You might not remember the minibar. You don’t feel a particular sense of comfort in the laminated room service menu. What you do hear is the mention of a kettle and two tea bags, a small packet of shortbread – a kitchen that has somehow made its way into a hotel room. Even if that kitchen is small. This is the beauty of a serviced apartment.
There’s something about a kitchen. When you open the full-sized fridge in a place that is not your home, when you realise you are not only able to heat something already packaged or order something already prepared, but actually, somehow, cook, you know that special feeling. It’s the pan on the hob; it’s the ingredients waiting to be combined in just the right way at your fingertips from the supermarket just down the road, within ten minutes. It’s being able to cook rather than merely eat whatever you can find.
For the occasional traveller, all of this might be considered minor. But for those who are away from home for weeks – consultants, project managers, engineers out on long contracts, months at a time, it’s not.
The ability to cook for yourself will appeal to many people. For example, those on specific diets, those with allergies or those who simply want to nourish themselves with wholesome home-cooked food instead of endless convenience food and take-away. For Serviced Apartments Birmingham City Centre, contact https://birminghamservicedapartments.co.uk/
The day has finally finished. Work is done. You’re now left with all of your free time, but in a room that is not your own. The restaurant, with its waiter, feels sorry for you. Room service comes with a bed and a TV: the food might as well be a pitying smile. You eat alone somewhere that feels just a little bit wrong. You eat in a room and watch something you immediately forget. It’s all a little bit off.
But go to a supermarket, and in an instant you’re connected again to the ordinary, everyday rituals of life. You’re thinking again as you chop and prepare. You’re smelling, creating, and seasoning. And then you’re sitting at a proper table and not in a hotel room.
Home is not just a place or a border. Home is a set of minor, everyday rituals performed in a space that is, in some way, yours. The kitchen is where you begin to feel that sense of home.