Firstly here is a great new picture of our Rosie - now coming on for a little over three months old - and boy she's not going to make 4 months if she's not blooming careful........... before I go on though, this and the pic of all 3 of us is by my great friend Lisa Beaney from Sussex - http://www.lisabeaneyphotography.co.uk/ Her and her husband Phil visited us last week and took a couple of photo's of our new 'treasure' and she even manages to make me look ok...... a major feat in itself! But she's doing our wedding pics - so have booked in a couple of pre-wedding hours with her to perfect my (our) smiles! Mind you, SOH always looks good in a photo. You really must visit Lisa's site - she has the most amazing pics and there are a couple of great ones (for which she's won awards) which she is framing and selling as limited editions....... they are pretty amazing - I love the old couple feeding the birds!

Anyways - back to our naughty Rosie............. how can I put this??? She's the naughtiest, most contrary, stubborn puppy I've ever know and yet she's also the most adorable with it. I / we are severely sleep deprived at the moment - she has no concept of going to sleep at anytime that's half normal - at least not until she's yelped and muttered for a good hour and then she is wide awake and doing the same at about 7.00 in the morning. My own son Paul never kept me awake as much as she is doing!! Oh mind you - when I was in hospital after having him I did have to be woken up when he was by the side of me crying and said no thank you when asked if I wanted to feed him!!

Anyway - I digress - back to Rosie yet again.....so this week she's been out on her lead for the first time. Oh deary me - she wasn't keen on that idea - and I will forever have this picture of her sat on the pavement, with a stubborn look on face, looking at me as if too say ' you want me to walk'???, just soooo funny!! So, my spare hours are sat scouring Puppy Training sites for behaviour tips....... :(

What else have I done this week - well, my lovely Church - Holy Trinity, Salcombe is 're-ordered'...?? I think that's the correct title?? Well, there have been major re-furb works on the inside and a glorious wall of glass has been put in, with a couple of rooms up stairs, fab new kitchen, loos etc. New flooring, lighting and chairs in the main bit of the Church (expect there's a name for that as well, but don't know it - sorry Daniel!) and it all looks rather gorgeous. We had a great opening afternoon on Saturday with loads of people attending, the Gospel choir sang (I didn't as have been to busy to go for a while) the children from the local primary school played steel drums and sang and a fun time was had by all. I wasn't up early enough to go to Sunday morning service but I did go to the evening service and it was a Candle service......just beautiful! It was very calming and I had time to pause and to reflect and to be thankful for being in such a beautiful place in my life - both spiritually and physically.

The weather in Salcombe has been diabolical now for ever - at least it seems that way! It's certainly affecting trade severely this week - but our Christmas parties start this weekend and we have lots of them..... hoorah!! After cancelling our gala Christmas and New Years Eve dinners due to lack of demand we are now fully booked for NY and reasonably booked for Christmas Eve... amazing!! Christmas Day we are opening 12 - 2.30, and that's just Tim and I - so should be fun... staff get their first Christmas Day off in for a long time (14 years I think for James our Chef) and I get to have lunch cooked by Tim!! The dec's are up and the pub looks very festive.....

Wine training was booked in for today, but the brewery lady was unable to make it - so SOH, at about 30 minutes notice took the training instead........ I must say he's bloody good at training!! He loves doing it and I think when anyone loves doing something it shines through - well, it certainly does with him. The pic is of our team making tasting notes, smelling, tasting and spitting :) They really seemed to enjoy it, and lets put it this way.... 2 came in from a day off and one took a day off from a paid job to do the training, so I'd say they love the training and their job wouldn't you?!?

Tomorrow, (Wednesday) we're up for being visited and judged for St Austell Wine Pub of the Year - I'm really nervous about it, as I'm no wine buff and I don't know what they'll ask or do or expect, but I've had staff cleaning and polishing to within an inch of their lives, so at least we pass muster on that front! I'm not expecting to win it, but to be even shortlisted in our first year is a real surprise - so we're more than happy with that! I've also submitted an application to a national trade magazine for us to be Customer Service Pub of the Year - 1st stab at anything like that - but I won't hold my breath on that one.......but we'll see.

Had 2 Trip Advisor reviews this week - one bad and one really great........ gets very confusing at times. We get loads of compliments to our face about the service / food etc but I still get so upset when people will go to the lengths of writing something on a review site, seen by a potentially massive audience but won't say anything to us when they're here at the pub - that's 2 like that now! As good as the good review was (and it was really lovely and positive!!) I always feel bad reviews can do so much damage, but as Jim our area manager is always saying to me I have to learn to get any criticism in perspective, learn from it and move on........ I'm trying Jim!!

On that note - I have to write a blog for the Good Pub Guide and I try not too duplicate what I write on here, so if you want to read that you'll have to look at their website http://www.thegoodpubguide.co.uk/

Till next time then my lovely friends - I'm off to start building an ark if this weather continues...X