The Dillington Blog

With only a couple of blogs this month my neglect seems like an abandonment of duty. The truth is that I’ve been pretty ill with a dreadful chest infection – there’s been a lot of it about – and also I’ve very busy putting the next programme together with my colleague, Denise Borer. Part of the fun and games of programme planning is the tracking down and contacting our public lecture speakers. Throughout the year I make notes of possible candidates for the moment when the blizzard of e-mails fly off from my computer. Anyway, one of the more interesting correspondences has been with Professor Mary Beard of Cambridge University. It was always going to be a big ask for her to travel across the country to Somerset and especially so since she’s now become a household name thanks to her marvellous television appearances. I also wondered about whether she would understand what Dillington was all about. I need not have worried. It seems Mary had known about Dillington since she was a young woman. She told me in her e-mail that she had been a ‘skivvy’ at Attingham Park, Shropshire – a residential centre for adult education which closed in 1971 – and that they all knew of Dillington when she worked there. I nearly fell of my chair with astonishment. The great Professor Beard a skivvy, surely not! Sadly her forward diary is completely full and she will not be coming to Dillington on this occasion. That said, I am sure she will venture west when things quieten down for her. Isn’t it interesting how serendipitous the world is?

During the course of a week an awful lot of things cross my desk including a fair amount of rubbish. That’s true of e-mails too. This week a corporate-style magazine entitled Conference News lay there awaiting my perusal. I quickly flicked through the pages until my attention was arrested by a short article extolling the virtues of value over price. In essence the piece was saying that it was a false economy to make decisions based entirely on price and that value was far more important. At Dillington we are always trying to find ways of adding value to the customer experience although this is sometimes quiet challenging when businesses and organisations themselves are under considerable financial pressure. Doing things cheaply in these circumstances may seem like a priority but it can be a mistake too and one is reminded of that old adage that you gets what you pay for.

We have all heard of the saying that the customer is always right. Well, most of us working in business and especially those of us working directly with customers will know that this isn’t the case. I am sure the saying came out of the intention of giving customers the feeling that they were being listened to and that therefore, they always had a point and so, they were right. Recently a person turned up at the front door somewhat unexpectedly saying they had booked accommodation. We had no record of the booking and we thought we had made some dreadful oversight. The customer was understandably fuming that we had made a mistake and words were expressed along the lines that we couldn’t organise the proverbial party in a brewery. We rushed to prepare a bedroom, quickly cleaning our very best room, changing the sheets and towels etc. Our apologies were profuse and without qualification! Then, after producing the paperwork (yes, we should have asked to see it first, I know) there was the realisation on the part of our unexpected guest that they had, in fact, been booked into a nearby hotel and were not meant to be staying with us at all. Oh joy, the moment must have been wondrous. It wasn’t our fault at all – the customer was wrong! They did at least stay in the freshly prepared room and rightly paid for the pleasure. I will leave you guessing as to whether we had an apology.

I’m a great fan of Dr. John Briffa. His website is a mine of sensible information and insight and his blog often points you in interesting directions concerning the latest research on matters concerning health and well-being. Dr Briffa takes a sometimes combative stance against orthodox opinion and he often finds himself challenging the evidence which he maintains is often slanted in the interests of the big pharmaceutical companies and other vested interests. He’s not a crackpot at all but, I think, a wise and wily medical practitioner. Anyway, this week he has blogged about a possible causal link between mental attitudes to life and a sense of well-being.
In the blog he says that there may be something in our ability to think ourselves young. Of courses there are many stigmas associated with being old and I think it is not uncommon for many people to think we live in a youth culture (maybe it was ever thus) but Dr Briffa cites the example of his driving instructor who was quite a bit older than was apparent. His secret was to avoid the company of older people who had acquired old mind-sets. In other words, the trick was to maintain an open mind, to be enthusiastic and have loads of passions. Now the reason I’m writing about this is because I think adult education is the perfect conduit to having an open mind, to becoming enthusiastic and passionate too! Have a look at Dr Briffa’s website yourself and you can find out more. www.drbriffa.com

Books are wonderful things but they can become obsessive. My home is stuffed with them and I recently had to buy a posh shed to house something that was becoming a bit of problem. Anyway, this confession is a preamble to some good news for you and our library at Dillington. We have just got together with PostScript books in Devon in order to work together in revitalising the shelves with some more up-to-date books. PostScript has been selling good books at great prices since 1987. Each month they produce a 40 plus page catalogue across a range subjects very similar to our own sweep of courses. Together we have agreed to promote the catalogue in return for new books for the library. All you have to do is get hold of the catalogue the next time you visit Dillington, select your books and place your order quoting the reference number PS039. Depending on the volume of sales quoting the Dillington reference we will receive a credit towards new books for the library. It is a win, win and win arrangement. PostScript get their sales, you get your books at excellent prices and Dillington gets its new library books. Check out the PostScript website at www.psbooks.co.uk

Now this is necessarily a long blog entry for reasons that will become obvious. I’ve been away from my desk for a couple of weeks and yet Dillington keeps going regardless, which is as it should be. This morning I was told of a piece written by a couple who got married with us just over ten years ago. So inspired by our service to them they set up their own wedding business! This is their story…

In 2002 Gill and I were lucky enough to celebrate our wedding with a reception in the idyllic surroundings of sixteenth century Dillington House. It was as perfect a July day as one can imagine, sunny and warm without being sweltering, a light breeze to keep our assembled guests comfortable, and an evening that held the day’s pleasant heat such that no-one wanted to leave.

The ambience of this fabulous old building is difficult to beat. The sweeping drive by which you approach the front of the house, embraced by stunning parkland, takes your breath away and leaves you in no doubt that this is a very special place indeed. The rooms that accommodate the wedding breakfast are full of charm and character. They have this wonderful feeling of intimacy that you cannot achieve in a large ballroom, and the result is a wonderfully relaxed atmosphere

Our story was one of good fortune from the beginning. Following some difficult times for us both, the year prior to organising our wedding had been wonderful, but when we made the decision, we knew that we didn’t want to wait for years to be able select the venue of our dreams, and when we approached Dillington they had just had a cancellation for the first Saturday in July. We arranged to visit to view the wonderful facilities and booked on the spot. This was not an opportunity we could miss! It left us with less than six months to arrange everything, and bring our families and friends together from across Europe.

Perhaps it’s a familiar story, but getting everyone to join us wasn’t a problem, nor was the accommodation (Dillington’s on-site facilities are brilliant, and very reasonable), choosing the superb quality food was easy too, and the staff at Dillington could not have been more helpful or more friendly. The problems we experienced were all with the little things – the table decorations, the invitations, and the other extras that we wanted to make the day personal to ourselves. We had such a job finding good quality products that suited our wedding, and those we did find were spread over a whole range of different shops

With a little determination, and a certain amount of wasted time, we resolved these issues in time and it was a truly wonderful day. However, searching for them caused a level of anxiety and irritation, particularly as we were both working full time and were on a tight timetable. As is often the case in the face of adversity, the seed of an idea was formed from all this. Celebrations come in a variety of forms, but our experience had been one that suggested it was far easier to find somewhat tacky products than it was to find really good quality, and we had to hunt high and low to gather ideas from several different locations and companies.

So our idyllic day in Dillington turned into a business idea, and because we gave it a lot of thought whilst looking at the photographs of our special day and remembering the scenes of happiness on everyone’s smiling faces during our wedding speeches, we called it So Raise Your Glasses.

Our wedding was followed by a period of intense activity as we dreamed up a myriad of ideas and researched the variety of gorgeous products from quality suppliers that we knew would be necessary to provide a comprehensive range. Our starting point was the celebrations that we wanted to focus our business on. We started, naturally enough, with weddings, and engagement, and then added the major wedding anniversaries, the big birthdays and looking to the beginnings of life, Christenings and Naming Days.

Once the major celebrations had been identified, we had to identify the variety of products that people want for occasions of this kind, and in talking to our customers over an extended period we have managed to construct a range that appeals to a wide variety of discerning customers. We had a wonderful example in what we saw at Dillington to know just how to provide the service that our customers want and expect, and that’s what we now strive to deliver every day.

A year after our wedding Gill had resigned from a senior position to focus entirely on our new business, and a year after that we opened our first shop in Taunton. We opened our first shop in Taunton in 2004 and went on line in 2005. As the website gained momentum we decided to focus completely on line and in 2010 moved to more suitable premises. The original ideas that started it all are still very much at the heart of what we do today.

Our first website was launched in the summer of 2005, and we are now operating with our third and best website from a village less than 10 miles from Dillington, and just a mile from our home. Living in this beautiful part of Somerset has kept the memories of that marvellous day in 2002 fresh and alive for us all this time, but there’s no doubt where the inspiration for our business was born – Dillington House

Wedding Photograph by Pauline Rook

To visit Gill & Philip’s website follow the link www.soraiseyourglasses.com/

and keep up to date with all their news on twitter @SoRaiseYG

Adult education and culture rubs shoulders at many junctures and none more so as when a load of Dillington students spent the best part of a week in the city of Valencia. Although not without its financial difficulties, the city boasts some of the most extraordinary architecturally daring buildings in Europe. Here is the Palau de Artes or opera house designed by Santiago Calatrava. Like some spaceship that’s landed it is a building that seems to defy all logic or purpose. It is breathtaking and utterly massive yet somehow seems to float on the water surrounding it. Valencia, like most Spanish cities is stuffed full of cultural history and experiences. One is reminded that of that old adage ‘life is short but art is long’. I wonder what will be our cultural legacy to those who follow us. Spaghetti junction or The Millennium Dome? I think not.

It is amazing how sometimes things come together without any prior plan. On Friday afternoon I was in Madrid standing in front of Picasso’s great masterpiece ‘Guernica’. I’d seen it before on several occasions, including a year after it arrived in Spain from New York in 1981. That time it was behind bulletproof glass and guarded by soldiers with machine guns! Last week it was still guarded but now by two alert but unarmed gallery assistants. The work still packs a punch unlike any other modern art work I know. The subject is the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica in 1936 and it was the events and aftermath of the Spanish Civil War that were the subjects of our talk yesterday given by Giles Tremlett – historian and the Guardian’s Madrid correspondent. Giles had written the book ‘The Ghosts of Spain’ which explored this extraordinary story. The conflict left deep wounds and Spain is still quietly trying to come to terms with what happened. Some would like to bury the past whilst others want the bodies exhumed and reburied with due solemnity and respect. It is an issue that still resonates and divides public opinion. Finally, yesterday evening the former Government Minister, Michael Portillo, recounted his father’s escape from Franco’s dictatorship and his exile in England. The story of Guernica and the masterpiece it inspired was central to the story. Portillo stood in front of the picture as I had done on Friday but whereas I was accompanied by loads of German visitors, he had the company of our good friend the Picasso scholar, Gijs van Hensbergen. Nobody could have planned these coincidences but it was a strange and fortuitous alignment of events and people nevertheless.

Today is the last day of March and we are still waiting for spring which officially began over a week ago. It is also Easter Sunday which is also the day of rebirth and renewal in the Christian calendar. Spring is certainly late this year and the only daffodils I’ve seen are those outside of Yeovil Crematorium which are always early. What a winter it’s been. First the wet and then the cold. In the west country we’ve been spared the really awful snow but elsewhere it has been dreadful. Even so, the easterly wind has been bitter and only today has the sun even attempted to warm the earth. At Dillington we are getting spruced up for the summer with repairs being undertaken to one of the big doors to the theatre seriously damaged during a winter storm. Similarly, we are on the roof repairing the lead – a constant battle to keep out the water. In the office we are busy working on the new programme that will be published in July – and what a great programme it is going to be! Putting the programme together is our act of renewal where new ideas are given expression as courses, lectures and concerts. Behind the scenes we are constantly exploring new ways of letting people know what we have to offer not just in the field of adult education but also to business people and organisations needing somewhere inspirational to meet and work. And we mustn’t forget those wanting to tie the knot! Our diary for weddings this year full and we are now speaking to couples looking for dates in 2014 and beyond. The cycle of work never ends and just like the seasons they just keep aturning round and around. Here’s wishing you a happy Easter.

This time last week I was in Milan. One of the difficulties of working at Dillington – yes, there are some – is finding time to take leave. There is always work to do, front of house and backstage, so to speak. There are always deadlines to meet and events to manage and our small team is actually spread quite thinly over the 24-7 business. Anyway, at the end of January we enjoyed a visit by the wonderful Cremona String Quartet who are in fact based not in Cremona but beside the Mediterranean in Genoa. As you may know, they are embarking on a project to record all of the Beethoven quartets and those attending the Dillington weekend would have got a flavour of how they are approaching this mountain of an undertaking. My reason for going to Milan was to hear their first all Beethoven public concert celebrating the release of the first CD in the series. The concert was a huge success and the disc is a triumph too. An audience of about a thousand people filled the Sala Verdi and the concert was recorded by Italian radio. The applause was long and many people got to their feet in appreciation. Beyond the music I used my mini-break to visit the cathedral, the art galleries, to do some window shopping and to see – or should one say, experience – Leonardo’s wonderfully restored Last Supper. That the painting survived the almost complete destruction of the Refectory during the Second World War is a miracle. It is also astonishing that the image has survived the numerous attempts to halt its deterioration from Leonardo’s own experiment in painting technique. Right from the very beginning this extraordinary composition started to fall apart and people have tried to stop it disappearing from the wall in flakes. Today, it is gently lit and it lives in a carefully controlled atmosphere with visitor numbers limited. Wonderful as seeing The Last Supper was, it was seeing Raphael’s Marriage of the Virgin in the Pinocoteca di Brera that for me was the most engaging. This painting too has recently been restored and unlike the Leonardo ghost, this picture is vibrant and in superb condition. If you ever go to Milan you mustn’t miss either of them. Oh, yes, and if your like your Beethoven string quartets, I highly recommend the Cremona’s first disc on the Audite label of opus 18 No.6, opus 95 and opus 135.