Seriously..... I'm not exaggerating! Strange things happen to me so frequently that I have to ask myself sometimes if I'm a mythomaniac! .....because I guess if I were, I would probably not even know myself, right? Anyway.....here is what happened this time:
As you may know, I spent this past week in Cannock (outside Birmingham), UK, attending a Supply Chain leadership course (very interesting by the way!). We were around 30 people there and we decided to have a night out together in Birmingham on Wednesday eve.
It was a fantastic and ridiculously fun eve and a few of us stayed out a little longer than planned.......myself included.
When we arrived back at the hotel, slightly "over-refreshed" (I admit, some shots were involved), at 3 am in the morning, the key-card to my room didn't work. So I did what any normal guest would do..... I walked down to the reception to have it reactivated.
To my surprise, there was no one there, so I gently called for someone - but no answer..... I then yelled for someone, but again with no answer.... I dialled all the numbers mentioned on the sign at the reception (you know the kind of sign that says "In case there is no one in the reception, call this number and someone will be right with you". Well.... I called but still no one came.
I waited patiently for about 15-20 minutes, all though I was sooooo tired and thirsty that I could barely stand up straight, I then left my things in the reception and started to walk around in the hotel in search of some help. I found no one but I did find a back-door and my curiosity led me out through it as I was thinking maybe the receptionist was having a smoke in the back.
Just when the door shut behind me, I realised "CRAP!!!! I won't be able to get back inside!".
My key-card wasn't working, which, as you know, was the initial problem (don't judge, you weren't there ;)).
So now I was literally locked out of the hotel! .....and let me tell you, this is not a nice area to be looked out in, but luckily I was too tired to panic and at least found my way back to the front door (but still no one to be seen).
After 20 minutes of waiting a taxi driver showed up and kindly made some phone calls for me - but guess what?? No answers! 10 minutes later, he looked at me and said "I'm really sorry Miss, but I really have to leave now. Can I offer you a cigarette?". While I would have normally said "No thanks", I happily accepted the offer, happy I would at least have some ember to keep me company.
10 minutes later, a policeman appeared on the inside of the hotel and I waved and jumped of joy - funny enough, he waited 2 minutes before actually opening the doors for me and then asked "What's the problem??". I explained the situation and he cleverly said "Well if you are locked out, then just ask the reception to reactivate your room key". Uhhmmm...... No comment.
I took a deep breath and explained, that I had already tried this and he said he would help me find someone and made some phone-calls..... Guess what? No luck!
The not-so-pleased-policeman then headed off on a tour of the hotel in search for the lost receptionist while I had a go at trying to navigate their computer system! I found some application where you could enter the room number and check each room - for what I don't know. I entered my room number and all I got was "No guest registered".
Mission unaccomplished! I gave up and sat down in a chair, thinking to myself that "This must be the real life Hotel California!".
It was 04:30 in the morning when the policeman and the receptionist came back and all the receptionist had to say for himself was "Oh, sorry! I hope you haven't been waiting too long m'am?".
......and all I could say was "Seriously? SERIOUSLY?!?!" and give him my (sleepy-)angry eye.
Trust me, after 1.5 hrs of that - there are no words left.
Glass half-empty perspective: I missed 1.5 hrs of desperately needed sleep and was freaking scared out of my mind!
Glass half-full perspective: I survived, not only the night but also the day after, I'm one experience richer AND made a lot of people laugh by telling this story.......
I hope you've had an amazing week!!
xox
Linda - Happy to be back and Lost in Switzerland rather than being lost and lonely on a dark street in the middle of the night in Cannock ;)
