Dateline Monday 13th February 2023

Hello Monday morning, good to see you again, mid-February and the weather is slightly only slightly warming up it is however warm enough for snow drops, crocuses, and daffodils to start making an appearance, a good sign that Spring will soon be with us.

Lots has happened since my Monday morning e mail to you just seven days ago, I am of course referring to the devastating earthquake in Southern Turkey and Northern Syria. The tragedy is almost unbearable to watch on the TV screen so I simply cannot imagine what it must be like to actually be there on the very shaky ground at the epicentre of the total destruction of lives and property.

The sadness in my own personal life pales to insignificance when I hear of complete families, three or four generations being wiped out in less than thirty seconds due to a natural disaster.

You may know that during my working career I had the amazing experience of working in Istanbul for six years, Tukey is my second home, I have friends and relatives that live in Turkey fortunately no one I know was directly affected by the earthquake unlike the one in 1999 where I personally knew of people that had been bereaved by that earthquake, this one is of similar magnitude but the epicentre was in a more densely populated area of Turkey and Syria.

The rescue phase of trapped people is drawing to a close, efforts are now being focused on the living and their desperate need to shelter and sustenance, it is getting there slowly, too slowly but there again the destruction of roads, infrastructure and of course the politics makes relief efforts just that bit more difficult.

We in the UK live in relative safety, we don’t experience earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, typhoons, or indeed extremes of any kind from the natural world around us we are lucky in where we live. Yes I mentioned the cold and the wet quite often having seen the alternative I guess I can cope with the occasionally inclement weather of the UK.

The World is galvanising efforts to raise funds for the relief effort, good people are sending their excess clothes, shoes and other goods to collection centres in order to be sent to Turkey and Syria, huge amounts of money is being donated as I write this to you e mail to you due to my connection with Turkey I am trying to do my bit as well, I am certain if all the good people in the world do their little bit to help the little bits collected with morph into an enormous help for the helpless.

MM and Company news update

Florida

Clem, Nora and the team at C Florida Hospitality have to us that one of the most famous hotels in Miami the Fontainebleau Miami has completed the renovations to the 37-floor, all-suite Trésor Tower. The new design of the tower touches on the glamour of the past while looking forward to the next era for the Fontainebleau. Pale oak wood finishes and a colour palette of blue and neutral tones throughout the suites evoke the hues of the ocean and beach just outside the door.