DATELINE MONDAY 24TH JANUARY 2022

Monday morning greetings on yet another cold, frosty but crystal clear Alpine January Monday morning, I hope you are well. Last week in London we had beautiful Alpine weather all week sunny and dry, crisp and cold looks like that will continue well into the middle of this week.

Will you be going to a Burns Supper event this week? Burns Night is held on 25th January Robbie Burns’s birthday. During my hotel career I worked in Aberdeen Scotland for four years, Hogmanay and Burns Night were always the highlights of the year. Haggis, Neeps and Tatties on the menu together with roast Angus beef, large, indeed huge quantities of whiskey Scottish of course were consumed, no offence to the Irish, Japanese and citizens of Kentucky to name but a few of the whiskey distilling people. The hotel the ballroom was bedecked with tartan, the Haggis carried in by the Head Chef on a silver platter was piped into the room by several bag pipers and drummers from a miliary regiment lead by someone carrying a bottle of whiskey in each hand. The haggis was addressed

I even learnt the first stanza of the address to the haggis written of course by Robbie Burns

“Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o the puddin'-race! Aboon them a' ye tak your place, Painch, tripe, or thairm: Weel are ye wordy o' a grace As lang's my arm”.

Once the address was over the Chief of the Pudding Race was honoured by the gathered crowd drinking several large shots of fine 18 year old single malt Scotch whiskey, nothing shabby about a haggis and a Burns night.

Awesome news that even more COVID common sense is out there working from home is now not a directive, masks no longer need to be worn as of Thursday. Scotland and Wales are falling in line reducing COVID restrictions all good news. I applauded Sajid Javid when he said on BBC Radio that we will all have to learn to live with COIVD just as we have learnt to live with the flu every winter. Now let’s all get back to where we were in January 2019 when COIVD was just a rumour. Just in case you have forgotten where we were two years ago we were busy running events and planning future conferences, events, meetings and incentives.

MM and Company news update

Germany

Eva, Valentina, Bettina and the team from Germanyinsight DMC have told us that Hard Rock Hotels have announced plans for the opening of its newest REVERB by Hard Rock , the134 rooms hotel is set to take centre stage in Hamburg, Germany. Slated to open in mid-2022. The REVERB Hamburg will be located within the St. Pauli Bunker, Hamburg's largest and one of its few preserved high-rise bunkers, which has come to locally represent creativity and urban culture. The REVERB by Hard Rock brand strives to be an energetic cultural hub that provides space for locals and travellers to connect and create together.

Greece

Nassos and the team at AME DMC Greece have told us that a Nobu hotel will open in Santorini’s northeast coast in Imerovigli, Nobu Hotel and Restaurant Santorini will come with a signature Nobu Restaurant, luxurious spa, fitness centre, two-level infinity pool, and five over-the-top pool villas that each offer panoramic views of both the Caldera and Aegean Sea from its clifftop perch. The hotel is just 20 minutes from Santorini (Thira) International Airport and sits along the famed hiking trail that runs between Oia and Fira, Santorini

Japan

Geraint James and The J Team DMC crew have told us of a Samurai exhibition that aims to dispel myths about the samurai. The free exhibition features items from "one of the world's most important collections of Japanese literature "Running at Cambridge University Library until 28 May, Samurai: History and Legend looks at the historic roots of the samurai rather than the modern perception. Curator Dr Kristin Williams said usual samurai imagery "is as much legend and mythology as it is history". "We want visitors to question their assumptions about Japan while they explore and examine the rare books and objects in the exhibition," she said. "We may think of weaponry and armour when we think of samurai, but there was far, far more to their story."

Apparently the BBC news web site is also running with this, the link is https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-60086993

That’s it you are now fully up to date