DATELINE MONDAY 19TH MARCH 2018

Good morning, as ever I'm going to start with the weather, oh that rhymes. I positively enjoyed the weather last week and then Saturday came and Sunday arrived and now today Monday talk about mad March. Poison from Russia (allegedly) and now the weather, cold weather, snowy weather, windy weather from Russia. Last week we thought winter was over in the famous words of the football commentator "they thought it was all over" he continued to say as a goal was scored in the final moments of play "it is now" I would like to say "it is now" but I think that might be a little bit of wishful thinking.

This Russian spy thing, the attack on British soil of two Russians is proving to be very interesting, Putin and his advisers are the kings of spin the UK authorities make one statement and the Russians spin it back to us to their advantage. I think Theresa May had done a great job in very difficult circumstances and they don't like to see us with the upper hand. I wonder did the people that applied the poison to these poor unfortunate people apply it wearing full Hazchem yellow protective clobber and breathing apparatus? If not there must be somebody i.e. the person that committed the crime who is poisoned as well, it's all very bizarre, this story has a long way to go.

How was St Patrick's Day for you? Was it a good craic? St Patrick's Day fell on Saturday a perfect day for everybody to instantaneously become Irish and get slaughtered beyond belief, Sunday being recovery day, perfect timing.

DMC News* MM and Company News * Destination News*

Portugal This week I'm out with Filipe De Pina the MD of TA DMC Portugal and the DMC that we have been representing since 2007, WOW eleven years I simply don't know where the time goes. Anyway I hope the weather performs for us as we are heading to the north of England.

Abu Dhabi Sai, Manel and Deep of SNTTA Emir Incentives & Conferences tell us that Abu Dhabi won two prestigious prizes at ITB Berlin for "Most secure destination for travellers" and "Best stand in the Middle East Region." Congratulations to all concerned.

Florida Did you know, that great Miami is the only metropolitan area in the United States whose borders encompasses two national parks. You can hike through pristine Everglades National Park or ride on glass-bottom boats across Biscayne National Park. We have been representing C Florida Hospitality since 1997, they are able to help with all your needs in Florida aka as Orlando and Miami, if you need assistance please let me or Clem know.

Istanbul News Flash from Istanbul - this week I'm absolutely delighted to tell you that Muge and the team at Dekon DMC Istanbul received two confirmations for events in Istanbul this year. This is great news, Istanbul is a wonderful destination, I lived there for six years. It's nice to see that Istanbul is coming back.

Morocco This time last year, I had just returned from hosting a Business Development Event to Morocco with Visit Morocco DMC. We were in Marrakech such an amazing and very different destination only 2 hour 40 minutes flight from London. The airport is almost on the Marrakech high street transfer time from landing to Jemma El Fna square is less than thirty minutes. Can't believe it was a year ago. Time to go back for sure

Leyla and Hannah's twitter and witter bit of the Monday morning e mail

Last week we took the girls to see Hamilton at the Victoria Palace in Victoria, (the theatre has had a full refurbishment looks very nice) Leyla and Hannah were so excited about going, Leyla more than Hannah I was less excited but very happy we had managed to get tickets. I didn’t know much about the show but it was a case of the girls wanted to go I will go. The first half was excellent but I have to admit, I spent more time watching Leyla and Hannah enjoying the show more than watching the show itself, their faces were just lit up just being at Hamilton.

Leyla is very much a fifteen-and-a-half-year-old teenager, struggling bless her with so many things, school and homework seems to be a real challenge for her so much so that we kept her home on Thursday just so she could catch up with all the homework she had to do, not ideal by any stretch of the imagination.

Hannah is a social butterfly, she seems to be invited to every birthday party and every Bar Mitzvah party going. For the past two weekend we have as a family been to a Bar Mitzvah party with another one the hat trick event yesterday. Each of them are wonderful events with lots of people we know attending. I’m looking forward to this weekend, we don’t have any parties at all which is great news.

That’s about it, you are now totally up to date. I hope you have a great week ahead, keep warm till the weather gets better on Wednesday.