Goodmans Hotel

'Never mind his work, I think I'll follow him up. There's plenty I could do for him right now.'

'The top floor where he lives is strictly out of bounds.'

He looked at me questioningly. 'There's no signs saying private or staff only.'

'No, there are no signs, I prefer to tell people personally that the top floor is out of bounds.'

'Do you live up there with him?'

'I'm not sure what it has to do with you, but no, I'm in the basement flat.' When I continued on my way downstairs he called after me, 'One thing before you go, pet, if you're feeling a bit lonely during the night or finding it difficult to sleep, just come up and knock at any of our doors, you'll be made very welcome I can assure you.'

'Thanks, I didn't realise I looked that desperate.'

'I saw it as soon as I set eyes on you, man.'

'You won't be out clubbing at night then?'

'You're right there. You might do better giving us a knock during the day.'

Looking as uninterested as possible I said drearily, 'Thanks so much for the invitation.'

'Well take advantage of it, man, and I'm not just saying that to get you to take something off the bill.'

On their way out that evening they found me in the hotel's little office under the ground floor staircase and asked for directions to a club popular with men from South-East Asia. They were particularly keen on Chinese men, referring to them as continentals as a kind of joke, having overheard someone in a bar use the word by mistake instead of orientals.

'Do you get many Chinese or Japanese coming to the hotel?'

'No, not so far. Perhaps I'm not advertising in the right places.'

'A house like this full of Chinese boys would be paradise. They have such lovely oval eyes and soft smooth golden skin. You won't find anything more lovely to touch. Why go all the way to Hong Kong or Thailand when you can pick up what you want here in London?' The group had been coming to London for years for what they unashamedly called 'dirty weekends'. The redhead had once lived-in as a trainee chef with one of the big hotel chains 'down south', actually in Stevenage. On his days off he and a gay friend used to travel to London, stay out all night at the clubs and take the first train back in the morning. Eventually he returned to Newcastle to work in the students' restaurant at the city's university.