They beat 440 other pubs to come out on top and were chosen as the best place to enjoy your Sunday roast by mystery diners and a judging panel, which included hard-to-please food critic Charles Campion.
 
The pub is worth visiting while you’re staying at one of our apartments – not just for the award-winning roasts but also if you enjoy real ale, fine wine, great service and delicious local produce. Or if you’re a sporting buff.
 
Larwood & Voce is on Fox Road, right next to Trent Bridge Cricket Ground (as you can see above) and a few seconds’ walk from one of our luxury serviced apartments and just minutes from the others in West Bridgford. The pub was named after two great cricketers – Larwood and Voce clearly – who were both Nottinghamshire born and bred, and played for Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and England. Which leads me on to more sporting news…
 
Two Nottinghamshire golf courses have been ranked in the Top 100 Golf Courses in England by the Top 100 Golf Courses website, which ranks golf courses around the world. Hollinwell, home to Notinghamshire Golf Club, at Kirkby-in-Ashfield is the highest ranked course in the county and came in 22nd place, down one from last year.

In my role as a serviced apartment provider and host I meet a large number of business travellers who stay in our serviced apartments for any length of time between 1 week and 57 weeks (and counting...) on corporate travel, the average stay being about 12 weeks.

I enjoy welcoming them and talking with them as they are a very international group of individuals with a wealth of cultural diversity. I am often honoured by them telling me their personal stories. I find myself doing a pseudo PhD in the Psychology of the Business Traveller, so I thought I'd share with you some of my musings to see if you can add your insights, which I'd be grateful to hear.

Why don't you email me, or comment below? The main theme is the diminished sense of self, across the board, at any level in the corporation or small business. I have made it my mission to understand this, and to see if we can start a movement to give them better options which might make business travel a more pleasurable and even enjoyable experience.

The words that these businessmen and women are using when they describe their travel from home and family to a lengthy work stay across the country or world are these:

• Invisible
• A number
• Diminished
• Dehumanised
• Disconnected
• Alone
• Helpless

They talk of always being a stranger, in an unfamiliar place, even when they are regular guests in that city, town or hotel. They discuss being herded from the minute they leave their home and family - it starts in the queue for the long-stay car park at the airport, through the check-in, passport control, departures, duty free, flight, passport control, arrivals, car hire, motorway service station – and then finally reception at a hotel or apartment often in a high-rise with a big cityscape in someone else's home city, where they support someone else's team, eat someone else's local food, frequent someone else's local cultural places. These business travellers rarely meet or talk to those locals, except across a board room table or a conference hall.

So when I welcome my guests I am aiming to make them feel:

• Recognised
• Human
• Calm
• Informed about local community places spaces and events, especially for the long stayers

Alongside that I try to listen to them about how much help and assistance they might want. I ask them about when they may want that help - often they are tired when they first arrive. I try to put myself in their shoes because I worked for IBM for 10 years and certainly did my fair share of flying around, checking-in, checking-out and at best having a chat with the concierge about his kids whilst someone else put mine to bed at the other end of Europe. I suppose in essence, I am trying to be a mind reader.

Don't get me wrong, this is such an alien approach to the veteran business traveller that sometimes I get the distinct feeling that they are happy being a number, invisible, off the grid - and in that case I will leave them alone with their super-fast WiFi, to enjoy FaceTime with their friends back home and catching up on their Netflix wishlist, with details of how to access local knowledge and assistance should they change their mind.

It is my intention to make people feel 

• Comfortable
• Relaxed 
• Familiar
• Plugged in
• Rooted
• Grounded

​Let's face it - that isn't very hard, as long as you have the express intention to do so. 

Too many of the places where our global and national business travellers are staying/living do not give them a chance to explore a place which, had they been there with their families, they would have called a holiday destination.

These people are effectively living in a city for long periods of time despite the fact that they may either pop back home for a couple of days every few weeks or have their families join them periodically. I feel that it is our duty as business travel hosts to help them to feel free, unburdened and open to the cultural experience.

In essence we, as hosts, should be able to equip them to explore in their downtime, to be brave, adventurous and spontaneous in a way which would make the whole experience richer for them. This has a positive and refreshing knock-on effect on the business that they are working with or for, and to the wider perception of business travel.

Let's aim for exciting, connected and enriching business travel, dehumanising is just not good enough, it's lazy of the industry. Nook & Cranny plan to be the vanguard of positive change. We would welcome you along for the ride.

Is this too early? Well, it is November, so I'm going for it anyway.

​This popped into my YouTube feed today. Being a huge Playhouse fan and very much a Panto Family we watched it over breakfast and felt all warm inside.

So if you have relocated to Nottingham recently, be sure to buy your tickets even if you have no idea what Panto is. It's more British than a full Roast Beef Sunday Lunch at The Larwood & Voce with all the trimmings (but you should go there too). It's even more family fun than James Bond at the Showcase with the new huge super comfy seats, and because it's The Playhouse you are safe to bring kids (and Grandparents) of all ages and they will only hear the good traditional wholesome jokes and songs, without the commercial trimmings of some of the other Pantos which you might be able to book into.

I'll never forget a personal family favourite moment when we were there with all our children, many of our neighbours and their children, and my Mum and Dad (up from London especially to see the show) got a "shout out" for their 50th Wedding Anniversary, which resulted in a whole family Mexican Wave across our row - a priceless memory for us all.

So, click here for the Box Office to get your front row seats and don't forget to ask for a "Back Stage Pass" which gets you discounts on all your tickets for a whole year - it practically pays you to buy it!

Feel free to email me if you would like to know how to ask for your very own shout out when you are at The Playhouse Panto.

So here it is Ladies and Gentlemen, get a cup of tea, sit down and enjoy - the Nottingham Playhouse Christmas Ad:

Of course we also enjoyed the John Lewis one:

With my personal retail favourite being the Lidl Christmas Ad, due to its tongue-in-cheek nature:

Which is your favourite? Let me know in the comments.

We decided to put together a list of our favourite lunchtime foodie places in Nottingham and West Bridgford, do let us know if we've missed any or if you have any particular favourites. Coming soon before Christmas...Cocktail Crawl of West Bridgford... I know we're selfless, we're going to try them all out for you and take pictures for you too! 

1. Sat Bains 
​Sat Bains has just been named as Number One in The Sunday Times Top 100 Restaurants in the UK 2015. As you can imagine it isn't cheap, but for a special treat it's breathtaking and well worth making a reservation. We are very proud, in Nottingham, of our home grown Sat Bains (pronounced as it is read not with a French accent as Sat is from Nottingham). They even do "Kitchen Workshops" for those amongst us who are keen to learn some new skills.

2. Yumacha
Yumacha is a popular all day and evening venue on West Bridgford's favourite Central Avenue. It serves coffee and cake in the morning as well as delicious and inexpensive Oriental Tapas with my personal lunchtime favourite The Bento Box. The cocktails are fabulous and there's a little known tiny garden space out the back where they have patio heaters and blankets and enough table space for just a few guests - shhhh don't tell anyone, that's my secret.

3. Iberico
If you like elegant, stylish, thoughtful World Tapas served by great staff with a good knowledge of their tasteful wine list - say no more, just go straight to Iberico.
The surroundings are wrought iron and vaulted, barrelled brick ceilings in the cellars underneath the Galleries of Justice in The Lacemarket. They do an exceptional value lunchtime menu and the evening menu is a bit more expensive but worth the booking - one of my favourite hidden foodie finds in Nottingham. 

4. Mud Crab
​If you a fan of the light and airy glass, modern feel you'll like Mud Crab a lot. The staff are very friendly and the burgers are seriously good. It's a great family lunchtime or evening out with the music and atmosphere ramping up as the evening goes on, especially at the weekend. Another hit for Central Avenue, West Bridgford.

5. World Service
Just a short walk from Nottingham Castle, The Japanese Garden at World Service is one of my lunchtime favourites in the summer when they do a good value lunchtime menu. In the winter, on the other hand, eat inside with the same delicious menu and you can have drinks by the roaring fire if it's cold enough to light it - a real treat.
You can eat there in the evening too, a sister restaurant to Iberico, it is equally sophisticated but with a little more of a "posh" feel, so head there if you like that, and go straight to Iberico if you like to be more relaxed (in my humble opinion). The Japanese Garden on a balmy summer night has a marvellous atmosphere.

6. Delilahs
Delilahs is a fabulous deli with a few tables to eat at. Just up from Market Square, near French Connection, it is set in a sumptuous large room with a beautiful high ceiling and a mezzanine gallery. You can eat round the "bar" area or on the mezzanine but get there quick as it fills up fast. You will certainly want to buy some delicious nibbles on the way out to take home with you.

7. Côte
For value for money on Central Avenue, West Bridgford, I'm not sure that you can beat Cote - it is French food at its best, it's consistent good quality, with welcoming staff, great for breakfast, lunch and dinner at a very modest price for what you get. Turn up before 7pm and they have a crazy good value Prix Fixe Menu. 

8. 200 Degrees
​Famously flavoursome coffee from our local roaster in a modern, no fuss Granola style way with nibbles and salads from a deli style counter if you're hungry. When it's gone it's gone in terms of the food, so don't leave it too late or you'll miss out. If you go without your MacBook Air or your hipster beard, you'll be the only one! They also run a Barista School upstairs for that growing army or our coffee culture economy.

9. Wired
​Just opposite the opening to our hidden gem of independent stores called "Cobden Chambers", is another favourite independent coffee shop called Wired. Great coffee, fast WiFi and delicious snacks from cake to salads will not disappoint. It's another Hipster Haunt that we love.

10. Cured
The plethora of lunchtime gems on West Bridgford's Central Avenue continues with Cured. At first glance we were not quite sure what it really was trying to be, but if you're after a platter of cheese or meats and a coffee or craft beer, head here and you won't be disappointed. Weekend evenings turn it into a nice wine bar, as do summer afternoons when it spills out onto street tables in a very European way.

11. Edin's Kitchen
​Just another of the marvellous Edin's fabulous eateries in Hockley, this place will transport you to a chic Paris, where the food is fresh and delicious and the accordion music oddly works marvels to add to the already French feel. Do not miss out on this one or his original restaurant "Edin's" just around the corner opposite our Art House Cinema gem The Broadway. On proofreading my partner is questioning whether this is French or rustic charm – but either way we think that the food is great.

12. Carluccio's
You know what you are getting with this Italian family favourite. It's usually busy and hustly in a good way, the service can be a bit slow, but in an Italian way, and the food is hearty in a bit of a warming way, so we love it really. Great for breakfast after West Bridgford's Farmers Market on the second and fourth Saturday mornings every month.  

Coming before Christmas...Cocktail Crawl of West Bridgford... I know, we're selfless, we're going to try them all out for you and take pictures for you too! Keep your eye out for our next blog.