earlier at the Fram Crown

The Sunday Carvery has moved to reubens bar & grill.

Executive chef Simon Pickess joined at the beginning of the year and for some reason we didn't tell you about it!

Everybody wanted to know what the red carpet was for outside the Framlingham Crown, indeed Linda from the stationers sent a runner to find out, and now you all know it was for the twins Gemima and Alice's eleventh birthday party complete with stretch limo that had been delayed by the traffic for the Rod Stewart concert in Ipswich.

Pics of reubens first night on their site and you would have thought we would want a breather after that but No!  Today we became the new landlords of the Station Hotel in Ipswich.

reubens was officially opened this morning was and is fully booked for tonight.

The builders handed over Reubens yesterday and a little calm descended on the courtyard though there'll still be a certain amount of dashing about as we get ready for the opening on Friday 15th June.  Reubens was officially opened this morning

Le Patron Roy Hunt has had to explain so many times how he broke his wrist that he wants the world to know he fell off a ladder at home and yes, it was bloody silly and yes, he is finding it difficult to point at things.

Lot's of activity out the back including much amusement when Roy and Tracy spotted a builder falling through the roof ... no, not really but the courtyard is open with two circles created out of cobbles from the stables making a little nod to the past.

The lovely sunshine this Easter meant our courtyard was much used.  Regrettably from today until the end of next week building work on Reuben's Bar and Grill means the courtyard may not be available and there may not be access to the hotel through the courtyard from the car park.

Work has started at the rear to convert the stables into Reuben's Bar and Grill which has already got its own web site.

Wireless Internet has been unavailable in most of the bedrooms since yesterday morning, expect it back on by tomorrow evening.

By the car park at the rear we have the stables which were rather appropriately used at last year's Street Fayre for a live nativity complete with donkey!  This spring the stables are being sympathetically restored and converted to a bar and restaurant so we can offer even more facilities.  The bit that has caught us out is discovering Brown Long-Eared Bats in the roof.  We are observing all conservation  guidelines and regs about our non-paying guests and inevitably it has slowed things down but we are still on course for opening the new restaurant this summer.

Because of the chicken flu up the road (not to be confused with chicken beer) there's a Sky news team staying at the Framlingham The Crown including Robert Nisbet, Paul Harrison and Paul Brennan, ... mmm ... three presenters?  Must be bigger than we realise ...

For the 2006 Street Fayre it was a free choice in fancy dress at The Crown.  The pic of Cilla as a clown was so successful that The Community News printed it, Mandy liked her saloon girl costume so much she didn't want to send it back, the cowboy saloon theme continued behind the bar and as in 2004 we had another charming Tinkerbell.

Golly gosh!  And golly gosh again!  The actor Bernard Hill will be jumping Friday week outside the hotel with his eleven year old son Gabriel.

For the second year running we're the box office for the three week Arts Framlingham.  New events this year are Reader, I married him and the Jazz Picnic.

Malgorzata (who inevitably we know as Maggie) was 27 today and rather touchingly she said this was the first time she'd ever been given flowers.

A wireless internet repeater was installed Monday in the housekeeper's room and free wireless Internet is now available in the majority of the bedrooms as well as the bar, lounge, etc.

Happy New Year and free! (but don't tell Roy) wireless Internet is available in the bar, lounge and dining room.  Just turn up with your wireless enabled laptop and connect to The Fram Crown channel.

Over the next couple of weeks the service will be extended to all the bedrooms.

Room Three is much liked because the "lobby" is big enough to use as a sitting room and even has its own television.  When you enter Room Three facing you are two club chairs where you can sit to watch the tv to your right.  Also on your right is the door to an immense walk in wardrobe and the steps leading to the bathroom.  The "lobby" can take two cots or a cot and zed-bed.  To your left is the bedroom with a desk and a comfortable double bed.

Just like last year the Crown transmogrified into Panto City for the Street Fayre.  This year we had a Princess, a very definitely masculine pirate, Alice in Wonderland, Tweedle Dum, Tweedle Dee, a glamorous gipsy, Robin Hood, a jolly Queen of Hearts and as well as Morris Dancers who weren't the Old Glory Molly Dancers even though they had black faces.

Although it will interfere with her shopping and travel, our own Tracy Clifford has nobly become a Framlingham town councillor.

Don't forget it's the Street Fayre this Friday.  3,000 people packed in to Fram last year and again we shall be Panto City.

Saturday's Talent Off the Hill demonstrated just how able today's young musicians are.  Our apologies to Catherine Cresswell for failing to get a pic and yes, Roy is seriously considering doing it again soon.

Not only did waitresses Polly Handy and Catherine Cresswell make a cracking job of preparing the restaurant this weekend for a golden wedding anniversary but worked hard to make it the success it was.  Displaying the admirable flexibility typical of Crown staff Catherine will be being very lovely at next month's Talent off the Hill.

... and now Talent OFF the Hill.

The rain held off for Talent on the Hill and a large and generous crowd snacked, drank and enjoyed the solos, duos and bands.

What else could you ask for?

Thirteen outstanding local acts FREE on the Market Hill tonight.

The Crown was the setting for Anglia TV presenter Natalie Gray to do a piece to camera about Framlingham being in the last fifteen of Country Life's Favourite Market Town.  It went out on the six o'clock news tonight.

Tracy isn't looking quite so brown now but she liked Turkey so much she's going back this month.

When you enter Room Six inevitably the half tester bed with its curtains and large head and foot boards is the main feature but the two club chairs by the window and lit by a standard lamp make this room much more than just a bedroom.  The window looks out on the hotel's courtyard and like all our rooms the room has a well appointed en-suite bathroom.  Room Six is all on one level and located just off the main landing so you don't have to walk too far and it has free wireless Internet.

Tracy came back from a holiday in Turkey a little while back looking suitably brown and new face in Reception is Cilla Brooks.  Cilla, who previously ran her own kitchen fittings business, had the good humour, common sense and commitment we were looking for and we can only hope she stays with us for the foreseeable future.

You may have noticed a new vivacity in our menus?  This is thanks to consultant chef David Harwood who is working with our own chefs to develop new and progressive menus.

Charlie Haydock may be pure solid Suffolk and a waistcoat wearer but last night he was extremely relevant, very funny and rather clever.  To quote his Hurricane over Basildon "so 15 year old mother of five Chardonay Mercedes rings for an ambulance: Where are you bleeding from?  Romford, but what's that got to do with it?"

Arts Framlingham gratifyingly is being a great success. Look at our lobby crowded with guided walkers waiting for the off, it certainly irritated The Gamekeeper as he  tried to make his way through ... but then everything irritates The Gamekeeper.  Anyway FREE tonight folkies Charlie Haydock and Pluck 'n' Squeeze (a band with a bass player who was an assistant jockstrap darner at the Royal Ballet?!).

We're the Box Office for the Arts Framlingham Summer Festival which started Friday with a sell out Esther Freud.  Come along to tonight's FREE jam session and book something.

When you enter Room Eleven there is a small lobby with a large double fitted wardrobe to your right and the bathroom facing you.  The bedroom with its cheery patchwork quilts on the twin beds is to your left  and has space for a zed-bed or cot.  As you enter the bedroom to your left is a desk and a club chair, the television is wall mounted facing the beds and the single window overlooks the courtyard.  Free wireless Internet reception is excellent.  Towards the rear this intimate room is appropriately quiet.

As far as we know this is as close as Matt from CBBC got to the Crown but still nice to see him, even though the Suffolk Samba School were the runaway Framlingham Gala crowd pleasers.

In the summer The Courtyard is an absolute joy!  There is a combination of smart aluminium tables and chairs and rustic wooden benches that in all will seat some

twenty people, a giant hanging sunshade and the planting, including a tub of herbs for the chefs, is devotedly looked after by John the barman, the stairs make a wonderful place to pose, and there's even autumn colour in the car park.

Brad Taylor, who is currently serving in the US Navy, enjoying a pint with two chums in the lounge.  Brad was staying in Fram to visit the Parham Airfield Museum and enjoyed himself so much he's coming back and bringing the family.

There's been a flurry of Crown babies.  On the right is Thomas Anthony born Sunday, not in the stables, to receptionist Vikky Seeley.  Collette Taylor had Amelia Page four weeks early in October, and Vicki Fordham brought Jasmine Keira in to the world two weeks late in August.  There has been mutterings about the receptionists' chair having fertility powers.

Fram College, no doubt exhausted from presenting Hamlet - probably the best play in the world, breaks up today.  Sophie, the daughter of a regular Crown guest, played a modern Queen Gertrude.

A next door neighbour of The Crown is the delicatessen Carley & Webb who had such an enjoyable Christmas party with us last Saturday they sent flowers!

We're still struggling with computers but things are getting better and the directors are planning serious upgrades.  In the meantime a free drink (and we mean a pint, or a glass of wine not a bucket of whisky) to the first person to identify from the passport photie on the left the current member of The Crown staff.

Room 8 is traditionally The Bridal Suite but is also know as The Four Poster Suite.  Not surprisingly this very spacious room features a four poster bed.  There is a substantial period wardrobe, half timbered walls, a sofa and two club chairs create a parlour in one corner, and a desk in another corner can be used as a dressing table.  A copiously appointed room that will make you feel you have done yourself very well indeed.  At the front of the hotel the room is easily accessible from the main stairs and overlooks the Market Hill and the venerable lantern above the Crown's main entrance.

The room is on one level but the en-suite bathroom has a roll top bath so it may not suit those with mobility difficulties.  Cots and zed-beds are available to accommodate a small family and the free wireless Internet reception is excellent.

Like everybody else in the universe we've been having computer problems but the staff, particularly Tracy, were their usual flexible, committed selves.  We may have lost some email sent from Sunday afternoon through till late last night.  If you sent email we can only apologise and ask could you please send it again?  Thank you very much.

On a brighter note the flying trip to Genoa, Italy by The Crown team and Beaky was a great success though occasionally the coffee was cold, unlike at The Crown!

Crown staff Jake Clutterbuck and Felicity Potter nobly deputised in the rain and cold this week as Mary and Joseph.  You can see the official Street Fayre photo here but we prefer this unofficial pic of Mary and Joseph checking out the menu before deciding whether they want to stay at the inn anyway.

Attempting to schmooze Beaky in to returning soon The Crown has invited him on a pasta eating weekend in Italy!

After a gratifyingly successful stables to gallery transformation for Arts Framlingham we're keeping the display board opposite reception.  Presently it's full of info about The Street Fayre but from January it will be available for local artists to show their work.  It's FREE (except for a 2.5% service charge should a buyer uses our credit card facilities).

Room One is a double room towards the rear of the hotel and consequently a quiet room.  The bed and bath rooms are on different levels.  The bedroom is big enough to take a zed-bed, cot or travel cot and we can just about get in two ... but it is tight!  You approach the room along a half timbered corridor, down two steps, a few steps more and the suite's door opens onto what might be called a "vestibule" which also functions as an additional dressing space.  The "vestibule" contains a generous fitted wardrobe.  You turn and go down two stairs to enter the bedroom.  The view from the window is always a Suffolk blue sky ... well almost always, and the toiletries and preparation of the bathroom reflect the care our staff take.

.. and didn't Beaky rock on Friday night!  The rhythm section, whose credits include Lonnie Donegan and Emile Ford, were particularly impressive.  His repertoire included hits of the 60s, Steve Miller, Lynryd Skynryd, and a bit of Zep!  Not surprisingly he'll be back soon.

Sunday Jam sessions move to the last Sunday of the month.

Roy Hunt demonstrates the satellite navigation in The Crown's taxi to Tony Carpenter (Beaky of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich) ... and yes, they are still on the road ... ie both Dave Dee etc and the taxi.