7062/19582
It felt like we'd been away for a month. When we got back to the station at Welwyn Garden City we passed the coffee shop where we'd had a drink before our train yesterday morning and it genuinely felt like an age had passed since we'd been there. One day holidays may not be the normal way of doing things, but it felt like we packed a lot in. Amazing.
I hadn't slept great despite being in the comfiest bed in the world. I'd woken up to go to the loo and my phone informed me that an extra payment had been taken by the hotel. We'd already paid (handsomely) for the room and (I'd been told) put down £150 to cover any purchases. All we'd had was some cold room service food (though we'd already ordered breakfast) but the payment was for a weirdly specific amount of something like £352.06. Had my card been hacked somehow? Surely the hotel would wait til check out to take payment. That's certainly been the case in every other hotel I've been to.
It was enough to keep me awake and just in case I was being scammed and because I was awake anyway, I went down to reception at about 5.45am to check everything was OK.
It turned out that the large payment included the £150 that they had neglected to charge me when I'd arrived, plus extra money for dinner and breakfast. It seemed weird and rather insulting to me that they'd already taken the money for breakfast (which we had ordered, but not yet eaten), but I guess after the hit that hotels took from Anna Delvey of “Inventing Anna†that they can't risk losing any cash for their massively inflated bills for food. Could they have trusted that we were good for the extra money? I don't know. But thanks to all this I was well and truly awake now and there was no going back.
Amusingly, to me at least, they have informed me that it will take 5 days to get our deposit back (plus a refund for the cold, late food which they didn't want to give us, but ultimately I emailed them and insisted). They got our money before breakfast whilst our eggs were still in their shells (maybe still in the chickens) but somehow they can't arrange an immediate payment back. Posh hotel wankers.
I am glad I don't live in this world all the time. The very occasional visit means you don't get complacent about it. But as lovely as it is to wallow, it's also all a bit hollow.
I basically spent all morning in bed - Catie went back to the spa for an hour and it was everything I could have wanted from a break. Literally doing nothing at all. We stayed for lunch and then headed home. The tubes were packed and horrible and loads of Spurs fans got on at Kings Cross, just as we were leaving. They were chanting and enjoying the power of being in a pack. It was intimidating for everyone else, though charmingly as we got off one of the men shouted, “Let them get off first, we're Spurs.†As if this basic piece of manner and common sense made them better than other football supporters. We don't just push our way on guys, like the Arsenal fans. We obey the accepted rules. We're not scum. Let's shout really loudly about how brilliant our football team is though.
I was glad to see the kids again, until they started speaking and moving. It did feel like we'd been able to recharge.
