WHILE the rest of the country has been moaning about the recent bad weather, it has been the cause of unadulterated delight to Gabrielle Malone, who has Just launched her own travel company called Classic Choice. Ms Malone opened for business on December 27th just as the cold spell began, so to her relief there was immediate demand for holidays in the warmth of the Balearic Islands and the Portuguese Algarve. Last Thursday, as rain teemed down, she hosted a celebratory lunch in the comforting warmth of berry and Sally Ann Clarke's L'Ecrivain restaurant to mark her first sales.
With Falcon Holidays for the past seven year, Gabriell Malone also worked for JWT for more than a decade, so she brings extensive experience to her latest enterprise. "I decided it I didn't go out on my own now, I never would, she explains although admitting at times I wonder; what am I doing?" After spending several months last last summer exploring prospective sites (no fun, she insists, "in 33 degrees trawling in and out of hotels ally day",) she's hoping to carry 25,000 Irish holidaymakers this year, beginning in early April, "to lots of tiny special places no one has ever heard of before". Speaking of tiny and special, Ms Malone's new company wasn't the only thing being celebrated on Thursday in L'Ecrivain. It turns out that the Clarkes, who already have a five year old daughter, Sarah May, are expecting their second child in March.
