In spirit if not body

My body doesn’t like me too much at the moment. After a weekend on the toot in Magaluf pretending to be 25-years younger than I really am, I then flew myself 9 hours back in time to Sin City, Las Vegas which included a sprint through Heathrow’s new Terminal 5 to make my final connection.

When my alarm went off on Monday night when I was in a cab taking me from the airport in Las Vegas to the hotel, it signalled that I had been up for 24 hours.

Solo flyer

My son flew into Bermuda this evening travelling the 6.5-hour flight on his own. British Airways allow children to fly on their own from the age of 5 although ages, rules and regulations differ depending on the route and he has been asking for a while if he could travel here on his own. This morning his Mum was more nervous than he was as he took the whole adventure in his stride.

Green day

Dear me, it’s football tomorrow isn’t it? Shit, how Charlton can ruin your weekend episode 474.

For those of us listening to the game from Dagenham tomorrow we can at least be comforted by the fact that Paul Benson will be doing the commentary. When he signed on the dotted line for three times his salary I don’t expect for a minute that he thought just seven months later his career would reach these kinds of dizzying heights.

For me tomorrow I’ll hopefully be unpacking suitcases, that’s if our luggage makes it back from the runway at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. We had some good old fashioned fun yesterday returning from Chicago, what with a flight cancellation, a re-routing and maintenance issues and then being the last people standing staring at an empty baggage carousel at Bermuda airport late last night. Remind yourselves never to travel with the Chicago Addick family.

On a brighter note, yesterday the sun was out and the sky a shade of royal blue on our last day in Chicago. Also out was anyone who is anyone dressed head to toe in Irish green as the whole city prepared to go out on the lash.

Chicago has celebrated St Patrick’s Day since 1843 and since 1962 has dyed the main artery of the city’s river green. People drink green beer, eat faux Irish food and skyscrapers are lit with an emerald hue. Personally it just used to make me green around the gills!

Still, what that sight of the river (photo) did remind me was that it was 8 years ago this week that I first visited Chicago, on a trip to meet my then potential new boss. The weather then was as it was yesterday and it brought back some good memories.

Rosewood to take over Tucker’s Point Hotel

If you are a regular reader of mine you will know that I have long been in love with the Rosewood Hotel Group, in my humble opinion the best luxury brand hotels in the world.

There are only 19 owned and/or managed Rosewood Hotels, and I have on my bucket list to visit all of them. I am currently stuck on five but then completely out of the blue as we sat on the bed last night at the Tucker’s Point Hotel watching the local news, that increased to six!

Late yesterday afternoon Rosewood announced that they and Tucker’s Point have agreed to a letter of Intent for Rosewood to assume responsibililty to manage the hotel, spa, golf course, beach and tennis club.

Apparently Rosewood were originally slated to be involved from the beginning but it never happened, although they did recently appoint Brian Young as CEO, who worked previously at Rosewood’s Caneel Bay resort in St John. Young has already made a small difference but the hotel has a long, long way to go before it reaches the dizzy service heights of a Rosewood Hotel.

Not unexpectedly bearing in mind the fragile economy the independently-owned resort has struggled financially since it opened it’s doors early last year. However the hilltop resort is superbly positioned and it is a beautiful property and I really hope Tuckers can survive and thrive because it deserves to.

However Rosewood need to get to grips with the resorts service and attention to tiny, and not so tiny details as soon as possible because it severely lacks, but from experience I know if anyone can do it, Rosewood Hotels and Resorts can.

Travel bug

‘Hurricane’ Colin turned out to be nothing more than a damp squib yet that didn’t stop the majority of the airlines cancelling yesterday and today’s flights – clearly no access to t’internet at American Airlines HQ to check the bloody weather forecast.

Therefore my flight to Miami this morning was cancelled yesterday lunchtime while the sun shone in a gentle breeze. I am now just doing the Tampa leg of my work trip but have to connect in Washington DC tomorrow.

I’ve had a bloody nightmare year with travel. By my reckoning I have had at least 10 flights cancelled, and nearly every flight I have taken has been late leaving or arriving and I spent four days longer than planned in London in April due to the long-forgotten Eyjafjallajokull volcano. I have four flights to take in the next seven days I hope my luck changes soon.