Thread 19 - TalkLair: "The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long"

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 18)

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...

In the TalkLair, the fairy lights are festooned on the mantlepiece, the tree is twinkling with baubles, the mince pies are in the oven, the MN legendary chicken is ready to feed the hordes. The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch, always eager for general chit-chat on all manner of topics. We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

For a nightmare journey, that takes some beating, Kuc! Peterborough is my home town, although I've not been there for many years. I can picture the station, not sure of the Great Northern Hotel that used to be opposite it is still there now.

It definitely felt like a nightmare! At one point, shivering in the cold and dark and staring desperately at the lack of taxis, I whimpered "Is this hell?" to DH and he agreed!

Bloody HELL, @Kucinghitam that sounds awful! And then to only get two hours sleep, you must be knackered. Early nights all round by the sounds of it.

I'm feeling remarkably well so far (and it's nearly knocking-off time with work). I think I may be delirious?

It's the kind of journey that would surely have any ordinary person gibbering. But we did it on the back of a 14-hour flight, a train ride from LHR to Kings Cross, and with an 8-hour jet lag!

Tell me you don't have to work weekends.

Does anyone have any great ideas for birthday presents for a one-year-old (or perhaps, more realistically, for her Mum?). My grand-daughter clocks around in May. Obviously I can buy little things like bed-time reading books etc.

Babipur sell some beautiful wooden toys.

Well I expect you’ll sleep well tonight Kuc, and at least you’ll have the weekend to catch up

Oh they look lovely! Thank you!

The code BUNNY will get you 10% off. Not affiliated, just a fan though my kids sadly too old now.

Blimey, Kuc, what an ordeal! All that and jet lag, to boot!

That was quite a journey, Kuc. I’m glad you all got home in one piece, but definitely not what you needed.

Went to bed at 8pm and slept like the dead last night

We did have a marvellous holiday though, you know when people say they fell in love with a destination and it sounds cheesy? I genuinely fell in love with South Korea - wonderful people, gorgeous landscapes, delicious food, beautiful culture and amazing history. DH has been several times for work, always came back telling me I would love the place, and how right he was!

Here's a photo of the toilet control panel in one of our hotels. (I didn't dare try "Turbo")

Wow! I showed the pic to Mr Bear and pointed out the 'Turbo' option and he laughed very loudly. Did anyone try it?

On a trip to Shanghai years ago, I had one of those loos in my bathroom. The buttons were labelled Hard Rear Cleanse, Soft Rear Cleanse, Hard Front Cleanse and Soft Front Cleanse.

Also, BLOODY HELL KUC. I hope you will get £££ compo.

I think I would have had to just stay in Peterborough.

And I say that having been to Peterborough.

At least the loo buttons have words. I encountered several in Japan that were pictograms only, and not always ones I could work out. I never fathomed what the 'martini glass' one did.

Gave you a cocktail stick with an olive?

Quite possible. But where?

That looks like quite a toilet!

Your train/taxi journey sounds like a nightmare @Kucinghitam but at least you were going home. I once found myself in a late night taxi instead of train situation (with some colleagues on the way to a conference) but it was before the days of smart phones and so arriving in Cardiff in the middle of the night wasn’t great given that none of us had been there before including the taxi driver and the local taxi drivers saw our driver as an out of area imposter with no right to be there so they weren’t exactly helpful when he stopped to ask directions. I think we got to our hotel about 2am though so not as bad as your trip in that respect.

Do put in a claim, @Kucinghitam ... they'll probably only give you a voucher for train tickets, but those are worth having. Of course in the circumstances they may claim force majeure or some such nonsense, but it's worth a try.

Claim has been submitted, never fear! IIRC if it's a delay more than 1 hour we get the whole cost of the tickets back.

Sounds like you should get a nice fat refund, Kuc!

I'm plucking up the courage to wash the silk Salwar suit I wore for the wedding, which has a 'dry clean only' label on it. It's stupid that I'm nervous about it because I've done a colour test and it's fine and I've washed similar delicate things before without issue, including suede gloves which turned out beautifully. I think it's the 'dry clean only' label intimidating me but being intimidated by a label like that seems ridiculous.