Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2010 14:55:07 -0700
Reply-To: Roger Whittaker <rogerwhitt1@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Roger Whittaker <rogerwhitt1@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: =?windows-1252?Q?Re=3A_NVC=3A_The_Vacation_Day_that_Wouldn=92t_Go_Right?=
In-Reply-To: <689126.5855.qm@web111714.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
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Dear Chocolate Coated Camera
That was a great story ... how very cool ...
i am thinking's about issobella rossolini right now ...
in david lynch movie ... blue velvet ...
cue dennis hopper ...
on a personal note ... lots of people ask me if they should get a westie to
take their family camping ...
first question i ask in return is ...
how do you guys get along ...
they always look back with a what the hey expression ...
well i elaborate ...
when things go adrift from the plan ..what happens ..
is she handing you tools or cursing the womb that brung ya ...
the former is always better than the latter ...
the latter indicates one should likely choose a points plan and hotel
service level required by mate
yours
On Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 2:00 AM, Malcolm Stebbins <mwstebbins@yahoo.com>wrote:
> The Vacation Day that Wouldn’t Go Right:
>
> We decided to make the best of our time as we awaiting the repair of the
> van’s
> wheel-bearing and with the best of intentions, we were up early in our
> Camping
> Jonjio campsite in Catania (Sicily) in order to get to the "must see" fish
> market that finishes by 11 a.m. That means forgoing a cooked breakfast and
> instead having cold cereal in order to speed our arrival at the much touted
> fish
> market.
>
>
> We waited an inordinately long time for the bus, but then again it was
> Sunday,
> so we can forgive that one. Once on the bus, we were not sure where to get
> off
> the bus, we decided to err on the side of conservancy and got off the bus
> at,
> what turned out to be, about 10 blocks shy of our destination. Not a
> problem as
> a good brisk morning walk is invigorating, right?
>
> Jamila used a combination of fractured Spanish with Italianized
> French/English
> to ask for directions to the fish market. Can this be true: It's closed
> on
> Sundays .... Not what Lonely Planet says!! Well, let's make of the day
> what we
> can... There must be a museum around ..... Let's see one is closed on
> Sunday and
> the other closes at 11:30. It"s now 11:15, drats!
>
> So we sat down in one of the few open cafes and had a cup of tea in an
> effort to
> gain some perspective and sooth what was becoming frail nerves; It worked,
> and
> we read in the Lonely Planet that there is a North African restaurant
> called
> Marrekesh, that serves excellent Tagines and Couscous. It's been nearly 6
> weeks
> since Jamila has had good Tagine or Couscous, so I offered to treat her to
> a
> nice lunch ... and it's within walking distance, let’s go. mmmmmm
> According
> to the map, it should be about …….. here ....not in sight .... let's look
> around
> a bit;;;;;;;; OK now it's time to ask. The answer comes back that the
> restaurant is no longer in business and has degenerated into a Pizzeria
> (joining
> the other 10,000 pizzerias in town).
>
> Even for a Sunday, the town is deserted as everyone is in having their 1
> p.m. to
> 5 p.m. lunch & siesta, so let's go back to the campground and salvage what
> we
> can by doing laundry; The campground had graciously provided us with a
> laser
> printed map of the bus routes that serve the campground: 935, 534, 448.
> we of
> course had folded the map and the laser ink had chipped off so that 448
> looked
> like 443. We walked to the bus station and asked where to catch 443 and
> they
> were very helpful ;; only 4 blocks away. We boarded the bus and after
> about 30
> minutes it became evident that we were heading in the wrong direction.
> Jamlia
> asks again, and is informed that if we stay on the 443 bus as it completes
> its
> ENTIRE round of the city, we can get back to bus 448;;;;;; Deep Breath
> ;;;;; oh
> well, a nice cheap tour of the city's back streets. Once on 448 we DO
> arrive at
> the campground 1.5 hours after we first decided to return to the
> campground.
> Out comes the laundry & soap and off I go to do the laundry; Just as I was
> going to put the soap in the machine, a woman started hollering at me in
> Italian: NO, NO, NO Through the international language of Charades,
> seems
> that the cost of the machine includes the soap etc. as indicated by all of
> the
> hoses hooked up to the machine. So after she straightened me out about
> that
> one, I proceeded to put the Euro coins into the machine's slot. NO, NO,
> NO!
> again; seems I must buy a token for the machine. She took the 5 Euros out
> of
> my hand and soon returned with a token. As the song goes: "I'll get by
> with a
> little from my friends."
>
> So with the cloths in the machine and Jamila having no tasks for me, I took
> my
> notebook computer up to the men's washroom for some badly needed
> electricity so
> that I could back up all 11 gigabytes of photos (if you are a photographer,
> I
> shoot in RAW & jpeg); As I worked on some of the photos, I of course
> stayed in
> the men's washroom as I'm not about to leave a computer in the washroom.
> After
> about 15 minutes Jamila bursts into the men's washroom exclaiming:
> "Malcolm
> I've done something TERRIBLE!" As I reeled around, I see a chocolate
> covered
> digital camera that, under the chocolate; looks a lot like my EXPENSIVE
> Sony
> R1!!! I immediately surmise that Jamila is correct: "Something Terrible".
> mmmmmm
>
> As background as to why I did not get upset, about 4 weeks earlier, I had
> inadvertently dunked the very same expensive Sony R1 in a stream and while
> it
> had recovered about 99% of it's function, I had already decided to buy a
> new
> camera on my next trip to N America. So, (back to the story) I could see
> no
> reason to NOT just put the camera under the faucet to wash off the
> chocolate - a
> terrible waste of chocolate. Jamila is feeling horrible, but we focus on
> the
> task at hand; Film cards out and washed, battery out and washed, and back
> to
> concentrating on getting the chocolate off the camera.
>
> As the story came to light as to what happened, Jamila was trying to
> prepare a
> nice surprise for me and was preparing HOT chocolate to go along with
> dinner,
> and as she as mixing the chocolate into a paste in our tall insulated cups;
> she
> put the tall cups on the front table and then inadvertently,
> ever-so-slightly,
> nudged the table and my camera was innocently sitting on the passenger's
> front
> seat right under the table as the overturned cup of hot chocolate paste
> spilled
> directly on top of my camera. She then did the only thing she could think
> of:
> Grab the chocolate toped camera and RUN to Malcolm ......... in the men's
> washroom!
>
> Jamila returned to the van to clean the chocolate off the front seat
> (before it
> congealed) while I continued to clean up the camera. As I returned to the
> van
> to help Jamila, after about 3 minutes, as I was putting the cleaned camera
> out
> to dry, I remembered that I had left the battery and 2 film cards in the
> men’s
> washroom. As I returned… the men’s washroom was still there, but not the
> battery nor the 2 film cards. I went to the reception desk ….. someone had
> returned the battery, but no film cards were turned in …. mmmmmm. Not to
> worry, as I had just transferred all of the photos to my computer, and mere
> money can replace the film cards, right?
>
> As we went to bed, we had fun recounting the events of the day and thinking
> of
> how many people around the world would love to have had our ‘problems’,
> such as
> they were.
>
> As a post script, the camera regained about 98% of its functionality, and I
> have
> donated it to Jamila’s nephew and I have replaced the camera with another
> Sony
> R1. Malcolm & Jamila
>
>
>
>
--
roger w
From Proverbs:
Under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up: a
servant who becomes king ...
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