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City Council leader Russ Newton Abbott said: ‘For too long the ducks here have been fed cheap own brand bread, and out-of-date stale rolls, we felt it was time to make sure they eat properly.’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