Hello! It feels like such a long time since I last blogged! So much has been going on, times flying and here we are, almost at the end of March! 

 

Where do I start? Well this month has seen two big birthdays for team members! Mia turned 18 and Maisie turned 21! Both such wonderful members of the team! Mia also accepted a place at her dream dance company, and we couldn't be more proud of her! Of course we knew she'd be spoiled for choice having watched her dance since she was tiny, and seen her progress to being a dance teacher! Although, as always it's sad to lose excellent team members, we definitely rejoice in their acheivments! Massive congratulations Mia on such an accomplishment, we look forward to working with you for one last summer, and remember, your job always exists for when you're home from your studies #please #we'rebegging !

 

This month we have celebrated 3 70ths, an 80th, 2 40ths, a 44th, and 2 30ths, all with big birthday bashes! Happy birthday to everyone who chose to celebrate with us! We have welcomed lots more birthday celebrations in the restaurant, and it has been a pleasure to have you all! Again, thanks for choosing to celebrate with us! 

 

We've also seen a beaters meal, our gaelic group, retired teachers, retired farmers, the NFU, Stewartry Care, a super busy cocktails and combos and the Castle Douglas Civic One Big Bingo fundraiser! It's been quite the month! In amongst this, I managed to skip out to Cyprus to meet my brand new nephew Theodoros (Teddy), so I'm a little bedraggled this month as you can imagine! He is absolutely adorable and the travel was worth every minute! Can't wait to get back out to see him when we can! 

 

We also attended a careers day at Dalbeattie High, I actually delivered a talk one morning and then a full careers day another day.  I absolutely love doing things like this, it ticks a lot of boxes for me! 1, I get a day away from the norm, 2, I get to talk all day (those that know know!), 3, I get to champion one of my passions, hospitality, and 4, THE FOOD! Dalbeattie High always puts on the best spread, spoiling us!

 

I always love when I see the look of surprise in the pupils eyes when I tell them about where hospitaluty can take them, and the skills they can learn.  

 

At the beginning of February, we welcomed a new start! Well, I say a new start, Brooke started with us a long time ago as a kitchen porter, in her youth! She was brilliant then, and even more brilliant now! After working elsewhere for a few years, we are so happy to have her back! A real breath of fresh air, as she has come on full time, with such a keen interest to learn the job, all aspects of it, and I'm actually starting to be able to run the business from a desk some days and not whilst working a lunch shift, dinner shift or bar shift! It feels really alien to me, but, as everyone is noticing, it's making a huge difference, not just to the day to day workings of the hotel, but to me personally, I've been able to do things like nip out to meet my nephew at very short notice, and do a lot more at home! So welcome back Brooke and thank you! For always smiling at your work and appreciating the hours, something you don't always see in hospitality any more!  Our team at the moment is simply wonderful, every single one of them, and it makes for a very nice working environment! Thanks to you all! 

 

What's new?  Well, we started a new monthly pop up takeaway, different to our wednesday burger takeaway, Clucking Good sees us operate a takeaway on a Monday once a month, where we freshly prepare chicken, coated in the most delicious flavours, all homemade and fresh! The debut night went amazing, selling out, and our next one is Monday 7th April.  If you like freshly coated and dunked chicken, you should definately give it a go! 

 

Mother's Day is fast approaching, and I'm delighted to say we are fully booked for it.  A function in the function suite has prevented us from using the seats down there too, but cancellations will go live on our booking system straight away, and you can always call to check if anything has come up! 

 

A new room refurbishment took place, we are really happy with it, and the rest will follow suit! Believe it or not, Megan and I do all the painting and decorating, a skill we learmed during lock down, through YouTube! We actually really enjoy it, and aren't too bad at it! We've said if things ever take a new direction in life, a painting and decorating business could be on the cards! :) Wish I could insert emojis to this blog! The laughing face one would have been used here! So we will get to the rest when we can! Our accommodation offering means a lot to us, and although the way the building is shaped can mean we can't have it exactly as we'd like to, add finances to that too, (insert monkey covering eyes emojis here!) we are really proud of what we offer guests travelling to Castle Douglas!  We always hear such great feedback, and in the rare instances where things aren't to the guests satisfaction, we know it's not down to anything we could have prevented.  I often say, we aren't the ritz, but we certainly arn't the pits! What we are though, is very passionate, caring hosts who put all we can into what we offer, and hope it's received well. 

 

More great news for me when it comes to team members! I have been doing housekeeping every Friday for a very long time, which I do genuinely enjoy, but time wise, it means I have to juggle a lot on a Friday.  Our amazing housekeeper Mo, is now able to take on most Fridays and I'm absolutely elated!  Function set ups and general Friday jobs getting ready to go into busy weekends will becaome so much less stressful for me, something that as I slide into my mid 40s, is all I'm craving! 

 

I will always be hands on, I will always be around the hotel, either at the desk as I am now writing this blog, or in uniform serving, but, juggling it all is just so much easier with a super team alongside you, and today, I'm just so grateful for them all!

 

Chef Sarah is planning her solo travels around the UK in June, a time where I'll be chef, wish me luck! I work alongside Sarah whenever I have time to keep up with everything and keep my hand in so that she can take any time off she needs.  Her solo trips always fascinate me, and I keep telling her to video document them, but she never does! I couldn't camp solo at some of the places she does, or stay at places like the supposedly haunted Drovers Inn by myself! I suppose, for someone who watches back to back horror movies alone for fun like Sarah does,  solo travelling would be easy!   I will try my best to convince her to vlog it, I think you would all love to see what she gets up to! Her and Mitzi the dog! 

 

If you'd like advance warning of when I'm cooking and not Sarah, just ask! (insert laughing emoji and monkey covering eyes emoji and terrified looking emoji!)

 

I hope you're all having a wonderful March, and looking forward to the Easter Holidays! 

 

I look forward to the next blog where I'll tell you all about what happens over the next month! 

 

Thanks for reading, 

 

Emma. xxx