DATELINE MONDAY 16TH JULY 2018

Happy Monday, I hope you are well and had a great weekend.

We knew it couldn't last but it lasted for quite a while, yes I'm talking about the weather. We had a good run until Wednesday when the cloud came over and I thought that's it the summer sorted and then low and behold the cloud cleared and the sun came out and we were back to summer time. Summer is clearly on track today as well.

Were you involved in the monster downpour on Friday evening? I was in Budapest enjoying amazing weather with not a drop of rain in sight.

President Trump has been and gone regardless, of the man himself, the office of the President of the USA visited the UK and that in my mind is very important.

What an amazing drama in Thailand, amazing resilience, amazing team work, amazing skill that bought those boys out alive, dramatic and emotional stuff for sure. Congratulations to everybody, it was truly the world working together to bring it to a successful conclusion. Just terribly sad that one of the Thai navy seals lost his life.

The sun was also shining in Budapest, where I had the pleasure to co-host a business development trip with some wonderful clients attending. It's been a couple of years since I have been to Budapest, such a wonderful city it was lovely to be back. Agnes, Dori, Linda, Gabi and the Microcosmos DMC team are such a wonderful group of people, MM and Company have been representing them since 1999, almost twenty years, it doesn't seem possible. I calculate that this is my fifteenth visit to Budapest and the city gets better and better. I don't think I'm travelling next weekend, it will be quite nice to spend some time at home.

It's crystal clear that holiday time has arrived the roads are quieter, the West End is busier, the out of office replies saying that our wonderful clients are on a well deserved holiday, some call it vacation, some call it leave. Regardless, if you are going on any of these three I wish you a wonderful time away from work, enjoy the rest.

DMC News* MM and Company News * Destination News

Malta We are also running another trip, this time to Malta with Erika, Helga and the team at Mi Malta in September, seats are going fast so if you're interested in attending, do let me know.

Austria When Martin of e+o meeting, event & travel management GmbH was in the UK in May we discussed a few things, one of them being a Business Development Event to Vienna, we will be running a trip in November, so look out for an invitation coming your way soon. If this destination or any other destination is of interest to you, do let me know.

France Well done to France on winning the FIFA World Cup. Football did not come home to England, so be it, Pascal, Audrey, Anne and the team at NACARA DMC in France as well as Menno, Sandrine and his Phenix Events team in the South of France I am sure will be celebrating this excellent result for France.

Russia Russia did a tremendous job in staging the FIFA World Cup, the question is can the awesome destination of Russia come back to its rightful place on the must see destinations of the World list. We have been representing Valeria, Olga, Veronika and the team at Russian Event DMC since 2000 I have been there several times both to Moscow and St Petersburg they are amazing world class cities definitely worth suggesting to your clients again. Let's just run though some of the one word Russian starters: Kremlin, Hermitage, vodka, caviar, Kalashnikov, Bolshoi, Mariinsky, ballet, Rasputin, Tsar, rouble and these are just a few that immediately spring to mind. Then in Russia you have great world class, five star deluxe hotel brands as well as excellent independent four star hotels, terrific classic venues and cutting edge urban venues for events and dinners, great infrastructure in fact nothing to hold it back, even visas can be expedited at speed.

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

Leyla was away last week in Madrid, she called every day, the first time was to say that her favourite store had a sale, "Daddy, things are so cheap." My response was "Are you practising your Spanish?" Her response was "You are not listening to me, things are so cheap". The next phone call was a request for me to buy her more data for her phone, they don't have access to Wi-Fi so I caved in. I did think about asking her to repeat what she wanted in Spanish but as I don't speak Spanish that would not have worked.

Hannah is not a happy Hanahha she is still at school Friday this week whilst Leyla has already broken up for the summer, she gave me numerous reasons why she should not go to school this week I ignored every single argument so off she went this morning grumpy as hell.

Hannah has got her school holiday totally planned out, when she is going to revise, do homework, get her things sorted for September, who she is going to meet up with and when, what she is going to do and when she is going to go, how much she will need, so organised.

Leyla her favourite word is "whatever" aaaarrrrrgggggggggggggggggggg

That's it you are now up to date, have a great week :-)