Mucking in with Canada
After a busy day in the office there was barely time to reapply our lipstick before we set off for the Coppleridge Hotel in Motcombe, Dorset, for Wessex World’s Canada Evening. All Canada’s Charlie Cooper was already in situ when we arrived, as was Tauck Tours’ Debbie Brown, ready to ensure that this event was going to give the lie to Canada Dry!
Local advertising had a considerable impact and the evening was oversubscribed. As a result we’d had to utilise every imaginable form of available seating, though we drew the line at borrowing the vanity stool from the ladies’ loo.
With presentation material around the room advertising Canada, Charlie was not at all surprised when one young man entered and asked whether this was the venue for the Young Farmers’ meeting. Dressed in suit and loafers rather than Barbour and boots, Charlie looked more like a city slicker than a son of the soil but who knows, maybe young farmers are dressing up for the tug-of-war and grouse shooting these days!
It would be true to say however, that Charlie does look younger than his years thanks to his high level of fitness. Indeed he recently came second in the Time to Care Marathon, for which we owe him much respect.
The room filled quickly and the presentation got under way with videos of Canada and expositions from Debbie and Charlie whose easy rapport made for great entertainment.
It transpires that both had attended the same presentation course many years ago when they worked for Cosmos. They made an excellent advertisement for that course, as one staff member was overheard to remark that if we thought variety was dead this double act certainly proved us wrong!
At the end of the evening prospective clients queued to speak to staff. One regular client of mine knelt on the chair to make himself more comfortable as he made his enquiries and promptly put his knee through the cane seat. Clearly we should have left the ornamental seating alone!
It remains to be seen how many enquiries are converted into bookings but we are hopeful that the interest shown during what was a most successful evening was authentic.
Constructing a good alibi
I’ll wager you’ve never had a client enter your shop to thank you for putting them up in a hotel with building work going on nearby, but in this funny old game that’s what happened to me!
A mother and daughter popped in to ask about prices to Australia and to relive their Christmas break in Dublin.
They had booked a weekend break with Cresta and upon arrival noticed that a large crane had been installed outside the Castle Hotel.
Emergency work started in the street below their window at 7am each morning and finished at 6pm. I waited for the demand for compensation and was surprised when it didn’t come. In its place was a eulogy on the benefits of residing in close proximity to heavy lifting gear.
“Thank God for that crane,” the daughter said. “without it we would never have found our way back to the hotel. Because it was Christmas, the workmen had decorated it with tinsel so we were able to spot it from any part of town.”
“But what about the noisy early mornings?” I asked.
“It was brilliant! Better than a wake-up call and it meant we could make the most of the few days we had. A bonus was to look out of the window to see pert young builders bending and flexing. They’re welcome to pick me up any day,” laughed the daughter.
“Forget the diet Coke man, you fell for the Guinness Guys,” I said.
“Add to that the wonderful sausages at breakfast, the soda bread and the brown bread ice cream with Baileys and we were in heaven,” said the mother. “My only complaint was that my daughter would not have a drink with me in an authentic Irish pub. She said she was too embarrassed.”
For someone who regularly embarrasses her offspring, be it in pubs or elsewhere, I could sympathise. I suggested to the mother that she travels with someone older in future and if she gives me enough notice, I will try to arrange for some loud and conspicuous building work to take place during their stay. Now there’s one in the eye for Watchdog!
Time for a pregnant pause?
Thank goodness for Matt at Cadogan who is clearly a man of the new millennium. I say this because he recently solved a problem which arose from the excess pregnancy hormones of a client of ours.
The client popped in to book a break as a final treat for her and her husband before the birth of their child. It proved difficult to find a break near the sea which fitted in with the given dates and budget but we eventually came up with a trip to Gibraltar, albeit departing a day earlier than had been originally requested.
I felt a little uneasy as I put down the telephone, having finalised the booking with Matt as, almost instantly, my client asked: “Remind me, where are we going? I’ve forgotten!”
I told her and we laughed about the havoc hormones were wreaking in this otherwise intelligent young lady’s mind.
Within an hour of waving her off, I received a phone call from her worried husband. Although I had checked that the earlier departure date was not a problem and had witnessed the client consult her diary, the husband clearly had another view. He told me he wouldn’t be in the country on that date and he was supposed to be travelling with her. What a difference a day makes!
Fortunately, a frantic phone call to Matt halted proceedings. Thank goodness for new men. Matt’s understanding of the mysteries of the female reproductive system meant that he did not hold the client responsible for her confusion.