Oh! My page is getting a lot of visitors suddenly...

well, quite a lot... Apparently, a very clever chap called James Waldron has written an article in The Spectator about our new owners (they’re called GuestInvest), and he’s mentioned the blog! Fame at last for Lilly’s boudoir! (On a slightly less cheery note, I overheard that the hotel won’t be opening until Christmas, but then, what’s a couple of months when you get to my age?)

Talk about exciting headlines!!

One of the restorers was flicking through the Sunday Times during his lunch-break today, and I had a litle read over his shoulder (makes a change - most of the builders are Poles, and I can’t read Polish!) Anyway, get this, the travel section headline was ‘The World’s Sexiest Hotel Rooms’!! You could have knocked me down with a feather - not that I like using that expression, being a hotel room and everything, but you know what I mean.

And, do you know, there wasn’t single room in London!! The world’s greatest, sexiest city, and not one hotel room! Well, that’s set to change, I can tell you. Roll on opening day!

11 Golds is nothing

I mean, don’t get me wrong, the Brits are doing well in Beijing. It’s just that it’s hard for me to get excited because I remember the 1908 Olympics in London. You know how many Golds we won then? Only 56!!

I remember Lillie [Langtry - ed.] talking about it at the time, saying some spoil sports (literally) were trying to say it wasn’t fair, because we included some games only we knew the rules to. It’s true that rackets is only played by English public school boys, but other countries could have learnt it in time if they’d only tried hard enough. And as for tug o’ war (won by the City of London Police in 1908), what a magnificently Olympian sport that is! In 2012,they should drop the synchronised knitting (or whatever the latest non-sport is) and re-introduce tug o’ war. I’m going to write to Boris...

Things have to get worse before they get better...

... (at least that’s the line coming from our new owners, GuestHotels). I’ve got wires hanging out of my ceiling, gaps in my floorboards, and a broken window. I haven’t been this naked since the day I was born in 1906! Some peeping Tom of a photographer came in today to record me in my state of undress, and he said something about the snaps going up right here on my blog, so there’s no point in denying it: I’m in a right old state.

But just wait until September - I’m going to be GORGEOUS! I mean, I’ve had the odd minor makeover in the past, but this is a whole new order. And it’s not just me. The Hall told me (through the central heating pipes) that some chap spent hours rubbing cream into her mahogony the other day. She said she hasn’t felt that loved for over 100 years!