My snooze was short-lived. When he opened the door at the top of the stairs a loud Geordie voice reverberated down from the dining room: 'Have you been having a lie-in, pet, we've been waiting here for half an hour?' The words penetrated my semi-conscious mind, and, worried about leaving Tom to cope, I got out of bed and dressed. Of all the people at the hotel, the Geordies were the last I would have expected to be in the breakfast room first thing on Saturday morning. Upstairs, sprawling over half the tables, I found my six Newcastle guests with four strangers, three of them decidedly Chinese or South-East Asian. 'There's our man,' said the redhead, 'things'll get moving now.'
'Breakfast is not until eight on Saturday, it says so on the back of the door to your room.'
'We've not long got in. We brought a few lads back from the club, we'd like to buy them breakfast too, or we can share out what you've got for us if that's a bit awkward, just let us have some extra cups of tea or coffee.'
'If you want extra breakfasts you're welcome to have them, the menu tells you what they cost. I'll put out fruit juice and breakfast cereal and you can make a start with that, but if you want cooked breakfasts you'll have to wait half an hour.'
'We're starving hungry, pet - but we've all day, there's no hurry. You carry on in your usual business, we don't want to put you out.'
By the time the cook came in at quarter to eight Tom had taken them pots of tea and coffee, and I had started mushrooms, sausages and bacon cooking on the stove. Darren looked in at the kitchen as usual to let me know he was going off to work. When he passed the door of the dining room on his way out I heard the red-haired Geordie waylay him: 'Well now, you're not being sent off in the morning with no breakfast, surely. We've a cup of tea or coffee for you here, come and sit down next to me.'
'No thanks, I'm in a hurry, going to work. I have coffee and a bacon roll there.'
'It's a great shame, you having to rush off at this hour on a Saturday morning. Tell you what, if you fancy a bit of a night out tonight, you could come to this terrific club with us.
Plenty of lads your age go. There'll be a stripper. You'll enjoy yourself no end.'