"On My Day Off" by John Gately, Managing Director, Montenotte Hotel
We know what hoteliers do during their working day but how about when they are off duty? In this limited edition series, Conor Kenny talks to well-known hotel people about how they spend their day off.
"On My Day Off" by John Gately , Managing Director, Montenotte Hotel
I generally take Sunday off every week. There is usually nobody looking for me on Sunday and you hope with the right people in place you can forget about the operation for one day anyway.
Very few of us admit to being creatures of habit, at least I don't anyway yet I do the same thing every Sunday, usually about the same time too. Myself and Darina have two kids, Tom 12, and Robyn 10 so our Sunday tends to be a family day. My oldest son John lives & works in Dublin. As we both work in the hotel industry, Darina and I allow each other some 'me' time on Sunday, a routine which has evolved over many years we have worked together. That said the day usually starts at 8am with a gentle reminder from the kids to Dad (not Mum) that it's time for the Sunday morning pancakes. This is a tradition since they were toddlers to make loads and loads of pancakes with varying amounts of help from my very young sous chefs. I don't partake because my 'body is a temple' supposedly! The radio is usually on RTE1 playing Sunday Miscellany, I know it's my age probably but I do wonder why I find it so engaging when my car CD player is filled with ACDC and dance music. Darina normally takes a lie-in and appears fairly soon after the pancakes!
I have a number of hobbies, I love motorbikes and cars, I love Chelsea FC, but I really do love trying to keep fit. There's a gang of us who train together for various challenges, most of us are in the hotel and catering industry. Over the past 7 difficult years of the recession Darina often referred to it as our therapy as we do a huge amount of chatting as we go and in the way of most men, talk better when we're busy with something else. At the moment we are training for the Dublin 70.3 Ironman on August 9th. Usually at about 10.30am we run or cycle for a couple of hours. Over the past 2 months we have added sea swimming to our training as the Dublin 70.3 involves a swim in Dublin Bay of 1.2 miles, cycling 56 miles and a half marathon. The sea swimming has been a whole new challenge which I have really enjoyed. I have run 19 full marathons and was finding the training quite boring recently so it has been great to add new disciplines.
Usually the rest of the day blends from Sunday Papers to sport on TV with only a little effort on my part. Kids and friends come and go; if the weather permits maybe I will fit in a quick spin on the motorbike. We have a late lunch at around 5pm, usually a traditional Sunday roast cooked by me. We sit down together for lunch, just the family or with family friends. There's nothing I like more than sitting on at the table to solve the problems of the world, while the kids get a game of soccer going in the garden. The nice thing about having friends over for Sunday lunch is that despite our best efforts it usually has to end at a respectable hour! Sunday night is a bit of quiet TV or an early night as I like to hit the desk early Monday morning, ready for anything.
- Career hotelier
- Trained with Fitzpatrick hotels.
- After training worked in UK pub / nightclub business.
- Returned as Ops Manager Fitzpatrick castle hotel
- General Manager Silver Springs Hotel.
- Group Ops Manager Fitzpatrick hotels.
- Bought Vienna Woods Hotel.
- Currently owner and Managing Director at the Montenotte Hotel overseeing day to day ops.
