A weekly ode to the joys of moaning about your holiday.
Not succumbing to the hotel mini-bar is one of the great acts of resisting temptation known to mankind. It sits semi-tucked away in your room but you always know it's there, teasing you with its over-caloried, over-priced promises of good times. We're not even talking about the booze, it's more the pull of the chippies and nuts and chocolate bars that I really have to battle. It's like the mini-bar is the devil on one shoulder and a quick visit to a supermarket for something healthy is the angel on the other. It's Supermarket Angel vs Mini-Bar Devil and even though Supermarket Angel is ably supported by Don't Be Silly With Money Angel, Mini-Bar Devil can be very persuasive.
I thought I'd found a semi-solution to this tussle of good against evil in an American hotel a couple of years ago where I was staying for three nights. "Semi-solution" because after giving in to Mini-Bar Devil one night, I had the ingenious idea to replace the items during the day with the exact same (but considerably cheaper) products from a supermarket close to the hotel. Brilliant!
Buying the required can of Coke, the Snickers bar and the small tube of Pringles the next day, I felt like a teenager who'd had a secret raucous party while the parents were away who then had to do a mad clean up to get everything spotless before Ma and Pa arrived back. Would I make it in time and create the illusion of an un-tampered with mini-bar? It was a race against the clock!
Initially I thought I'd failed. The cleaners had already been and gone in the short time I was at the supermarket, but while they'd made the bed and tidied the bathroom, they hadn't restocked the mini-bar. Despite forgetting to hang the "Do not disturb" sign, I'd gotten away with it. Carefully putting my replacement drink, chocolate bar and chippies into the mini-bar, I'd committed one almighty heist. This was going to save me about $12 all up! Hashtag winning.
