Table talk
Great spurting moments
They are letting it all out in Aberdeen…all over England rugby captain Will Carling.
In the men's loo at The Paramount, a bar and restaurant attached to the Ministry of Sin nightclub, customers can express themselves over three perspex-covered video screens inset into the stainless steel stand-up urinals.
Owner Michael Wilson says a test-viewing of Rangers players in action convinced him there was a big future in the idea, though Carling and other Englishmen such as Vinny Jones are almost as popular.
Customers are eagerly awaiting the premiere of Gazza in a Rangers kit.
Silence is golden at V&A hotel
Speaking of video cameras, we hear one has been installed in the kitchen at Manchester's Victoria & Albert Hotel, with the viewing monitor by the ground floor lift. The aim, it seems, is to amuse guests who are waiting for the lift and show the kitchen has real chefs cooking real food.
Table Talk has learnt the show will be pictures-only, with no sound. Rather wise, since real chefs in real situations occasionally use real language.
Lift-off for America's favourite foods
Following his appointment as supplier of authentic American food to the US Air Force, Paul Corrett of the Big Easy restaurant in London's Kings Road is now talking to officials at NASA in Houston.
NASA, it seems, is undertaking a review of the eating habits and nutritional requirements of astronauts and has asked Mr Corrett to investigate ways of vacuum-packing Big Easy's chicken, shrimp and steak.
"If this project succeeds, I would like the opportunity of talking to the Russian space academy about a similar venture," added Mr Corrett
Wedded to your job - literally
The oft-heard saying that working in the hotel industry is more a way of life than a job was taken a step further by Barbara Dadoush of Surrey.
Ms Dadoush, sales and marketing manager of Oatlands Park Hotel in Weybridge, Surrey, took advantage of the new marriage laws to get hitched at the "office" - with her sales and marketing assistant, Nina Bond, as chief bridesmaid.
Mind you, not everybody works in an 18th century country house set in 10 acres of grounds overlooking a lake.
Useful tips for marketeers
How can you send out 500 faxes a night for a year at a cost of not much more than a penny per fax?
The answer is to subscribe to BT's midnight line, which allows unlimited use of a phone-line from midnight to 6am for a year for £350 a quarter plus a one-off setting-up fee of £500.
This and other marketing ideas are contained in a newsletter called Consider this. It is free from marketing services group Profords Associates, which is looking to build up a forum where marketeers exchange useful tips. For your copy call 01494 766123.
Banking on the best of the tenders
Many congratulations to CCG for winning the £4.6m contract to supply catering services to the Royal Bank of Scotland.
CCG chairman Frank Bell, who won this year's Food Service Catey, puts the success down to the bank's recognition of his company's high culinary standards and value- for-money service.
No doubt he is right. But Table Talk wonders how much the decision was influenced by rumours that CCG is planning a flotation. The Royal is CCG's banker and would, no doubt, be keen to be involved in such a move.
