Lady of the manor
I was a lady who lunched this week, being fortunate enough to join other invited guests, travel agents and hotel personnel for a super lunch at the historic Ston Easton Park Hotel in Somerset.
The lunch was hosted by JTA, represented by Jason Nagle, regional sales manager and Lufthansa, who had sent key account manager Paul Spencer to oversee the event.
We were joined by sales and marketing manager for Ston Easton Park Polly Boyce and general manager Ian Jupp who gave us a brief tour. The hotel, dating back to the 18th century, really is splendid.
All I needed was an empire line dress and more in the way of a bosom and I could have pictured myself fainting at the sight of the gardener strolling past in shirtsleeves.
Previously the home of the Hippisley family, the mansion is now run by the von Essen hotels group, which has sympathetically updated the facilities. I’d wager that many a chap, overcome at the sheer romance of the place, has dropped down on one knee, and not just because he’s dropped a contact lens
We were treated to a sumptuous meal, which proved the kitchen more than worthy of its many awards.
After lunch, Jason explained the workings of the new JTA website and we were impressed by his assurances that we’d be able to book scheduled flights, accommodation and all ground arrangements using it.
Paul reminded us that Lufthansa remains the biggest carrier to India with its flights to Poona, and that the airline is also the biggest European carrier to China, flying into Nanjing and Shenyang.
Absorbing this information were some old friends and colleagues and I was especially pleased for Christine, from Cathedral Travel, who won two Lufthansa business-class seats to Germany.
My dining companions included Les and Hannah of Uniglobe Gemini Travel, Pam from the Unpackaged Travel Company, Amanda from Bristol airport, Mary from Travel Centre in Street, and Peter Giles of World Market Travel.
Guest gets surprise frill
I’d seen Peter at the Travel Weekly Southwest Ball the previous week and asked if he’d enjoyed the event. He told me he had, but that he’d narrowly missed causing some other guest a little domestic strife as a result of a wardrobe malfunction.
Priding himself on cutting a dash in his dinner suit, he decided that he couldn’t attend with a bare breast pocket but had failed to pack a handkerchief for the occasion. His partner, Penny, suggested he improvise, so he selected a pair of her tiny frillies to fulfil the function.
Arriving at the ball, he grew fearful that he might seize the undies from his pocket and blow his nose on them, so he removed them and stuffed them into his inside pocket.
All well and good, except that, when he got home, he discovered he’d put on somebody else’s jacket. Instead of finding his wife’s frillies in the inside pocket, he discovered a packet of cigarettes.
A phone call to the Bristol Marriott revealed the owner of the other jacket must have checked out its pockets before he left. He had deposited Peter’s dinner jacket at reception, rather than go home to face a barrage of questions about where the flimsies had come from.
I worry about Peter and his unfailing habit to pick up other people’s stuff. I recall an incident where he picked up Miss World’s baggage at Heathrow. To my knowledge, he didn’t keep any of her underwear, but I could be wrong!
Faux pas for Frome MP
Lib Dem MP for Frome David Heath would be advised not to knock at the door of our bosses, Peter and David, in the run up to the next election, following his recent faux pas.
The MP was introduced to Peter and David at a friend’s barbecue and conversation ensued, in which David Heath confessed he’d booked his trip on the internet. His daughter added they ‘always got their brochures from Travel Angels in Frome to help them choose their destination’, as if this were some form of consolation for not booking there.
It’s going to take a lot more than doorstep kissing to get back in our good books.
Maureen Hill works at Travel Angels, Gillingham, Dorset