Northampton in the dark

Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2006 17:19:52 +0200
So, during the long bus trip, I received a phone call from 'Andrew at Baroque Bar', saying it was really busy, he wouldn't be able to get away to fetch us, we should go to where we were staying and he'll give us a call to maybe meet later. Ah. We'll just go to where we were staying then. See it hadn't occurred to me in the 'this is like a sign that he phones just as we get the boot' delirium that perhaps we would not be offered the live-in job at 9 o'clock at night on the spot.

In a reasonably calm state I explained this wee dilemma to Kylie, my travel companion, who started asking those sort of questions that get lost like 'So what do we do now?' and 'Why did we just hop on the bus straight away'. Sigh.

So we managed to squeeze out of a rather pale-looking bus luggage packing guy that we could probably get a night at the YMCA hostel - like back packers. He kindly drew us a wobbly map before asking the driver to stop so he could be sick, which would of course have explained the pale colour.

When we alighted from the vehicle it was bitterly cold, dark and we were rather peckish. We decided a bed was the first thing to look for but, in high spirits to be out of a one-horse village we trudged our bags down a few lonely roads singing 'It's fun to stay at the YMCA' at the top of our lungs. We still do not know what it's like to stay there as it turns out the YMCA is for people who need long term accommodation for really cheap.

We got to the darkened building and banged on the doors and yelled to the warm people in the second floor watching telly. After throwing a few pebbles and looking for bigger rocks, a man came down the stairs and opened the door. He might as well have had a lantern, peered into the darkness and said 'I'm afraid there's no room at the Inn'.

They don't do emergency rooms, which means you get put on a waiting list and called when a room becomes available - probably in a few weeks. Awesome, well shall we just sit here and wait then? Not in the way are we? No no, he said - there's a night shelter further into town. Rather skeptical of the words used together, I asked him 'How much does it cost?' to which he replied 'Oh no, it's where the homeless people stay - maybe you two can share a bed if they have one'.

Well never in my life had I been put in the same sentence as a 'bum', well besides the many 'nice bum' compliments I get hourly of course, and horrified we turned away, laughing at the thought that was all too close. So 9pm in a strange town, jobless, homeless, cold and hungry, we swallowed our pride and walked to the nearest hotel we could find.

Hotel Plough seemed nice enough - except for the rather giant sign we'd missed as the door smacked us into the foyer which plainly stated 'No rooms available', I know this because the receptionist walked us back to it to reinforce her point. Oh. And so we were out again.

Defiant that the shelter was not for us we went up and down a few roads, banging our bags along our ankles, circling the town centre until we came upon a hotel a stone's throw away from the one we had left half an hour ago. Great signage guys, thanks a lot.

Hotel Ibis it was to be, and as we forked out our two day wages we sighed knowing we wouldn't have to chain our bags to our bodies as we slept. My phone rang again, and it was Andrew from the Bar, who'd fetch us from the hotel in ten minutes.