You Only Get What You Pay For

Scenes from a depressing Birmingham hotel.






What these pictures fail to convey is the uncomfortableness of a room without air conditioning on a hot night on a very busy and noisy street.

To the Midlands!

Such is the cyclical nature of my life and this blog that we’ve reached that time of year again for my annual jaunt to Birmingham. We are not staying the window-less hotel this time, but will be sampling another of Birmingham’s finest budget hotels.

I'm trying to muster some enthusiasm for it by calling it a jaunt, but a traipse would be more accurate. My schedule will be thus:

Train - Hotel - Food - Bed - Venue - Train

Back not soon enough.

Heroes of the Week

1. Jim Reid
The second Friday in a row, I spent the evening watching The Jesus and Mary Chain. Once again they were brilliant, better by miles than most of today's young rock n roll upstarts. And the part played by their frontman can not be overplayed. He is the definition of cool, from the way he hangs on his mike stand to his insouciant 'hey hey heys' and 'ah ha has' .




2. Ian Rankin
His Rebus books are my stock travel readings, because they are pretty easy-going without the brain-numbness of Chick Lit. But the reason for his inclusion here is the answer he gave to an interview question in Metro this week. He was asked what he was bought with the money from the Rebus books, to which he replied 'I'm basically still living like a student. I've just bought loads of CDs, books and films, but I've just bought a USB turntable to convert my vinyl'. Truly a man after my own heart. (I find him quite attractive too - is this wrong?)




3. Elliot Grove
He is the founder of Raindance, the independent film festival and training company. He introduced the film on Wednesday night. I've met him before, but I'd forgotten how cool he is. Even when he's doing the hard sell on his festival or talking technical film speak. He's like a Canadian Christopher Lee (circa The Wicker Man) - that's a good thing.



4. Frankie Boyle
The cynical Scottish comedian who is the funniest person on 'Mock the Week' week after week. He's convinced the world is about to end, he's harsh, shows no mercy for anything or anyone, sometimes takes things too far. But he consistently makes me laugh, which is much needed when everywhere else is all death and destruction.


5. Chuck Klosterman
I came across his writing recently after following links on the Melanethos blog, and based on this I decided to give one of his books ago. I started with 'Killing Yourself To Live' which Chuck travels around the USA visiting the sites of rock n roll deaths. Boy, can this man write. I read it in about a day. I bought 'Chuck Klosterman IV' a collection of his essays for my trip to Scotland and again read that in record time. Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in music and pop culture (even he does look a bit like Corey Feldman!). I'm waiting for 'Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Pops' to arrive next, and I'm hoping he'll get a move on and write some more books as I'm running out.

6. The Abode Hotel in Glasgow
We recuperated here after the festival. I wish we could have stayed longer. It was the best hotel I've ever stayed in. Housed in an old Education Department Building, it had an old-fashioned elevator with a cage. Our room had a triple height ceiling, stained glass window, the world's most comfortable bed, and a shiny bathroom (I have a thing for hotel bathrooms - I think it might be the tiling!), as well as a flatscreen tv, cd/dvd player, robes etc. I think we may have been given a free upgrade, as I can't believe this was their standard level room - we had a sofa and armchair too and a vast amount of space. I could easily have lived there, but as that isn't possible, I'll definitely be having a break in another of their hotels.

7. Keira Knightly's Green Dress in Atonement
I've no intention of seeing the film as I can't stand Keira Knightly usually, but I've seen several pictures of this green dress this week, and it is stunning. I'm quite partial to a green dress myself anyway and this is devine.








I realise now that four of these Heroes are Scottish (I'm uncertain of the nationality of the dress!) - perhaps this week I wish I was Scottish.

Windowless

Back from Birmingham and the windowless hotel.

The room was so small that on entering, you had to be very careful not to walk into the far wall.

The heat and lights were controlled by an illuminous panel - it would have been so much simpler if they'd been a window - too hot = open window, too cold= close window, too dark - open curtains etc.

I still don't understand why there weren't windows - the reception had a huge glass front so perhaps they'd blown the glazing budget on that.

The bed however was very very comfortable.

All Mod Cons

I'm off to Birmingham with work next week. I had to go there the same time last year too.

The only difference this year will be our hotel. We really struggled to find a suitable hotel i.e. one that fitted our miniscule budget, was available on the necessary night and wasn't the same one we stayed in last year. Pretty much our only option was the NiteNite hotel. The name already annoyed me - then I read the description of its amenities in their rooms which are all referred to as a Cityroom:



"Created to emulate the feel of a cabin aboard a luxury yacht, each fully air-conditioned Cityroom utilises high-quality cherry wood, leather finishes and features the very latest technology, including a 42" plasma screen, multi-channel entertainment, wireless Internet access and high-tech bathroom with power shower."


Not bad for £50 you might think, but then reading further the 'Fact Sheet' it lets slip:


"There is no window in the room; however, the 42" plasma screen will show a picture of the outside."

And here is a rather bendy picture of the window-less room and if I'm not mistaken, on the screen is a picture of downtown Birmingham.

I'm not sure how they've managed to build a whole building without windows or why they would want to - is glazing really that expensive? Perhaps the hotel runs up the centre of another building?

I don't know, but I'll know on Tuesday.

At least its just for one NIGHT.