No gods, no kings, no billionaires
One of the many, many things on my ever-growing to-do list is to process all of our photos from Rome this year. (By “process” I mean digital processing. We have a number of manual steps and Photoshop batch jobs we use on all our digital images to generate medium-sized images and thumbnails, and to sort them into date-indexed folders.) But in the meantime, here’s a quick glimpse of one of my favourites…
We’re just back from a weekend away in St. Andrews. We were staying at Rufflets (very nice), courtesy of my parents and Scott & Angela, who gave us a voucher for dinner, bed & breakfast there for our Christmas.
When I got up this morning, I found that I’d left my shampoo at home. (Alex had decided to unroll all our toilet paper and flush it down the loo while I was packing.) Helpfully, though, the hotel had provided a small bottle of Gilchrist & Soames “Spa Therapy” Sea Lettuce-flavoured shampoo.
It struck me that hotels all over the world are quite happy to provide you with soap and shampoo. The better ones will lavish you with tiny containers of balms, lotions and other sweet-smelling potions. If you’re really lucky, they might even throw in a shower cap. But what’s missing from this line-up of toiletries? Toothpaste.
So if I happen to forget my sponge bag while I’m travelling, I’ll never have to fear body odour. My hair will smell of tropical fruit and my armpits will be scented with wild flowers. That’s nice. But my day-old travel breath will still be lethal at up to twelve paces.
Why are hotel guests not welcomed with little samples of exotic toothpastes above their bathroom sinks? Is there no-one that will supply tiny tubes of “mint and mango” toothpaste? “Strawberry Spearmint?” “Oriental Lily Fresh?” Or how about aromatherapy toothpastes? Not only would they refresh your mouth, but they would have the power to relax or invigorate your dinner partner or business associates.
Actually no, that would probably be silly.
But why is it that hotels have all settled on offering a certain selection of toiletries, but not others? Who did the market research to figure out that people like washing with a complimentary bar of soap (or just taking one for their personal collection), but not brushing their teeth with a tube of free toothpaste? Are people just more likely to forget to bring soap and shampoo than their toothbrush and toothpaste? And now that span and shampoo are the international standard, do people nowadays knowingly set out to travel without these items in their collection of personal toiletries?
It’s puzzling.
Yay–we’ve booked our holiday to Rome for this year! We’re only going for five days this year (Wednesday to Sunday, at the end of May), but we don’t really go to Rome to sight-see any more–we just go to soak up the atmosphere and relax. We plan to spend a lot of time just wandering around the Centro Storico, hanging out in cafés, and locating playparks for Alex. There’s a few we know about from last year, but I’m sure we’ll be able to find many more this time round.
We’ll be staying at the marvellous Hotel Panda again. We know it well now, and we just love its combination of price, location (practically right on top of the Piazza di Spagna) and quality. We had a double room last year, and Alex slept on a mattress on the floor, but we’ve got a triple room this time. Alex is so much bigger now, and we’re going to need all the extra space we can get….
Needless to say, we’re very excited about going!
On Wednesday morning we drove up to Aberdeen to see my Grandma. After some lunch, we drove out to Ballater. We checked in to our hotel (the Auld Kirk), then went out for a short wander back into the village. It had been a gloriously sunny day, and the afternoon was just starting to cool off with a fresh breeze. Alex played around on the grass next to the church, and had a great time waving bye-bye to the big buses as they finished their routes and parked in the depot.
In the evening we had dinner at Johnson’s Restaurant, which is part of the hotel. Before we went in, we had drinks in the lounge, and Alex flirted outrageously with the folks at the table next to ours. Really–it was quite shocking. He was turned around in his chair, ducking down behind the back and popping up again with a “boo!” and a shy little grin.
The meal itself was okay, but not more than that. I’ll describe it in a separate review soon.
The next morning we got up to a hearty breakfast, and learned that Alex really doesn’t like porridge. Fortunately, the carpet didn’t show all the spatters very clearly. Afterwards we had another wander into the village, so that Grandma could buy Alex something from the Ballater toy shop. So Grandma has now bought stuff for three generations of kids in my family there now. When my mum and aunt were children, they took holidays in Ballater, and the same toy shop was there. And I remember going there when I was young, too. So now it’s Alex’s turn! I wonder if he’ll carry on the tradition if he eventually has children. I’m sure the toy shop will still be there…
Just before noon we drove onwards to Braemar, in the hope of winning another car. Alex fell asleep on the way, and stayed asleep while we got him out of the car, walked to the Fife Arms hotel, and sat down for a cup of coffee. When he woke up, we headed over to the Alldays shop where we bought the winning packet of film two years ago, but alas, there was no such luck this year. I had found a penny in the street earlier in the day, but even its luck couldn’t reveal more than two matching amounts on the scratchcard. Oh well.
What we lacked in lottery fortune, we made up for in spades with a good hour and a half spent in the grounds of the Braemar Highland Games. The morning haze had lifted, and the grounds were mostly sheltered from the breeze. We sat on the benches while Alex played with his ball, and toddled all around the field. Abi did some cartwheels, which Alex found completely mind-blowing. He clapped and went “yay!” and made Abi do it again and again. He even tried to imitate her, bending over and putting his hands and head on the ground in a partial handstand! I chipped in with a couple of forward rolls, which he enjoyed as well, but not quite to the same extent. I also lifted him up and spun him around a couple of times so that he could be just as cool as his mommy.
I can watch him play for hours. He finds fun and fascination in the littlest of things: rocks, a fence, a bench. Anything can be a toy. You don’t need any fancy battery-operated gizmos. All you need is something you can throw, sort, climb on, or run around. Adults usually need to accessorise their play, but children don’t. Their joy is simple. Whenever I join in with Alex, I find myself getting absorbed in the properties of flaking paint, or in the countless things you can do with handfuls of gravel. I can lose myself in the concentration and delight of his play. It makes me feel young and carefree again.
Eventually, though, it was time to head back. We stopped off again in Ballater for some afternoon tea and cakes, and managed to leave behind Alex’s little blue backpack–the one that clips on to his carrier backpack, in which we keep his changing kit, spare clothes, and backup biscuits. Unfortunately, we didn’t notice this until we left Grandma’s in the evening, and wanted to change his nappy. Fortunately, though, the nice folks at the tea room found it and kept hold of it, and will be putting it in the post to us.
We had considered going out to dinner again, but we were all still pretty full from the previous night, a big breakfast, and the afternoon cakes. So we ended up stopping off at Asda, picking up some cold meats, and having a nice little sit down meal in Grandma’s kitchen. We had also considered staying on in Aberdeenshire for another night. Maybe drive out West or North, find someplace to stay, and then do some more wandering around the next day. But it was getting late, we were getting a bit tired, Alex hadn’t slept too well the previous night, and we just didn’t think we’d get enough enjoyment out of another night in a hotel to make it worth our while. So at just before eight, we set off home again.
We had a fabulous time. And Alex is old enough now to know that he enjoyed himself, too. Because just before we left, he toddled over to Grandma, took the noo-noo out of his mouth, and stuck his face and mouth up to give her a kiss. He loves his Grandma, and she loves him.
We’re off work next week, and we’ve just made a hotel booking at the Auld Kirk Hotel in Ballater for next Wednesday. We’ve been past the hotel any number of times on our way through Ballater, and have always thought that we ought to try a stay there some time. On one of trips through Scotland we even popped in and tried to get a room there, but they were fully booked. So we’re definitely looking forward to finally getting to stay there next week.
We’ll be bringing Grandma McLean with us, in the hope that she’ll help us win a car again. (It’ll also help Alex to not wreck her house completely as he runs around with his boundless energy.)
Yay! We’re in Rome again! And we’ve even got all of our luggage back!
We set out relatively early on Sunday morning. A taxi to Edinburgh airport at 07:00, to catch a flight at 09:15. The plane was quite small, and we had window seats. The caterers were on strike at Charles De Gaulle airport, and there was no hot food on the flight. There was some fromage frais, some juice, and a bread roll, none of which Alex was terribly happy about eating. He grunched for a bit longer after this mealoid before falling asleep for the rest of the flight; he was out cold when we carried him off the plane in Paris.
(Note to self: Paris CDG airport is not a place you want to let a baby crawl around unless you’re happy for him to get utterly filthy, and for him to be sticking discarded cigarette butts in his mouth. Pretty airport, but basic cleanliness–let’s not even go as far as hygiene–is not their top priority. And no changing facilities in the men’s toilets, either.)
The flight to Rome was a re-run of the Paris flight, except we decided not to even try the cold mealoid. It gave us just that little bit more space for Alex to throw himself around in.
By the time we got to Rome, we were thoroughly ready to get to the hotel, rest a little, and have something to eat. No such luck, though. We stopped off at the toilets before going to pick up our luggage, but when we got to the conveyor belts, neither of our bags were there. We looked all around the area, and waited for a while longer, but in vain. They were gone.
Sudden flashback to two years ago, when we were last in Rome. Our flight didn’t get in until late in the evening (on schedule, though–not because it was delayed), and my bag was missing. Abi had hers, fortunately–only mine was gone. And we didn’t get it back until our way back from Rome: it had ended up in Heathrow with no luggage tags, and it was only with some measure of luck, and some very helpful British Midland staff that we found it.
Since then, we have made a point of sticking to three key rules when packing for a trip:
Unfortunately, rule 2 is no help when the airline loses both your bags, and we forgot about rule 3 this time.
So we went up to the lost luggage department, left our details, and hoped for the best. Last time round, British Midland furnished us with a very pleasant toiletries bag each, containing spare underwear, toothbrush, toothpase, soap, and even some deodorants. This time, nothing. (Points against Air France, here.)
At this point we were starting to dread that this was going to be a repeat of our last trip in other ways, too: last time in Rome, we arrived at our hotel to find that they had no record of our reservation. Fortunately, this was because of administrative incompetence on their part. They had booked us into their (slightly more up-market) pensione instead of their severely basic backpackers hostel. Not that they told us that at the time, though. It meant trudging through the Termini area of Rome at a dodgy hour of the morning. Not the most pleasant thing in the world.
But luck was on our side here. Pensione Panda had our reservation. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a cot for Alex. I had asked for one when I made the booking, but the telephone conversation was half in English, half in Italian, and some misunderstanding must have happened. We’re nothing if not competent improvisers, though, and so we put him together a small bet made of a folded-up spare blanket and bedcover. We put this in a corner, and walled a third side in with a small bench turned on its side. Perfect!
We had been too tired to query the lack of cot when we arrived. But we checked with them the next morning, though. And althought they didn’t have a cot as such, they installed a single mattress in the place of our makeshift bed, all nicely made up with sheets and a pillow! For all three nights so far, Alex has slept all the way through the night. (Last night he kept us awake with his coughing fits, but at least he slept fine.)
So there we were in Rome, with no luggage. But because of our previous experience, we knew just what to do! There’s a department store called Upim just next to the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, where last time I’d bought replacement clothes for the whole trip. We got us some clothes to last us through the day, because we were still hoping that our bags would be returned to us. (Surely all tags couldn’t have slipped off both bags. We reckoned that they had been mis-shipped somewhere together, in which case they should be findable.)
And lo! Before the end of the day, as we were back in the hotel getting ready to go out to dinner, there was a knock on our door, and the hotel receptionist was there to tell us that our luggage had just been delivered! Most excellent!
Since then (and even before then, really–Alex has taught us to be quite flexible) we’ve been having a great time. Last week, the weather forecasts were saying that we’d be getting clouds and possibly some rain. Since we’ve been here, we’ve had nothing but glorious sunshine. It’s only today that it’s been really warm, though. 26 degrees, yum….
(Oh, and somewhere on the trip to Rome, a wee carton of orange juice burst inside our bags, and all over my mobile phone. We discovered this around the same time as our luggage failed to arrive, so imagine how happy we were feeling around then. It looked like the phone was a deader, but fortunately since it has had time to dry out, it has recovered most if its fundtions. The keypad is still flaky, though. But on the good side, I never cancelled my phone insurance from the Carphone Warehouse when I first got my phone almost two years ago. So if it does’t get any better, then I should have no problem getting it repared for free, or getting a completely new phone as a replacement.)
All is well. Rome is lovely, as always. I’m wearing shorts. Alex is wearing a red floppy sun hat and banging himself on the forehead with a piece of plastic he’s just managed to remove from the air conditioning unit next to me here at EasyEverything.
Cooooolll….