The Welbeck Isle of Man Hotel of the Year? We hope!

A big thank you to all our customers who apart from keeping the wolf away from the door during a challenging 2012, have also ensured that we have once again been nominated for 'Isle of Man Hotel of the Year.'

We're apparently up against the Ascot and the Rutland Hotels, the award ceremony being 7th December.

We were also nominated in 2008, 2011 and gained top spot in 2010.

Watch this space!

More good news is that following the demise of Waverley Ltd. the company from which Heron & Brearley sourced all our vino, we have now with the help of Anne Harrison from the 'Wine Cellar' devised a new wine list which we will be integrating gradually as stocks run out.

So if we do have another win, we should be well placed to celebrate!

The Welbeck - It's a Family Affair

Congratulations to Mr & Mrs Cannell of Laxey who won the draw for the Manx Tails competition and used their prize of dinner, bed and breakfast last Saturday night.

Sunday was my mother's birthday which we had originally planned to celebrate over lunch but it was so busy that we had to transfer it to the evening. The good news is that she still has enough puff to blow out the candles.

We all had a major surprise when my nephew who had been travelling in Australia for the last ten months turned up. Those of you with a long association with the Welbeck may remember him working for us but at a casual guess, I would reckon that was at least ten years ago.

Talking of our former employees, we'll be heading off that way soon to visit our son, Matthew who is still living in Surfers Paradise, Queensland. It's a hard life but someone has to do it and with a little luck we'll see another former member of staff, our daughter, Elizabeth, at Manchester Airport as she lives close by.

Apologies for the quality of this one but Lucy and Elizabeth flank retired Kitchen Porter though aspiring rock god, Terence.

Have no fear though, as the Welbeck will be in good hands in the lead up to us closing at Christmas as Alex and daughter no.2 Lucy will be in charge.

Luxury Loos

Well, to use a well hackneyed phrase at the moment, we have entered the full grip of winter and though the weather is a little better in general than it was in July, today, Friday 9th November is pretty grim.

We're taking advantage of a bit of a quiet spell and are currently refurbishing the ground floor toilets. The other day, Irene and I did our full annual inspection to assess wear and tear of another year to set our refurbishment programme for the winter.

In one of those questions that we are frequently asked, 'Everything looks really nice. have you refurbished recently?'

The fact is that it is constant and if we ever dared to leave everything for a few years, the quality would deteriorate and we would be left with with a massive task, not to mention huge total of invoices to try cope with. The other thing is that it is pointless replacing and redecorating if it isn't needed