Old Eastbourne

Just found a fascinating website which details the history of Eastbourne complete with interesting photographs. My favourite is the Cavendish hotel before they added that monstrous concrete addition to the right hand side. You can view the website at http://www.eastbournelive.org.uk/6.html.

Environmentally unfriendly

In a desperate attempt to further reduce our own carbon footprint, we have spent considerable sums of money replacing our older style toilets with the new dual flush variety. These latest toilets use a lot less water – 6 litres of water compared with 9 litres of water for the conventional version. Unfortunately Dyno Rod, who have been doing a roaring trade as a result of our decision, tells us that 6 litres is not enough to flush away the waste thus causing blockages throughout the pipes. We have had to adjust all of our new toilets accordingly and resite our waste pipes to overcome the problem. We have even been advised to stop using the more expensive toilet paper because it does nor disintegrate as quickly. Our attempt at being more environmentally friendly has cost us just under £4000 and we are now using as much water as we were before. Worse still our guests are now being denied the luxury of Andrex quilted toilet paper....a bum deal all around!!!

Brighton Rock

Interesting to note that the new film release of Brighton Rock was actually filmed in Eastbourne rather than Brighton. You only have to compare the sea front at Brighton to the sea front at Brighton to appreciate exactly why. Compare our three tier promenade. renowned floral gardens and blue domed bandstand with their tatty shops, NCP car park and burnt down pier to appreciate why more and more visitors are coming to spend their holiday time in Eastbourne.

A trailer for the film featuring many views of Eastbourne can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoGHiBsrJKk

Feedback from customers

Just found an interesting website which compiles comments from various review websites. Information can be found at www.hotelscombined.com. The hotel fares well with positive comments about helpful and polite staff, convenient location, large rooms, comfortable beds and good food. A few negative comments about bathrooms but these have all now been upgraded.

Meanwhile Frank has been doing his own analysis of the feedback statistics and it seems that we get the best ratings from couples and single men. Our worst ratings are invariably from single women....heaven only knows why we are not delivering for this group but it is an interesting statistic and one which we will need to investigate.

It never rains but pours

Just when you think that things couldn’t get worse...they get worse. The hotel is closed over Christmas to refurbish the last rooms when both water tanks flood the new rooms upstairs. The water damage is extensive including ceilings, floors and furniture. The new rooms are put on hold while we return these to their original splendour. Our financial planning goes to the wall and the new rooms will just have to wait. As they say, it never rains but pours....and certainly it pours a lot here.

STOP PRESS Both water tanks are mended and the top rooms are open for business.

Mapplethorpe Exhibition

Just got back from the opening of the Mapplethorpe exhibition at the Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne. The entrance is swamped with warnings about the sexually explicit nature of some of the photographs which should certainly get a few of our local gentlefolk reaching for their pen to write to the Eastbourne Herald newspaper.

In the circumstances, I was a bit disappointed to find very little which might be remotely described as erotic.....perhaps I should write to the Eastbourne Herald to complain.......

The exhibition runs from the 25th September through to the 21st November 2010 at the Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne.

Priceless.....

Who would believe that buying five television sets (32 inch Samsung TVs for the technically minded) could cause such a problem. First the credit card we used bounced and, while we are sitting here awaiting delivery, nobody bothers to tell us.

So we submit a second order (using a different credit card) which bounces because the company cannot believe that anyone would want to buy FIVE television sets….certainly no one bothered to appreciate that the first line of my address has the name of a hotel in it!

Finally after I have convinced everyone that I really do want five TVs the shop gets cold feet because it is my name on the credit card and not that of the hotel manager…… I now know why the MasterCard advert says ‘”there are some things that money can’t buy” …..

……five Samsung television sets!!!!!