ARodwell's Qype profile

Absolutely loved it. We spent a night here as our world cruise ship docked overnight. Loved the wide, very South American corridors of this hotel with the wood panelling around the doors even if the carpet is looking a bit tired. Good pool with a fun, party atmosphere of Brazilians. We had a balcony room so we could smoke - I would recommend one of these even for non-smokers as we saw the inside of a non-balcony room and it was nowhere near as nice. Be careful of your money exchange at the front desk as we were not given enough Reals for our money and I had to go back and correct this. On the second day we did a fabulous seaplane flight over Manaus in a craft that took off and landed on the waters of the Amazon. I'm glad this hotel is out of town as I was not impressed by the dirt and rubble of downtown Manaus. Lovely little zoo attached to this hotel with some big cats and cute little animals. Purr Purr.

We spent 2 nights here in January. Our lovely, spacious, sea-view room had a balcony so it was easy to smoke. Very nice swimming pool and steam room in the basement. Nothing really to dislike about this 5 star hotel except the outside of the building doesn't look opulent and management seem to be employing foreigners rather than locals. Upon check-in I didn't even have to show any identification.

Very good airline and I love their A380. Food usually good and I like the fact that they provide a little snack bag half way on a flight from London to Singapore. I’ve flown QANTAS from London to Perth, Perth to Sydney twice, Perth to Melbourne and Perth to Adelaide return. Love the fact that the inflight entertainment on their A380 included the air hostess send up PAM ANN. Staff usually friendly although they lose one star from me because on my first flight with them some stony faced old queen of a steward looked down his nose at me on boarding. I feel safe with QANTAS as they haven’t had a fatal accident in the jet age but they’ve had a few scares recently. Not usually the cheapest airline though.
2013//I personally won’t be using them to fly to Australia anymore as they have joined Emirates and are now using Dubai as the stopover and not my favourite Singapore. Have heard they are serving Halal food on their Dubai flights now – what a disgrace!

One would expect to see Miss Marple in this church and that's the sort of church I like! I attend the Sunday Service if I've nothing else on. The Vicar, Father Andrew Cain is very nice and so is the Australian Mother Cargill. As I've not been baptised I go forward for a blessing rather than to take Communion.
I think it's quite well decorated inside but I know some long-standing worshippers think it could do with a bit of repair. Yes, I enjoy the theatre of it all and it's uplifting on a Sunday morning. The hymns are projected onto screens which is so much better than rifling through a hymnbook.
Sometimes I get talking to a few other members of the congregation. One can go for a coffee next door afterwards but I'm not that much of a mixer.
Yes, West Hampstead and Kilburn wouldn't be nowhere near as complete without this church.

Lovely, very Northern, old-fashioned lobby and staircase with a tiled floor and fireplace which wasn't lit when we arrived. I won a two night stay here from Pendle Council's tourist magazine. All staff were British which pleases me. Dining room had table-cloths so good quality food. The bar is lovely with old leather sofas and incredibly atmospheric. It would be so wonderful to be able to smoke in there but we know how that has all been ruined. To find one's room takes one through a rabbit warren of stairs, corridors and doors. Like most British hotels the rooms do not live up to the splendour of the lobby but bed comfortable and tea/coffee making facilities in room. If I could have got a smoking room I would have given this hotel 5 stars. There is quite a bit of green space at the front of this hotel which makes it nicer than the modern Travelodges etc.

No complaints on travel agency booked return flights from Gatwick to Jersey through an advertisement in the Daily Mail. Allocated seats unlike most budget airlines. Two new types of aircraft for me, a propellor Dash 8 and the wonderful Brazilian built Embraer 175 Jet for the return. Crew pleasant, both flights on time and good value duty-free cigarettes sold as Jersey is not part of the European Union. Check-in lady at Gatwick gave us extra legroom emergency exit seats on the outbound. Both aircraft looked new, clean and well-maintained.

A wonderful old English Inn that Richard and I spent the night at before a world cruise from Southampton.
Caught a taxi from the city centre after National Express coach line from Victoria although there are buses from Southampton. Wood beams adorn the ceilings of this atmospheric and cosy pub with delicious old English Fayre including a lot of Game. No loud music or slot machines. Richard's Ham Hock on the bone with duck's eggs was a huge hearty meal served by British staff. Thatched roof on the pub with a satellite cottage containing several large and well-appointed bedrooms. Bath water piping hot and windows we could open. Bit mean on the soap (it was non-existent) save for shower gel with the usual cosmetics and a disposable loofah and bath salts. Tea and coffee in the room and a television. Fresh fruit and flowers in the hotel building and free internet access and magazines. Lots of smoking tables in the grounds - must be wonderful in summer. Quite pricey but good quality and breakfast included.

What a shower. I had an email at work saying they were delivering a competition prize. They couldn't deliver as I was at work and said they'd pushed a card through my letterbox explaining this. I ordered redelivery for a day when I wasn't working. No card from DPD had come through my letterbox when I got home. The day for redelivery arrived and the parcel still didn't turn up. I phoned the call centre and they said that the number of my block was not on the parcel. This turned out to be a lie. I had to collect the parcel from this depot myself and was met with a curt "be patient" from some horrible Indian when I got to the counter at 8am and used the in-house phone as nobody was at the counter. The parcel did have my block number on it. DO NOT USE this company. They are lazy, lying, inconvenient and guaranteed to put your customers in a bad mood. Pity they don't get put out of business - they deserve it.

Super - Douper Fantastic! I can't find the actual address of the post office I used. It's near Centre Monnaie but I've given the Belgian Post Office head office address I think.
A bit of a ritual of mine, I posted loads of postcards using correct money stamps from the actual post office on a Saturday at 10:30am and they landed on British doorsteps on Tuesday. Fabulous!
I do not agree with the European Union but I am very satisfied with the Belgian postal service.

Hmm - not good. I won a prize of two items of cosmetics from French Entree magazine which I had purchased. They had been placed in a rather flimsy envelope and when it arrived the package had been damaged (with a note from Royal Mail stating it had been found open) and one of the items was missing. I phoned French Entree magazine and a rather prissy sounding young woman blamed it all on Royal Mail and refused to replace the item. I also wrote to the editor of the magazine enclosing the damaged envelope and never received a reply. Stranger things have happened than Royal Mail staff stealing contents but I do not always jump to that conclusion and these items should have been placed in a sturdy jiffy bag by French Entree Magazine like all other promoters do when sending out bulky prizes.