DATELINE MONDAY 3RD DECEMBER 2018

Happy December, OMG it cannot be December that means only three weeks till you know what, all together now, on the count of three, 1, 2, 3, paniiiiiicccccccc.

I can now officially talk about Christmas, the moratorium is over. As soon as December starts, I avoid the West End, Westfield, Brent Cross until the January sales are complete. If I have to go into town, I'm there by 9.30 AM and gone by midday. Although I do admit to a bit of a crazy side of me I always go to the West End late on Christmas Eve knowing that as far as I am concerned everything is done and dusted, I just stand and watch people tearing about the place like headless chickens desperately searching for the last few things they need. One year I went to Oxford Street early Christmas Eve, big mistake, I was carried all the way down to Tottenham Court Road by the sheer mass of people.

Today is the first day of the Jewish Festival of Lights called Chanukah, if that means anything to you may I wish you chag sameach happy Chanukah. This festival commemorates the miracle of Solomon's Temple being recaptured after it had been nicked by the Greeks. The victorious Jewish Maccabees wanted to re consecrate the Temple by lighting the seven branched Menorah candelabra but could only find enough sacred oil to burn for one day when it needed to burn for eight days as that was how long it took to obtain new holy oil. The miracle was that the Menorah oil for one day burned for eight days. All Jewish Festivals have some type of food related to it Chanukah has doughnuts and potato latkes (hash browns) as both are fried in oil. Oy vey more weight to loose :) .

DMC News * MM and Company News * Destination News*

IBTM Barcelona 27th - 29th November How was IBTM for you? I went, I came home. The weather in Barcelona was lovely not that I saw much of it. I didn't think the show was that busy, to be honest with you there was acres of spare space, very wide corridors and a number of big conference and incentive industry names missing from the Exhibition floor. MM and Company News I have returned from Barcelona and having spent time with a number of the DMCs that MM and Company represents at IBTM I know quite a few of the DMCs are looking forward to a bit of a break in December. For some of the DMCs it's been a good year and they deserve a rest. Not much else to tell you.