Day 19 - Stoke

Regarding yesterday's comments about our hotel room, it is fairly clear that it has only recently been refurbished itself, as most of it has that very new quality to it; however, there is a certain unmistakable air of second-rate craftsmanship reminiscent of O'Reilly the builder in Fawlty Towers - there is already a crack in one of the double-glazed windows, one of the central heating units is hanging awkwardly at a slight angle on the wall, at least one of the drawers is misaligned on its rollers, and in the bathroom a section of architrave is simply not there, the runnel for the bath is cleverly angled so as to direct water onto the floor rather than back into the bath, there are doubled-sided adhesives still dotted around the wall, there are various drilled holes in the tiles, a number of screws are still jutting out, there are 2 screws half screwed in on either side of the door's lintel serving goodness knows what purpose, the exhaust fan has been installed at a slight angle (perhaps in the spirit of the installation of the central heating unit), a number of tiles have been poorly grouted in, some of the grouting is falling out already, a small chunk of tile has been knocked out, a small chunk of the rendered ceiling has also been knocked out, the sealant loosely follows the join in the wall, the toilet roll holder was cracked and barely supported a roll of toilet paper (granted, not necessarily a result of refurbishment, and easily rectified), the bath plug had been somehow removed from the chain which makes it easier to remove from the plug hole after use (again, not necessarily down to refurbishment), and the toilet seat was a few millimetres off centre (perhaps it is a local custom to have various fixtures and fittings set at a slightly jaunty angle). Now none of these nit-pickings have interfered in any way with our stay, and all of these minor faults are more than made up for by the toilet seat - yes, the toilet seat. It seems to function like those kitchen drawers that close softly, in that it......well, closes softly...both lids no less. At the merest of slight touches in the up position it slowly lowers itself to the down position. I am in awe of the direction that plumbing has clearly taken in this area and I cannot imagine where this technology will lead next - I eagerly await the next advance in toiletware. I must also say that my rather harsh observations are in no way a reflection of the staff here, who, to a person, have been very friendly, helpful and welcoming.

Julianne had her second and final day of work related fact-finding, for which she now went to Stoke-on-Trent, whilst I took the kids to Alton Towers theme park, an adventure park based very closely on the theme parks on the Gold Coast or in L.A. (think any of the Disneylands or Universal Studios etc.). Nothing spectacular to speak (not like the aforementioned toilet seat), but what was particularly nice was that one had to drive through very pleasant English countryside and little English villages [well clearly they were English, what other country could we have possibly be driving through?] to get there and back - it certainly made the hustle and bustle whilst there far more tolerable. And yes, it was a bit of fun for the big kid too.

Picked Julianne up and detoured through Burton-on-Trent and ended up (on a whim) at a little pub in Hilton for dinner - meal, service and surroundings all excellent - the King's Head - we can thoroughly recommend it if you are ever over this way, and before it changes hands - not that there was any indication that it is going to change hands, I'm just saying if you happen to come over in 10 years time or whenever, don't necessarily expect it to be of the same standard based solely on our recommendation from today.

Tomorrow, my birthplace.