Travelodge and Watchdog
Posted: Wed 25 October, 2006 Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, General, Travel 1 Comment »One thing that interested me last night was to catch BBC’s Watchdog programme, which featured Travelodge being shitepots. Nothing new there – but I didn’t know about this particular policy of Travelodge’s.
Turns out that despite offering a “guaranteed” room when you book with them, they have a policy of overbooking, so you could easily find yourself still without a room. They call this a “last man standing” policy – although it might as well be called a “last man sleeps in his car” policy. Of course, they can then say they’ve got a room at another Travelodge, but if you head off there (assuming that you can, have a car, and all that jazz) and someone else gets there before you, you can still not have a room.
And even better, because you can’t get a room at the original place, you don’t check in. Which means that the devious scumbags then get to charge you a full room rate for not turning up!
Now that is briliant. In a sleazy scumbag way, of course, but it’s still brilliant.
Joggers
Posted: Tue 17 October, 2006 Filed under: Charm School, General 3 Comments »How to upset people in the morning. An occasional series.
Number One. Walk past a jogger who is puffing, panting, but still jogging. Make it look as effortless as possible.
Poor sod looked so demoralised.
And yes, I do walk very fast. But it still amused me to be overtaking joggers.
Amnesiac
Posted: Wed 11 October, 2006 Filed under: D4D™, General Leave a comment »I’ve been looking at this “write a post” screen this morning several times, thought about something to write, then looked at other stuff, and bang, the idea’s gone.
It’s incredibly frustrating, but I’m sure I’ll remember what I was going to write at some point soon…
Stanislav Petrov
Posted: Wed 27 September, 2006 Filed under: General, News, Weirdness Leave a comment »Amazing, the things you find out sometimes.
Twenty-three years ago today, Stanislav Petrov saw multiple missile launches reported by his early-warning satellites and waited, knowing the satellite had been reported faulty, rather than reacting instantly to those American missile launches by launching the Soviet nuclear missiles under his control. He’s since been awarded two “World Citizen Awards”, and can be seen as pretty much saving the world from World War Three.
Hand and Foot
Posted: Wed 27 September, 2006 Filed under: General 2 Comments »One thing that’s very odd at the moment is that because I’m staying in a B&B , and having meals every night, I’m not actually doing any cooking or really anything for myself. And that, to me, is very strange – I’m not used to it, and I’ve never been overly keen on the entire “being served” concept in life.
Obviously I don’t mind on occasion, or when an event requires it. I don’t object to restaurants and waiters, for example. But I’m just not used to not doing stuff for myself on a regular basis. I wake up, get breakfast done for me. The room at the B&B gets cleaned up, hoovered etc. while I’m away at work, and then when I get “home” to the B&B, I then go out and have a meal somewhere. Yeah, it’s great for purposes of Wheres Good, but on a personal basis it’s bloody weird.
I think a lot of people would say that’d be their ideal lifestyle – always being looked after and cleaned-up after. For me, I’m too independent to be comfortable with it, I suspect. All very strange.
Daytime
Posted: Tue 19 September, 2006 Filed under: General, Thoughts 1 Comment »OK, it’s only Tuesday, but I have to say, Jesus God Almighty, daytime TV is truly abysmal.
Even with shitloads of channels, it’s utterly pisspoor.
Thank god for music, laptops, and a DVD collection, that’s all I can say.