- David J Marks
DATELINE MONDAY 6TH JUNE 2016
Happy Monday, good morning I hope you are well and happy. At last, at last, at last, the sun is shining in London and it is warm enough not to wear four layers.
Last week the weather was pathetic for late May and the beginning of June it was COLD, when we should have been basking in the sunshine, instead it was layers of clothes, I’m sure I saw a bumble bee flying around with a scarf and bobble hat, it was that cold. The weather forecast for this week tells me it’s to be sunny and warm. The week certainly has started off quite nicely, Sunday was a lovely day the first one for at least ten days if not more.
Sunday morning a very good friend of mine called and said “I have a spare ticket for the Bruce Springsteen concert at Wembley Stadium want to come with me” My immediate thought was for sure then bing duhhhh I have the girls on my own this week what do? I do? Simple I abandoned them. A no brainer. OK, OK I did think about it quite a bit, a few options sprung to mind one included my 90 year old Mum, none worked so I took a view, almost 12 and almost 14 years old they need to grow up a bit. I left them at 5PM with a list of instructions don’t beat each other up, don’t drink (all) my vodka, don’t open the front door FULL STOP. I got back at 9.10PM, didn’t stay for the encore. The concert was awesome. No many rock stars can fill a stadium, he did.
Sad news about Muhammed Ali, back in my youth I met him when he was on tour of Newcastle upon Tyne I was working in a hotel there Muhammed Ali and his entourage was staying in the hotel. I was asked by the then General Manager Peter Taylor to make sure that the visit and his stay was a huge success. Peter told me he did not want to see the headlines in the newspaper that Muhammad Ali had walked out of the hotel due to poor service, no pressure there then, thanks Mr. General Manager.
I have posted a few photos of me and The Sportsman of the Century on our face book page
DMC News* MM and Company News * Destination News* MM and Company News *
The Meetings Show June 2016 Olympia
Our Stand number is A2, looking at the plan of The Meetings Show, as you enter the main door we are immediately on the left hand side so I would say come and see us but I don’t think you will be able to miss us on the MM and Company stand.
Our DMCs attending The Meeting Show so far are;
Germanyinsight, Germany
Nordic Visitor, Iceland
Costa Rica
You might have read a few weeks ago I was in Costa Rica on a site inspection with Nathalie, Pauline and the team at Quetzal Motivo, I hope you have time to read about my trip.
The eco destination of Central America located on a strip of land in this amazing world of ours between the Atlantic ocean and the Pacific ocean Costa Rica is effectively a new destination from the UK with the advent of direct British Airways flights from Gatwick to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica with British Airways twice a week. An eleven and a half hour flight from Gatwick you in in a world of fauna, flora and frogs, active volcanos, amazing rain forest and world class coffee plantations. There is also the alternative of world class beach and resort hotels but Costa Rica is all about ecology and the rain forest.
San Jose, the capital is nothing to write home about, it’s definitely worth a look but in my opinion it’s a somewhat unloved. Five miles from the center of downtown San Jose there is a brand new development of a new Intercontinental hotel, an extremely good Sheraton and a huge world class shopping mall and entertainment plaza with bar and restaurants, much better alternative to the downtown San Jose although it is still worth a look. Three hour drive from San Jose through the hinterland of this amazing destination is Arenal, a small town with a large active volcano which last erupted in 2009. Here you can enjoy a true rain forest experience combining a cable car ride up to the top of the canopy, a zip line through the tree tops followed by a walk through the rain forest itself, spectacular in its own right, even more spectacular when it rains, I was lucky enough to do the rain forest walk during a tropical downpour, the canopy is so dense I hardly got wet. Overnight in Arenal at the foot of the volcano is an excellent hotel, the grounds of the hotel had a series of intricate thermal pools with hot water fed directly from Arenas active volcano, this is truly an incentive destination.
The next day the four by four adventure continued driving to the Pacific Ocean coast again through rain forest with a few stops on the way to sample excellent coffee or Tropical fruit juice in a local café with an overview of the lake and the volcano, followed by lunch at a former Presidential mansion. We ended up at the Marriott Hotel on the beach. A perfect location to ditch the four by four for two days of rest and relaxation. We flew from Liberia airport with a local low cost airline into San Jose Airport where I caught my DIRECT flight back to London. Four days in the eco capital of the world, Costa Rica, Amazing.
Leyla and Hannah’s twitter and witter bit of the Monday morning e mail
When Leyla is not screaming and jumping around the house she is attacking me in the nicest possible way. Every so often she will run up to me, tell me it’s spa time and lick me which is really disgusting but she is my daughter.
Why is it you buy a TV and you get a manual, you even get a page entitled Troubleshooting. When you have children you are sent home from a hospital with this bundle, some nappies and a bottle of baby lotion. There certainly is no manual and certainly no page on troubleshooting. Leyla and Hannah were on their own for dinner last night (see Bruce Springsteen Concert) I got home a little after 9PM the downstairs was dark, no loud TV, the kitchen and family room were much, much cleaner and tidier than normal. I went upstairs calling hello, I found both girls in the bath together chatting away (in perfect harmony) watching something on Leyla’s phone.
Maybe we are doing something right after all.
Drama and crisis Hannah dropped her phone in the toilet something that I am told a lot of people of the female persuasion do all the time, Hannah reassured me the toilet was clean, anyway she fished it out gave it to me and asked me to make it work again. Walking on water is easier.
She is now in the twilight weeks of primary school, little or no school work is being done, it’s all outings to the Tower of London and rehearsals for the school play to be performed next month. I have been told in the no uncertain terms that i have to be available on Thursday evening 7th July as Hannah has a leading role in Fiddler on the Roof, a very appropriate play to be performed by a Jewish primary school. If you want tickets just let me know.
That’s it you are up to date wishing you a fun filled, warm and sunny summery week.