Ballymun Travelodge

Ballymun Travelodge



Not for the first time has the Celtic Sage modestly demonstrated his gift of prophecy! A couple of weeks ago I rounded off my review of Travelodge Dublin Airport (actually in Ballymun; see the review) by stating “In summary, nice building, poor management, woeful security, good value if you don’t get robbed.” I pointed out flaws with the security of the Car Park, and card controlled electronic security locks being out of order allowing access from the car park through the stairwell to all floors in the building.



http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/01/tale-of-two-travelodges.html



I also pointed out that the CCTV & “security guard” in the car park were not effective. Well today’s Irish Independent carries a report of a €1m robbery in the middle of the night where a gang broke into a room. €1m is equal to £901k or £751k if you buy a gift card at Marks and Spencer!



http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/01/its-not-fair-exchange-rate-its-rip-off.html



The paper reported a diamond dealer bravely tackled an armed gang as they robbed him of €1m worth of precious stones and jewellery as well as cash in his hotel bedroom early on the morning of the 29th January. Wholesale jeweller Noah Stefancki (64) was battered on the head with a hammer as he tackled one of the three raiders, but failed to prevent them taking his suitcase. Mr Stefancki told Gardai he had lost his life savings in the robbery of the jewels, which were not insured.





Gardai searching bins in one of the semi-derelict flat blocks behind the Travelodge



Russian-born Mr Stefancki, who lives and works in Southampton in England, is a regular visitor here and travels around the country for business deals with local jewellers. He booked a room in the Travelodge hotel in Ballymun after flying into Dublin Airport as he had stayed there previously and was known to some of the staff. Gardai believe he was the victim of opportunistic local criminals, who became aware that he was carrying a valuable haul in his suitcase, and kept watch on his movements until they established where he was staying. Officers suspect that the thugs did not anticipate such a major haul when they carried out the robbery. Publicity around the raid may now attract the attention of an organised crime gang boss, who could seek a slice of the proceeds.



Mr Stefancki was in his bedroom at around 12.15am when three masked raiders, armed with a gun and a hammer, forced their way in. He lunged at the closest member of the gang and attempted to stop him from grabbing the suitcase. But he was thumped twice on the head with the hammer and the gang escaped from the hotel on foot. They were pursued by Mr Stefancki on to Shangan Road but the three then turned into Coultry Road and escaped. There was no sign of any getaway car. Mr Stefancki immediately returned to the hotel and raised the alarm. After Gardai arrived at the scene, he was taken to the Mater Hospital for treatment for lacerations to his head. He was later discharged.





The insecure "security door" giving access to the Travelodge from the car park





The insecure underground car park



I had pointed out “However the big weakness is apparent when we came back that night and parked in the “secure” underground car park. We pressed the intercom at the car park entrance and without any conversation or checks we were let in. The car park is shared with apartment dwellers and retailers but there are plenty of clearly marked Travelodge spaces. You need to use your card key to access the hotel (and the lift and your room) but when we got to the “secure” doors they were “open” with the electronic lock disengaged so you could go straight in. Once in the lift lobby you could then access all the floors without a key by going up the stairwell. We spoke to the young receptionist the next morning she said the security lock was due to be repaired and had been out of action for weeks. She also said there was CCTV and there was a security guard in the car park. Well there may be CCTV but there is little point to it if there is nobody at reception to look at it. As for the “security guard” we saw what was happening when we were leaving the next day. There he was in an office in the car park chatting away to a friend and just opening the barrier without checking.”



Afterwards the hotel management commented on Trip Advisor;



“Management response from Lisa Walsh, Travelodge Group Revenue Manager

Jan 22, 2010

Hi there,

Thank you for taking the time to write your review. I would like to discuss these issues with you further as your comments disappoint us greatly.

I can assure you the under ground car park is secure – if the magnetic lock was off during the day it was for a maintenance purpose. It is always connected back up.

At this time I can only apologise for your bad experience & for any inconvenience caused.

Kindest Regards,

Lisa”



While proactive the main flaw in the response is that the security lock was not down during the day for maintenance but during the evening and according to the receptionist had been for weeks. It would be wrong to comment on a current criminal investigation but it will be interesting to see if the security flaws I pointed out were a factor in this robbery. As for Mr. Stefancki if I was a diamond dealer I would have stayed in a more central hotel with staff who had been there for ever like Buswells but I can see the attraction if he is travelling around of a hotel near the airport and the ring motorway around Dublin. It is not unusual as I found when I was with Irish revenue and called on manufacturing jewellers in Dublin for diamonds to be transported and dealt this way. Loose diamonds are kept in cloth rolls by grade and the value can be substantial. However if I was Noah Stefancki I would certainly be checking with my lawyer to see if any of the security defects the hotel was told about were a factor in this robbery?





One of the semi-derelict blocks of public housing behind Ballymun Travelodge

The finals at the Australia Open

 

Serena Williams winner of the Australia Open 2010. (Getty)

Serena Williams hitting back the ball to Justine Henin. (Reuters)

Former World No.1 from the previous generation Justine Henin holding on to her trophy. (Reuters)

Justine Henin stretching out to hit the ball. (Reuters)

Roger Federer in his swift move again. (Reuters)

Another cool move from the World No. 1 (Reuters)

Andy Murray running to reach for the ball. (Reuters)

The finals at the Australia Open were certainly exciting as giants pit against giants, the World No. 1 at the matches and both at the Women and Men finals, all players put up a great game. At the Women's final, former World No. 1 and current World No. 1 Justine Henin and Serena Williams respectively played against each other. Both showed great determination to win, serving strong and using wits forcing each other to go into errors. The score at the end of the two rounds were 6-4, 3-6 and the last match will be a deciding factor of who will be the winner.

Both have so much to prove, for Justine Henin she wants to prove that she still has it there and the current World No. 1 Serena Williams aim to have ther 12th grand slam titles to tie with all time tennis great Billie Jean King who was there at the match. At the last match Justine Henin seems to tire out a little and Serena Williams saw that and quickly strike to win the game. The finals score was 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.

At the Men's final, Andy Murray have what he wanted by playing against the tennis great Roger Federer. He wanted to win the World No. 1 and be the first British player to win a grand slam after so long. But Roger Federer is not to be reckon with at all. He showed who he was and what he was made off. He served and strike back with cool moves and won 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (13-11). He had managed to win this 16th grand slam titles once again showing he is one of the tennis great of all times. It was an interesting open tournament throughout with most of the top players at the game.

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The semi-finals at the Australia Open

 

Defending champion Serena Williams doing a back hand. (EPA)

Serena Williams and Li Na shaking hand after the semi-finals. 

Former World No. 1 Justine Henin striking back. (Herald Sun)

When the two Chinese players Li Na and Zheng Jie made in to the semi-finals together winning other players like Maria Kirilenko, it was a great advancement made by the two tennis players so far in tennis history. The fans were elated and they were really proud of them. However at the semi-finals both met World No.1 players and they were too strong to defend this time. 

Defending champion Serena Williams eased past China's Li Na 7-6 7-6 to reach the final of the Australian Open and this will be her fifth title she will be bidding at Melbourne. Li Na put up a great challenge but Serena Williams' strong serves tired her. Justine Henin on the other hand had an easier game at the semi-finals winning Zheng Jie 6-1 6-0. She will be meeting the current World No. 1 at the final and this will be one match that many will be interested to watch.

Roger Federer had a tough game but he won Nikolay Davydenko 2-6 6-3 6-0 7-5. He had stopped the champion of the last two tournaments and will be advancing to the semi-finals. If he wins, he will be meeting Andy Murray where Andy Murray is wanting to play with the current World No. 1

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Tennis on TV every time

" Serve harder", "All the way to the baseline", " Match Point"...... These are some of the highlights I received from a tennis match I attended and these key phrases recur in my mind. It is a match of highs and lows and the change of tempo is so intense. I can remember so much of it and hope to watch matches like this at any hour and whereever I am in my state or elsewhere.

The comforting thing will be if I can do this all alone and shout to myself without the scrutinizing eyes of others. This wish becomes true for me as I browse through online for DIRECTV and right before me is one that caters to my want.

Through my searched DIRECTTV , the tennis program can serve me well with my famous stars playing in recent times and the legendary ones I admire. Imagine whenever I am alone, ready with all my snacks and camera to capture scenes, I can send them to my friends and without annoying anyone with my highly vocalized response to the intense matches. With such a dedicated service from such a DIRECT TV, I certainly will be entertained for hours and days of my life on my passion and I believe in the communities that share my interest will find the source that enable them as well. Even in the cyber age, the traditional game is kept the same with the advances in technology bringing us closer to our games ,which is a great gift I feel I am blessed with.

Just hope developments will keep going on to keep us ever more engaged in our passions readily and to be shared by our friends. Hooray to Tennis.

The game continues at the Australia Open

Daniela hantuchova giving a shot against Li Na.

 

Gisela Dulko after scoring against Ana Ivanovic.

Feeling disappointed was the former World No. 1 who was out at round 2. (Reuters)

Serena Williams shaking hand with another top player Samantha Stosur. (Reuters)

The action at the Australia Open continues with moments of joy and some sadness for some. One would be Ana Ivanovic who actually said she will do well at the Open but was knocked out at the second round by Gisela Dulko. However Gilsea was out in the third round later on. Daniela Hantuchova another prominent player who recently had also moved to using Adidas from Nike joining Ana in the Adidas endorsement, played well until she met fiery Li Na from China who won her in an exciting match.

Li Na moves on to the quarter finals together with Zheng Jie another China player and this is by far the first time the China players has made such progress. She will meet Venus William next and it will be another thrilling match for the spectators. World No. 1 Serena Williams continues to make smooth progress at the games cruising from game to game. She won another top player Samantha Stosur and moved on to the quarter-finals.

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It’s not a fair exchange rate; it’s a rip off M & S rate!

Marks and Spencer’s is the ubiquitous UK High Street chain, commonly known as M & S, which has been struggling of late but trades heavily on being an ethical business which consumers can trust and identify with, as it says itself it represents; “Quality, Value, Service, Innovation and Trust which have stood the business in good stead for 125 years.” Indeed its corporate tag-line is “YOUR M &S.”

So just how trustworthy is this trusted retailer? Well lately it has changed the terms of trade with its customers. It used to allow you return products within 90 days, with no great fanfare it has changed this to 35 days and returns must now be in a “saleable condition.” This is now interpreted differently than before so if for instance you wear a suit which you decide is too big / small, they won’t let you return it despite many stores not having fitting rooms (they close them during sale periods) or indeed or indeed enough staff to help you due to cutbacks. They have also stopped in-store ordering and this can now only be done over the internet, neatly excluding their loyalest older customers.

But they also trumpet M & S Money and their competitive commission free exchange rates on foreign currency. However there is one category of customer they don’t want to be competitive with, UK customers who receive Euro gift cards from abroad. So I (gratefully) receive a 50 Euro gift card at Xmas and I think “Great, the Euro is almost 1-to-1 on the exchange rate and M & S have the conversion plugged into their UK tills so no problem!”


Thank you for buying a Euro gift card - We will now rip you off; there is no Plan B

Imagine then my astonishment in trying to use my 50 Euro card on 28th December 2009 and finding out they were giving a conversion rate of 1.33 making it worth paltry £37.59 sterling. If they gave you the same rate of 1.0939 their Bureau de Change’s were offering on the same day it would be worth £45.71 or an amazing 22% more. Consider the double-whammy of arrogance on this one as somebody has paid them that 50 Euro some time in advance so they have had that money interest free – hence this “trusted retailer” feels free to rip off Euro gift card holders by offering them a totally uncompetitive exchange rate that M & S Money would never offer as they would have no business.

I wish I could tell you what this trusted retailer thinks in its 125th anniversary year but their “Customer Services” on 0845 609 0200 has not kept its promise to get back to me. I suspect this con on mugging Euro gift card customers along with Sir. Stuart Rose and Marks & Spencer’s are after 125 years a bit past their sell-by-date!

Comeback champions Clijsters out and Henin still in

Nadia Petrova striking hard against US Open Champion former World No. 1. (Getty)

Kim Clijsters struggling in the court for the first time since her comeback. (Reuters)

The comeback champion former World No. 1 continue to show her skills. (Getty)

As the Australia Open continues, Kim Clijsters who has won two tournaments recently after she come back, was not able to found herself on the court and lost to Nadia Petrova in about 52 minutes. From the way she played, Clijsters was not really herself but it cannot be denied that Petrova took control of the game fast and sieze every opportunity to end the game fast. The score was  6-0, 6-1 at the end of the game.

On the other hand the other comeback champion Justine Henin continue to perform and win the games. She knocked out Russian fifth seed Elena Dementieva 7-5, 7-6 in the second round. Elena Dementieva was also actually an Olympic Champion. Justine Henin later on won Alisa Kleybanova 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 to proceed on to the next round. One more round and she be in for the semi-finals.

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"Endorsements, endorsements, endorsements..."

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A Night at the Museum

Poet Laureate, Sir John Betjeman

Covent Garden Piazza is always a lively and dynamic part of London with a permanent throng of natives and visitors drawn to the spectacle of street entertainers, the wonderfully restored produce market and the glitz of the Royal Opera House, all under the imperturbable gaze of Inigo Jones St. Paul's Church, commonly known as the Actors' Church. For all around you is the Theatre land of London from Richard D'Oyly Carte’s Savoy Theatre with a small hotel attached to the Lyceum, The Strand , The Garrick and the Adelphi to name a few. Tonight I was going to a performance which would bring together three of my favourite things; London’s Underground which is the lifeblood of the City, The Transport Museum which gives a fascinating insight into the growth of London and the unique and indomitable figure of the Poet Laureate, Sir John Betjeman, who died in 1984 but who is still remembered with great affection, having championed Victorian Architecture and Railways but not in a tedious way but as in his poetry and writing with an impish wit which belied the depths of his undoubted insight. Oh, and there is the slight complicating factor that I actually live and commute in Metroland in a part which is still rural!


Entrance to the Museum

John Betjeman described himself as a "poet and a hack", a sentiment typical of the wry self-deprecating wit that has earned him an indelible place in the affections of the British public. By his death in 1984, he was probably the 20th century's most popular Poet Laureate.

Born in 1906, Betjeman grew up in the suburbs of north London. At school his German name marked him out for the attention of bullies. He arrived at Oxford University with a teddy bear which gave his contemporary Evelyn Waugh the idea for Aloysius, Sebastian's teddy, in Brideshead Revisited. Betjeman was more concerned with his social life and writing for university magazines than his academic studies and failed to complete his degree.





Betjeman spent the Second World War working for the Ministry of Information and as a cultural attaché in Ireland (but by all accounts as a spy), where the IRA considered his assassination but decided against it as "a man who could give so much pleasure with his pen couldn't be much of a secret agent". Work for the Architectural Review fuelled a lifelong passion for unloved Victorian buildings, which Betjeman campaigned tirelessly to save, in later life becoming known as much for his architectural programmes; recognisable by his large waist and avuncular style. A statue of Betjeman stands at London's St Pancras station, which he fought to save. He developed an affection for the Irish people and the country which is reflected in his poetry;

“Stony seaboard, far and foreign,
Stony hills poured over space,
Stony outcrop of the Burren,
Stones in every fertile place,
Little fields with boulders dotted,
Grey-stone shoulders saffron-spotted,
Stone-walled cabins thatched with reeds,
Where a Stone Age people breeds
The last of Europe's Stone Age race,"

IRELAND WITH EMILY

Betjeman campaigned strongly against the architectural vandalism of the 1960’s where disastrous architectural, town planning and transport mistakes were made, none more so than the destruction of the Euston Arch. Its demolition, with the rest of Euston Station was regarded as one of the greatest acts of Post-War architectural vandalism in Britain, the campaign to save it lead to the foundation of the Victorian Society and involved the indomitable Sir John Betjeman.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/09/euston-arch.html

Whilst that battle was lost up the road the campaign to save St. Pancras Station was a turning point. The greatest threat to the station came in 1966 with plans to amalgamate King's Cross and St Pancras. However public opinion had been sharpened by the appalling demolition of Euston in 1962. John Betjeman took up the cause to protect the station and in 1967 the Government listed the station and hotel as Grade 1.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/st-pancras-reborn.html




Tonight we are going to a presentation in my favourite London Museum, The Transport Museum at Covent Garden (http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/londons-transport-museum.html ) on Betjeman and Metro-Land co hosted by the Museum and the Betjeman Society in the Cubic Theatre under the Museum whose construction was somewhat delayed when they discovered a Saxon graveyard during the excavations. These are the perils of digging in this ancient city!


Map of Metroland

The talk is part of the Museum’s Suburbia exhibition and season which explores how public transport helped to create the myths and identity of suburbia and how it has featured in the cultural fabric of London and Britain over the last 100 years. The exhibition looks at how transport has shaped the suburbs and celebrates suburban lifestyle, architecture, design and popular culture through a series of unique displays. Mixing fun, fact and a little bit of fantasy to rejoice in a place that we collectively continue to love and hate.




Metroland Magazine for the 1924 Empire Exhibition at Wembley

The talk on Betjeman and Metro-land was co-hosted by David Bownes, Head Curator of the London Transport Museum John Heald, Vice-Chairman of the Betjeman Society. It was trailed as an exploration of the suburban ideal, through the words of Britain's best loved poet, including rare archival footage, poetry readings and vintage promotional material celebrating Betjeman's beloved Metro-land.



Of all the works of Sir John Betjeman none has caught the public imagination more than Metro-Land, the BBC documentary which he made in 1973. It was Sir John's gift to romanticise the mundane: in this case a tube ride from Baker Street to Amersham, celebrating the north-west London suburbs created by the Metropolitan Railway between 1910 and 1933.


Metroland DVD

"Metro-Land" was the advertising slogan developed to entice workers from cramped homes in Central London out into the rural paradise of Middlesex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. It was invented in 1915 by the Metropolitan Railway's in-house copywriter James Garland, who according to legend was ill with influenza and sprang out of bed when he thought of the term. In the company's advertising material, Metro-Land was certainly not a place where you were expected to go down with flu: posters and a magazine which carried the name Metro-Land depicted a sylvan landscape where ladies in hats picked flowers and drifted through sun-speckled meadows.


Baker Street


Harrow on the Hill

It was, of course, largely a con. The creation of Metro-Land destroyed the very thing - open countryside - which was used to advertise it. The speculative homes thrown up around the new stations bore few resemblances to the Tudor cottages depicted in the advertising materials: most were dreary semis, constructed at great haste and sold for as little as £400 each. Modern first-time buyers can only dream: that is equivalent to just £20,000 in today's money.



No developer would be allowed such free rein today. Indeed, the suburban sprawl created by the Metropolitan Railway did much to influence the creation of the post-war town and country planning system. A dozen years after the railway was subsumed into the newly-formed London Transport in 1933, the growth of Metro-Land was finally halted by the instigation of London's green belt.

See; http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/01/northern-heights.html

Metro-land may have lost its official standing only eighteen years after its invention, but the name had already entered the language as an almost generic expression of suburban life. A popular song called My Little Metro-land Home had been published in 1920. The word had even, through Evelyn Waugh's fictional character Margot Metro-land, appeared for the first time in the pages of a novel (Decline and Fall, published in 1928). Metro-land's characteristics were later to be affectionately evoked in the poems of John Betjeman such as The Metropolitan Railway (1954) and in his nostalgic BBC television programme Metro-land, made in 1973. Yet another perspective appears in Julian Barnes' first novel, Metroland (1980) where the writer draws on memories of his own suburban upbringing in the area in the 1960s. For Barnes 'Metro-land is a country with elastic borders which every visitor can draw for himself, as Stevenson drew his map of Treasure Island'.



In little more than half a century, Metro-land grew from being an ad man's creative invention into a more prosaic reality in the 1920s and 30s, a wistful post-war recollection from the 1950s onwards and finally a new land of personal imagination by 1980.

Metroland

The Song!


The houses

David Bownes and John Heald explored Betjeman’s fascination with Metro-Land with authority and affection and it is indicative of the respect with which Betjeman is held to this day, 25 years after his death, that there was not a spare seat in the Cubic Theatre. John Heald recited from Betjeman’s works with charm and affection at times looking and sounding uncannily like his hero. He also made a pitch for people to join the Society as it is “great fun” and indeed watching rare archive footage of Betjeman none present doubted the statement.

As for the late, great and much loved Poet Laureate, Sir John Betjeman, he loved wild Cornwall and was buried there; he loved suburban Harrow. The two come together in his poem "Harrow-on-the-Hill", when dusk over the Metropolitan Line makes suburbs look like Cornish seas:

"There's a storm cloud to the westward over Kenton, / There's a line of harbour lights at Perivale."

For the story of the world’s first Underground Railway and a Great Railway Journey see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/01/great-circle-line-journey.html


Live in Metroland - The door catches on Metropolitan Railway carriages