Greetings from Pret a Manger just outside Euston Station. I'm on my way home from a meeting with my old firm in High Wycombe.
Travelled down on the train from Carlisle, and was impressed to see at the station a poster saying that Virgin offers WiFi on all its Pendolino trains. Great, I thought, no need for the dongle.
That was until I got to my seat and tried to log on - and found that the WiFi was only free for first class customers. For those of us in standard class, it's pay by the hour. Grrr. Especially given that the ordinary mobile connectivity on the train was sufficiently weak that my dongle wouldn't connect. Still, I managed to do what I'd planned, thanks to OpenOffice which I'd downloaded.
About half an hour ago, a tired accountant staggered into Pret a Manger in search of supper.
The staff are so friendly and welcoming. Always big smiles, calling me "madam", running to pick up a napkin I'd dropped. They make me feel like they're really glad to have me as a customer. Much more so than Virgin who made me feel faintly like riff-raff :-)
OK, time to wrap up now and go and catch my train home.
You DO (sometimes) get what you pay for!
ReplyDeleteI was a frequent flyer (every 2-3 weeks) when I first moved to France so bought an annual Priority Pass which allowed me to use any lounge in any airport as often as I wanted. "Not bad for £250 a year" I thought. Calm relaxed environment, free drinks and somewhere I could do a little work. Except when you book into a lounge in Gatwick and want to use the wifi there is an EXTRA charge! Fortunately I am a decent enouigh chap and get on well with most staff so they gave me the log in details with no charge anyway! But if I were paying £20 a time to use the lounge I would be a bit peeved to find out I also had to pay for the internet access (free in my local Toulouse airport lounge BTW!)
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