The Christmas panic is on to get as much work prepared in advance to allow for subbing time and extra supplements and bigger papers over the coming festive season.  So this afternoon I have been wading through more than the usual hotel offers to find suitable ideas for Irish Times readers over the next month or so.  I have been amused and bemused by some of what I have seen an thought I should share them.  They wont be shared with IT readers - when you read them you'll know why.

1.  the Sip and See parties at Dukes Hotel London, where mothers introduce their newborn to family and friends over tea and champagne, DUKES ST. JAMES LONDON  in the hotel’s stylish and elegant Perrier Jouët Champagne Lounge. £19 each with a glass of champagne and four canapes.


2.  Escapada Sensual - sounds good in Spanish and its available at the three Adrian Hotels in Tenerife.  The Sensual Escape package includes, 
Romantic decoration at arrival
1 Bottle of cava
Intimate kit “Dreams”, which includes honey dust with a natural feather, sensation body gel, eatable oil with heat effect and a small vibrating bullet
Strawberry with chocolate
Late check-out, subject to availability Price per night from €157 for two.  Not sure where you put the vibrating bullet........

3. Ski the poignant sites of WW1 in the Dolomites - what can I say?

To mark the First World War Centenary, the family-owned Rosa Alpina in San Cassiano has a special three-night offer for advanced skiers in the Dolomites, visiting the key sites of WW1.

Enjoy half a day’s skiing with a mountain guide from San Cassiano to Corvara and to the Marmolada glacier, stopping for lunch at the Rifugio Averau, with dinner and an overnight stay there. On the following morning guests may ski from Cinque Torri to Civetta, Pelmo and Lagazuoi and back to San Cassiano with a guide.

This offer is available from €1,195 per person, based on two adults sharing a double room and includes the above plus two nights at the 5 star Rosa Alpina hotel and one night in a double room at the Rifufio Averau (Cinque Torri), breakfast, a five-course tasting dinner for two at Rosa Alpina’s 2-Michelin star restaurant, St Hubertus, complimentary access to Rosa Alpina’s award-winning spa and a €60 credit per person for a luxury spa treatment of choice. Valid until 30th March, subject to availability.

 

On a visit to London last Friday I took a walk over to a market I haven't been to in years. What a wonderful surprise. Dell Boy and cronies are gone and in their place is a cornuacopia for foodies

Borough Market has been transformed into food heaven. The first surprise is the food demo kitchen. Chef Marcus Valberne of Roast was giving a display of very British cooking, slow roast stuffed belly pork with apple sauce and gravy. It was delicious and so nice I cooked it from his recipe notes on Sunday.

The market was thronged with people buying lunch from the food stalls, shopping for weekend food and discussing the various cuts of meat with butcher and choosing fish for dinner. There is a very eclectic mix of ethnic cuisine from the food stalls with authentic Thai and Indian street food, to cheesy oozing Raclette, crispy fish and chips, pungent salt beef, delicate sushi, rustic hog roast, earthy sour dough sandwiches, sizzling sausages, sunshine from the Caribbean, brashy bratwrusts, succulent smoothies, Argentinian beef and toasted pastel de nata and lots lots more.  Borough Market deserves lots of visits to try the different foods on offer.

Any who loves cooking will swoon at what's on offer here.  Fantastic butcher's with well hung meat, extensive fish and shellfish from around the coast, including smoked fish from Ireland's west coast.  When it comes to vegetable offerings, if you can't find what you want here,  give up.  Also available at the market are stalls selling confectionery, sweets, spices, cheeses, herbs, charcuterie, jerky, condiments, chutneys, jams and much much more.  Next time in London - don't miss Borough Market.  

From Irish Times, Nov. 15, 2013

I was earwigging on the Luas one evening while a girl was describing Dublin Coddle to a friend from overseas. My ears pricked up, then she mentioned carrots, and I knew she was a blow-in.

Who ever heard of carrots in a Coddle?

A true Dublin Coddle is potatoes, bacon and sausages and it is the combination of these staple ingredients that makes a great dish. My Gran’s recipe is a potato soup with lots of onions, fresh parsley and thyme with chunks of bacon and slippery sausages.

There are hundreds of Coddle recipes – everyone has their own variation but the Scales version is the true one!

My Dad used to make it on winter Saturdays and we looked forward to it. It was always served with stories of old Dublin and the things he got up to when he was young.

The truly simply way to start a Coddle is with a packet of Erin Potato Soup (this is cheating a bit, but does save time). Another easy option is a pack of bacon pieces from Aldi or Lidl, it costs €1.99 for a kilo. Watch out for the smoked pieces, they’re not as tasty in a Coddle. You need to trim it well before adding it to the soup. Next in are two big onions sliced, a big bunch of thyme, a handful of chopped parsley and stir, cooking for about 30 minutes.

Add roughly diced potatoes to the soup – waxy potatoes are better than floury. When the potatoes are almost cooked, add the sausages, they only take about 15 minutes. Sometimes I use cocktail sausages for a bit of variety. Then add a half litre of full-fat milk, a good shake of white pepper and no salt.

The one thing I have learned over the years making Coddle is that it cooks quite quickly, about an hour altogether.

My daughter, when she moved to London, made it for Norwegian friends, only she cooked it so long the sausages melted into it. They didn’t know the difference, though, and loved it.

The first taste of Coddle is of a salty, herby, creamy, sweetish potato concoction, and the taste lingers a while. Coddle may be a poor man’s Boeuf Stroganoff but served hot with a dash of Lea and Perrins, every Dubliner feels like royalty.http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/there-are-hundreds-of-coddle-recipes-but-mine-is-the-true-dublin-one-1.1596150

This week World Travel Market was on in London, and virtually every country in the world was represented.  I talked  to many in the travel industry about the global travel trends we can expect over the next few years and where we might be going or what we might we doing.  I also attended some forecasting and trending sessions. The session by Euromonitor was very interesting and the findings are discussed below.

There were a few acronyms at the show and Pank is my favourite.  It refers to a growing trend of Professional Aunt No Kids taking their nieces, nephews and godchildren on holidays. The market in the United States is estimated to be 23 million with an average age of 36. 

The Pank market is big in domestic travel, theme parks and often combines culture with adventure.  Uncles are, of course, Punks.....

Another acronym that we are familiar with is BRICS now to be replaced by the SLIMMAs – which are Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico and Argentina.  Asia is key to global travel growth, as is Mexico which will pass the 25 million visitors level this year.  Your sons and daughters may have tangoed in Argentina and now it’s time for the rest of us to try it too.

Overall Global Market
The IMF is predicting a growth of 3.8% in the world’s travel market arena and advanced markets such as the US, Japan and Europe have returned to growth and emerging markets are increasing, improvements in visa regulations are helping. 

Guidebooks are back, with 59% of people taking one on holidays.  Good news for NC2 Media who bought the Lonely Planet guidebook company from the BBC earlier this year and Dorling Kindersley are re-launching their colourful Eye Witness guides.

Mobile
Smartphones are becoming significant in the travel market – I remember being at WTM three years ago and the talk was of these smartphones, and we all wondered how that could happen,  and now look at us. Hotels are particularly enjoying the increase in business from smartphones.

Online Travel Agencies are making inroads in bookings, and this year it is the OTA market is expected to increase by 12%. Worldwide it is Expedia, Priceline in the US and CTrip in China.  In Ireland we are familiar with clickandgo.com, gohop.ie,lowcostholidays.ie, steintravel.ie etc.

Social Media and roaming.
More than 60 per cent of people said that they would like to use social media on holidays and when Europe sorts out the roaming costs there will be a big upsurge in people using Facebook, Twitter, Google+ to share their holidays and keep in touch.

Do you know what a mobile concierge is?  Basically it’s a person at the other end of the smartphone who will give you advice, tips or help in some way to make your holiday better. We will see a growth in companies providing this type of service as part of your holiday.

Europe
The big change in European travel is the use of peer to peer networks.  Travellers using sites like Tripadvisor and Yelp and other online resources as well as friends and family to decide on where they go.  Other things like meeting locals where you go, i.e.touristlink.com and car sharing, blablacar.com are a growing peer to peer resource.

The other big change is that people will be more likely to stay in self-catering accommodation.  We Irish have always like self-catering, but the rest of the world is beginning to do it too.  Sites like AirBnB, Homeaway.com, Housetrip are growing hugely.  The hotel industry is fighting back, particularly in big cities like New York.  Spain is expected to be the biggest growth market for self-catering in the next few years.  The market is expected to be worth $15 billion by 2017.

The big event of the next four years begins next year with the Great War Centenary.  Flanders is well ahead in the planning and there will four years of commemorative events, VisitFlanders.co.uk for the English site.

Families
As families we may find ourselves doing a lot more exciting multigenerational things like going on Safari in Africa or doing more activities together.  It may include volunteerism and sustainable holidays, as well as cruises.

Cruising
The world continues to get bigger and bigger ships.  The cruise market by Chinese has jumped from a standstill start to 200,000 this year and China will outstrip the US cruise market by 2017 i.e.  four years. The Chinese are cruising to countries where they don’t need visas and major cruises lines have opened offices in China and moved ships there. The visa issue for Chinese is a big deterrent for any country trying to grow that market.

Aviation
When it comes to flying in Europe the only way for airlines to increase business is to steal from each other.  Recent news of Ryanair’s new improved softly softly approach may be behind their search for growth.

In the Middle East there is a big growth in low cost carriers, but many of them have business class too at a lower cost than other airlines.  They love a bit of luxury in the Middle East. The Dreamliner, the newest, biggest aircraft now operating, despite initial problems is getting a very high satisfaction rate from passengers.

Ireland
This year we had the Gathering and it has been a great success, next year it will be the year of the Wild Atlantic Way, with 2,500 kms of coastline waymarked.  Not only can you drive it, but you can also now drive it by electric car, with charging points all along the way.  Sports tourism will be big next year too, with US Colleges football in Croke Park on August 31 when University of Central Florida  plays Penn State brining thousands of fans to Ireland. The Notre Dame vs Navy game in 2012 brought 30,000 extra visitors to Ireland.

Yes, Douglas Fir is on the River Walk at the Powerscourt Estate in Eniskerry Co Wicklow.  He stands 61.5 metres tall -or 202 feet in old money. the champion tree has been included in Aubrey Fennell's book Heritage Trees of Ireland.  the tree is the seventh highest in Europe.  

Aubrey Fennell has spent 15 years searching, recording, measuring and photographing over 10,000 trees for the Tree Register of Ireland, treecouncil.ie, thepowerscourt.ie.