Palma de Mallorca; Wednesday, 13 March, 2013

As it was an early flight from City I had booked into the Ibis Budget hotel near the airport so that I could get a good night’s sleep and wouldn’t have to try and get to the airport through the morning rush hour.

Within about 5 minutes of checking in I discovered that the first aim may have been defeated as the toilet continued to slowly drain from the cistern into the bowl long after the flush had been pressed. It didn’t appear to want to stop, but it did want to make quite an irritating dripping water noise, that was clearly audible in the whole room.

I saw the guy on reception and he looked at his computer, bit his bottom lip and apologised that the hotel was completely full so he’d try and come and fix it.

After 10 minutes with the screwdriver in the tanks behind the room (now I know what all those fire doors in the corridors in hotels between rooms contain!), during which time I had checked on line and confirmed that every other hotel within a three mile radius of the airport was also full, he confirmed that it was “knackered” and the drip couldn’t be stopped.

He said to wait where I was for a moment and zipped back downstairs, reappearing a couple of minutes later with a new key card – whilst the hotel was fully booked, not everyone had turned up yet so I was moved rooms and the last person to check in tonight (assuming they arrived) would be getting the water torture.