Nov 25 2008
Just Rewards?
Tomorrow holds a “Managing Research Projects” workshop so today I was travelling.
Journey was fine and I stopped to shop before heading to the hotel.
As I passed the supermarket self-service checkouts (and please, don’t get me started on self-service checkouts!!!) I noticed a neatly-folded note on the floor. Was it?? Yes it was!! I was now the posessor of £10 pounds that, a minute before, was not mine. Not another soul to be seen in the vicinity of the checkout.
So what would you do? Smile, put it in your pocket and walk away or hand it over to the Store…
I wasn’t sure. I paused, looked around – for what I’m not quite sure.
It didn’t help.
So I walked over to the Customer Services desk and handed over the dosh. I hope the owner returns to claim it. When the woman behind the counter told me “You’re too honest!” I wondered whether I was more the fool but, hey, job done and off I went.
Safely at the hotel now I stride toward Reception. There’s that awful moment when you give your name and wait while they scan the reservations, and of course, after a delay that seems forever, there you are on the second page!
But not tonight.
No booking in my name, not even in my first name, not from Cardiff and, not even with the Booking Reference number I received in my confirmation email!!!! Thank goodness for confirmation emails.
But not tonight. There was no room at this inn.
While I contemplated sleeping in the car, noting that frost was already forming on the windscreens outside, I wondered what happened to weary travellers without a room. Do we double-up with strangers, sleep on a sofa in the bar, get farmed out to other hotels??
The Manager was called, hushed discussions, someone sent scurrying and please would I wait in the bar area… It seemed like an age watching Celtic play football – but that was possibly because of the football!
The Manager returned: “Would I mind having an apartment?”. I mean, would you mind?
So now I find myself with two ensuite bedrooms at my disposal, a kitchen and a lounge… rattling around all on my own with free wifi and a warm radiator.
What more can a woman want?
Was that worth the £10 pounds I handed over?
Just rewards indeed!
