Month: May 2024

This month we enjoyed a tasting and wind-down session with local wine-maker and George supplier, Kristin Syltevik from Oxney, as she prepares for this year’s harvest. Having previously owned and run a tech PR company, with offices world-wide, Kristin sold her agency and settled in Rye in 2012, to move into actual winemaking. Swapping the fast-moving hi-tech world, for a very different but equally technical world of hands-on organic production, Kristin says the best part of her job now is being out in the vineyards working with the vines. The Oxney vineyard is part of an 850-acre organic family farming estate, and its yield accounts for around 20% of all the organic grapes grown in the UK. Their beautiful winery is just a 15-minute drive from The George, and hosts popular tastings and tours, after which you can better appreciate its terroir taste as you sip a glass of Oxney Organic in our Dragon Bar. As they say, the proof is in the bottle.

https://oxneyestate.com

What brings you to the George?
I have a local vineyard and winery in Beckley called Oxney, so I am at the George every week delivering our wine to the lovely David who runs the bar! You will find our winery team in the bar on regular occasions!

List 3 things you won’t leave home without.
Freda our gorgeous cocker spaniel, a large coffee and always always secateurs in my pocket – that’s life owning a vineyard!

What is your earliest hotel memory?
You won’t believe this, but I grew up in a hotel. We had an apartment in my grandmother’s hotel on the west coast of Norway and I lived there until I was five years old. I remember the cook making me special treats!

What is the best/most important part of staying away in a hotel for you?
Not being at home… so no dogs, children and responsibilities – and having a gorgeous bed and going down for breakfast!

What are you currently reading/binge-watching/listening to?
I am ploughing my way through Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (I must admit that it is a book club book…)

Do you have a hotel lobby/lift story you’d care to share with us?
The worst story ever: At a client event (I used to work in PR) in Germany, you had to pass between two naked women painted in all kinds of colours. But totally naked. Hilarious!

What do you always forget/lose when you go away?
Contact lens solution! I can’t name the number of countries I have tried to buy the right solution!

Hypothetically, who would you most like to discover is a fellow guest?
David Cameron so I can tell him off for Brexit!

What helps you get to sleep at night? (Keep it clean!)
A good book!

My secret Rye discovery is….
Wandering the lanes at the top of the town. What can be nicer… we are so lucky living by Rye.

This month we put ourselves in the very safe hands of Mark Caffrey, who takes the stress out of planning all the extra details for your big celebration – so you can not only enjoy your own party, but the run-up to it as well!

Mark studied at RADA in London, and subsequently worked in the charity sector for 12 years, focusing on supporting them to evolve their inclusion and involvement work. As Mark explains, this past experience of live art and performance together with his charity work, became useful transferable skills towards him becoming a celebrant; “It felt like a natural way to combine all of my skills and passion to create these unique weddings for my couples. I thrive on collaboration, and the buzz of a one-off event.”

Mark now works across Sussex and London. He finds that most of his clients find him; “I tend to attract kind-hearted, fun-loving couples who are open to a fresh approach to their ceremony planning.”

Luckily for us, several of these happy occasions have taken place here. A courtyard wedding at The George last September connected family across the USA, Europe and the UK. “It was the first time their community of loved ones had been brought together to celebrate the couple, and to welcome their new child to the family. It was a very special day, an intentional celebration – relaxed, fun and full of heart.”

So if you have an important upcoming event or date you wish to celebrate, drop Mark a line with your dream wish-list. Let him make them a reality!

https://www.markcaffrey.co.uk or find him on Instagram @markcaffreyceremonies_

What brings you to the George?
I’ve been meeting with my latest couple in the restaurant, creating their May wedding ceremony at The George. It’s where I have my planning sessions with Rye couples, and where I get to catch up with the delightful Anna – The George’s wedding planner!

List 3 things you won’t leave home without
Battery pack, notebook and something to read.

What is a recent hotel memory?
A birthday trip with my partner to a hotel on the coast. From our top-floor bay window the sea melted into the horizon. It was a creamy white expanse – as if we were suspended in the clouds but carried on the waves. Meditative and very relaxing.

What is the best/most important part of staying away in a hotel for you?
Being held in a space that is for you, but a blank canvas – none of my possessions there. I realise how little I need. I always appreciate a good bed, quiet, a quality breakfast and a reading light.

What are you currently reading/binge-watching/listening to?
I read a lot – at the minute I have three on the go: Fiction from Édouard Louis, Noura Erakat’s Justice for Some and I’m just starting John Weiners’ poems on a recommendation from The [wonderful] Hastings Bookshop. My podcast go-to every time is You’re Wrong About with Sarah Marshall. Finally, not a binge watch, but last night we saw Zone of Interest at The Electric Palace and it was timely and very powerful.

Do you have a hotel lobby/lift story you’d care to share with us?
My lift experiences have always been non-eventful! I did once perform a two-hander play set in a lift where I was trapped with a stranger who went into labour. Nothing so dramatic for me to date – thankfully. I try to take the stairs!

What do you always forget/lose when you go away?
I very rarely forget anything – I’m very organized in that way, even if I’m a last-minute packer!

Hypothetically, who would you most like to discover is a fellow guest?
Someone who lives with passion and lives their values – and with a wicked sense of humour and lots of creativity – so assuming I can choose both living and dead: Grace Jones, Cookie Mueller, James Baldwin, Nan Goldin.

What helps you get to sleep at night? (Keep it clean!)
I’m so inconsistent when it comes to my sleep hygiene – so it’s either relaxed lighting and meditation to wind down or falling asleep with my phone in my hand, scrolling myself to sleep.

My secret Rye discovery is….
My Mum loved visiting Rye, and so it isn’t so much a secret as a simple and meaningful pleasure – just taking the time to wander through the cobbled streets, catch the changing light and take in the view. If there’s a discovery I made at The George, it was when I was getting a tour of the renovated rooms and got to see the varied views from the different hotel room windows. The patchwork of roofs, the sense of a whole community surrounding the hotel – the quirks and story of each individual room itself. It was a rare opportunity to get ‘under the skin’.

Image credits in order from top: Image 1 ©Ami Robertson Photography | Image 2 (right) ©A Moment in Time Photography NI | Image 3 ©Charlotte Amy Photography | Image 4 n/a | Image 5 (right) ©Nia Rose Photography | Image 6 ©Berni Palumbo | Image 7 (left) ©David Cavan | Image8 ©April Ridge | Image 9 n/a