Late Checkout by Alex Walters - Winners!

Late Checkout 

by Alex Walters

Thanks to everyone who dropped by over the weekend to read our posts about Late Checkout and to enter the two competitions!

We have winners!

The winner of the competition for the story about the best mishap in a hotel is Awen, with this gem. 

'We went to a hotel in Malta two years ago. It had a balcony with sliding patio doors. One evening I was sitting on the balcony with my Ipad writing, husband asked if I'd like a glass of wine (silly question) As he brought the two glasses of wine out, he closed the door with his elbow, to keep the insects out of the room... and locked us out. We couldn't climb over to anyone else's balcony to knock on their door to tell reception. There wasn't any one around to shout below, and to make matters worse, we'd put the bolt on the main door too. Neither had our phones to phone the hotel reception. I tried emailing the hotel reception... no reply. After a while I had the idea to use the SMSmessage app on my Ipad to message my son's Iphone! Husband despaired as son never answers his phone! I text,' Are you around?' Obviously his mum asking a weird question from Malta got him worried, I got an almost instant reply. "Yeah, you ok?" I explained we were trapped on our hotel balcony, dad had shut the door behind him and it locked, and needed him to phone Hotel reception and ask them to rescue us, although the bolt was also on the room door." Reply? "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!" He did phone them and sent a message that the porter would rescue us soon. After another 30 minutes we could see the handle being wiggled then a knife blade working on the door frame and lock and another 15 minutes later the porter opened the door. We were very pleased to see him as there were loads of biting insects gathering near my bare arms and legs. Apparently, he carries his trusty penknife around with him, as we were not the first people to get locked out. We were so grateful, but he wouldn't take a reward ! After that we threw a towel in the door way to stop it closing.'

There were some other great contenders though, so do have a look at the comments on the competition post as well.

The winner of the competition to share the most interesting thing about your home town, which took place on the Alex Walters blog, was Mandy with this spooky offering.

'I live in Hitchin in Hertfordshire. There was a road in Hitchin that was once called Dead Street, because not a single person living there survived the plague of 1665. More cheerfully, the first translator of Homer, George Chapman, who was believed to be the rival poet in Shakespeare’s sonnets, was born and brought up here. The house is said to be now extremely haunted.'

Congratulations to both winners. I will be in touch in the next couple of days to ask for your addresses so that I can send you your signed books!

Meanwhile, don't forget you can buy Late Checkout here.

And you can read a sample for free here.