Tea Making Facilities

The Sixth of September Two Thousand and Eleven. Tuesday.

Another day, another Travelodge. When did I become a slave to pre-booked, reasonably-priced accommodation? This is my third one in a week.

Listen. It's true that on the odd occasion that I've stayed at a more expensive hotel it the last couple of years the difference in quality has been tangible. But for the most part my basic requirements are somewhere to get my head down, a telly and tea making facilities. Hopefully I'd be spending little enough time in the room itself for it to be an issue. I mean, I only have a shower at home. The bath I had tonight was a real luxury.

They are a bit like the Borg the way they assimilate other hotels into their collective, then file down the edges so that they all look a bit similar. The one I'm staying in at present, Edinburgh Haymarket, is set in one of the capital's big terraces in the west end of the city. Inside it's tall-ceilinged rooms, a wood-panelled car and Yale keys instead of cards for the locks. But the ubiquitous signage and unmanned reception (press 'find' on the cordless phone cradle to summon someone) pervade.

But it is cheap. One of the nights me and the boys spent in Colwyn Bay last week was just £10 in a sale. I used to use Youth Hostels on my travels, but they were more expensive, you didn't have the privacy and there was no tea or telly.

Actually, I make out like gangbusters on the tea and coffee front cos I don't have milk in my coffee so if I can get several cups of both without using up all the little UHT carton things. I know you can ask for more, but this way you don't even have to do that! Brilliant, eh?

So to finish, here is a brief list of some of the Travelodges I've stayed in, working backward from my present location: Edinburgh Haymarket
London Ilford Gants Hill
Colwyn Bay
Croydon
Reading Central
Torquay
Cardiff Central
Edinburgh West End
Glasgow Central
Aberdeen
Southend Central
Saltash
Worksop
London King's Cross
London Farringdon
London Docklands
London City Airport
London Covent Garden

Er, I think that's it. Blimey, that's a bit sad, isn't it? Let me put on my kettle and ponder what it all means...

More soonliest.