7870/20811
The tour continues apace and tonight we were in Swindon. Early on it looked like it might be the worst selling gig of the tour, but numbers picked up and it was fine. I seem to be averaging at about 220 ticket sales per night (with 18 more gigs to do and more tickets to sell) which I am very pleased with, especially as I am not playing too many big cities this time round.
We were staying at the Leonardo hotel which was about a 4 minute walk from the venue, which is always a bonus. I could stay in my room watching football until about 6pm. The room was fine, but as a nice touch I'd been gifted a posh looking box of mint imperials. I assumed this was the case for everyone, but when I mentioned it to Bollings it turned out he didn't have the mints.
Was this a perk for being a minor celebrity? If so those mint imperials are pretty much it for my 35 year career. But I am not complaining.
It didn't seem like that though. I might have thought it was a very limited minibar for the room, but they had come with a note on the back of a Leonardo hotel postcard.
It read "Welcome to Leomemdo Swimdon. We hope yo have a famsastic stay Please live as a reviue on Bookingcom Reception team"
The scruffiness and error strewn message seemed at odds with the swankiness of the mints and whilst it's likely it was written by someone for whom English was not a first language, it still seemed odd that they would misspell the name of the hotel and the town we were in.
I think it was probably a genuine attempt to garner reviews , but why hadn't James got one too?
I understand they can't afford to give out a £5 box of sweets to every customer, but how do they select the lucky ones and why, having put in that effort don't they get someone with nicer handwriting and a dictionary to add the note.
Remember this note didn't come from one person, but the whole reception team.
Did they really think I can be bought with mint imperials? I mean they got lucky with me, but surely most people don't fall for it.
I had to wonder if the sweets had come from an insane fan who was trying to poison me. But free sweets are free sweets so I ate some anyway.
And I would recommend the Leomemdo hotel but I can't find it on bookingcom and they don't even list a single hotel in Swimdom.
I feel bad about being rude about a nice person who was kind enough to give me sweets. My mum told me always to be polite to strangers who gave you candy and do whatever they asked.
There is the chance that they knew I wouldn't be able to resist blogging about this message and they've played me like a violim. Well played Ian Leomemdo.
If you are ever unlucky enough to be in Swindon I recommend you stay here. Just on the off chance of free sweets.
The show was good and Right Bollock ad-libbed a very good joke that I can't believe I hadn't thought of. No one fainted and the staff at the Wyvern were ace.
