Nora, up before the flower market opens

At four in the morning, while the night desk is still answering messages, Nora is sometimes already on her way to the flower market at Nine Elms, coffee in hand, to buy armfuls of whatever the growers have brought in overnight. That is Nora in short: spirited, adventurous and happiest somewhere most people have not thought of going. She brings the same enthusiasm to an evening, and it is catching.

Honey blonde hair worn long, hazel eyes, an athletic 166 cm frame: she has the look of someone just back from a beach, even in November, and she dresses the part with bright colours, gold sandals when she can get away with them and a good coat when she cannot. She is in her mid twenties and designs clothes in her spare time, sketching in a notebook she carries everywhere. She speaks English warmly and with enthusiasm.

Her evenings tend to begin with bubbles. Her favourite is the long champagne bar at St Pancras, under the great arched roof, where she likes to watch the Eurostar passengers arriving and guess where they have come from. From there a cab back west to a Paddington hotel, through the park if the evening is warm. Guests landing late at Heathrow and staying by the station find her an easy, cheerful first evening in London.

Nora lives in Paddington, close to the airport trains and the hotels around the station. She likes a day of warning and never minds an arrival evening; tell Henrietta your flight time and your hotel.