Award winning Fowey!!

What a fantastic evening!! Thursday night saw the Cornwall Tourism Awards at The Headland Hotel, Newquay.

The evening was a little rushed for me as I had spent the day at the Grand Hotel with my fellow colleagues in Torquay. Although it was a long day, it was an enjoyable one. With over 300 guests attending the awards ceremony there was definitely an air of anticipation and excitement. Ruby Wax started the evening off well and definitely warmed us all up, she seemed quite at home making jokes at the Cornish as well as creating quite a few laughs at our Cornish Pasty and Saffron Cake diet, apparently that’s all we eat down here! I had no idea how tiny she was and it wasn’t until we collected our award that I realised she could only be about 5 foot at a stretch!! I could have picked her up and put her in my pocket!

I can tell that the anticipation is killing you so I will not leave you in suspense any longer. The Fowey Hotel was awarded Silver for the “Small Hotel of the Year” category and we were very pleased indeed. Congratulations also go to the Old Quay House (Fowey) who scooped the Gold award which now firmly places Fowey on the map as a top hotel destination to holiday in the county. We are all over the moon and still buzzing from the excitement of the evening. Three cheers for Fowey!!!

Well I found the bright round yellow thing we were all missing! In Majorca!!

Fresh off the plane I wanted to drop you a line to say I found it!!! My search was not fruitless and the bright, hot yellow thing once known as the sun was hunted down and found! Admittedly the fantastic weather only lasted for 3 or 4 days however it was enough to restore my vitamin levels and recharge my batteries for the winter season….

I decided to fly over (leaving Exeter airport at silly o’clock on the Sunday morning) to Palma at short notice, only actually booking my accommodation the day before. After a few trips on the local buses (which was an experience in its self) I arrived in Puerto Pollenca just after lunchtime. I arranged to meet up with Emma, Scott and Louis for a few days and I turned up at the hotel to find Louis in the pool with his surfer dude shorts on with daddy! He, well they, were having a wonderful time and his beaming smile was well worth getting up at 3am and driving in the pouring rain to get to the airport. The sun was shining and the family atmosphere was fantastic – just what I was needing after a pretty hectic few months here at work. I did a lot of exploring the local area and visited the town of Pollenca as well as Formenta. Emma, Scott and I also enjoyed educating our taste buds with the local Sangria and the local liqueur (comically) pronounced “erbs” (yep you guessed it, a herb liqueur). The food was also great and the local restaurants were very atmospheric, with all the waiting staff making a real fuss of Louis – well who doesn’t!

All in all, the week went too quickly. However, I am back and feeling ready to take on the next few challenges in the coming weeks ahead!!

Tomorrow will be an exciting evening as Mark (Head Chef) and myself will be attending the Cornwall Tourism awards at The Headland Hotel in Newquay. We are all very intrigued as The Fowey Hotel has been short listed for the award of ‘small hotel of the year’, what will be interesting is the fact that we will be going directly head to head with our neighbouring hotel The Old Quay House which has been beautifully upgraded and refurbished over the last few years. The other hotel, I hear is the St Michaels in Falmouth and again I think this will pose tough competition! Good fun will be had by all I am sure, I will let you know how we get on – at least one thing is for sure the worse we could do would be to win the Bronze award – but as always we intend to reach for the sky!

Finally, Fowey has welcomed an abundance of celebrities over the last few weeks not only with Dawn and Lenny’s house warming party but also with the cast from the popular programme ‘Three men and a boat’. There was a beautiful sun seeker motor boat in the estuary last night being filmed by a crew in a low flying helicopter, it created a lot of attention from our guests here and looked fantastic out on the estuary. Watch out for when Fowey is featured in the programme, there may be a few shots of the hotel too!

An Oasis in Fowey!

It has been an exciting few weeks here in Fowey. I personally have been busy working with Clare Williams the owner and manager of The Oasis Rooms in Fowey. Together we have joined to produce a fantastic “Pamper package” that is now on offer over the autumn and winter months here at the hotel. We haven’t forgotten the boys either! There is a choice of treatments on offer and included in our Pamper package is any two of the below:

• 60 min Dermalogica Prescriptive Facial – This facial’s truly revolutionary approach got it awarded “best salon treatment” in the Sunday Times Style Awards 2007. This facial is customized at every step by your therapist based on the Face Mapping skin analysis. • 60 min Full Body Massage – A personalized full body massage where your therapist is able to focus on areas of tension using aromas chosen by you. • 60 min Dermalogica Spa Body Treatment – Choose one of the 6 of our gorgeous body treatments (details of the 6 treatment options on our website) • 60 min Deluxe Pedicure – Your treatment begins with a relaxing foot spa followed by work on your cuticles and hard skin removal. Lie back and relax as your therapist massages your lower leg and feet and then applies a soothing paraffin wrap for deeper penetration of the products applied. Your nails are then buffed or polished leaving you with fabulous feet! • 60 min Deluxe Manicure – This wonderful treatment includes a hand massage, paraffin wrap and heated mitts for deeper penetration of the products used. Your nails are then buffed or polished leaving you with softer smoother more attractive hands. “Gents can escape too!“ The Oasis Rooms has designed a special pamper package just for the men – a 15min welcoming scalp massage, a 45 min back neck and shoulder massage, a 45 min Gent’s facial and to finish a 15 min Foot massage. For more information please visit www.theoasisrooms.co.uk If you would like any further details regarding this (or any other special break) do view the special offers page on this website, winter may be approaching but that doesn’t mean we need to hibernate – it would be lovely to see you! The Murder Mystery evening (Saturday 29th November) is again proving very popular this year with a quarter of the hotel being booked for the weekend all ready! There are still a number of rooms still available for either a 1 or two night break – it’s a really fantastic evening and the “Murder by Appointment team” are back by popular demand. Those of you who have been before may well have dressed up, this years theme is “ The Authoress” set in Fowey; “A wealthy and successful writer has chosen The Fowey Hotel as the venue for the launch of her new book, ‘Friendly Secrets’. During the evening it is discovered the new book contains very damaging material on certain of the quests present. Threats eventually lead to a body being discovered!” Are you a super sleuth? Watch and listen carefully during the evening and see if you can identify the ‘murderer’!