An afternoon off.....

We are lucky to live so close to many attractions - theme parks, forests and stately homes. We are only 5 minutes away from Nunnington Hall and with the chance of a couple of hours to ourselves we headed there this afternoon.

We had no idea that is was actually their summer fete this afternoon which was a huge bonus. The girls enjoyed snail racing, sand art, Birds of Prey and the coconut shy.

This sand art stall has given me a great idea for future birthday parties. The girls have done this particular craft at home before but always end up making a mess all over the kitchen. Its great to know that someone would organise it for us and clear the mess away when the kids have all finished.

Snail racing! What a fantastic idea - we must use this at a future PTA event. 50p a go and if your snail comes first you win £1.

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 We did have a quick look round the house - but by the time we got indoors it was almost time to come home. On piece of advice I would give is to go when the children's trails are on. Whilst the kids are busy looking round the rooms for clues the adults have time to wander around the rooms and have a good look at the exhibits.

We've had a giggle.....

Over the last few weeks we have chatted to other accommodation providers about the quirky guests we all have and some of the things they do and things we would rather they didn't do. We all decided that together we could probably write a book - possibly even a trilogy.

Lets start with the guest that unpicked every other curtain hook from every curtain in the caravan they were staying in? Why would you do that? How long must it have taken to do that? And how long did it take for us to put back!?! If you are that guest - I'd rather you just asked me to buy you a bag of curtain hooks - it would certainly have been cheaper ;)

Or are you the guest that accidently managed to pull the door off a static caravan last weekend? You must be very strong as it took two of us to hang it back on again.

Maybe you are the guest that thought washing your jeans in the toilet was a good idea - but they got stuck didn't they? They got stuck in the sewage pump that controls sewage from the whole site. Caused hours of problems for other guests and poor Damian had to sort it all out.

No two days are the same here - we can plan what we are going to do for the day and then something happens to throw us off course. We love our job - we love our quirky guests and can't wait to find out what they do next!

Food Glorious Food

The 4th Annual Malton Food Festival took place over the 19th and 20th May. 

It was a really good afternoon with lots of fun for all the family. 

First stop for us was The Pizza Farm - fresh stone-baked pizza made in front of your eyes. Littlemiss9 was mesmerised by the whole process - from the lady that took our order, to the guy that made the bases, another that sorted our toppings and finally the gentleman above that cooked our lunch. And it tasted extremely yummy - hope they are able to visit us here one day.

We had a list of products that we needed to re-stock and The Chilli Jam Man was first on this list. We have enjoyed many of the Chilli Jams and the Jammonaise is a family favourite. Click here to visit his website for online ordering or to find out where he will be next.

There was allsorts going on - the Welcome to Yorkshire Taste Trail went down really well with us all - chocolate and ice-cream for the kids, pigeon, beef and crab for the parents. It was also great to see Dee Marshall, Gary Verity, Sarah Barrowby and Janet Deacon from Welcome to Yorkshire and Craig Nattress looked fab in his pinny!

Are the awards worth it?

Why have you entered so many awards?

I’ll be completely truthful with you – marketing, PR, publicity – put it however you want, at the end of the day the publicity we have received as finalists in so many awards has been priceless. Whether we are a winner of not we are allowed to use a finalist logo on all our publicity material which can make us stand out from other parks in the area.

We also get so much more from them – the learning curve has increased sharply since we started entering. Each award has its own judging process – but for each of the caravan park/self-catering awards this process has included a mystery visit and a mystery phonecall. The feedback we get from these visits has been invaluable. We see the site everyday – the mystery visits make us see it through a completely different set of eyes.

 Judges have come up with new ideas that we have been able to put into practise, they have given us advice on where modifications could be made. Extra signage is on order for our tourist information area specifically due to a comment made in the feedback report in an award application last year. Both shower blocks shown on Look North in October last year have now been completely retiled as we could see they needed brightening up.

No-one has run a course on how to run a caravan park – 12 years later we are still learning –  we can’t build new ideas sat behind a desk – we have to find new ways of learning. The only cost involved in the awards is time (plus new dress, bag and shoes) but the rewards are incalculable.

How do the Outstanding Customer Service awards differ?

We were nominated for the customer service awards by guests and they mean so much to both of us. Last year a child fell over on the park – no fault of ours I hasten to add – his parents had been drinking outside their tent so had been unable to take him to hospital. Instead Damian took them all – he waited with them at Malton hospital and when a transfer to York hospital was needed Damian stepped in to help again. He waited at York hospital with them until all x-rays were completed and then brought them back to the site. Damian didn’t do that because it’s part of his job – he did it because he is a genuinely nice guy (although when I sprained my knee back in February it was 2 days before he would take me to hospital).

Will you be entering more?

To be honest we haven’t made that decision yet. There is alot of time that goes into each entry and its knowing what to put into each entry. Obviously we have made huge improvements to the shower block this year so there is scope for an entry this year but a time will come where we can’t do that. We will just have to wait and see – if Nick enters we will have to J A younger guest has asked if he can enter the girls into an awards so we may have to hold our own.

It's raining............it's pouring........

I’m sure we aren’t the only ones that are getting fed up of the constant rain. So many things we want to get on with outside and they are almost impossible in this weather. We can do most things in the wind and cold but add a bit of rain and things come to a halt.

I’ve also noticed that the phone is really quiet on days when the weather is poor – no-one is in the right frame of mind to be thinking of their summer holidays. Once the sun starts to shine again camping will seem like a really fun thing to do once more.

So, what are we doing?

You may think that with so little to do on the park we are sat indoors with the heating on relaxing and taking the time to rest. Nope!!! Since I started this morning I’ve dealt with three repair men, four advertising salespeople, ordered some uniform, made sure adverts are running in all the right places, worked on the website, helped with a newsletter and made a cup of tea. Thankfully its now lunchtime – and time to make a list of all the things I’ll do this afternoon.

Yorkshire - When are you coming?

Can't decide where to go on holiday this year? Let me help you make up your mind!

Y12

Seems we've gone through all seasons since I was sat in the garden writing the last blog. Sun, sleet, wind and rain - we've had them all - but thankfully no snow.

Its been a busy few days since my last blog. On Wednesday I attended Welcome to Yorkshire's Y12 conference at the Barbican Centre with over 1100 others wondering what the year had in store for us.

The chat show style event was hosted by Rob Walker (may have to start watching the snooker now) with guests Gary Verity - Chief Exec for Welcome to Yorkshire, John Penrose MP - Minster for Tourism, Mike Finnigan and a couple of llamas.

The day is always very inspiring and this year was no different. Gary and his team have a lot planned for Yorkshire:

• Back le Bid - A bid for the 2016 Tour de France to start in Yorkshire. You can help by backing le bid at www.yorkshire.com/backthebid
• "On Ilkla Moor Bah't'at" Rap
• Product Placement in Emmerdale
• Bronte's Yorkshire Garden at Chelsea

The finale was emotional for everyone attending. The first champions of Yorkshire "The Yorkshire Regiment" were welcomed onto the stage to collect their Y badges with a standing ovation and a few tears from Row B.