I’ve had a very exciting couple of weeks. Jordan Tourist Office had a military band playing at the Edinburgh Tattoo and so they invited a mix of travel industry and press to join them. I have been to the Tattoo before and think it is a spectacular show. When the ...
I love air travel but what makes me love it even more, is knowing the miles you can cover in a matter of hours. I say this, as we drove to Suffolk at the weekend- and it took us 4 hours to drive 12 miles by the Dartford tunnel. Yes ...
I am so excited about this evening. We invited all of our staff to join us for an evening of innovation and ideas. That is, we are not presenting to staff my ideas on innovation, we are asking for their support and ideas for their innovation. There will of course ...
We had such a great day on Wednesday. Some of us went off site for a brainstorm day. Sorry I know some readers hate that kind of phrase, so I will say blue sky thinking. Whilst one would always like to think they have innovative ideas and often these come ...
Well, we won the game yesterday!! England in the World Cup that is. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we won? I was pleased to see some of our Scottish staff watching the game- they would have to be really perverse if they watched and wanted Slovenia to win and really ...
There is a saying that I shouldn’t have got out of bed this morning that is usually uttered when things go wrong early in the day. I however was having a good day before calamity hit!
Being the eternal optimist I like to think that everything presents an opportunity. This week ...
I cannot, with any credibility, write this without mentioning the BA strike and the volcanic ash situation.
I do understand that every industry has its challenges and I can honestly say I don’t know enough about the adversities of many other industries. Apart from the challenges the recession has brought to ...
Well has the volcanic ash taken the vital media coverage the politicians needed or has it helped them? I was considering how our lives have changed so much in the last century. Some of you may be aware that my Father if alive today would have been 100 years old. ...
What a whirlwind many of us live in. There are just not enough hours in a day. One thing I always envied about Margaret Thatcher is she could survive on just around 4 hours sleep a night…..sleep to me though isn’t essential, it just gets in the way of living!! ...
It is I know not good on my carbon footprint but it had to be done. We flew over to Baltimore on Saturday and returned on Monday – I think you would all understand – my stepdaughter Rachel came home from America for Christmas and announced she was getting married. ...
Happy New Year to all of you… well, I actually mean happy to include lots of fun and laughter and also wish you a healthy New Year.
Our industry loves statistics and reasons for everything- we will predict more bookings if there is snow and if it’s not as busy as ...
Well now I have revealed the news, you will understand that I have been wearing 2 hats - one to run the business and the other to work with Virgin Holidays towards the successful acquisition of Bales Worldwide. I was told it would be difficult and I disputed this knowing ...
I’ve got some exciting news which I need to share with you all today.
Over the last few months I have been working on an extra special mission, one which required me to be very secretive which is completely out of character as regular readers of this blog will know! I ...
Work/ life balance is almost a cliché statement and one that annoys a lot of people. It does resonate with some of us and possibly it is more likely to be recognised by people that struggle with it. I have never thought I juggle well, I think I muddle through ...
It has been full on at Bales which is good. I am in the period of doing appraisals with my direct reports and I also receive my own appraisal. I think appraisals are a good discipline so long as the balance is right in that they should not be just ...
I can’t be the only one?? So let me test you – are there other nocturnal people out there?
I don’t mean I stay up and party all night and I do go to bed, but my mind is on overload and I seem to get my best, perhaps radical, but ...
I met a lady last night who works with her husband for a charity called Shelter Box. This is an aid and support charity for disasters around the world and they were getting a flight ready to take cargo and aid workers to Indonesia. It is so tragic and really the ...
Some people were not born for a fitness regime. I shouldn’t have laughed but I did laugh out loud when the ‘Big Boss’ ( I don’t mean big in terms of size) Dipak, who runs the ground agents we work with in India, regaled me of his story. Earlier this ...
