Our Facebook page is getting more fans all the time - we’re up to 40 now and as we hoped most of the new followers are now people who are guests or potential guests.  We have got over the initial burst of friends and family who signed up!  We will use this as well as our own site to keep people updated over the coming months about things that are happening here at The Met and also in Padstow too.

Finally got them!  I have written before about the awkward blinds we had in the Cafe Bar - they were a designers special idea as they only came down 60cm!  Whenever we needed to shut the bright sunlight out we had to close the curtains which really defeated the object of sitting by the window!

I bought a set of antique pine finish venetian blinds before I went away and Andy came and fitted them during my holiday.  As the blinds come all the way down to the floor we have also taken the big heavy curtains away so almost doubling the amount of light that comes in, the whole rooms feels really different now and a whole lot more contemporary.  Just wait till the new chairs come too!

I don’t normally share my holiday stories but this time it is a little different!  Today is the day I was due back anyway but I had planned to have a couple of days at home before coming back to work but the little volcano put paid to that.  We were scheduled to fly back from Oslo on Saturday morning and all being well would have been back at home with a cup of coffee by late afternoon.

As we all know now things didn’t pan out like that and we had to make some alternative arrangements:  trains are wonderful things and not much really stops them (unless you live in the south east of England) so that was the route we took.  We bought Interrail tickets as this was the best option price and flexibility wise and then headed off through Sweden.  Even in these rail efficeint countries Saturday and Sunday aren’t the best days to travel so we couldn’t go straight through to Copenhagen but had an overnight in Halmstad.  No, I hadn’t heard of it either but it does have a pleasant Best Western hotel just over the road from the station where we got a good deal - and with what my son ate for breakfast it ended up being very good value!

The next day saw us travel non stop from 9.00 am till 10.30pm when we got to Cologne, the trains linked up well, despite our middle one being delayed but it was just a shame that so many other people were on the trains too!  My wife and daughter got a seat for the last hour and Tom and I for the last 20 minutes.  No such luck with the hotels in Cologne so had to sleep in the waiting room which at least was warm and dry and trains sorted out for the next morning to Brussels.

Nothing ever goes to plan!  The swish train was an expres that doesn’t take interrail tickets so we had to get off at Aachen or pay 58 euros each.  As there are four of us we got off!  At the train information office we got a different travel plan and a different route straight to Liege and on into France with seats which was a real bonus.

This took us all the way to Calais town where the SNCF had put on extra busses to take us to the ferry terminal for a small charge, well worth it!  Ferry tickets weren’t a problem and while there was a queue it moved fairly swiftly and we were on a boat within an hour of arriving.  The ferry wasn’t at all crowded and we had a good crossing, enjopyed the walk to Dover station and got 2 trains back to Gatwick to pick up the car.  The busses were still running to the car parks which was a great relief and the car park authorities weren’t charging for the extra days we’d left the car there.  A big thank you to them and to all the other people who were so helpful in getting us back in one piece.

I must admit I won’t be spending too much time at work today, just need to clear up a few more e mails and things on my desk then I’ll be off home to finish unpacking!

Having mentioned this book last year as I was told a good part of it is set in Cornwall and specifically Padstow with The Met getting quite a few mentions I have now been given a copy for the hotel library!  A big thank you to our kind benefactor.

I have now read the story and seen all the references to us in there, I really ought to ask a film company to turn it into a movie so we can get even more publicity.

When my wife has finished reading the book I’ll bring it back in to work and it will be available for all.  I promise not to put little tabs on the important pages mentionng the hotel.

I’ve just been asked if I would be happy to host a hustings evening on the 9th of April for the local Padstow residents to grill the candidates for the forthcoming election.  Naturally I jumped at the chance to host a prestigious event like this, it will be very exciting to be involved with such an important part of our democratic process.  Jill Hagley who is organising the event on behalf of Padstow Area Business and Tourism Forum (PATBF) has told me that Dan Rogerson the sitting MP and Sian Flynn the primary challenger have already confirmed they would be happy to attend so it promises to be a lively evening!

There will be more information here, on our Facebook page and on Twitter as we have it.

I’ve just heard that my friends at The Fowey Hotel have raised over £1000 for Shelterbox.  They held a fundraising day selling coffee and cup cakes as well as an auction and raffle - with the most eye watering event being some of the chefs undertaking a sponsored leg wax!

I am doing my bit by trying to blackmail Andrea (The Fowey’s manager) for some extra cash for her appeal!  Can’t tell you what the hold I have over her is but it’s worth a couple of pounds I’m sure!

If you feel like making a donation do please do so on the Shelterbox web site and it would be good if you could let the team at Fowey know too.

I think the phrase is “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”, that may be a little extreme for what happened at breakfast this morning but it will do to start me off now!

When we serve our good healthy porridge we always give a separate plate with a bowl of brown sugar and a little jug of cream - what else are holidays for if not a little indulgence - but this does create a logistical issue for carrying to the table as most people are not eating alone.  Carrying three plates is an easy skill we pick up pretty quickly but when one of them has two loose items of china on them it does add to the excitement.  Danni was about to take out table eight’s breakfast, a grill and a porridge main course.  As she was starting to struggle a bit I offered to bring the porridge.  I soon wished I hadn’t!  As it was a main course one there was a good chance the lady could have already used her cereal spoon so I picked up an extra one to take out with me.  I don’t like to carry the spoon in my hands and then pop it onto the table, it is much more professional to carry it on something else so I was trying to get Danni’s attention to put the spoon on the same plate as the cream and suger.  As I was concentrating on getting the spoon to Danni while walking through the door into the restaurant the door swung back ond caught me on the arm.  Yes it was the hand I was holding the porridge with and yes it is a big heavy door!  I just couldn’t help it, the impact of the door was enough to dislodge the bowl and off it flew.  I covered a good square metre of the matting on the way into the restaurant, right in the middle of service.  It’s not the easiest of things to clear up with a dustpan and brush but thankfully I got most of it up and the rest has been hoovered now it’s dried.

In case you are wondering Goldilocks did get her porridge after a little delay cooking a fresh one and I guess this does prove the other old adage about men and multitasking!

Over the winter we always try and make some significant inroads into the decoration of the hotel and this year has been no exception.  Before Christmas Peter carried on with our schedule in the bedrooms and now all have been redecorated, ready to start again next winter!

Our main achievement this year since Christmas has been to re-decorate the restaurant.  This is very nearly finished with just the small bay to be completed now.  All the staff are really pleased with how fresh and clean it looks with a much quieter paper.  We are also reviewing the art on the walls again and the key thing will be for us to have much less - just a few stunning pictures will, I think, have much more impact in the room.

My attention is now turning to the Cafe Bar, this was painted recently so that does not need doing but the windows need a tidy up.  I am trying to see if we can get some sleeves to cover the pillars as these are quite old looking and not well put together.  The cills are similarly awkward and in need of a tidy up.  I have had a quote for replacing the blinds too - the existing ones are dummies and only drop about 2 feet - not at all helpful when the sun is shinng brightly.  Once the blinds are in place we’ll take the curtains down and see if we can re-use them elsewhere in the hotel, I am sure this will make the Cafe Bar feel much more spacious.

Now we need to start planning for what we are going to do next winter - and we need to do as much as we can because Peter will be retiring the following summer!

We held this last night, not quite the numbers we were hoping for but we all still had an exceptional evening.  My thanks go to Ben from Carte Blanche Wines for hosting the evening, Tamsin from Wadebridge Wines for helping to put the evening together and all my team at the hotel for running the event so smoothly.

The menu that Adam put together read really well and was even better on the plate: the guests who had not eaten with us before were really surprised!  I certainly think we’ll see them again.

The wine focus of the evening was on the small, artisan producers from the Barossa Valley in south Australia.  There is a growing group of wine makers who are producing really fine wines from small parcels of old vines, some planted over 100 years ago.  These were  beautiful wines, really expressing the grapes but more importantly the region and the essence of terroir: much more like the French do!  As the great Australian wine lake drops these peaks of quality are starting to show through and are well worth searching out for a special treat.

I’ll be talking to Tamsin next week to see when we can plan the next dinner!

This last few weeks have been pretty busy, trying out new things and looking at some new developments.

The most interesting from a foodie point of view is that we’ve at last managed to find a supplier who can deliver us free range eggs on a daily basis.  This has been a bone of contention in the past and some guests have expressed their surprise that we weren’t using free range.

Moving on from my earlier post about the social media sites I am very pleased to say we’re now live on Facebook with a grand total of 13 fans already!  Twitter is on the way but Amy is putting the effort into the Facebook page first while doing some reading on Twitter at the same time.

On a more mundane level Peter has nearly finished decorating the restaurant.  This is a big project as it is such a big room but also an extraordinary shape.  We’ve managed to do this in sections so it hasn’t been too disruptive but we do pass on our thanks to all our guests who have been sitting having breakfast or dinner looking at our very attractive lining paper!

More plans for the new financial year - keep an eye out for more news later!