Elevator door closing buttons don't do anything anyway. You may as well replace it with a door open button that won't do anything.

http://cellar.org/2014/derby-view.jpg

My hotel room view. It would have been better but I'm only on the 1st floor. I'm happy about that because I can get 1 bar or WiFi on my tablet (0 bars on the phone and laptop)

http://cellar.org/2014/derby-nearby.jpg

The neighborhood next to the hotel. This is the best part of the neighborhood and it gets pretty dodgy after a few blocks. Shown here is the chip shop that closed at 2pm before I could get anything from it for lunch today. (It's at the far end of the block, you can't really see it.)

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This is what I look like after I've failed to get lunch from the lunch truck, tried to work through it, walked the 20 minutes to the chip shop to find it closes at 2pm, nearly dry heaved in the bushes on the way back, and survived by eating a Cadbury Flake bar, a bag of crisps, and a pint of semi-skimmed milk. In this shot I am extremely distressed and waiting for the food to kick in.

Great foreign lands adventure so far right? Toldja this one was about work and nothing else. Missing is the absolute highlight of my time here, a box from the Isle of Arran with certain goodies in it.

Joyful: I don't have a photo but dogs don't have to be on leads in this country. All dogs I've passed have been off-lead, owners walking nearby, and beautiful and wonderful. I wish I could meet them.

http://cellar.org/2014/derby-lobby.jpg

The hotel lobby of the Days Inn Hotel. It looks like every other Days Inn Hotel lobby. Except that in this nation people enjoy the World Cup in it. Also pints of Stella, a major highlight of this trip. There are no minibars, vending machines, or even ice machines in this hotel, so the Stella, charged to my employer, is an important thing. All my beverages have been bought from the M-to-F pre-op transsexual who mans attends to the front desk.

We walk amongst you!


Muhahahaha

Minibars come with a higher grade of hotel.

Ice machines are unknown - imagine my delight when I went to America for the first time and realised I could just get ice for free, on my way back to the room! Ice! Cold white stuff! I grew up in the 70s and we had a tiny icebox in the top of the fridge which took fishfingers, a packet of peas and at a push a cardboard packet of Neopolitan ice-cream on a birthday. Ice-cubes were a luxury.

Vending machines are usually only in downmarket hotel chains.
So you've fallen between two stools there.

Sorry bout your chippy problem.
Could have been worse. It could have been open...

On this trip I have had almost nothing to buy on my own, so I have been happy to overtip in ridiculous amounts. I do this mostly to feel better about myself, so I am not bragging. I have been leaving a 2 pound coin every day for housekeeping. That's too much. I gave the TS a pound for pouring my Stella and removing my dirty plates, and she seemed to be delighted.

I really like the two-tone 2 pound coin. It looks and feels like the valuable currency that it is. Didn't have these when I was here last time.

I hope you've figured out how to eat!

I ate everything in the box from Isle of Arran, except the chocs which I have saved for tomorrow.

It was DELIGHTFUL

Meantime, for dinner I have only eaten at the hotel, and once at the awesome Indian restaurant next to the hotel. So awesome. 20 years ago the Indian restaurants were by far the best restaurants; I understand that these days Brit cuisine is catching up to the world, and the hotel restaurant is doing just fine.

But they still can't make coffee.

I suppose that the lack of a sea view or breathtaking landscape, is more than compensated for by the sight of the East Midlands Demolition Company.

Could one ask for more? :D

When it comes to a room with a view, some *do* ask for more.



Granted, there's no Sydney Opera House... :p:

Basil Fawlty, my hero.:thumb: