Reason 264 why this can’t continue - get somewhere with a window that can open.

I booked a week in Dundee for June, because although I won't be able to get to my storage unit from there, I can go and look at the ruined pillars of the old Tay Bridge, as has been my ambition for some years.

But although I paid for the 'standard' amendable booking, the confirmation email said it was non-amendable.

Now I'm going to have to phone them, again.

I must say, if I was looking for a way out of Premier Innery, these last few months would be a great excuse.

I only had to wait 7 minutes on the phone this time. And I now have a correct confirmation email.

Fangirl Three wrote:

I booked a week in Dundee for June, because although I won't be able to get to my storage unit from there, I can go and look at the ruined pillars of the old Tay Bridge, as has been my ambition for some years.

But although I paid for the 'standard' amendable booking, the confirmation email said it was non-amendable.

Now I'm going to have to phone them, again.

I must say, if I was looking for a way out of Premier Innery, these last few months would be a great excuse.

No, stay at The Fisherman’s or in Newport.

Fangirl is Jay Rayner…

https://www.theguardian.com/food/article/2024/may/16/have-you-tried-eating-in-a-city-centre-hotel-room-recently-my-advice-dont

Let me educate this amateur.

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Let’s start with the room service menu

Why are you ordering room service? Go out to the nearest McDonalds or supermarket, whose location you checked before arriving. Or to the attached Table Table.

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which of course now means a QR code. But only if you have a phone signal, which you don’t because the building is a Faraday cage designed to keep out even the slightest waft of 2G.

Go and stand by the window where the signal is strongest. Or, quarter the room with one phone finding the area where the signal is best. Turn on hotspotting and place the phone there - using a clamp from the blue suitcase to secure it if necessary.
Then use your second phone with a wifi connection to the first phone.

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Where are you going to eat it? On that desk against the wall, so that you can’t watch telly because it’s literally over your head?  You could watch something on your phone

You can watch Netflix or iPlayer etc,or something being streamed on Youtube, on your tablet. That's the 10 inch tablet from the green laptop bag, not the little one from your handbag.

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your phone now needs recharging and there’s only one plug, and it’s over there

The extension cable is in the zip compartment in the purple suitcase. Or there's a long USB cable, and a USB extender, in the green laptop bag.

It struck a chord with me. The last Holiday Inn I stayed at, I had to ring reception to work out how to turn the shower on, and then ring back down when I still couldn’t. Rayners existential despair seems more me than your practical resignation.

I’ve just been reading about a Dutch girl given permission to end her life because she’s depressed. All this talk of chargers and cables and hotspots made me feel so bleak I went, for the first time ever, to the Dignitas site. I don’t like the bed.

What kind of dump are we living in when you pay to stay at a hotel but have to eat in the nearest supermarket for greater/any ease. That’s enough on its own to wonder if the UK of 2024 is really a global symbol for the end of civilisation. This is not hospitality, this is work.

I think I’d go to the Ritz for my cocktail. I’d be upset with that Scandi/Swiss medical/IKEA non chic vibe in Zurich, and I wouldn’t want to die at home because they’d have to cart me down all the stairs after, and it’s a nosey building. Any lesser or modern chain hotel is out - I wouldn’t want to feel suicidal while suiciding. For the same reason, an offbeat or B&B style place is a no. I could do a hospital probably, but they’re usually quite dated these days in Britain.

Comes to something when the country is such a wreck there’s nowhere bearable to even die.

Claridges maybe. Or the Dorchester. Likely the Dorchester in fact.

I'm sorry you're depressed. I myself don't feel remotely suicidal, I relish the challenges presented by nomadic living.

Though it's easier to say that on Friday than it is on a hungover Monday.

I hate eating by myself in non-fast-food restaurants, I prefer a supermarket picnic or some hotel room cookery.

I thought I might look into euthanasia for myself for when my son is maybe mid 20’s. That’s less than a decade away. I can’t say 40+ has been any fun, so I’ve no great hope for 50+. Ageing is just one indignity after another.

Anyway thank you for your thoughts, and I was coming to say, I bet Butterfield is pleased he chose Essex over Devon. Britain, where you oughtn't drink the water.