Table talk
10 pints and he's still zimmering
SAGA Holidays, the firm that caters so well for the over-50s, is none too happy at the growing use of the phrase "Saga lout" to identify an older person in loud enjoyment of alcohol.
As if to prove that Saga holidaymakers are responsible, mature and not given to drunken binges, some hotels taking Saga guests are now offering them limitless drinks. The reasoning behind this being, of course, that it is financially possible for the hotels because older folk are more alcoholically restrained. Tell that to my grandfather.
athers gets lessons from gidleigh team?
If England's notoriously indecisive cricket selectors ever need help in making up their minds, they could do a lot worse than turn to Catey-winner Paul Henderson.
The owner of the 1997 Independent Hotel of the Year, Gidleigh Park, in Devon, was recently elected president of his local cricket club - Chagford - and asked to put together a special XI to take on the Chagford first team.
Henderson promptly produced an impressive-looking side that included a former South African under-19 test star.
An even stronger side is promised next year by Henderson, who will no doubt be keeping a close eye on the availability of Mike Atherton & Co come the end of this winter's tour of the West Indies.
A berth at the wedding
Passengers aboard Caledonian MacBrayne's Ardrossan to Brodick ferry were surprised to see an on-board menu offering rather more exotic fare than usual.
Unfortunately, the grilled rainbow trout and pâté maison were not available to all - just to 50 members of a party taking part in the first wedding service and reception on board one of the company's ferries in its 136 distinguished years.
Fiona Stirling and Stan Wardrop married aboard the ferry MV Caledonian Isles while it was berthed at Brodick, on the Isle of Arran, in order for the ceremony to be recognised in law.
Lonely hearts get the full Monty's
A recipe for romance is being dished up for the lovelorn at Monty's bistro bar in Southend, where the walls are covered with photographs and details of customers looking for a date.
Choose a face that takes your fancy and bar-owner Andrew Crow will pass on the information. "Then it is up to that person to contact his or her admirer and make a date," he says.
The idea has been such a success that Mr Crow has doubled his takings, and now plans to franchise the scheme.
A new angle on the paparazzi
You could be forgiven for thinking that the Paparazzi Café in London's Fulham Road should be considering a name change after recent tragic events.
But business continues to be brisk at the establishment bearing the name given to the international photographers popularly blamed for the death of Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed. Dodi used to visit the café.
The term paparazzi was coined in 1959 from the name of an unsavoury photographer called Paparazzo in Fellini's film La Dolce Vita. Fellini's scriptwriter in turn had lifted the name from the travel book By The Ionian Sea, by the rather gloomy (but excellent) British novelist George Gissing, which features the proprietor of a Calabrian hotel visited by Gissing - Coriolano Paparazzo. Interesting that the original was a hotelier, not a photographer.
