The Key to Room 149

Seven o'clock is the wake up call in the hotel suite; next door but one down the corridor a door slams, the first executive is on the move

I press my mobile alarm to snooze, feel the early day sensation in my feet; the baths, showers and WC's set the plumbing pipes in motion

My meeting, a presentation by others, is at Ten AM, one hours drive away; as I enter that point into the iPod I realise it is time to turn on my own taps

Time to begin my mornings ablutions; but first to make a cup of English tea, while the tub fills with hot and lukewarm water; I mix in the complimentary bubble foam

I submerge myself in the three quarter length vessel; it is not a delicate movement, yet I am supported by the handrail. The shampoo is eco boutique, I put some in my travelling bags, next weeks rooms may not be so luxurious

My untidy stubble means I need to shave, it is a man thing, and tedious; that's why midweek I mostly wear the unkempt look, unless, as today, I am the public face of the company

Back at my desk, still writing, but now hurrying, for breakfast is at Eight sharp I told myself last night. I put on yesterday's clothes, I will change later, after a couple of rashers of bacon, with soft fried eggs

I put the trousers in the trouser press and go; the chambermaid smiles, she offers a warm good morning, it's been quite a while since I was a regular, but we do remember faces don't we; especially honest workers

The restaurant waitress is equally welcoming, asking sincerely how I am; she points out the weeping willows, starting to turn to leaf; I tell her that they are further on than at my daughters in Derbyshire where I have just visited my new born grandson (will he always now be in my conversation)

We talk some more about weeping willows, she has one in a pot at home; the meal ends with black coffee, toast and strawberry jam. I return to my room, passing pleasantries, again about my becoming a grandfather, on the way

The writing has to stop, time to focus and concentrate on the work; reading back I see I have told you a lot of little things, yet there is much more that I have left out

Next door’s telephone is ringing; it is left unanswered, she may already have left.

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Chimes Café

Some places get it just on right
With cream & green & rattan
The aroma of the baking
Travels with the light

The old cottage window
Preserved from the past
Candlesticks and flowers
Nought that moves too fast

The coffee & the flapjack
Tiled roof’s up to the sky
Another makeshift morning
Slow time; simply wandering by

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Premier

The cloth is cut
By a utilitarian

Breakfast cooked
By a journeyman

Out of the window
A dual-carriageway

Where are the songs
And the time to play

So contrived; the roll
Of out of focus flowers

On the bedroom wall
Hinting at a quieter hour

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Gloss

There was a photograph
Of the Italian restaurant
At the cross roads of Regents Street and Piccadilly

There was a photograph
Of the red lighthouse
Where we listened to the historian & film maker

These are in a magazine
Issued free to hotel guests
Partly to celebrate the area, also so that travellers
May feel more at home in their retreat surroundings

We had eaten in the very same San Carlo Cicchetti
It was the occasion of my sixty-first birthday
We drank a glass of forty-nine pounds a bottle Barolo wine
Passed on a taste of our dish, to the Irish-American travellers

We had met the historian and film maker by that red
Lighthouse, near the wobbly statues at South Shields
We were n our way to the Hebridean Isles via Sunderland
Edinburgh, Findhorn and Ullapool; he gave me a business card

Such that memories are remembered, in half-empty
Hotel rooms; such that triggers are triggered again
Wherever and whenever the sun goes down

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Meal Out

It is a room of archways
Circular details, rectangular
Mirrors & windows

It is a space with chandeliers
In line with the sea, lights
Perpendicular to the horizon

It is a floor, whose boards
Run diagonal to the walls
With wood-pattern frames

It is a roof, also forestation
Hexagonal and triangular
Patterns, of polished veneer

It is one person
Sat at a table for two
Hesitating for the next word

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