Christmas at LFC

Nice to be top at Christmas - a sign of progress.  But now we are slipping, and our lack of strength in depth is showing.  We need one or two good acquisitions in January.  Another striker and another defender.  Bet we get a midfielder.

Season's greetings

Back in 2014.

This week's hotel - Kempinski Residence & suites, Doha

Lovely, and extremely convenient.  Frightfully expensive too I think, but I'm not paying 

This week's hotel- ramada beach quorum, Mucat, Oman

Does what Ramada does.  Efficient and functional, if not the most luxurious.  And actually near a beach- if not an awful lot else

Tonight: hotel Koffieboontje in Bruges

Cannot complain about the location.  Room also has a mini kitchen.  Wifi free but does not seem to extend to the bedrooms.

Tonight only - holiday inn express, Shrewsbury

Very nice, and very reasonable with free wifi.  Fine all round.  Of course it is on business park, so it hardly has a view or other attractions.  But it makes tomorrow's journey about 30 seconds.  Which is nice.

Yesterday's hotel room. Jury's Inn Birmingham

Yesterday's rather than today's because jury's Inn are one of those chains that persist in charging (big) for Internet access.  And so despite the large room, good breakfast and extremely comfortable bed I cannot recommend it.

Tonight: Premier Inn, Birmingham Alston

Much nicer than last night.  Oddly no phone.  30 mins free wifi.

Last night's room - travelodge Rugby

Almost defines basic, and so close to the railway you almost need a platform ticket.

Lansdowne - another view

Day three, room three.

This week: the Lansdowne hotel, Hastings

Not exactly the Ritz Carlton, but you can't argue with the location.  That is the sea you can see out the window.

Tonight's room Brittania hotel, Birmingham

Pretty reasonable through Late Rooms, comfortable enough though hardly the latest taste in decor.  You can hardly get better placed on New Street.  Free wifi.

This week's hotel: Movenpick Geneva airport

Boy is it close to the airport.  You can see the control tower from my bedroom and it is maybe 300m.

This week - mannings hotel Truro

Apparently the food is great.  I'll find out tomorrow (it was)

A night at the airport - Etrop Grange, Manchester

I'd visited Etrop Grange for meetings many times, but never stayed. I was only staying this time because of the threat of bad weather before my flight. A lot of people had the same idea. The food was excellent, the room comfy, service attentive and England won 8-nil. A good deal and surprisingly cheap. Apparently you can park your car here for the duration - there is a pick up service for the less than 5 minute journey to the airport.

This week's hotel room - Ramada Encore, Doha

Relatively basic, but they do simple things right and it is nice to be back.  Just wish it was nearer the client.  Petrol station outside does snacks, room service and restaurant here are fine.

And that is the season

Beat Spurs, lose to Southampton.  No ability to grind out a result.  Consistently out fought.  No ability to pull together a run of form.

We had a chance to challenge for Europe, but we will be lucky to finish higher than last season's 8th.  Have the Mighty Reds progressed since Dalglish?  I can't see it.  Meanwhile a poor Manchester United have steamrollered the Premiership by their ability to do those same things.

Here is to next season.

This week's hotel room

The view from the Gloria Hotel, Dubai.  Room was nice but I've shown that before.
I must at some point in this trip get away from work long enough to actually leave the hotel room.


 

I am not a Spambot

Idly writing a comment on another blog (I have 2 books, 2 presentations, one course, and a marketing document to write so of course I am commenting on other blogs!) and had to prove I am not a robot by filling in Capatcha.

Recently I have struggled to buy things online because of Internet Banking Security (I didn't notice I had caps lock on, and ended up blocking my card), and at an ePOS machine (didn't have my glasses on so didn't realise until too late that I was using the wrong one of 2 nearly identical cards).

It makes me wonder how long it will be before the Spam and Hacking bots are better at getting through Internet security than the average person.  And then what are we going to do?

(The first person to say I am getting old will be correct)