pumpkinstrokemarrow

I commented last time on the massive new pine staircase. Sadly, we now find that despite the massivity, the balustrade at the top is now loose and not confidence inspiring. Would no longer do to crash against the thing while drunk.

Moving onto to our handsome premium room, we find that one of the drawer fronts is also loose. Maybe a drunk already tried crashing into that. But pleased to find that the television did not find it necessary to screen one of those yucky, pseudo personal greetings that you get in some hotels.

Also pleased to find that one could open the windows - something not permitted in the Holiday Inn at Solstice Services - which helped with temperature control. Duvet still miles too hot for the presently warm & damp June weather, but by the third night the housekeepers had worked out that the fact that we had removed the duvet from its cover meant that we would quite like a proper top sheet. Very substantial affair it was too.

Bed time reading was mainly 'A View of Delft' by one Anthony Bailey, 20p from Surrey Libraries. I share two factlets. First, Vermeer did not produce a great deal, maybe 3 paintings a year during his 20 active years. These three paintings fetched something like a year's wages of an able seaman. Whereas now, the same three paintings would fetch millions, nothing like the year's wages of a seaman at all. Second, his woman in interior compositions filled the gap left by the banning of Virgin Mary compositions by the local church. Idealised pictures of women were clearly a necessary of life.

The bathroom contained a substantial, square & flat bottomed sink, a smaller version of the Belfast sinks which are back in fashion in kitchens after a break of maybe 50 years. Very good for washing carrots in; perhaps a first for this particular sink.

We only used the restaurant for breakfast, which was marred by the irregular supply of tomato juice and the regularly poor quality of the bread. On the third day, BH got around to complaining about the far too loud background music - which, to give them their due - was immediately turned down to the point of inaudibility.

Visit ended with a visit to the reception desk, a desk which was given a homely touch by a rather tatty home-made card index, used for storing details of inbound guests, the printing out of which was one of the duties of the early morning shift. Presumably a device introduced by some imaginative shift leader to augment the efficiency of the computer systems.

While at reception we were further entertained by a rather tired and grumpy gent. who was complaining that when he had arrived very late the night before, he had been given the key to a room which was already occupied, by an occupant who was not pleased to be disturbed, at, let us hope, nothing more compromising than sleeping. From which we deduce that at Mercure the reservation, room allocation and key subsystems are only imperfectly, if at all, integrated. Key subsystem perhaps sold by some enthusiastic firm of lock people, without regard to the wider, hotel keeping issues involved.

Smokers should be warned that smoking outside the front door is discouraged after early evening. This for the Health & Safety of guests who might happen to have rooms in the vicinity and who might feel the need to supplement their air conditioning by opening their windows.