Nora, companion in Hayes

Hayes runs on the Elizabeth line and Nora runs on the same timetable, which is why she is rarely late to this part of the map. The hair is honey blonde and long, the eyes hazel, the build athletic, the height 166 cm, and the posture makes a plain dress look expensive. Mid twenties. Paddington is home, twenty minutes away on the train, which out here counts as living next door.

Cheerful, but not relentlessly so, and she has a good ear for when a conversation should go quiet. She works in English, with a dry humour that catches people out. She is particularly easy company for the long stay guest, the one three weeks into a contract who has nothing left to say about the project and would rather talk about anything else.

Hayes surprises people who expected only warehouses. The Beck Theatre on Grange Road puts on a proper programme, from touring plays to comedy, and it sits ten minutes from the station in a part of town that is genuinely residential. She likes an evening that starts there and finishes with a late dinner, because it turns a working week into something that resembles a life. From the same station the terminals are nine minutes west and central London twenty minutes east.

The UB3 and UB4 detail lives on Hayes. Tell the desk the night and whether you want the theatre, dinner or simply a quiet evening in the hotel, and she will build it around your morning. Booking covers the practical side.

She argues, gently, that Hayes deserves better than its reputation. There is a theatre, a canal, a high street with a few good kitchens on it, and a train that gets you into town faster than most of zone two manages. An evening with her often starts with something booked rather than something improvised, because she thinks a plan is kinder to a tired guest than a list of options.

Later she is content to be still. Back at the hotel, coat off, the conversation still going from wherever the interval left it. She is good at the transition from an evening out to a quiet room and does it without any change of gear. If you are on the early Elizabeth line in the morning she will make sure you are awake for it.