BLOG posts about Travelodge are rather bus-like: you wait years for any reference to the British budget-hotel chain, then get two efforts in as many days (see yesterday's post).

Anyhow, we're thinking about the company again today because it has just released an inventory of all the items left in its 460 hotels last year. While we can understand those who misplaced a superintendent's badge, a diamond-encrusted Rolex or even their divorce papers, it must be harder to walk away without a Bengal kitten or life-sized Dalek. As well as oddities, there's also a list of the ten most commonly forgotten items. Phones, e-readers and other gadgetry have a predictable place here; false teeth and adult toys are rather more surprising.

Among the 20,000 books found, “The Unauthorised Biography” of Simon Cowell was the most common—left behind on purpose, rather than lost, we assume. The joint autobiography of Ant and Dec, British television presenters, was second, followed by Vince Cable's book on the meaning of the economic crisis. Less surprising losses were bestsellers by Dan Brown, Stieg Larsson and Stephenie Meyer, not to mention endless business manuals, phrase books and the occasional copy of the Kama Sutra. An entire suitcase of Mills and Boon novels was found at one Leeds Travelodge, the property, apparently, of a high-flying businessman.

Staff reunited 75,000 forgotten teddies—the fourth most abandoned item—with their owners over the year. And one relieved customer had £10,000 ($16,000) in cash returned after he accidentally threw away the wrong envelope when the sale of a car didn't go through. Hen and stag parties left plenty of paraphernalia. One particularly careless group staying in the Lake District left the groom tied to the hotel bed on the morning of his wedding. The ceremony had to be postponed for a couple of hours.