Great times in Portsmouth

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!!