Shit happens.................

And after last weeks rant in my blog that's exactly what my friend Jim said in a very kindly e mail to me!! You know what? He's right - there are very few pubs/ restaurants that open that don't have a service from hell... we had ours and it's over with now! In fact at our first Curry night at The White Hart last Friday we received loads of compliments both about the curries and our normal menu - also the fantastic new interior. Business is continuing to build - slowly but surely, and tomorrow night we have our first live music evening with Jallion - folkie/blues....... should be interesting!!

A little more staff training has ensured everyone is singing from the same song sheet and a lovely new (very tall) chef is on site; Martyn. He seems to really understand want we want and is delivering beautifully. Web site designers have been urged to get both the Victoria's and the White Hart sites up and running, delayed as they needed text from me and photo's but we are three parts there now. The Hotel bedrooms are almost ready, just a little bit more painting and we have to buy even more bloody pictures..................
Business at the Vic is really excellent - lots of couples enjoying romantic breaks whilst its still not the 'season'. The Victoria's 'Hobbit House' has the carpet laid next week - so only the furniture to buy and we should be good to go in terms of B & B mid June (ish).

There's just one small hiccup at the moment - and that's I'm back from seeing my consultant in Southampton with yet another rotten chest infection, so am typing this propped up in bed listening to a fabulous Leonard Cohen CD. As I said to my GP this morning, over my dead body (not literally of course - far too soon for that) am I going back into hospital - have far more chance of getting better out of those things.............

Now all my life I've never been one too sit back for too long bemoaning my lot without doing something about things - so yesterday in the throes of being crap again I made a conscious decision to make my life better........ big discussion with gorgeous SOH in making sure;

1) We BOTH get a better work / life balance (not 1 day off in 7 weeks like just gone)
2) I use the time management skills that Portsmouth City Council paid for me to learn - and then get SOH to use them as well..................
3) Eat healthier - we all know when we're overdoing the eating and its not helping my chest being so overweight
4) Off the booze again - its all crap calories...... oopps, can I say that as a pub landlady??? lol
5) Get fitter.............. now THIS IS where it gets interesting!!!!!!

Because Reg (not his real name - but he doesn't want to be identified at this stage - just in case I'm his 1st failure!! - I'm joking.....) is my new personal trainer!!! Yes, you read right - I'm going to have my very own personal trainer visit me twice a week and help me get back in shape - that's if my GP agrees I won't expire doing so..........!! So that is why I put a picture of a rainbow at the start of this blog post - Reg is going to help me get to the end of the rainbow - out of the grey sky's and helping me get to the pot of gold. ....................................Carpe Diem!!

Next post I'll tell you all about our fabulous wedding present trip of lunch on the Orient express - what a day!! Till then I'm turning off the laptop - and giving my full attention to the lovely Leonard - might even snooze! Night all............... x

Sleepless nights and Cream cakes.........

I guess the title of my blog post sums up how I'm feeling right now...I think that we've probably had the worst couple of days since we opened at the White Hart Hotel and yet some of the best at the Victoria - so where shall I start?? How about I get all the angst about the White Hart out of my system....... Bear with me dear readers - I'll try to be sharp and to the point. Firstly BT - where in God's name do I start to talk about the horrendous things they have put us through - no phone lines, then they thought that because I now have a new married name that we were a new account and cut off our Internet access!! Therefore, customers couldn't get through to us in any way, shape or form - for either pub!!

After the umpteenth phone call to BT sat in a car park somewhere near Bristol - I thrust the phone at SOH got out and sat and sobbed......... and actually I've done a fair bit of crying this last week - some of it in temper, and some of it in frustration and some of it because I've had moments when I've simply longed for a 'normal' life!

On top of that the kitchen at the White Hart has continued to challenge us all - now currently Chef -less until next week, SOH has been there 14 hours a day - every day! Equipment has defied all laws of normality and thermostats on cookers and fryers have declined to behave in an appropriate way!!!! Modbury Fair weekend saw us horrendously understaffed as we quickly came to grips with the vastness of this little towns fair! 75 plus covers on the Saturday saw SOH knackered out as he valiantly struggled to cope with those 75 covers - with a resulting 2 letters of complaint this week..........

The obscene dishwasher that had been spewing water out all over the floor was finally fixed this morning 13 days after we first opened. We parted company with our Cook of 4 days - lovely lady and a great cook (I had the BEST steak ever off her) but not a pub cook - don't under estimate how tricky it can be trying to balance orders all in at once and getting the food out on good time and looking great as well! She's now going to try her hand at being a dinner party cook - and I wish her love and luck! She said we gave her the impetus to do what she really wants to do!!!

I let 2 members of staff go quite quickly as it was immediately apparent that as bar people they just didn't have IT........ lovely people but not bar people! Oh any thing else........ how about the function that we're doing in a fortnight (can't say what in case I'm sued) where the gentleman today practically gave me a third degree interview before saying OK to using us!!

Then there was the shopping trip to Ikea - £800 later and a whole car full - what should have been fun was actually hard work as we were both tired and SOOOO cranky!! A lovely lunch out together was lunch in Ikea - mmmnnnnn, not my idea of fun!

So back to the White Hart - how do we go forward from a difficult few days...???? Well dear readers, with a smile painted on our faces, heads held high and a determination and resolve to make the White Hart as bloody marvelous as the Vic is!!! A curry night tomorrow has at least 30 bookings...... The Conservative association have booked us for another function - Cheese and Wine evening, a birthday party has been booked with an expected 200 guests. The menu has been torn apart and put back together again, staff have been trained a bit more, difficult conversations have been had with staff to help them understand our expectations and we are off on Saturday to the Orient Express for a wonderful wedding present lunch!! Our first day off since we came back from honeymoon...........

As for my longing for a normal life - well tell me, what would I do if I wasn't working till well past midnight most nights, eating on the run and schmoozing with customers......... as my friend Jim said to me today, I have to learn not to take it all so personally! He's right - I do!!

As for the Victoria Inn - it's my sanctuary and our home - and it continues to grow from strength to strength. A wonderful christening this last weekend for 2 of our fantastic staff was just wonderful, 89 covers this lunchtime (mid week........... and schools are not on hols!!) and a fabulous summer menu released today lifts my spirits just thinking about it..................now we just have to show Modbury what we're really capable of!!

Our new pub is born.........

And it's called the WHITE HART HOTEL, and here is a picture of some of our fabulous staff who are going to run it and look after all the hungry and thirsty customers......!! Don't they look great in their 'sunflower' shirts (just a little bit brighter than they looked in the catalogue - but hey, at least customers will be able to see them!)

Staff missing are our 2 housekeepers and cook - hard at work getting things ready for the opening they were....... As you can see in the picture, they are quite a young team - but full of energy and with a huge will to make the business succeed.

It's been a very stressful couple of weeks - with me wailing several times ' I'm never f'ing well doing this again'......, with neither SOH or myself having more than 6 hours sleep a night for a couple of weeks - and eating either very little, on the run or gorging on cakes and pastry from local bakers..... But there's no doubt, the whole experience is a lot like having a baby! You enjoy the news you're having a baby (another pub), it's tiring leading up to the birth (pub opening), the birth (pub opening) and the first few days after delivery (pub opening) are both exciting and terrifying in equal measures, and then in an instant (well, almost) you forget all the pain and trauma and enjoy the experience!! I quite enjoyed pounding the streets of Modbury talking to people about our new pub - and I have so much sympathy for the postmen with the number of times I got my fingers jammed in letterboxes.......

Anyway - and firstly - all of the St Austell building team, designers, planners, cellar services etc etc ALL deserve a huge pat on the back for getting us ready to open - in just under 8 days they took a huge, empty soulless shell of a pub and put doors into walls, built from scratch really beautiful wood panelled settles and window seating, wood panels all round the bar area, opened up a fire place, decorated the entire ground floor, put new beer lines into the building and cellar. The dray men had to bring in every single barrel and bottle needed to open a fully functioning bar (Lord - I hate to think of our first brewery bill!) as well as glasses, pictures and then take away all the remaining old and furniture back to the brewery. Also a massive thanks to Adam, Jim and Dwayne for their constant support and guidance in all things as usual.

Secondly, to Harry (she's really Harriet) and David our new Manager and her assistant who have put in massive amounts of hours organising, lifting and shifting as well. Giving a new slant on things and offering great ideas. To James our executive chef who not only helped get the food ready for the menu at the pub, but also prepared the canapes for the opening night AND oversaw the Victoria Inn kitchen.....

Thirdly, SOH, Tim - for having so been patient (even with BT and other varied workmen from outside the breweries control!!) with me and our 2 puppies, and for being so bloody good at what he does, because without him and his vast experience in bringing it all together I doubt we could have opened in quite the same way as we did on Friday night.

So - to Friday night........ a blooming marvelous start, with well over a 100 people turning up - some even waiting for the doors to open, and they just kept coming...... it was a great turn out, far better I think than either of us was expecting! Lots and lots of mainly local people, a prospective MP, Master of the Hunt, clergy, tourist information centre - many local business people with ideas on how to work together and make Modbury a bit more of a thriving prosperous small town. Lots of food for thought.....

Talking of food, Saturday was our first day of serving food..... mmmn, a little bit fraught as equipment broke down, fuses blew, things that we'd not remembered became important; like vinegar pots, some cooking implements, knowing how to turn on the char grill etc etc etc..... not a great lunch service - a few tears and a few short tempers all made for a lunchtime to be forgotten, but the evening service was a hundred times better - compliments abounded on the food and where there was criticism it was constructive and changes made.

Staff remembered their customer service training - made conversation and TALKED to customers - that's a rarity in a lot of pubs these days - and both staff and customers seemed to enjoy the new look White Hart Hotel.

So, onto the next phase - getting the function room back to looking gorgeous and ready for use. Its actually called the 'Assembly Rooms' and it's a massive light and airy room with beautiful brass chandeliers (real brass - not tin!), not too much to do there actually. I so want to get that marketed and used for functions both by the local community and the wider area - I'm even toying with the idea of getting it licensed for weddings as the nearest Registry Office is miles away.......???

Firstly though, it's getting the website built and up and running - in hand, just needs me chasing it along next week.

Anyway, back to the fab function room - we would have had our wedding reception there had we had the pub then - no doubt at all. It can hold about 100 people and the first proper use is the Modbury Gospel Choir this week followed by a Comedy Club night in early June - more details of that later.

Then the next target is getting the hotel rooms back up to scratch - some minor decorative work there and probably yet another trip to buy soft furnishings - my target for that is third / fourth week of May!

As for the Victoria Inn - well, I've been looking after that mostly - and it's been a great May Bank Holiday. Lots and lots of people about - a smashing Under 10's Rugby evening last night - with the parents having an exceptionally merry night!! I've also been working with James on our new summer menu which comes to life in a fortnight - lots of fish dishes and especially Crab this year - as we are going to be the Salcombe face of a 'Visit South Devon' fresh crab campaign with the celebrity chef Mitch Tonks - again, more of that later...........

On top of all of this chaos has been 9 month old Rosie and 10 week old Archie - continuing to learn to live with each other and giving us lots to smile at as we watch them play and fight and eat and sleep so beautifully together......

But right now - it's a slightly earlier night - and we could both do with an extra hour - so untill the next time dear friends........X

We're on You - Tube!!

A very quick blog post as I sit here past midnight and eyes are steadily closing. Our wedding video / stills footage is on You Tube and this is the link (hopefully) for you to be able to see it.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zrq19TTGxI

I haven't yet been able to watch it without crying, although the tears are a bit less of a river and more like a steady trickle.................. I really hope you love it as much as Tim and I.... what a great thing technology is!!

Love and hugs to you all.................. X

Here is Archie..........

And ain't he blooming gorgeous!!!!!!!!!! Archie is the latest edition to our family - he's an 8 week old cockerpoo, the same breed as our darling Rosie (but from different parents). You must know what I'm like by now.... if I want something, I want it now. So we (sorry, I) went from talking about another puppy to looking on the Internet to getting Archie from a lovely couple in Lostwithiel, Cornwall in about 5 days flat!! Tim was wearing the air of a man who knew he was beat, but he is the one who now can't stop playing with Archie and cuddling him.

Its been a fantastic few days as Rosie and Archie get to know each other - you can almost see the conversations in their heads,

From this on the first day:

Rosie: WTF is this.................??

Archie: OMG I'm scared - I want my Mummy....what is this huge black thing panting and slobbering all over me???

To this on the second day:

Rosie: Will you stop trying to hang off my ears and for Gods sake boy - I'm not your Mother so move away from my belly!

Archie: I'm not scared of you, you big bully - now, where does the milk come from you??

Its been sooooo funny to watch them having power struggles over the toys and also trying to get affection in equal measures, but what is just breathtakingly fabulous is Archie was crying and yapping today, because he was stuck halfway up the stairs and Rosie was straight there to see what the matter was..... ohhhhhhhhhhhh!! AND, they curl up asleep together on the settee's!!! Double ohhhhh...

So life in the Hore household is far from normal right now - in fact so NOT normal is it, I was up at just gone 6 this morning and witnessed the most beautiful sunrise!! Consequently, I was half asleep this afternoon......

Business wise, the Victoria Inn has had a great 3 weeks trading over this prolonged Easter break and we look forward now to the May holidays. The garden has been very well used this weekend as the weather has been glorious, and we have had very favourable comments on our re-styling of the garden - the awning, the new steps and now some new garden furniture. You might notice a few problems with the web site over the next couple of weeks, but I'm taking this opportunity to get it re-vamped when the White Hart Hotel website is developed!

We had a'celeb' in our garden this week - and it was really quite funny because I wouldn't have recognised him had he not been pointed out to me..... it was Ben Shepherd from GMTV with his family. I was talking to his wife and children mostly - getting lollipops and feeding the chickens with them (as I do with all children!!) and it was only afterwards that my giggling, swooning girls told me who he was! It's just as well these celebs don't like a lot of fuss isn't it......!! I have to recognise them first!!

Back to business, our latest venture the White Hart Hotel is moving ahead at a brisk pace - the builders are on site tomorrow and last week SOH and I ran 2 evening courses. I did one on customer service and SOH did legislation, serving drinks in general and the 'perfect serve' - that's the way to present a perfect drink - proper branded glasses, ice, fresh cut fruit etc etc etc! Seems like we have a great team, they were very interested and enthusiastic, and we are all very excited to be opening in 2 weeks.......... yes, that's right, 2 weeks!! Goodness knows how we're ever going to be ready, but we will.

Right now though, I have to go - Archie is terorrising Rosie behind my chair as I sit typing and the yapping and barking is giving me an 'eadache..........................

Another challenge

So here it is then - our new challenge.................. the White Hart Hotel in Modbury, South Devon. This is a 6 bedroom hotel, with a really large bar / dining area, a massive function room upstairs with the most glorious acoustics, brass fittings and chandeliers and a fantastic bar area. It has the most amazing potential and SOH and I are incredibly excited about running it.

St Austell brewery are purchasing this building to add to their evergrowing portfolio, and they have asked my Husband and I (Just had to put that in - sorry!!) to be tenants of it........... now then, lets be clear about this - we are keeping the Victoria Inn. It's our baby and we love it!! We've worked hard to get the Victoria the reputation it has today and Salcombe is also our home, so we have no intention of leaving for a few years yet!!

But sometimes, you have to go with your instinct, and our instinct is that the White Hart Hotel is like a box of mediocre chocolates at the moment - potentially good ingredients and interesting wrapping but nothing making it very special! At the moment the WHH is empty and has been so since well before Christmas, the last couple of occupants / owners have found it challenging and failed to make it work.........so why do we think we can make it work any differently???

Well firstly, St Austell wouldn't be buying it if they thought it wouldn't work - and they wouldn't have asked us to work with them for the very same reasons!! Secondly, and without sounding too boastful we have made the Victoria into a really special pub and we believe we can do the same to the White Hart. With the help of St Austell and their magical design team we'll turn the

bar / eating area that's presently cold and gloomy into a fabulous area where friends can meet, enjoy great ales and eat reasonably priced fabulous home cooked food.

The function room is where there's some huge potential so we'll put on occasional live music evenings - probably blues and jazz. I'm also hoping to put on comedy nights and maybe an element of 'open mike' or 'X Factor' type evenings!! We''ll be actively pursuing as much use of that function room as possible! Then there are the bedrooms - 5 that we'll be able to use as 1 is being used as an office....... they are gorgeous! Not a lot of work to be done on them - just a bit of 'prettying' up........

The staff are almost recruited and I have two training sessions planned for this coming week - Getting to know each other, Customer service, alcohol legislation etc. Needless to say I've been pretty much glued to the computer working on all the paperwork and training stuff, as well as trying to manage a couple of very busy weeks here at the Victoria.

Talking of the Victoria, we have had a really good Easter and there are still quite a few holidaymakers down here. The weather has turned warmer thankfully and the sun certainly makes people happier!!

Our wedding and the glorious honeymoon all seem such a long way away now and yet, they're only 3 weeks past................ it already seems a lifetime away. However, our very good friends Phil and Lisa visited us this week - and they were especially welcome as of course Lisa took our wedding photo's: http://www.lisabeaney.co.uk/ so just in case you wanted to see a reminder of our beautiful day here are one or two of my favourites...............

The Honeymoon - Part Three

Part three and the final blog of what has been the most amazing part of my life so far........ The honeymoon!! As the wedding preparations gathered momentum there were a few times that we both said we should have kept it much smaller, but it was entirely my fault as there were always people I felt we should /needed to ask - and so like topsy the wedding grew and grew. Now as it happens everything turned out beautifully, but come Sunday afternoon we were both really tired - Saturday had been great and we had a ball, but as always in this business, you can never (well we don't) just walk away.

So on the Sunday morning after the wedding, we were both up at the crack of dawn - there was the bookwork to do, food orders (on the computer) to ensure were done in the few days we were away, banking to get ready, wages to input, staff rotas to check and finally verify, bit of cleaning and tidying in the flat, Rosie to welcome home from her 'dog sitter' etc etc etc........ you get the picture I'm sure! So at 4 o'clock when we finally drove away from the Victoria Inn it was certainly with a huge sigh of relief and expectation of a great few days in Normandy. We drove to Portsmouth where we were catching the ferry on the Monday with my son Paul and his wife Caroline - needless to say we dissected the wedding a dozen times over, with much laughing and joking and generally the journey went very quickly.

The overnight Premier Inn was clean tidy and ok for 1 nights sleep, but the pub nearby (part of a chain) was pretty ghastly! Anyhow, Monday morning saw us up Early again and off to catch the 8.00a.m ferry to Cherbourg................ hence the picture of Tim asleep on the journey. Me - well, I was far too excited to sleep. The car drive to our destination was fun - we made at least a half dozen wrong turns and the journey took almost twice as long as it should have - but we treated it exactly like the adventure it was!

All of the journey and fun was just leading up to our honeymoon destination - and crikey, what a destination: the Manoir de la Riviere, at Saint Louet-sur-Seulles, and run by two fabulous British people - Maureen & Ian. http://www.manoirdelariviere.net/english/welcome01.htm

I've been trying to think how we came upon the Manoir - I think it was by pure chance when browsing google and trip advisor and I am so Glad we chose this very special place. From the very moment we drove up their magnificent drive and them coming out to welcome us - right to the time they waved us off 4 days later, absolutely everything at the Manoir was perfect! A pool and sauna was available for use (which we did) and huge woods which we never got the chance to explore. A beautiful 4 poster bedroom with views across the woods, and you could walk through Ians rustic farmhouse type kitchen to the elegant restaurant area where an eclectic mix of furniture and objects met you. But without doubt - the warmth of welcome from Maureen and the amazing cooking of Ian are what made our honeymoon complete! Oh, yes - plus they lent us their sat nav to help us get around the countryside!!!

Seriously, the food we had was totally amazing - right from the delicious and plentiful breakfasts - through to the most amazing dinners.......... a fantastic wine selection, a roaring grated fire and candlelight..... romance personified!! But the fourth night we were struggling to eat all that was put in front of us - but we struggled valiantly!

Alongside of all of this romance, we went and did the 'tourist' things of visiting the beaches where the great battles took place in the 2nd world war - Omaha, Gold etc. It didn't have the 'feel' to me that I expected - perhaps because the weather was reasonable and their were scores of schoolchildren, but Pegasus bridge did have that 'feel'...... some quite remarkable story boards from British forces personnel made it all feel so very real! The British war cemetery was very moving and to see so many young men's names and ages on headstones was breath takingly sad. Of course in Normandy and like any tourist site - The Vatican, the Eiffel Tower, Barcelona etc, all great places I've been too - it's us tourists and the tourist tat that tarnishes it for me........

We saw lots of French countryside, went to Bayeaux, Caen, Hon Fleur, Deauville, met some lovely people - a great young American boy called Hunter who knew more about the 2nd World War than any person alive I've ever spoken to!! Ate loads of French Chocolate.......... also bought loads!!!

Took lots of pictures, walked a fair bit and just thoroughly enjoyed our honeymoon.

Now, though, it's a fortnight behind us, and real life is catching up with us.... we're in full swing for the Easter holidays here at the Victoria and yesterday we did almost 200 covers!!! Today, the streets of Salcombe are full of children with buckets and 'crabbing' nets, lots of damp dogs and the economy would appear to have done well - judging by the amount of carrier bags of clothes!!

So - onwards and upwards - the next blog post will be telling you all about our next adventure - the taking on of yet another business............... the White Hart Hotel in Modbury!!!!

Happy Easter................ X