Crowne Plaza Amsterdam

Very convenient, just opposite the end of Centraal Station.  Best internet of any hotel, and very helpful staff.  The restaurant is a bit Dutch, i.e. Efficient and functional rather than warm and romantic, but I dont have a problem with that.  Lots of shops and restaurants nearby.  I am sure it is expensive, but I was not paying.  Recommended.

Last weeks hotel Travelodge Southwark

Can you tell the difference 

The Thistle Birmingham

The wind it whistled.  And the flags flapped.  Just outside the window

Last week's hotel: Kingsway Hall Hotel, London

Couple of minutes walk from Holborn station, so not far from the British Museum.

Prices can be seriously variable, from £100 to £200/night.

Staff very pleasant, food nice enough but not outstanding, room lovely. I would be seriously hacked off by the £10 internet charge if I had not been comped.  The gym is basically a large hot tub, and 4. Cross trainers.  Still by London standards, it is something.

Haapy to be back, and to stay again.

Holiday inn Express, Milton Keynes

Very nice, and very close to the M1.  Free wifi which was ok until everyone started using ut.

Travelodge Waterloo Central

Reasonable wifi, reasonable and very nice breakfast - but rather expensive at £166/night. Quiet enough too which is always a worry when you are on the ground floor.

Thankfully I was not paying.  And this time there was some shampoo - admittedly in a dispenser on the shower wall, but not to complain.

Today- Ballabridge hotel, Dublin

Hardly here long enough to form an opinion, but good wifi, good shower, full Irish breakfast.  What more do you want?  Nice bed.  Just didnt have enough time in it.

Yesterday's hotel: The Rugby Hotel, Rugby

Pretty much opposite Rugby School, this looks like the sort of place choose to stay when they are paying rather than an identikit business box.  Wifi was good, shower rather feeble, breakfast full english.

Rather nice.  Probably back to the Travelodge next year though, just because it is closer to my venue.  But I

'd be happy to stay here again.

Todays hotel: London Continental Hotel

Very affordable, and provides wifi and shampoo.  A bit hot, but then London is a bit hot today.  It might be a bit cold other days.  I shall find out.

Hyde park boutique hotel

Hidden gem

Park lane mews, London

Wifi dosnt really get to this room

Earlier in the week's hotel room: Jury's Inn, Brighton

Well it could hardly be more convenient for the train station because it is just beyond the drop off turning circle - maybe 100m from the platforms.  But no train noise.
Free wifi, which was pretty reasonable. Hotel was more expensive than I would have liked, but then again it was sea side resort in summer.  Clean and comfortable.  Typical Jury's Inn in other words (apart from the free wifi).  Shower was a bit feeble, but I had more beds than I needed.

An earlier week's hotel- the Pavillion, London

The Pavillion is a "rock and Roll" hotel.  Very cheap through Laterooms, and too small to swing a cat.  Yes that IS the bed.  But I shall use it again.  Convenient for where I need to be, and a place to crash.  And distinctly stylish.  Or weird.  Your choice. No gym, obvs.  Didn't check wifi, but there was a TV.

This weeks hotel room: Kensington close hotel london

Just off high street Kensington.  Quite roomy for London.  Pay for wifi and gym, which sucks.

Two weeks to go in the season

And Liverpool are still top.  Though not favourites, and we won't be top when we next play.  But time to appreciate our best season for a long time. It's not we could have been contenders. We were contenders. That will have to do.

This weeks hotel- Hilton Istanbul

Very "the shining".  I like it.  A reminder of the days when Hiltons were Hiltons, not over priced Travelodges.

This week's hotel: Travelodge Waterloo Central, London

Apologies for me scruffing the room up before the photo.  What is there to say.  It's a Travelodge. Quite close to Waterloo Station IF you know how to get out of Waterloo station.  I didn't.  And so it was a bit of a hike. Not their fault.

Unlike the lack of free WiFi, or shampoo.  I am sure that all helps keep the rates very reasonable, but it is a bit of a downer to have to go to the corner shop for shampoo.  Also luckily there is a corner shop on the corner.  Possibly on both corners of the block.  It is well served, along with a Sainsbury's express opposite Waterloo station.

The shower only worked if you held the head in place, but to make up for that they offered me a free breakfast.  Sadly I had already eaten.

Clean enough, safe enough, and probably reasonable enough (I didn't choose or pay - seems to be £88/night).  Not quite the Ritz Carlton though.

Last Weekend's hotel room - De Vere Greenwich, London

Not a great picture, but a great hotel and a bargain.  Less than £130 for 2 nights for 2 in London.  I know people who expect to pay twice that for one night for one.  Admittedly this was for a weekend break, but it is great value.
The hotel itself is an old Admiralty building, and the location is fantastic - about 100m from the Cutty Sark (so about 150m from a tube station and the water bus).  Greenwich itself is interesting, and has a good range of restaurants and bars.  OK, it is 30 minutes from central London, but this was the heart of Empire, and of course of GMT.
The hotel has free wifi, and is nice throughout though a little generic.  Rooms are fine, and by London standards quite roomy (i.e. you can walk in them rather than shuffle).  The Admiral's bar is reasonably priced too, which is a surprise.  Strongly recommended.

Oh, and apparently Thor stays there.

Longer days

It is already noticeably brighter in the afternoon, if not in the morning.  This is an annual good thing.

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)

Seasons greetings

You know the rest

Another hotel room millenium plaza Dubai

A room as big as an apartment, but an antediluvian attitude to Internet charging. When will these. Places realise it needs to be free?

This weeks hotel room - ramada encore, Doha

There were an extra 17,000 people in Doha for the climate change conference. This place is ok. Clean, bit in the middle of nowhere, ok.

That's about all to,say

How

Are the mighty reds only 4 points off the champions league places? And 2 behind Arsenal? Strange season

This week's hotel room- Ritz Carlton, Kuala Lumpur

Fine as always. This place will be perfect when the management realise the wifi should be free (and fix the frankly shit quality)' and the restaurant realises we are not all on holiday. Some of us are here to work and don't have a n hour for breakfast.

Man City move for Suarez

How many strikers do they want?  We've only got one. 

Sanity in the USA

The re-election of President Obama is a victory for common sense.  It is not that he is a perfect politican and therefore deserved to be re-elected without opposition.  It is that the opposition was so detached from reality, so racist and misogynist, so self-serving as to be a parody of the "conservative" and "Republican" traditions.

Even the celebrating Democrats are hoping it will lead to re-emergence of a more rational debate in which truth and facts (such as abortion and evolution) are not treated as opinions.

I hope that the UK Conservative party, who appear to have learned a lot from recent Republican strategies learn something from this election (and not just that you can do very well if you gerrymander the boundaries) and we start to have rational politics again too.

My particular bug bear (though I have many) is the immigration policy that isolates us from genuine students, with their skills, ambition, contacts and (rather importantly these days) money.  When even the Economist calls a policy crazy you have to consider your views if you claim to be a rational pro-business party.

 

This week's hotel room - the Lansdowne, Hastings

Right on the sea front.

This week's hotel room: Ritz Carlton in Kuala Lumpur

Very nice.  The only thing to complain about (since someone else is picking up the bill) is that like many hotel rooms it is pretty difficult to keep it light and bright.  I think they want us to be in the bar.

Justice for the 96.

Thatcher's Britain was a different one to now. It's taken a long time, but at last we can start to have a reckoning for hillsborough. At the memorial at anfield it is clear how many of the victims were the old and young, so should never have been accused of hooliganism. Those days many people loathed football fans - now it is mainstream. It took so long because people doubled up on the lies. Without that it would have been seen as a terrible tragedy caused by some errors of judgement. A few people would have been disciplined and maybe lost their jobs. Instead some face gaol and the families have had a generation of undue pain. Oh so avoidable.

First day of autumn

I woke this morning and wrapped the duvet round me. Temperature has dropped, and summer is really on the way out. Oh, and more rain.

after the gold rush

Well done to Andy Murray for wining the US Open Tennis, his first grand slam.  We are in the brief period between a golden summer and resumption of a gruelling winter of football.  But what a summer.  The Tour de France, the Olympics and Paralympics, Andy Murray.

There has a been a spring in the step of Brits this summer, when it finally dawned that Olympics was not going to be a fiasco but was going to be brilliant.

I wonder if there will now be a political knock on?  The coalition themes of broken Britain, a can-do-nothing country, with all of our glories in the past seem completely out of step with how Britain feels at the moment.  The coalition has traded on misery to excuse any policies they think appropriate.  I wonder if these policies will be accepted in can-do, after the goldrush Britain.

September 2012/3

The past year has been one of stagnation. Of illness, drift and just getting through. Hoping the next 12 months will be better.

and that's the season

once again by the start of August we are out of the Premiership running.  Attractive though Brendan Roger's style of play is, and difficult though the early fixtures are, this is not good enough.  We have offloaded a bunch of players, so the wages bill will be reduced.  But we have bought sparingly, and the team is basically not good enough.  Promising though some of the youngsters may be, we are now down to one world class player in Suarez.

I suspect that the owners are playing a long game and waiting for FIFA rules to impose a level playing field on finances.  But that is still years away, and we wait to see whether it will actually happen.  In the meantime, we are restricted to playing for cups again this season.

It is now a long time since under Rafa Benitez we were pipped at the post for the Premiership.  This will be 4 uncompetitive seasons in a row.  We are now a (top of ) mid table club playing on our history, and no longer real contenders.

last week's hotel room

The Saraha Beach Hotel, Skanes in Tunisia (near Monastir).

Not what I am used to, but i was on holiday.

The last word

The word magazine has closed. I only subscribe to two magazines; the word and the economist. Now it will be just one.

9 years was a good innings for a niche music and lifestyle magazine. It was a great read and a great online community. I shall miss it

This week's hotel room Hilton Istanbul

Very nice in a 1960's sort of way. Huge with amazing views of the Bosphorus. But not from my room. Really what you think of when you think of a Hilton. But with Turkish electrics.

This week's hotel room

Radisson Blu Kennilworth, in London.  Not quite as big as this picture makes it seem.  But it is London.  And outside is the British Museum.  And a lot of rain.

This weeks hotel room Radisson blu Palais Vienna

Gosh it is hot here. And they have run out of power adaptors - my fault I should have brought my own. It is on my checklist, but I thought "they are bound to have one". Otherwise jolly nice. Free minibar - with one coke, one water, one beer. Again not to complain=free.

Banks

It is not just Barclays illegally colluding to fix bank rates. The same is going on in the USA.

When are people going to get jail time for this rather than just corporate fines, that customers end up paying? Jail is the deterrent, not the loss of a bonus.

After the collapse of the banking system why has no one been charged with fraud? It is about time.

Euro 2012

That's us out on pens again. The two Ashley's wont be hounded - there are now too many penalty missers for them to be special.

3 days of sunshine

The British summer.

This week's hotel - holiday villa hotel and residence Qatar

Ok, but without the attention to detail that makes a truly good hotel. For example the safe not working, and the Taos only running hot (no cold). Minor stuff, but enough to knock it out of the top notch.

This weeks hotel room

Millennium, Abu dhabi. Generally I can't complain, though th 8 hours without electricity yesterday was a bit of a blow. Or rather not, as it meant no air con. Otherwise perfectly fine, if a little anonymous.

Bio bank

I do a survey for them. But every time they ask
Me to report it is after an unusual
Day. Yesterday I had my first alcohol for a week- do of course they have asked me about yesterday!

This week's room

Crowne plaza Amsterdam city centre. Very nice. Gym a bit poky, but the rest is lovely including a lounge you migh actually want to spend some time in.

Citeh!

Bloody City!  It's always drama.  2-1 down at the end of 90 minutes.  Win 3-2 to win the Premiership.

Gordon Bennet - it cannot be good for your health to support Manchester City.

A bang and a whimper

Footie season comes to an end with whipping Chelsea, but 3 days too late for the FA cup final. Oh well, come next year...

I don't expect king Kenny to be there.

Friday the interestingth / star wars day

Day after council elections - looks like no more elected mayors.
Submission day for a tender process that has taken a year.
Day before FA cup final- which I am getting sadly optimistic about (really we are not favourites)
Bunch of writing to do, do why am I
Blogging?

Against the odds

Good luck to Chelsea in the Champion's League Final.  Hopefully it will put them off their stride for the FA Cup Final.  However, given the number of them that will be suspended for that Final and therefore will have a point to prove in the FA Cup final...  maybe it would have been better if Barcelona had won.

Barca look like they have run out of steam.

Liverpool however look like a team that dont have the exact change necessary to buy luck from a vending machine.   We shall see.

Monday night's hotel room - Ramada Birmingham City

Somewhat tricky to find, and the wrong side of the city centre for where I had to be in the morning.  But apart from that absolutely fine.  Interesting location - my room looked out over a canal basin, with the BBC on the right and a series of bars, cafes and restaurants.  If I go back, and get there earlier, it will be worth investigating further.

Sometimes it snows in April

and today it did.  Last week it was 20 degC.
Climate change - coming now to a location near you.

Silverware

The League Cup was our first silverware for 6 years - but great to have.  However, I think it will not be enough for the owners.  Champions League has got to be their priority, and I think that it is now beyond us - which may mean the end of King Kenny's reign.

Meanwhile, finally recovering from 3 months of chest infection to discover that I appear to have put on 3kg.  How does that work?