I had one of the most bizarre conversations I've had in a long time yesterday evening.

Arrived in the Dublin Hilton at around 1030 p.m. feeling hungry & needing to meet with a colleague. I called him from the taxi and pre-ordered the beer and a sandwich from the bar.

When I arrived the beer was there, but no sandwich as the bar had stopped serving food.

I went to the front desk and the conversation went like this...

"Do you have 24 hour room service?"

"Yes, certainly "

"Can I have a beef sandwich please"

"Of course sir"

"Great and can you have it delivered to the bar, I'm in a meeting with a colleague there"

"I'm afraid that's not possible sir"

"Why not"

"Room service food can't be delivered to or eaten in the bar"

"So if I went to my room, ordered a sandwich and then brought it down to the bar, you would stop me"

"Er....."

I went through the same loop with the duty manager and got precisely nowhere. When asked why, her answer was that this was hotel policy and she was only following orders. She did sound a little uncomfortable about the whole thing, but stuck to her guns.

By this time it was 1050 & I hadn't the time to go upstairs, wait for a sandwich, come down & talk with my colleague, so I gave up, drank my beer and dined on the chocolate I'd bought with a BA catering voucher earlier that day.

It was as if I was reliving the scene in Five Easy Pieces where Jack Nicholson tries to order something that isn't on the menu.