Thursday, 22 November 2007

A room with a view

I had a splendid time a couple of days ago at the annual conference of the Association of Marketing Directors in Independent Schools. I was the after-dinner speaker, and was well looked after throughout the event. My room was paid for by the organisers, so I can't complain about value for money. Well, maybe a little. Over to the left is the view from the window of my room. It's a ten-foot high breeze-block wall, lightly suffused with algae and rainwater. It was three feet from the window. I wasn't expecting (as Basil Fawlty used to say) "Sydney Opera House, perhaps? The hanging gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically..." , but I did expect to see further than three feet. Oh well. Worse to report, I was in an "executive suite" with two king-sized beds (who knows what executives get up to in Coventry?). I wonder what the view was like from a standard room?

Anyway, as I say, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. We itinerant orators have to take the rough with the smooth. For example, I once had to spend ten days in a luxury desert spa in Dubai. The view was pretty spectacular, albeit mostly sand.

The high point of my stay in Coventry (yes, back there again) was the breakfast service. Faced with the standard buffet of bacon, sausages, scrambled egg and fried bread, all cooked some hours before, my heart sank. But salvation was at hand, in the person of Florence, one of the waitresses. She saw me looking at the buffet, and asked if I would like any freshly-cooked food from the kitchen. I requested two lightly-poached eggs on brown toast. Five minutes later, a smiling Florence arrived at my table, with a wonderful plate of hot, delicious food. I thanked her, and made a point to drop a note to the hotel manager praising her for great customer service. I left her a tip on the table too, since wages in hotels tend to be close to the minimum.

So, if you ever stay in the Hickley Island Hotel, don't pay extra for a suite, and ask for Florence to wait on your table at breakfast.

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