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.