We took our son David out for dinner for his 18th birthday (where does the time go?) and they were fantastic in the restaurant – first time we had been there. I mentioned that it was my son’s birthday when I booked, just the evening before and their attention to detail was great- even down to having special 18th birthday helium balloons – David is hardly the shy retiring type and therefore loved the attention. Loyalty in some areas I feel is going out of the window, – how many of us feel sad about Wedgwood and even Woolworths – but I cannot say I was loyal to either. However the restaurant, just a local one, called the Spaghetti Tree, displayed initiative and detail and made us feel special – and the food was excellent. I will go back! What they did on the evening is what we try to do at Bales – thinking about the detail, and working towards each and every holiday being the holiday of a lifetime. We hope it won’t be your only holiday and then we have to aim for each holiday to be as good as the last. We are privileged and appreciative that you choose to travel with us, and we take our responsibility of getting it right very seriously. I know so many of you are loyal and do continue to travel with us, but no one is going to have blind loyalty – I believe you come back because we do exceed your expectations. I am hardly an athlete or a fitness fan in any way shape or form, but I do think that mental exhaustion can be far worse than physical exhaustion as it can be so hard to wind down. I think that if we can make the time to do something physical , even just going for a walk it helps the status quo of mind exhaustion, so in ever trying to learn to ‘switch off’ I am trying to ensure I do something about it by doing something physical every week.

You know what I would love, is to turn on the radio, and hear a good news story – there are plenty of great things happening but seems we have an appetite for bad news as that is what the media report so much on. So I am going to lobby for some positive uplifting news and if you have any it would be fantastic to hear from you. We can even post it on our web so that other people know there are really great success stories out there.

Look forward to hearing from you… you wouldn’t just make my day – it would be cheery for so many people.

And finally I had to go to Egypt for a brief two night visit last week and when I came back to Heathrow at 9 p.m. immigration was absolutely packed. At first I joined the queue and like probably many others just thought how long is this going to take – looks as if it will take forever? I then came to my senses and really was almost joyous about it – as it means that so many people are still travelling, which is fantastic news!

Over and out until next time….

About Mandy Nickerson

Other articles by Mandy Nickerson

Mandy endeavours to share her travel experiences (where she will 'tell it like it is') and also detail the latest exciting projects that she is involved in. Mandy welcomes your feedback - please feel free to submit your thoughts, queries, comments and theories below.