we HAVE now turned that corner.

Lets start with advertising the White Hart - we used a great local husband & wife team for the photo's: Tony & Nicky Burnett - Nicky is a graphic artist and she made sure with Tony that the pub looked its very best and Tony took some great pics - the montage is one of my favourites! Some great shots within that montage don't you think!

Professionally they are the http://www.theforgepartnership.com/ and from this portfolio of photo's we were able to commission a great website for our pub using http://www.discoverwebsites.co.uk/ a great team of young individuals who gave us exactly what we wanted from our website.

Looking at the statistics for the period from when the website was up and running (28/5) until yesterday the 2nd July we have had 419 people look at our website - someone was sat in Florence, Italy looking at it for over 2 minutes...!! But at least 400 people were from the UK - so for a website that's not very high up on Google rankings yet - that's really inspiring.

Along with that we have of course used a number of other advertising options - one of the best was undoubtedly http://www.devonsfinest.co.uk/the-white-hart-modbury-devon-p-1458-53 o.uk/the-white-hart-modbury-devon-p-1458-53 please click onto the link and have a look at the You Tube advert he created using Tony's photo's and his own very unique commentary - Matt is brilliant, quite brilliant!!

As well as this I put us on to laterooms.com this last week - we went live at 11.am and we had our first booking at 2p.m.................

The letting rooms are certainly starting to take off and we had our first 2 Trip Advisor reviews this week............ and they were great!! I must admit I held my breath when I got an e mail to say that someone had written up a review - but delighted to find TWO really good reviews! Please never underestimate how much good a great review can have on a business (and visa versa!) - so again, have a look - http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g551649-d1132772-Reviews-The_White_Hart_Inn-Modbury_Dartmoor_National_Park_Devon_England.html

Trip Advisor have got our address wrong though - but as I've joined us as owners I'm expecting that to change in the next day or two.

I also spent a good couple of hours in the office this week e mailing everyone I could find to introduce ourselves and 'sell' us - and we've had some great response - none least from Edward and his wife at www.moorviewtouringpark.co.uk a great touring park just up the road from the pub. Edward sent me a lovely e mail saying that the 'jungle drums were working and his visitors to the park were giving very good reports on us'!! Yay!!!!!!!! Well likewise - our customers are telling us that Moor View is lovely with many of them having been there for many nice holidays!

Staff wise we've had quite a change - there's no doubt that our concept of having a bright and breezy young staff was a good one - but we lacked a strong, mature and more importantly experienced leadership. So we have a new couple who are now managing the White Hart for us - Christine and Mark (photo to follow). They are lovely, and have already made lots of contacts and it's clear to see the business has changed quite quickly.

Unlike me, both Chris & Mark have the knack of remembering peoples names, and so quickly they are building up a string of 'regulars' who now get greeted by name and preference for their drinks!! 'Fishy Friday' with fresh battered Cod & Chips eat in or take away at £5.95 being one of their ideas - and the first Friday last week saw quite a few portions being sold.............. :) Sunday now sees a 2 course lunch for just £9.95 - so again we're hoping this will be another bit of the success story that's growing!

We still have a number of lovely young people working as bar staff though - and they're still mostly local youngsters! Finally, we think we now know the market we're aiming at for the food - and whilst it's a little different from the Victoria Inn - not such a massive menu - the concept of fantastic 'pub grub', fresh local produce, cooked well and presented beautifully is obviously very needed in Modbury and we have been getting rave comments. On that note the local paper are writing a review on the food and first site of it looks excellent.....

So the progress report has moved from 'has potential could try harder' to 'has great potential and is improving nicely'. We expect to see even greater progress as the White Hart matures!

A huge 'Thank You' to everyone out there who is supporting us and I look forward to giving an even better progress report in another couple of months.

I'm home AND fighting fit!

2010-06-28T23:48:00.012+01:00

Well then -'Hola' I'm home, fresh and fighting fit!!! I had a great few days away, didn't speak to anyone for 2 whole days unless I wanted something.... even had my hair cut with a few great mime features! A bit of sun on your body (lot of sun) and time to reflect does wonders for the soul, and boy did I do a lot of reflecting!!

Thought I'd start the blog with a picture taken this morning of our two 'babies' Rosie (black one) and Archie (blonde) it was very very hot here even first thing and with so much thick coat - Archie in particular is not enjoying the weather. Everyone else is though and we started off our BBQ sessions at the Victoria Inn, on Saturday and we were very gratified to have so many visitors to the garden, many on their way home from the beach!

So here we are ready for the 'season' good and proper, starting off with Merlin Rocket week this week - small boats sailing contests from around UK. More staff starting to come on board over the next couple of weeks - but I have to say for a Monday we have had a spectacularly good day. People are definitely making the most of this great weather and the estuary across from our pub is full of boats of all sizes.

I had another fitness training session with 'Reg' this morning, and bloody hot it was as well...... he keeps us in the shade as much as possible but blimey, it makes me sweat.... or is it HE makes ME sweat?? Part of my reflection on holiday was about trying to get my head in the right place to lose weight and get so much fitter - I did a bit of stomping up and down the prom in Spain, and then a bit of walking on the beach front like the locals - now THEY turn walking into a fashion show and an art form! Love to sit and people watch that................! Anyway 'Reg' gave me a little headmasterly chat last week about my eating (& drinking) habits and that combined with my 'reflecting' has (I think) helped me turn a little corner..... which is why when I'm not quaffing bottles of water right now, you can find me chewing on Almonds, Apricots and Raisins and all things healthy - well almost!

The World Cup - apart from God what a disaster - I'm not going to say much, apart from - WONDER IF I CAN GET A REFUND ON THE BIG SCREEN TV WE BOUGHT ESPECIALLY FOR IT!!!!! (for the White Hart Hotel, Modbury) Engerland - what a flipping disgrace you were! Bobby Moore must be spinning up in Heaven. But here are a few of our happy customers (this was the game before Germany) old and young enjoying the match.

Plus I must tell you we had our first trip advisor review for the Victoria Inn 'Hobbit House' en suite bedrooms and they LOVED IT!! We've also had great reviews in the guest books as well.......... so all that hard work is paying off.

Lastly, here is a rather nice photo of SOH I took when we were out for a quiet hour last night - he'll be over in Spain for a few days himself in a couple of weeks - time for him to have a break now, and then we'll both get a break together in October - hopefully! In the meantime, my list of to do tomorrow gets ever longer and the days seem to get shorter..........

Me voy en mis vacaciones

2010-06-14T22:45:00.007+01:00

Yep - I'm off to sunny Spain for a few days........ For my British readers - do you remember the theme tune from 'One Foot In The Grave'......?? Well a line from that is: Clapped out, rundown, too old to save!! Well - that is exactly how I've been feeling lately...... :(

So my lovely Husband and Son have persuaded me to take a few days out - get my head together, get lots of rest and much needed sleep, meditate, pray and generally enjoy the peace and quiet............ No booze (I'm on the wagon - see further on as to why!) ) lots of lovely Spanish fruit, and I'm packing my trainers to do a bit of walking - that is when I'm not asleep on the beach..... or listening to my Ipod or having a massage from one of those lovely Thai ladies that stomp up and down the beach! All on my own for 5 whole nights...... I won't have to talk to anyone if I don't want to or make polite conversation, I'm taking a very light suitcase, a couple of good books and I'm off!

Then of course the other exciting / good thing in my life right now is 'Reg' - my very own personal trainer. We were on visit 3 today - I've hardly lost any weight (not hugely surprising when I think what I've been eating and drinking - hence the alcohol abstinence) but already he says my heart is working better and I can do some stretches, exercises and step aerobic stuff that just 3 visits ago (yes just 3) defeated me or knackered me out straight away!

I still hate the first 5 to 10 minutes of our session ..... I won't pretend otherwise and then something strange and rather wonderful happens - I actually enjoy it! I even looked forward to seeing him today and doing the session!

The come the end of our session I want to do more, but 'Reg' won't let me, he says we have to build this up slowly and gently - perhaps it's the sweaty red face and the panting like I'm giving birth that tells him I've had enough........... :) But I am really getting quite a buzz from it and a real sense of achievement. So that is why I'm packing the trainers - I'm going to be one of those women that stride up and down the prom after sunset looking cool.......... ok - hot and sweaty in my case probably, but thats my intention.

So thats it tonight - no talk of work or anything else for that matter, I'll only get all miserable and whiney and thats not good for you or me! I have to pack and do a million things before I get on the plane.................

¡Hasta pronto queridos lectores................... (Do a Google translation!) X

The Hobbit House - Newsflash

2010-06-07T00:00:00.012+01:00

Ok, ok - please don't be getting bored with my 'newsflashes' it's just that I have so much happening at this time - I really don't have the time or the energy to sit on here blogging right now :(

But - at last, the Hobbit House - the Victoria Inn's new accommodation is up, running and being used - AND, more bookings in the pipeline!!!

Seb Joli - Salcombe's lovely young french photographer came and took some shots for me - so now our website can be bought up to scratch and along with the White Hart Hotel in Modbury, I can start to really market both of them strongly with TIC's and various other sites! If you know of any good sites that YOU use please let me know - free ones preferably.... ha ha.

Talking of marketing - I have been working with a great young man called Matt who operates http://www.devonsfinest.co.uk/ if you go to You Tube and put in White Hart Hotel Modbury - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-GYJIh5CdI you'll see this rather clever video clip he's done......... going to get him to do the same for the Hobbit House! I really like Matt - here's a person who does what he says he will!

Business has been exceedingly good at the Victoria Inn and over at the White Hart Hotel you can see every week getting just that little bit better.......... That must account for why SOH and I fell asleep in front of the TV at tea time tonight when we actually sat down....!!

If I have another late night this week - I'll try to sit and tell you more about life as a pub landlady at the moment - I tell you what though - boring it ain't!!!!!!!!!!

It's coming together..............

2010-06-02T23:37:00.010+01:00

Just a quick blog post - almost time to lock up for the night and call it a day........ but I wanted to show you a couple of pics and also let you know that the new Victoria Inn website is also now up and running.

Firstly - the Hobbitt House is starting to take shape - No 1 room is all pale green and white furniture - pretty cushions, don't you think?? These pics are a bit dark - but I'll take more tomorrow in the daylight......

It feels very restful though - I could hear the birds tweeting a treat this evening whilst I was in there.

No 2 will be pine, gardens greens and earthy browns with sparkly cushions..........photo to follow - not quite there yet.

But both rooms reflecting the garden setting that they're in. It's been blooming hard work today and very, very hot and my eyes are drooping as I type - and as for my poor aching back!!

Then over at Modbury - the White Hart Hotel now has 4 rooms up and ready for use, and again they all have very different looks - probably a bit more classical and typical of a great middle England town.............but I wanted them to reflect what I look for when I stay in a hotel........... nice laundry, fluffy towels, state of the art TV's, pretty colours............ etc!

As for the websites - well we now have both up and running - please check them out and let me know what you think of them......

www.victoriainn-salcombe.co.uk

and www.whiteharthotel-modbury.co.uk

Thats it - time to cash up and off to bed.............. first training session with Reg tomorrow! Wish me luck...........