They began grabbing the luggage from in front of the rooms & piling it on…not checking off from the rooming list and not marking down how many bags were being pulled from each room. I knew the nightmare I’d have downstairs if we came up one bag short..….so, I proceeded to “suggest” how the operation should be done. Then it dawns on me…these boys, smiling and saying Hello, didn’t understand ONE WORD of what I was saying. Somehow I get them to understand “STOP” and “WAIT’. ( I guess it’s the mother image in me that all kids know , when mother says no and means it.
Running back to my room for the rooming list, I notice that I am barefoot. Glad to see that I’m not locked out, I slip into my shoes, struggle with my own suitcase, which, of necessity, had become “carry-on” because the lock had been broken upon arrival, I head back out to the hallway thinking I better get back there before they give me 3 days of work tracing down a lost piece of luggage.
It appears that they understand “Big Mama” is going to oversee this operation and began by presenting me with 1 suitcase at a time so I could check it off the luggage list prior to adding it to the cart. Down the hall we go. I’m checking the room numbers…they are not. One room has no luggage. I knock on the door, fearful that they had thought it was a dream and fallen back to sleep.
While waiting for the people to add their luggage, the boys marched down the hall picking up more luggage. There ensued a lengthy debate..in Chinese, of course, as to just what luggage had been added to the cart in my absence.. Finally finished, we headed for the elevator and were met by 2 more employees…now there were 8…In 5 years I had never seen 8 employees to help me with check-in. As the elevator door slowly closed, I waved to my pajama clad group, standing in front of their open doors, with quizzical looks on their sleepy faces, “Go back to sleep”, I said. And the elevator doors closed and we desended to the next phase of our adventure.
An UNMARKED van was parked at the front door of the hotel As 2 UNMARKED guys reached for my precious luggage and began placing it in this vehicle, I call out the name of the Tour Operator….they do not answer. (Again, shades of Montreal) and I head out looking for an English speaking ANYONE and come upon the Assistant Night Manager. She assures me that it is our Tour Operator, but I wonder why they didn’t recognize the name of the company they supposedly work for.
Convinced that it is safely on its way to the airport, I step back on the elevator, glancing at my watch, and notice that the whole operation has taken only 25 minutes from start to finish. I think to myself, why can’t they get it IN as fast as they can get it OUT? Coming in those people have been traveling for 24 hours and can’t wait to get to bed.
As I climb back into bed, I turn out the light and with a sigh, I think….What could possibly happen next?”
Stay tuned………..There are more adventures to come.
KnittinKitten
Judy
WELL, IT FINALLY HAPPENED TO ME…….I Knew it was only a
matter of time. And, it did NOT feel GOOD…………..Now,
what did you think I was talking about. Ya know we
can’t use Porn here or we’ll be in serious trouble.
What happened to me to cause me to write my first
Blog? I just received my first nasty comment. NOW I
know how it REALLY makes the rest of you feel….AND, it
wasn’t even all that nasty .
After so much commotion on the Blogs and Forums
regarding the posting of photos on our profiles, I
finally bought a camera, found a friend to take pics
for me, had my son teach me how to download them onto
the computer, save ‘em, and then upload them into my
Profile. I did all that, and was sooo very proud of my
accomplishments. The pics aren’t really so bad,
either. After all, I’m not a young chick…and I’m not
slender, or petite, or….oh well, I feel a second Blog
coming on about THAT subject.
I knew the pics were there….and I really wasn’t
expecting them to be important enough to receive any
feedback… ( I was just happy to no longer be thought
of as someone too fat to want to be seen.) .When, lo
and behold, while logging in the other day, I
discovered that I had an Email message from, oh dear,
I can’t tell ya, can I…
Well, “ it” shall go nameless…because “it” really
doesn’t make a difference. The message was not a
comment on a forum or Blog, which surprised me. Why
privately try to humiliate me? That doesn’t make
sense. “It” doesn’t even know me.
Well, I suppose you want to know what this is all
about. The message was short and sweet? “Why
not…………………………a girdle”. Actually, it made me
laugh. It
was clearly sent just to be annoying. Now, more
importantly, what did I do.
First, I looked up the profile. I recognized the name
but had never spoken to the person. The profile was
pretty much as I expected…..not particularly
impressive…to me, anyway.. Then I set out to read each
and every Blog posted by this person. Well, THAT was a
SMART thing to do. I found a habit of lack of respect,
improper use of the English language, deliberate jabs
and digs at people, for reasons known only to that
poster, and possibly a psychiatrist or two.
Now I had to decide whether or not to answer it…and if
so, what to say.
And, that’s the whole motivation for my first Blog.
I have not as yet answered it, but I have played
around with many scenarios. The first feeling was to
“get even”. But, when I gave it some thought, I
wondered why. I certainly didn’t want to lower myself
to “its” level. Then, the lightbulb came on in my
brain…HUMOR…that’s much easier than anger. Always in
my mind was that the commentor has the RIGHT to
comment. And then, I decided to put the incident to
good use….and thus…this Blog. I’m proud of myself,
once again.
My thought process, although maybe it should have been
centered around starting another diet, was focusing on
how I handle what life presents me with. Soooo, I came
up with the words for my reply………….
“Nope, can’t do that………….I try to have something for
everybody….. and that includes those who get their
enjoyment from un-necessary rude remarks”.
I guess I have succeeded.”
He IS a poster on this site….Ooops, I slipped….now you
know it’s a guy! Well, you probably guessed that
already.
The moral of this whole blog?….Maybe to let you all
see that the old lady is really no different from the
rest of you young uns….I have the same thoughts,
feelings…BUT, maybe, just MAYBE, time has taught me to
step back from something, take a good look, and treat
it in a way that is constructive…..see…my First Blog.!
(I still have to work on this totally ignoring it,
option. Not yet ready for THAT.)
But, I’m seriously thinking that this is the only
reply he’ll receive.
KNITTIN KITTEN
The telephone rings…I open one eye. It’s 2:10am. This can NOT be good. Maybe someone is ill. But, maybe it’s a wrong number.
“Hello, Judy here”, I say in my usual cheerful voice. “This is the Dining Room calling.” “The DINING room?” ( It’s 2am, who’s hungry now?)
They proceed to tell me that I forgot to sign the dinner check. What dinner check? Perhaps it’s the one they forgot to present me with. “Do you want me to get dressed and come down to sign it NOW? Can’t I sign it when I sign for our breakfast tomorrow?” “Oh”, I hear on the other end….then a flood of Chinese chatter and the young female voice is cut off without any further instructions to me. Personally, I thought tomorrow was an excellent suggestion anyway.
Now, I lie there in bed, wide awake by this time, having already had almost my quota of sleep for the night . I read for awhile, and then decided to get some fresh air. The windows don’t open. I call the front desk and follow their explicit English instructions. I fiddle with the dials until I’m finally able to detect the whirring sound of a fan…no heat, no cold air….and I couldn’t even feel any air movement.
Next morning I learned that, although the instructions I had received were correct, I had not been told that the a/c had been turned off for the winter and that no amount of fiddling with the dials would produce anything but heat or no heat. Well, nothing more I could do but attempt to get back to sleep for whatever was left of the night.
Again the phone rings. It seems the social life in my dreams is very busy. This time it is my National Guide….again I worry about an illness of one of my passengers, or my Guide. He’s fine. He’s very apologetic. He explains that he just received a phone call from the Front Desk telling him that the luggage for tomorrow morning’s flight to Shanghai must be brought down NOW, if we want it on the same plane with us in the morning. I glance at the clock. It’s 10 minutes to 3. “ NOW, I ask? “Why NOW?”.
“Because it’s going to the military airport and the government issues the orders and now is the time they want it.” Not daring to argue with the Chinese Government (the Tiennenman Square incident still indelibly etched in my brain), I said to Jimmy, “That means we have to wake up all our passengers and tell them to put their luggage outside their doors now.” “Right”, he said. “But, not we, YOU; they might not understand my English”. (Jimmy was a very hard working Guide and had been taking care of his end of the responsibilities flawlessly, his accent was a bit difficult to understand and, we had agreed to share the duties, with his conversation limited to answering their questions and socializing, and mine to cover precise instructions.
“What if they get angry with ME”, I asked. “I’ll share it with you., was his answer. “Okay”, I said….knowing that I suffer from Luggage Separation Syndrome and will have to oversee the entire operation anyway. (I’m still spastic from the Canada caper a short while ago when , on a motorcoach tour I just happened to spot a familiar suitcase being loaded onto an airport shuttle and, I went over to investigate. I discovered that all 48 pieces of our tagged luggage were already on the shuttle and in another 2 minutes they would have been on their way to the Montreal Airport instead of safely inside the bays of our motorcoach which was heading for Ct.)
With this realization, I decided to beat the luggage boys to the job and was thankful that I had laid my clothing out the night before, making it about the fastest job of dressing that I had ever done. I heard a commotion in the hallway and raced out the door… remembering to flip the lock so I wouldn’t lock myself out of the room…as I had done in the past. Sure enough it was the bellboys….6 of them….with their carts. WHERE WERE THEY ALL WHEN I HAD NEEDED THEM FOR A SPEEDY CHECK-IN UPON ARRIVAL.
stay tuned.........
You will find this Blog posted in "FOR THE OLDER SET" Int'l Forum.
Viewing is certainly NOT restricted to the Older Set! As a matter of fact, some of you may be faced with the aging of your own parents,and may find some of the suggestions in this article helpful in eliminating, for your own children, much of the stress and difficulties you are undergoing at this time.
Please feel free to peruse the "Older Set" for this and other blogs of mine... After all, I'M OLD!, so that's where you will usually find me.
KnittinKitten
Judy
KnittinKitten Blog (4)