What's pleasing me today

I washed the excess butter off my lobster with airport beer and now I'm happy.

Premier Inn.

I had previously book to stay at Gatwick Airport prior to flying to Thailand in March. Flights were cancelled but my booking with Premier Inn was amendable, not cancellable. I amended it to a date in March 2027 later in the hope I'd be able to use it at another time.

I've booked new flights to Thailand, but from Heathrow. I called Premier Inn, no bother, we will cancel and refund your previous booking if you make a new booking.

New booking is 30 quid cheaper too.

Edit: Not only that, but the refund is on my credit card minutes later.

We’ve chosen to stay with Premier the last few times we’ve been to or flying through the UK and they’ve been far and away the best option for affordability and convenience.

£58 for a family of 4 to sleep within ten minutes (they say five, it isn't) walk of the check in counters is ridiculously good value. For a 9am flight, who wouldn't?

That and the unlimited breakfast is decent too.

I use them all the time and the beds are comfy, rooms are clean and food is serviceable and good value. Can’t moan really although it does my head in when I book 8 rooms at £50 and on another night those same 8 rooms are £85. I get why, but still.

Premier Inn is outstanding value if you're looking for something simple, clean and sensibly-priced as just a place to sleep while away.

We stayed at the Heathrow T2 one last October and it was so easy the next day with the dedicated shuttle bus right outside. Think I paid about £60 for a room (three of us) and even though we had checked in and out within about eight hours, I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

Got a couple of nights booked at the one near the O2 next Easter for the Olivia Rodrigo gig. It will be used purely as a bolthole as we'll be out and about all day, so don't need anything fancy.

Just bought a ton of stuff at Ikea. Will be settling in with a 6 pack and some kind of sport to spend the afternoon building it all.

Going to an Ikea is one of the circles of hell for me, but I do like building their stuff.

Heard of online ordering?

Not been to an IKEA for years and back then they didn't do online, do they deliver now?

They do, but their website is shit and only shows a subset of their products. For example, one thing I wanted was a tall, very narrow storage cabinet for a bathroom. On the website the narrowest one they have is 19" which won't fit the space I have, but in store there were multiple 12" units which will. They're pretty open about this, because they want you to go into the store and buy more than you planned to.

I don't know, but they do meatballs.

Eh? Ey? I said....

Batteries and Daim bars.

A couple of weeks ago I booked to go to an industry conference in Boston next month, it's a smaller show but one of the more intelligent and prestigious events on the calendar. I've been a couple of times and really enjoyed it.

The organizers just sent me a message asking if I'd be willing to sit on a panel. Given the short notice I'm in no doubt that I'm a substitute for a dropout, but it's still one for the CV.

I was on a panel at an insurance event in the Lloyds building last year. The guy running the panel threw a question at me that I barely understood. I already had imposter syndrome - I just kind of waffled and then said "What do you think John?" to the guy next to me. Still haunts me to this day. Honestly on reflection it was the hosts fault. He clearly hadn't read my background. But still makes me feel sick just thinking about it !

I've done panels before and the topic is one I'm very familiar with, plus I'm an elite level blagger. So not worried about performance.