Today was the annual swim form Padstow to Rock and Team Richardson entered again with the same hard core and a couple of newcomers.  This year we managed to volunteer Claire who has been working for us during the last 3 summer holidays while at Uni and before she goes to Oxford Brookes to do an MSc in Hospitality management and Andrea from The Fowey Hotel brought her little sister with her - who it turns out is a triathlete!

There was quite a wait before the start with much nervous conversation and thought turning to “why am I doing this” and how cold the water was but once we were off it was just a case of head down and get on with it.  We did start a bit too early as the tide was still running quite strongly.  At one stage I was lining up my course on an orange buoy and the prow of a white boat and the next minute I was lined up on the stern!  This does add a little to the time it took to get across but the last two years I have managed to go straighter and straighter so taking less time, though there is no way I will be able to join the elite section who have to get across in under 30 minutes.

The results:  I came in about the same time as Andrea and Emma - I did pass Emma on the way but that was before my drift upstream.  Claire came in about 5 minutes later and Mel 5 minutes after her - never has a cold pasty tasted so good.

What was really nice was that some of our guests came down to see us off and offer some moral support - Andrea and Emma had their parents waiting for them on the other side as well as Louie, Emma’s son.

Once we had got our breath back and eaten the pasty we did start to get pretty cold so headed back over on the ferry.  As it was just running for us swimmers it docked at the slip by the harbour commissioners office which just happens to be right next to The Old Customs House - that was the most welcome pint we’ve had for a while!

After a long and very hot shower iIam now fit to face the world again, though not intending to do too much operationally this evening but it is good to have a little rest before getting on my bike to go back home in a little while.

Roll on next year - must do some training for that!

I’ve known for a long time that Padstow has some great cockle beds, I’ve seen the gangs of cockle pickers at work out on the estuary at low tide as well as the lone local harvesting a few for themselves.  It was quite a surprise to find out that there are now Padstow oysters too.

Mel went to lunch at The Seafood a couple of weeks ago and had them then, I followed this up and found who grows them, made contact and John brought some samples in.  He also grows mussels too and these were on the menu last night.  We haven’t put the oysters on the menu yet but did try them today.  The chefs tried them at lunchtime but I didn’t have time as I was involved with a meeting for the Padstow Late Night Christmas Shopping Weekend (but that’s another story) so I asked for one this evening.  Tommy duly found one in the fridge for me and just gave it to me, all closed up!  I thought it would be a good idea to try and open it but soon realised I don’t have the nack so gave it back to Tommy - he hasn’t got it either so we called Ben over to do the honours.

Once opened and the bits of shell picked out from where Tommy and I had been butchering it I tipped away - the oyster stayed where it was, determindly gripping to its shell so after a mouthful of seawater I cut around the flesh and chomped away.  It was the biggest oyster I’ve ever had but was very good, I look forward to many more if we can put them on the menu every now and then.

We’ve got the Padstow to Rock swim tomorrow so just hoping…..

Fridays are when I have to write my weekly report, this involves a fair bit of figure work and then some fancy word play to try to explain what has happened with the business this week.  As you can guess this does require a fair bit of concentration and not surprisingly I didn’t get this clear time.

The first interruption was a guest who had been expecting to have a proper bed for her daughter as an extra bed in the room, our one spare bed was already in another room as all our z beds are in use this week.  All we could do was to swap the foldaway bed with a new sofa bed that wasn’t needed from one of the other premier rooms. As this roomwas let today Jake and I had to move quickly to swap the furniture around.  We made a quick trip down to the lower ground floor to get the spare sofa from the first room.  Room 103 has a very narrow entrance corridor so there was no way this chair was going to go out that way - head for the french windows.  These have bolts top and bottom as well as a yale lock but these have been damaged so took ages to get open, I even managed to gash my finger on the bolt casing but at least kept the blood off the net curtains.  After two trips back upstairs for more tools (and a plaster) we managed to get the door open and the chair out.  This went quickly up to the first floor to room six, nothing was going to go smoothly so we really struggled to get the sofa in, the door doesn’t open fully as there is a door stop on the floor to keep it away from the bedside table!  Eventually it went in and the sofa bed came out fairly easily.  Back in the lift and down to the lower ground and around the outside to the doors.  The swap over was fairly easy but then the sofa bed hadn’t been made up - we swapped all the bedding from the put you up bed to the sofa bed in one go!  All sorted, just time to change the plaster on my finger and back to work.

No sooner had I sat down than I had a message that the guests in room 101 were locked out - the key wouldn’t turn at all.  This usually means that the latch has dropped inside either before the door has shut or just after.  The usual way in involves a hammer,a chisel and a few screwdrivers before using a paint scraper to pop the lock.  I was struggling to get the door jamb off as it was held in place by the rim of the door lock when the guest came back and asked if we had a ladder as he had left the window open.  I wasn’t expecting this as most of the windows only open 150 mm at most but this one didn’t have the blocks on so I was very relieved to go and get the ladder and shin up to crawl in the window!  Once in I let the guest in and we checked the lock over and it showed no signs of any faults.  Later on I then had to repair the damage I’d caused earlier - decorators caulk is wonderful stuff,all smoothed off nicely and the holes filled soTony will just need to give it a coat of paint later.

Back to the desk and some more report writing when Mel told that the wine fridge wasn’t working - thankfully this was just the extension lead not plugged in quite right. We have a great little tool that tells you if a cable is live or not so it was quite quick to see if the problem was the fridge or not.

End result - happy guests, report written, tea eaten and the sun is still shining!

This is the post that Amy and Laura were expecting to see under the last heading!  Our local fire brigade team is in the hotel tonight to do some training and they are using the Met Lounge just next to reception.  While not qualified to comment on these men they do seem to be doing a good job of distracting the girls.

We have been giving Amy a bit of stick as she is the least subtle - we almost did have to get a bib for her!

This was the cry when I had to go up to room 7 on Tuesday afternoon - the guest had been up for a swim in the hotel pool and naturally had a shower when he came back.  Unfortunately we don’t think he shut the door quite fully so we had a good inch of water on the bathroom floor.  The reason we found out about it was because it appeared in the restaurant just below!  After a quick mop up all was OK and no more water has been seen!

I brought the car in to work today, primarily because I need to take some things home with me.  As an aside I thought I would go up to see Charlie at the local maize maze (www.maize-maze.com and follow the links) to pick up a few brochures.  I have written a feature on the maze in or next newsletter and I wanted some pictures to go in it.  As I drew into the field I saw it was very boggy towards the entrance tent so didn’t go that way, I had stopped on the drive way but then saw that there was a sign towards the left saying exit this way and a couple of cars parked on the side.  I assumed this would be Ok so steered as close to the left as I could…..and didn’t go anywhere else!  I tried forwards and backwards and rocking the car but to no avail so I decided to stop.

I had seen somebody in the tent so went over to see them to get some brochures and to ask if there was any carboard or straw I could use.  The young man kindly rang Charlie to ask him to come up in his tractor to pull me out.  We chatted and waited a while but Charlie hadn’t arrived so I said I would just try something else - I had been taught on a half day off road driving course 10 years ago that if you got stuck across a slope just start the car in gear with your foot off the clutch.  Reverse was the best option as I was only a few feet off the drive but this just didn’t work, I guess it was just too slippy or I didn’t have enough revs.  I might try it again but not where I’m stuck.  I was given a push and managed to get going but had to go forwards further across the field - it was very wet and muddy across the far side but I managed to keep enough momentum to get over it, a big relief to get out!

Now with washed shoes gently drying and a clean suit ready to put on I think I am ready for the afternoon’s work!

These really are words to strike fear into a manager’s heart when you overhear them in reception!  My expectation was for the guest to be really unhappy with something in the room and them wanting to show me first hand what it was and for then to say “what are you going to do about it”.

Thankfully this wasn’t a major disaster or a guest who had a complaint about his room but definitely worth a quick visit to the room.  Amy was able to fill me in before I went so I was able to get prepared with a dustpan and brush.  The room in question has a balcony looking out over the estuary with a stunning aspect and the guest in question had been walking backwards into the room, hadn’t ducked enough under the doorframe, banged his head on the top bar and lost his balance and falling into the glass door at the time.  Not surprisingly the glass lost so I had to tidy all that up and make it safe - especially as they have 2 lovely chocolate labs that wouldn’t notice any little bits of glass on the floor and naturally walk around in bare feet.  While we do have enough firstaiders on site we’re all trained on humans not dogs.

Thankfully we have our carpenter on site today so he should be able to fix this for us - the cardboard boxes I stuck over the glass last night do detract slightly from the view!

No, not my blog posts but our business here - we’ve been running along with July and August being OK but not quite as busy as I had anticipated and then we have a few days like we’ve just had.

We have filled tonight and almost did last night too and the restaurant was nicely busy yesterday but today - we’ve been busy in the cafebar all day, even doing quite a bit of food in there this evening too as well as many of our guests enjoying drinks before and after dinner.  The restaurant was at a comfortable 50 with a few big tables so that felt really good and at the same time we had a family birthday party in the Met Lounge.  There is a real buzz around the hotel, an excellent atmosphere all around.

And then the fire alarms went off!  They actually went off in the middle of the last paragraph: somebody was trying to get the creases out of their top with the steam from the shower and with our new smoke alarms, need I say more….

The fire brigade arrived in due course, I had to tell the birthday family that they weren’t part of the cabaret.  When the alarm control centre rang me at home my wife had to say she didn’t know where I was as I could easily have been on my way home so Joyce and Jill both got calls too so everyone was here.

Am now going to try and talk to Andrea at Fowey about our new forecasting spreadsheet - who says men can’t multi task!

When I went up to close the pool yesterday evening there were two youngish rabbits out playing by the pool, they both stayed around for a while and then when I moved again one hopped off to hide under the shed soon to be followed by the other one.  When rabbit two (not sure if Flopsy, Mopsy or Cottontail) decided it was time to go and hide too it was just like I have always imagined the moment in one of Peter Rabbit’s adventures when he squeezed under the gate.  That was always my favourite bit, not sure if it was when reading it to my younger brother or to my children - probably both!

Well, I’m not sure if this fluffy bunny would really regard himself as our pet but he seems to have adopted our garden so I think that means we can claim him!  If he’s anything like my son’s “pet” rabbit we certainly won’t be catching him and offering our younger visitors the chance to hold and stroke him.

I was very pleased to see him this evening as I went up to check and close the pool - yesterday evening we had four young local lads having a free swim - as I had heard a couple of shouts coming from that direction.  Once I saw Peter ( for want of a better name and showing my literary roots!) I knew there wouldn’t be any extra visitors up there.

This does also mean that Adam could well have to steer clear of putting any rabbit dishes on the menu when we drift into autumn.  This reminds me of a time when I was working up in Yorkshire for Posthouse, our sister hotel at Leeds / Bradford had a centrally derived menu and there was a lovely rabbit dish on the menu.  The trouble was this hotel is situated in 13 acres of park land with big picture windows looking out over the grass, which was covered in cute ittle wild bunnies.  Needless to say this dish came of the menu pretty quickly!

Back to Peter: when I’d seen him before he was hopping around on the far side of the pool so it seemed like he had made his home in the garden at the back of Stein’s garage and car park behind St Edmunds House but tonight he was on the other side of the pool and hopped off into the bushes towards the vegetable garden.  I will have to warn Giles the gardener but we really don’t want to get into the same battles that Mr MacGregor did!

i will try and keep you updated on his progress and if he has any family but with a wild rabbit it is very hard to tell one from another from a distance of 20 metres, I will only know if there is more than one if we see them together!