Today has been a really good day, I spent the entire day in the garden building a new stall, its got a beautiful wooden frontage with leaning rails and upright supports for the roof over the door, bit like a wild west saloon look , and a massive canvas tent behind it, Ive sewn over 130 ft of canvas seam with cord with a needle like a log, Ive thumbs like a professional thumb wrestler, cant wait till Margam Park next weekend, it’ll be its first airing, Ive incorporated a raised bedroom area with a canvas dormer put into it so we don’t have canvas to close  (OK thats a bit sad but we’re camping for nearly half the year this year so being comfy is a good idea lol) its also having a varnished wooden floor and a balcony area over looking the shop floor (big beaming smiley here) , I will post pictures soon as its finished, we’re calling it Cowley’s Traveling Emporium of Culinary Delights. Just looking for some nice flooring for it now.

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YAY !!!!! finally finished the new stockroom, the last bit of varnish has been painted on and to be honest we’re dead chuffed with the result, we may have lost a dining room but its made life immeasurably better lol, Vic (father in law) has done a bloody marvelous job on a tight budget, its going to cost me a dinner but well worth it lol

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Got back late last night from 4 days constant trading at Cardiff Uni then at the International Living History Fair, we’re exhausted, mainly becauseo of the fact we were refused a room and an almost empty PREMIUR INN HOTELS inSTRENSHAM SERVICES, for, as far as I can see, having cloured hair and looking a bit differnt, well me that is, Suzie was dressed normally and I had the temerity to wear a Napoleonic officers uniform as we were going from one show to the next I fgured it would be easier to change at the hotel when we booked in,  hardly the outfit of a thug or axe murderer lol, here is the letter we’re sending, Im so pissed off that if things arent sorted to our satifaction Im going to make rather a fuss lol

Dear Sir
Im writing this letter to give you the opportunity to rectify the matter to our satsifaction before we seek legal advice and take the matter further.
On Friday last week my wife and myself pulled into Strensham Services to book into the Premier Inn there, we had been travelling for a couple of hours having just completed a long days work, we are self employed and run our own business. We had been trading at a show in Cardiff University for 12 hours and we were due to be trading at one of the countrys most prestigious Historical Markets. We decided to drive half way so we could have a good nights sleep, a hot shower and look refreshed for the next days trading and also only have a short drive in the morning.
We make and sell a range of foodstuffs and our appearnce is essential. we must look clean, tidy and refreshed as we interact with the customers on a face to face basis thoughtout the trading day and our profits rely on our ability to do so.
WE pulled into the service station at 1.20 m, we walked into the reception, my wife asked for a room, the lady behind the desk looked us up and down and tartly said
“we’re full” then turned away and ignored us. We can only assume she did so because she did not like the look of us, my wife and myself both have red hair (dyed not natural) and I was wearing the uniform of a Napoleonic officer as we had come straight form a show.
We left the building and went back to our van, my wife had to go and get a ticket so we could sleep in the carpark, while she was doing so the lady in the other building was very surprised to hear that the Premier was full and went outside with my wife, in the entire car park there were no more than 12 cars parked there and 3 lorries ( which had curtains around the cabs indicating the drivers were asleep within), she then said that this isnt the first time this week that this had happened and then asked if the receptionist was a middleaged lady , which it was.
We then spent 5 1/5 hours trying to keep warm in the cab of our van, my wife was far to tired to drive any further having just worked all day and spent most of the night crying in stress and exhaustion knowing she had to drive to the show and set up so we could trade for the next 3 days. We had to sleep in the clothes we were wearing and as a result had no sleep.
At 7 am I went back into the reception of the Premiur Inn where the lady was still on duty and this time with a younger lady, I asked her how many rooms the estabilshment had, she replied it was 45, I then pointed out that there were 12 cars in the carpark during the night and as we were parked outside the PI we could see no one had left between the time we arrived and 7 am. I also pointed out that ythere was no way she could have been full unless each vehicle held 4 people each and that each person booked a room each , some having to have booked triple rooms for themselves, she had no answer and didnt even try to answer but just stared at me. I left.
We the drove to the next show, my wife crying in tiredness for most of the journey, we arrived, set up and to be quite frank did a very unsuccesful days trading at what is one of our best shows. I had to buy brand new laced shirt and breeches and tunic, due to the nature of the show in question you must wear historical costume and mine looked like I had slept in it, which I had tried to do, neither myself nor my wife were up to the task of standing up and talking to customers, I even fell asleep behind our stall for some time until one of the show staff offered to watch our stall so we could go and book into our next hotel so we could sleep, which resulted in our trade being down by 40% on the previous 5 years.
We have had to put up with prejudious many times in our life due to our alternative appearance and this time we are so angry that Im considering contacting the media, printing leaflets to put on our stall and making such a fuss that such bigoted discrimination can still occur in this country. We appeared on BBC 1’s Dragons Den where the Dragons gave us a hard time due to our appearnce (again, because of our coloured hair) which resulted in thousands of complaints to ofcom due to their behaviour and discrimantory attitude, because of that appearance and on other programms such as Harry Hill TV Burps we feel sure that the media would be interested in our story and the resulting disgust at the way we were treated Im sure, would do your reputation as a hotel that offers comfort to weary travellers no good what so ever, we are also considering printing flyers with our story on them and passing them out at our stall and shop and also to ther traders , many of whom stay at your hotels, many of the traders who were at the fair said they would like to hear the results of our complaint and said they would be more than happy to put the flyers on their stalls and pass the word about our treatment. As we trade almost every weekend  around the UK we are capable of doing a lot of disribution. I will be sending a copy of this letter to the managing director of your company and I expect a prompt reply with some offer of recompense for the utterly shoddy way we were treated, we have used Premiur Inns in the past but I doubt very much we will darken your doors again.
Yours sincerly
Martin and Suzie Cowley

www.martinsjerkedmeat.com

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