Aside from the normal and welcome chatter with our guests and “quacker” with the resident family of ducks (determined to claim the swimming pool as their annual summer home), we seem to have developed a new breed of customer. How or where this particular guest appeared from is anybody’s guess as it was a hedgehog! One minute nothing and the next, curled up in the Bar, was this sweet little prickly thing that had made itself quite at home. And, it was sober to boot! No sooner had it been gently escorted back to an appropriate place in the garden when at the front entrance appears a collie dog. Collared, coiffed and very respectable it was too, wagging its tail. It seemed to be satisfied with the Grand welcome as once petted and admired, it turned and trotted off. So I guess there is some truth in the saying that if you are around long enough, sooner or later everyone will beat a path to your door. The more the merrier we say!

Right now there is good entertainment available in the hotel. Every Friday and second Saturday you can chill out in the Compass Bar and Lounge to the sounds of Howard Jones – an excellent singer who will have you up and dancing before you know it! Complementing Howard on alternate Saturdays is Talitha another singer guaranteed to get the feet going. (Even the manager has been spotted on the dance floor!). On Wednesdays and Sunday lunchtimes, Paul Vincent, a pianist who has accompanied the likes of Morecambe and Wise and Norman Wisdom amongst others during an illustrious career, will tinkle the ivories and of course, Sunday evenings, Tuesdays and Thursdays feature our resident pianist Neil Reid.

The atmosphere is great, the staff hospitable and there is always something to watch so it’s no surprise that the word of a friendly welcome is travelling fast – even in the animal kingdom!

Organising a Children’s Fun Day for the Easter weekend is a lot harder than you would think, although it is a lot of fun too!!

Getting in to the mindset of a child, idea’s start flying around the office, ‘singing and dancing, bouncy castle, egg painting…’  Now we have all of these idea’s it’s up to me to find people to put things into action!  Google becomes a very close friend of mine at this point!!

Far too quickly Easter Monday is here and I arrive to find the calm before the storm.  Slowly all of the stalls start to arrive but 10 minutes before the start I am still missing the bouncy castle and face painter.  Just as I begin to worry they both stroll through the door.

11:30am and the queue for the face painter is huge, the egg painting is going well and the animals from Pets at Home are a real hit!  The first singer is announced – she is the junior singing star winner from Torbay’s Acting Factory.  As she takes to the stage the whole room turns to watch and I suddenly realise just how many people are here!

The BBQ is up and running now and the Grand Produce stall, selling all of our homemade goodies, is going down a treat.  I look around and am pleased to see how much everyone is enjoying themselves.  Children are exploring the hotel searching for the clues of our Treasure Hunt and wondering around are characters such as Cavog from Kent’s Cavern, Mac the Penguin from Living Coasts and the Crealy Bear.

Tuesday and back to my desk to get back to some ‘grown up work’ when I realise… in no time at all it will be time to do it all over again for our August Family Fun Day!!

This spring has seen the return of Donald and Jemima our famous resident ducks whom reside in outdoor pool with chicks in tow. Needless to say they have great taste in Holiday desitinations….. or could it be due to the recent press release?

An exclusive restaurant for wild ducks is to open in Torquay, it was announced today.

Torbay City Council leader Russ Newton Abbott said: ‘For too long the ducks here have been fed cheap own brand bread, and out-of-date stale rolls, we felt it was time to make sure they eat properly.’

The new restaurant will have 24 little pools with floating paper plates, where ducks can dine, and there will be special duck toilets, and a crèche for ducklings that are brought along. The menu, prepared by Grand Executive Head Chef Richard Hunt, will include organic freshly-mown grass, specially selected pond weeds, free trade slugs and snails, and of course  the Grand Bakery’s own fresh bread.

There will be 12 varieties of bread, thrown to them by trained waiting staff, including cracked whole grain, freshly-baked Halal rye, Kosher crusty white, and French baguettes. The restaurant, called Quacking Mad, is to be funded in association with Torbay council, and is expected to open as soon as the grouse shooting season starts.

One duck, Donald Mallard, said: ‘Well, let’s hope the service is a bit better than that place in Brixham. We had to fly out of the toilet window without paying the bill, it was so bad there.’

But his wife Jemima said: ‘The crèche there was good, I thought. The little ones were kept entertained during our meal with videos of fox hunting, which they thought were very funny. A fox got my Auntie Ida you know!.’

The Grand hotel in Torquay is undergoing an extensive rolling refurbishment of its accommodation as part of the hotels commitment to its customers, offering the very highest levels of comfort.

The hotel’s general manager, Mr Jason Parry explained, “We are extremely excited and pleased to inform all of our guests that we are currently undertaking a rolling refurbishment of all the bedrooms here at The Grand Hotel. The rooms are being completely refurbished with modern conveniences such as, flat screen televisions, DVD players and Wi-Fi access. This is going to take place during 2008.The Hotel will still retain the original features which make it such a special place to stay, deserving of its title of The Grand Hotel.”

The refurbishment is focused at providing the hotels customers with more comfortable accommodation, facilities and improving technology.

“The changes are targeted at the growing needs of our customers. Flat screen televisions, DVD players and Wi-Fi access are all important improvements which will allow our guests to have a more comfortable and enjoyable stay. The new rooms are simply stunning, maintaining all of the Hotels original charm and elegance. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused during this period and we would like to reassure all of our guests that the refurbishment will be undertaken in a very sympathetic manner”

It’s Saturday night and after looking after a large event comprising of people who apparently don’t need any sleep to function, I make my way up to bed at around 4am. I say around 4am because at this point I have no understanding of what day it is, let alone the hour. I console myself with the fact that I am not on the early shift, usually starting at 7am, and can have a lie in, as I have one of those rare things that seem to come round once in a blue moon…a day off!

As I tuck myself into bed with a cup of tea and munch on the biscuits that are supplied in my room (not chocolate chip, but I’ll make do!) I dream of playing in the Premier League, winning the lottery and most of all not being woken up for some emergency between now and when the next Manager comes on duty in 3 hours…not much to ask for is it?

7.02am: Ring Ring, Ring Ring.

Me: Hello?
Colleague: Hey, sorry to wake you, do you know where the keys are, they’re not where they usually are?

Me: Have you looked properly?
Colleague: Yeah, I’ve had everything out, they’re definitely not there.
Me: Do you need me to come out?
Colleague: I’ll look again for you, but I’m sure they’re not here.
Me: Ok, thanks. Ring me back in a minute when you know.

N.B. From how it reads I sound fairly reasonable…not the case. You have to imagine a guy who has had 2 hours sleep, heard the phone ring and thinks it was the fire alarm, once he’s got up and realised it’s the phone, smacked his knee in the dark, and fallen over his own shoes!

7.04am: Ring Ring, Ring Ring.

Me: Hello?
Colleague: It’s only me.
Me: Did you find them?
Person I want to strangle with my bare hands: Yeah, they were in the
normal place, I just didn’t look properly!
Me: Beeeeeeepppppppppppppp!!!!

7.05: back to bed,ZZZzzzzzzzzzz……

My wake up call sounds at 6am.

Now for your normal everyday kind of a guy who gets to go to bed after Emmerdale this is not a problem. But after six sixteen hour shifts and a Christmas party that didn’t want to go to bed until half four that same morning, a man will begin to struggle. People must think we are mad…… Maybe we are a little?

Three large over sugared mugs of tea and several dousings of eye wash later I’m ironed, polished and ready for another day.

Mornings are a funny thing. “What day is it?” is usually the first question I ask myself…… later to be confirmed by a fellow member of staff as the morning shift begins. The sweet aroma of a cooked breakfast drifts through the corridors as I take a seat at my desk to check the details of the day ahead. Conference at nine…… umm…. Scrambled eggs, meeting at ten….. Oooo crispy bacon, Observations at eleven……. That’s it, the sausages have got me. A perk of management……. Quality control!

It’s a pleasure to talk to our guests as they stumble down following the night before, and of course discretion is our courtesy and job. Every hotel has ‘character’ guests and it is my duty to listen to them. Today it is the guests from 302 as they tell me about their state of health whilst I am still digesting my fried mushrooms.

The morning is going well. Its eleven and no alarms have yet sounded. The electricity is still on, the hot water is hot and the guests are smiling. The girls on the phones are busy taking bookings, the kitchen is busy chopping and the vacuums can be heard humming quietly on each landing.

The pager bleeps……. In fact this pager never stops bleeping! A phone call, a guest. An unwell member of staff – oops, now make that three! A key for the safe, a ‘sorry I meant maintenance’. A contractor, a salesman, a question, a message. A note in the Diary, a problem to solve. A trigger happy receptionist and a Pack of rampaging day trippers. If you didn’t love this job….. you wouldn’t be able to do it!!

As the day goes by I remain buoyant as our conference guests have enjoyed their lunch, the residents made the most of the sunshine and fresh sea air. The swimming pools are shimmering, the windows and mirrors sparkling, the beds are made and the silverware polished. As evening draws in the team in the Compass Bar and Lounge are in full flow and the pianist is playing in the background. The show in the Gainsborough restaurant is underway and staff are still smiling and getting on with the job.

My day here draws to an end…… Hooray – it’s been another good day and in this business, you have to be thankful as the good days are what makes it worthwhile!

It’s all the fun of the fair at Torquay Carnival time. A fantastic ambience, parade with great floats, plenty going on – why not just come on down and join in the fun!

Welcome to my first BLOG! With summer out of the way, I want to know who said, it was downhill to Christmas and the New Year!

This is just the start of busy changing times with a new General Manager, Paul Reed starting this week. Fresh from London, he’s hoping for a quieter life in Devon – little does he know that it’s never quiet at the Grand! Another recent addition is our Head Chef, Gareth Judge. He has a wealth of experience gained through working with the likes of Marco Pierre White and members of Royalty. He has already revamped our Gainsborough Restaurant menu, which is being well received by guests!

The ‘buzz’ word around the hotel at the moment is fertility, with 2 babies already this year, 4 expected by Christmas, and 2 in the New Year, I am certainly watching what chair I sit on and seriously considering opening a nursery to get those mums back to work!!

We are also told that all of our rooms are to be refurbished over the next 12 months – we are very well organised for minimal disruption to the rest of hotel, which is great news for the guests and us! The end result being sparkling, classically modern rooms, suitable for the best hotel in the bay!

I have also been busy this week putting together a ‘Green Team’ to address our carbon footprint. We already purchase local produce, recycle our rubbish and are now looking to reduce energy waste …. Of course you realise my biggest challenge is going to be persuading our owner, Mr Richardson, to trade in his 6 litre Rolls Royce for a more practical hybrid car ….. and I haven’t even attempted to broach the subject of flying … since he has just obtained his pilots licence and is talking of landing his new helicopter right outside the Hotel!!

Well I think that is enough excitement for a debut blog. I’ll keep you posted on more changes happening here in Torquay, later in the week.