Table talk

Uplifting advice on child care

Brian Campbell, director of security at the Four Seasons hotel in Toronto, has kindly sent me his safety checklist for business and leisure travellers.

Among the nine sensible precautions, I particularly enjoyed the item that read: "When riding an elevator with a young child, remember to enter and exit the elevator with the child."

UK-based readers might care to note the advice also applies to lifts.

Irish hoteliers do it with golf balls

Forget the Ecu - golf balls could be the next European currency, according to one Irish hotelier who has begun accepting them as legal tender.

Michael Rosney, who runs the Killeen House Hotel in the lakes of Killarney, County Kerry, has the biggest golf ball collection in Europe, with 8,000 balls at the last count.

While most guests receive a pint of Guinness in part exchange for a ball, those who have sought-after spheres can use them to pay their hotel bill. Mr Rosney accepts any golf balls with an official logo of a club, hotel, company or individual.

Currently, French balls are enjoying a good exchange rate, and a couple from Milwaukee, USA, recently arrived with a whole suitcase full of balls with which they paid for their dinner and evening drinks.

Some day my prince will come…

Once upon a time, many years ago, a young lady went to a ball and won the raffle. The prize, dinner for two at Quaglino's, went unclaimed for almost 40 years.

However, when the lady in question recently had a chance encounter with the restaurant's owner, Sir Terence Conran, she told him the tale of her unclaimed prize.

The gallant knight [Sir Terence] promised to honour the voucher, on condition the original could be produced. This "treasure" was luckily found tucked away in an attic, and was promptly exchanged for a 1996 fairy-tale dinner for two at the reborn restaurant.

Students race to join olympic team

Word reaches us from Atlanta, Georgia, that the hotel industry is going to be ultra-busy during the Olympics. No surprise there, but the recruitment sales pitch that's going out from hotels in the city to American university campuses is: "If you can find a place to stay, you're hired."

Raymond blanc allergic to food?

Poor old Raymond Blanc. Despite the twice Michelin-starred chef's plans to launch a "health-giving, stress-beating à la carte spa" next year at Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Great Milton, Oxfordshire, the chef himself is suffering from various food allergies.

Doctors have restricted his diet, banning yeast and dairy products, leaving him to dine recently in his own restaurant on water, non-yeast bread, and meat accompanied by mashed potatoes and broccoli, both sans beurre.

Mr Blanc is hopeful this regime will be temporary and he will soon be able to tuck into his favourite foods once more.

Bon santé, Raymond.

A pub quiz to beat all others

The Brewery, Whitbread's City of London conference centre, is claiming to have held a pub quiz to put all others to shame.

With more than 300 people taking part, the contest raised over £45,000 for national cancer information and support charity BACUP.

Winners were a team from BT, with quizmaster Peter Snow from Newsnight reportedly keeping control by threatening to wield his swingometer.