Another day in the poor Grenville Hotel, whose staff rightly feel that it has lost its family atmosphere due to price rises that put off families and discount deals for coaches full of old people as Sterling rises to an 18month high and Live Aid raises £40m
Early awake as Diana brings Della into the bed before being kicked out again to the hall where she normally sleeps. This after being woken at 3.00am as she had to go to the toilet and locked herself out. I then lay awake for two hours worrying about the state of this hotel. A good breakfast and then I take the girls (Debbie and her friend Susie) down to the swings and let them play until the nanny opened the nursery at 9.30am. I popped into the room and fetched my ½ lb of dairy fudge and shared it with them and Daniel. As I chatted to the staff member tending the pool I heard more of the hotel’s troubles. He felt that the pool was too little utilised for its expense, that the coach parties were losing the hotel its family atmosphere and that they ought to be limited to months outside July and August. It seems a family from Scotland last week, who had come each year since 1977, would not come again. Their teenage daughters were bored as there were no other youngsters and the discotheques etc were no longer run.
The staff are obviously demoralised and the hotel has entered a vicious circle of change. A pity as it has the heated pool, the large family rooms, the nursery, games room, ironing and washing room, the mother’s kitchen etc and is not playing to its strengths by taking in retired coach party guests. The lounge furniture is too low for them and the single, slow lift, inadequate – very depressing! Anyway, out to the car and along the coast to a picturesque drive through a forest looking for the Coomb Valley nature trail. But we could not find the facilities and so returned to Bude and went to the beach for the afternoon. A strong breeze blowing onshore. Summerleaze beach was flying the red flag because of the waves onto the rocks, but Middle beach had the chequers for surfing and Crooklets bore red and yellow flags of the patrolled bathing area and so we went there. Splendid surfing waves which Daniel and I both mounted with the polystyrene float. Debbie paddled and splashed, but Diana stayed ashore in poor spirits. Away for the 5.30pm high tea at the hotel and Daniel shamed Di by telling the fellow guests of his joke, “What is pink and hard every morning? – The Financial Times crossword,” to an evidently embarrassed silence. The kids abed, we bathed the sand from our bodies and went down for an early dinner at 7.00pm. It was obviously the chef’s night off as a large cold buffet was served and we wanted to pick from it ahead of the first coach party, which we just managed to do. Also to watch Dallas on TV starting at 7.40pm, which was all about the death of Bobby Ewing, so that actor, Patrick Duffy, could retire from the production. TV news then of several stories including the latest on the Johnson-Matthey enquiries, where the fraud squad are in; Reagan is still a puppet to the diplomats stage management, the pound sterling is at an 18 month high against the dollar, which will be bad for British Industry and Live Aid raised a predicted £40 million with the concert, but food transport is now held up by the rains. Up to bed after and to hope for a better night’s sleep. We got our drinks on time this morning, but without Daniel’s coffee and so we hope for our first success tomorrow. The weather, which is raining and gusty tonight, may be windy and dry tomorrow.