It’s Tuesday morning in sunny Manchester and I’m sitting in the BUPA building at Anchorage one, having just dealt with my first Kofax Ascent question. It’s hardly what you would call the most taxing assignment in the world.
Last night the hotel was its usual soul-less self. I got back from the office at about 5pm, and went up to my room to veg out. After calling W to catch up on the news of the day, I basically practiced my couch potato skills with the aid of the telly in the hotel room.
The one interesting happening of the night happened just as I was getting changed to go down for dinner. While wandering around finding a clean shirt this ear splitting wail suddenly burst into the room… enough to make you feal nauseous. My first thought was “what did I do?”, and then common sense kicked in and I figured it was the fire alarm. I put a shirt straight on, and tore out of my room - leaving everything there (laptop, phone, wallet etc). I did think about them on the way down the stairs, but then thought “if this is really a fire, I don’t care about them”.
I arrived at reception ahead of any other residents of the hotel to find the cook running around like a lunatic, shouting at every member of staff he possibly could. Perhaps this is the way chef’s behave? I gathered through the bits of his ranting I understood that another member of staff had set it off by accident.
So - down to dinner I went again, and again I seemed to break all records for eating food quickly. I guess it’s a shame that I wolfed it down so quickly, because each plate that came out was something of an artistic masterpiece - my only defence is that I hate eating alone in restaurants.
Tonight I thought I would try the hotel bar out. I went through after eating and sat down with my book and a bottle of “Leffe” fake belgian beer. I sat there for two bottles of beer - possibly an hour and a half, and the only other people that came into the bar were the waiters… I must have some big sign saying “leave the room” projected above me or something.
And so I guess we return to this morning. On leaving the hotel I picked up my “free” teddy bear that I had “won” in a gold envelope found in my room. I picked up three of these supposed “prizes” while at the hotel, and grew more cynical each time. Somehow I never managed to pick up the same prize twice, despite getting four of the things in the end - and only one of them was a true “gift” - all the others involved buying a drink or a meal first… and all of this at the cost per night of staying in a bead and breakfast for about three days.
Am I turning into a bad tempered old cynic? Possibly. I just know that I’m sat here in Bupa’s office with absolutely nothing to do for the next 5 hours and it’s driving me round the bend.
Roll on lunchtime - and roll on the journey home! Of course, the journey is going to take about 5 hours, which I’m not looking forward to at all.