Academy Hotel

A SIXTY QUID TICKET TO A WET DREAM by Richard Karsmakers

17:35

We have arrived at the Academy Hotel, Gower Street, London -
Room 33. It was booked by Barrington Harvey Public Relations (a
company which we will visit tomorrow), and it costs a hefty £59
for a twin double room. But I like it anyway - it's nice and
comfy, something that I have kinda been looking forward to after
all this improvised sleeping on various places that don't look
too much like my bed at home! So you could say I feel great!
It's a semi-symmetrical room with low roof on one side, two soft
beds, a dark wooden desk with two cheap brass lamps on it, a
color TV and running water(!).
Leaving the tube at Goodge Street was very hard a job. We were
in the middle of the London rush hour and we truly had to fight
to get our rucksacks and leave the tube at the right station -
everybody obviously seemed very keen on disabling us to get out
at all.
Yet we managed.

Richard

18:00

SIGGGHHHHHHHHHHH..........
When I entered the hotel, I was hot, sweaty, dirty, sticky,
tired, numb, sore, exhausted, desperate, thirsty, hungry and I
wasn't sure if I would go on any longer.
Anyway, I took a nice long shower and I feel a lot better now,
sitting on a great soft bed, in nice peace and quietness (Richard
is in the shower now).
In a few moments we will go out out and quest for a Pizza Hut to
go and stuff ourselves, but first I think I am going to have a
triple Gin-Tonic in the hotel lounge.
Ah. Richard came from the shower just now and I talked him into
wearing long pants for a change so we can go out and eat
something decent. I feel ready for everything now.

Stefan

18:09

Wow. I am alive again. I thought the filth of the London air was
going to stick to me so bad that it would never come off. Lucky
for me, some scraping and sufficient amounts of soap and shampoo
did the job.
I think I have never felt so filthy after just one day without a
shower (I had one at the Lost Boys').
The shower is one of those plastic pre-moulded cabins that has
but little power but which is still nice and warm - and clean.
Kinda claustrophobic, though.

Richard

20:15

We ate at Pizza Hut on Oxford Street and we are now immensely
stuffed with the greatest of Italian foodstuffs. The garlic bread
was super, and I had a spicy pizza which was very SPICY indeed;
Richard had some spaghetti and pasta and it all tasted very good.
We filled out the inquiry form on the back of the bill, and in
the space located for 'remarks' we filled in: "Come to Holland,
PLEASE!" On the way back, we bought six cans of COOL (COOL!!)
Coke, which we now relish in a basin filled with cold water in
our hotel room.
We called Steve Bak to arrange a meeting place for coming
Monday, and it turned out that he has arranged quite some things
for us already. It is amazing and hard to believe, but everybody
we met so far has been extremely nice to us. Especially Tim of
the Lost Boys and Catherine from Electronic Arts were very nice.
But everybody else - like the Bullfrogs, Lesley Mansford (EA) and
Jez San - was quite OK too. The Software Industry is pretty
great!!!
Just now, a very American speaking girl knocked on the door and
offered us some delicious chocolates and asked us if we wanted
anything from the Hotel bar. We asked for two Gin-Tonics and they
have been delivered a few moments ago. Nice and cool....which is
great since this room is very, very hot.
And I am not even slightly exaggerating.

Stefan

20:50

The room has been transformed into a huge mess of clothes,
packs, socks, towels, diskettes, tapes, empty Coke Cans (yep...
the same ones we had bought earlier), underwear and heat...a lot
of heat. But it's great to relax after such a hectic time, and I
lie here, thinking about all the things I have seen in the past
few days.
Anyway, time to listen to the Crazy Tape we are making for the
Nutty Ones. The Quest is being successful!!!!!

Stefan

22:06

Stefan is sometimes like a little kid, too.
Now, he is moaning that he wants to sleep - he wants to enter
the land of dreams whereas I am thinking about whether or not to
watch a late night movie on the tele.
For the sake of comrade-ship, I think I will be very social and
hit the deck as well. It's still steaming hot and very damp here,
and each movement you make - even if it's mere breathing -
causing sweat to break from every pore of your body.
Why doesn't this rather expensive hotel have any air-
conditioning?
So I guess this will be the last of us for today.

Richard

22:21

"Why are we being punished? What have we done wrong to this
earth? Who is responsible for this heat? Who can I sue for this?
I mean...I am a nice guy...I didn't do anything wrong..."
(Slightly delirious Stefan quote, in bed)

Stefan

We continued talking a bit about our families (and their general
stupidity, as a matter of fact), little nephews, and the general
irritatingness of it all. We also had a very interesting
conversation about the answer to Life, the Universe and
Everything, 256000-bit arithmetics and the solution to AIDS - of
which you'll read more in the following issue of ST NEWS.

Friday, July 7th 1989

03:20

I wake up to the sound (and the light) of an extremely heavy
thunder storm. Rain is whipping against the window, and I hastily
close it to prevent the rain from soaking my bed - because I am
the unfortunate soul that sleeps under that window.
The midnight London traffic can still be heard through the
violent sounds of nature. But I hear something more...
Sounds of dripping.
Water dripping.
I touch the windowpane and what do I feel?
Water.
The bloomin' window is leaking!
And it's leaking right onto me! Is that what London hotels offer
you for £60? A wet room, a wet bed?
Shit.
Excuse me for the expression, but I am not only wet but also
quite angry.

Richard

08:55

We wake up to the sound of nothing much. It is still raining
heavily, and it's a miracle that we got up - 25 minutes too late
for our schedule!
So we have to hurry up, wash ourselves, pack our bags and
rucksacks and split.

Richard

09:55

We are now sitting in the Hotel lobby and it is raining VERY
HARD - 'cats and dogs', would the English have to admit. So we
called a taxi and thanks to London rush hours and so forth, it
will probably not be here until about 10:30. This means we will
miss our appointment at Barrington Harvey due at 10 AM. But that
is not that much of a problem. The only thing we have to do now
is wait...
We are drinking some orange juice that'll probably have to do
for breakfast.

Stefan

10:10

The taxi has arrived - even before we were expecting it! This is
rather unusual, I might add. Unfortunately, the driver didn't
know where the Finsbury Business Centre was, nor had he ever
heard of Bowling Green Lane.
Can't we ever get decent taxi-drivers?
It's no London Taxi anyway - it's an enormous de-luxe Mercedes
of the latest type that is driven by an almost retired coloured
chap.

Richard