Dateline Monday 20th February 2023

Happy Monday morning I hope you are well, talking about happy, Happy Pancake Day for tomorrow.

Pancake Day? Yes I thought that too so I googled it and look what they told me. Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday, is the traditional feast day before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Lent – the 40 days leading up to Easter – was traditionally a time of fasting and on Shrove Tuesday, Anglo-Saxon Christians went to confession and were “shriven” (absolved from their sins). A bell would be rung to call people to confession. This came to be called the “Pancake Bell” and is still rung today. Shrove Tuesday always falls 47 days before Easter Sunday, so the date varies from year to year. Shrove Tuesday was the last opportunity to use up eggs and fats before embarking on the Lenten fast and pancakes are the perfect way of using up these ingredients.

What an amazing week of weather we had in London last week, dry, sunny almost warm, this week we will have some rain but still double-digit temperatures even if the double digit is only 10 degree C Spring is for sure in the air confirmation of that is daffodils on sale for 99p a bunch in Marks and Spencer.

The tragedy of the earthquake in Southern Turkey and Northern Syria is still unfolding although it seems miracles do happen, the teams of rescuers were still finding survivors of the monster earthquakes in the rubble over 220 hours after the first quake flattened their homes. Fair to say that they are now winding down the rescue operation.

COVID is now seriously a thing of the past (I hope) another indication that this is indeed the case is this week the Rio Carnival is happening, it started on Friday and it goes on till this Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people attend Carnival events this is the full blown Carnival they staged a watered down affair last year this is billed as the biggest and the best, it’s on my bucket list.

That’s it, you are up to date from a David point of view.

MM and Company news update

France

Pascal, Enrica and the team at NACARA DMC France have told us that in the Marais district is, a new Paris hotel has opened the SO/ Paris Hotel, it is part of the SO/ Hotel Collection by Ennismore, in a joint venture with Accor. The U-shaped, 16-story building was originally constructed in the early 1960s, housing an administrative building for the city. The hotel rooms occupy the eighth to the fourteenth floors of the building, with 140 rooms and 22 suites. The hotel has awesome views of Paris, from almost every room there are views of different parts of Paris such as the Eiffel Tower, Seine River, Notre-Dame, Pantheon and Sacré Coeur de Montmartre. The restaurant and bar are both on the fifteenth floor of the hotel again giving great views of the city.

Cancun Mexico

Manuel, Lilian and the team at The EPIC Group DMC has told us of a brand-new all-inclusive resort that has just opened, the Royalton Splash Riviera Cancun. The hotel has 1,005 suites, an expansive water park, and nightly entertainment for guests of all ages. Royalton Splash Rivera Cancun offers an extensive water park experiences with two lazy rivers, a splash pad and pool, and 14 water slides and tubes. With a family pool and a main pool, guests can choose where to take a swim or participate in water sports on the beach, or Aqua Olympics for games with the entertainment team. An outdoor theatre for performances hosts various artists for lively entertainment as well as the indoor theatre. The Royalton has a GameUp Center that includes a laser tag arena, four-lane bowling, and a trampoline park. The hotel has a total of twelve culinary destinations for dining a la carte, buffet or at a sports bar, the resort offers international, Indian, American, Italian, and Mexican cuisine among others. The resort’s convention centre will offer up to eight meeting rooms with an array of amenities for meetings like flip charts, public address system, latest audio-visual technology, and podium. With the "All-In Connectivity" amenity throughout the resort, individual and group guests will experience high-speed Wi-Fi throughout their stay on all devices. The 25,000-square-foot convention centre provides ample room for larger functions and events