What a cracking Easter!

The weather has been very kind to us over the Easter weekend, marking the start of what I hope will be a really fantastic season.

I organised an Easter Egg hunt here at The Fowey that turned out to be a real hoot! I am pleased it went so well and good weather made it even more enjoyable. All in all over 50 children took part. I decided to have two “heats” to the hunt. The first heat was for any child under the age of 6 accompanied by an adult. This group had a 20 second head start and boy, they needed it! On the second whistle the second group (over 6’s) were like a plague of locusts sprinting at high speed with high squeals of excitement as they ran to the end of the Tea garden and into the ‘mystery garden’. Two hundred and forty four chocolate eggs were hidden in total and every child (thankfully) managed to find at least one. At one point I found a cute little girl walking around forlornly with an empty bag so I sneakily grabbed an egg from under a bush and threw it down behind her. She was so thrilled when she saw it that I forgave myself for using my “insider knowledge” to help.

Comically, before the hunt I passed some parents and guardians giving their children a ‘tactic talk’. They were whispering instructions such as “don’t worry about picking up the eggs on the grass, make straight for the mystery garden!!” Secretly I think the adults had more fun than the children, egging them on so!

Hidden deep in a bush in our “mystery garden” was a giant ‘GOLDEN EGG’ the lucky finder of which also won £10. That honour went to a deserving little boy called Sam who was very proud to show his golden chocolate egg off to the local photographer. The staff also had a lot of fun and got involved – after all, we’re all kids at heart….

For those who may not know, The Fowey hotel is part of Richardson Hotels of Distinction and one of our sister hotels – The Metropole in Padstow, North Cornwall - was deservedly awarded its 4th AA star on Thursday (5th April). All of the hard work put in by my colleague Andrew Jenkins and his team has now been acknowledged. I’m sure Andrew will waste no time in getting that all important big yellow plaque displayed on the hotel for the whole world to see! Well done Andrew and all the team, we’re really pleased for you. Ohh, and don’t worry about the extra pressure this puts on us to accomplish the same will you!!

The Fowey’s refurbishment is nearing its completion and as I am also charged with achieving a 4th AA star, I am having my own nightmares. I am scheduling madly in my head 24 hours a day as I have to ensure that the departure of our old furniture ties in with the arrival of the new and the worst of my nightmares is finding myself alone in a room full of twitchy guests and no furniture! I do hope it isn’t a case of “déjà vu” when the time comes – fingers crossed for me!