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Alistair Wiseman or AliWiseman Blog MSN Page Pictures and moreAlistair Wiseman MSN page with Blog n Pics February 02 The Crown Plaza, John Lennon Airport, Liverpool,*grins* Finally got around to penning a complaining letter to the hotel by the airport in Liverpool regarding the prices and customer service / relations! To whom it may concern. We had the misfortune of encountering one of your hotels, The Crown Plaza, John Lennon Airport, Liverpool, Uk, to be exact. in the first week of this new year. Let me paint you the picture. I am a British man, who has married a dutch lady, and subsequently moved across to Holland. Having spent the last 3 new years in The Netherlands, we decided to head across to my home country in order to give an impression of British hospitality to my wife. As it happened, the weather had other ideas, and kept us mostly snowed in for the time of our visit. Upon our leaving date, the snow was particularly heavy. All public transport was cancelled. All planes, cancelled. We were stranded. As Liverpool airport is approximately 8 miles from the city center our options were limited. Stay at the airport, or find a hotel on foot. We chose the latter, and ventured out into the snow, which was now several inches deep. Having attempted to book in two hotels we passed along the way to no avail due to, of course, the many passengers who had been foiled in their attempt to fly, and the other hotel's close proximity to the airport. Eventually we arrived, tired, bedraggled, and cold in the afore mentioned hotel of your chain. Now, I am a man of natural good spirits. having just carried our luggage and attempted to maintain my wife's humour and mine near the surface, the toil we had just been through had taken its toll. Suffice to say I was glad to be in the warm. The queue for the booking in desk was impressive, but was dealt with succinctly enough from all which I could gather from the peoples reactions. The came our turn, to-whit when inquiring as to room availability my wife was told a flat out "No. We have no rooms!". You can imagine our surprise, ney our outrage, at the serendipity of such a remarkable coincidence that, we had landed at the hotel at the exact same time that they had run out of rooms. My wife, was suitably upset, having trekked so far in such conditions. She made it known to the person behind the desk that she was at breaking point because of our ordeal, which seemed to bare no weight with the delightful young lady serving us. The idea of returning outside to temperatures surpassing -10c was not an appealing one. Now it just so happened that, a young presumably aspiring manager overheard our plight, and took the young lady to one side. Mysteriously between them, having seen us to be desperate, they managed to conjour forth a room which presumably had just been built, and so the young lady was not aware of it. I would hate to think that, because of our rather worse for ware appearance she had decided that we were not, "desirable". That would be awful now wouldn't it? The young lady returned, and exclaimed "we do have a room for you... if you'd just like to sign here here here.." etc whilst neglecting to mention the price. Being a frugal sort of chap, and having worked in The Grand Hotel in Brighton, one of the top 5 hotels in the country whilst I was there, (although I would never express any kind of linkage between the two), I thought I should ask about this semantic kind of detail, and was duly started at the £120 price tag, which was for room only. Having absolutely no option but to take the room, we went directly to it to change, and then returned to the bar, where by, fortune would have it, we bumped into another person who had been waiting for the same plane as ours. "Found your way here too? ", he jovially inquired. I assumed, due to our obvious being there, that this was rhetorical and trundled across to discuss quite what we thought would happen to our now rescheduled flight. Remarking upon costs incurred imagine my surprise when the figure of £69 was thrust upon me for how much it had cost this man for his lady and himself. I smelt a rat, and not one which you would keep as a pet either. As it happened, we had yet to check the checkout time of the hotel, so, after having partaken of our drinks, we ambled back across to the front desk, where we were veritably astounded to see that people were still wandering in from the airport, and rooms were available for them, when, at least an hour earlier, the young lady had so abjectly stated that available rooms were something of an extinct commodity. I wonder if I can get away with calling a commodity "extinct"? Anyway, I digress and I'm sure you can ascertain exactly that which it is I am trying to portray to you. I believe the word "incandescent" can be applied to someone who is cross, as well as some form of lighting equipment. I feel, were I to apply that descriptive to both myself and my wife, you might be missing quite some of the vehemence I wish to share with you. However, we were inside, it was warm, we had a bed, and indeed a good one at that, and access to a tv, whereby we could watch and wait to learn news of outbound flights for the morrow. That is the story of our experience with your hotel. I'm sure you will be pleased to know that, we did make it home. Our flight was cancelled again and so using my initiative we secured transport in the form of a coach. In summary, your hotel was excellent at actually accommodating us, i.e. providing shelter etc, however, I find both the treatment of ourselves initially, in denying us a room, and then the sudden manifestation of rooms, at vastly inflated prices, quite contemptible. The ethics demonstrated there are particularly awful. I find it highly unlikely that the young lady on the front desk forgot about the rooms which were still being sold at least two hours after we arrived, and I find the discrepancies in prices basically a way to take advantage of people who are within the grip of situations beyond their control. I can but wonder if the extra profit made really did justify quite how the hotel went about making it. I suspect not. January 20 Relgious Ramblinga again.Ah.. i saw an article on the beeb news site about "Why does God allow natural disasters" in the wake of the Haiti earthquake. Anyone reading this, nust surely know I'm going to respond. Not entirely sure however if my response will be posted on the bbc site, so I shall reproduce it here for your reading pleasure! Ah, i always find this kind of topic amusing. If something good happens which "Just happens", it's a miracle and Gods doing. Something bad happens and, "it just happens", and people make up excuses for it. What really worries me is that, as a species, we have been bred into such insecurity that we require a "Higher Being" in order to vindicate our existence! How sad is that?! This earth wasn't made for us. We are nothing special to it. It is just the product of a bundle of gases and we are a product of that continuing process. We need to get over our arrogance in believing we are something unique and get down to actually looking after the human race as one species, which means pooling our resources so that buildings and structures do not just simply collapse like this again. Idealistic and, of course, not economically practical, because, without the leashes put upon us by religions, or rather by ourselves when inducted into our various "societies" which contain said religions, how would the few continue to delude the many? January 15 I’m late for my New Year’s entry!Ok.. so this is a tad belated! I'd love to say I've been busy, but nope.. I've just not really mustered up the energy to sling stuff down on here. However....
So, we decided to do a UK new year. Sarah kindly volunteered to come around and take care of the cats for us, and, having spent the last 3 new years in Holland it was really about time Es got the whole Uk new year thing. Phil had agreed that we could stay with him, so we flew over to Liverpool airport, where he picked us up. All was hunky dory for the first hour or so, up until, having sat down at Phil's we are kind of stuck for what to do for the actual New Years eve out. I'd arranged that we could all get into Dantes in Crewe for a rock night xmas, but Phil was after going to a friends house for a party there. Whilst discussing what to do, it became obvious because of the distance to town from Phil's we'd need transport of some ilk. Phil said he'd drive, but frankly that wasn't fair. The idea of Es n me heading into town and getting back on our own steam was mooted, but Phil said no, he would drive, and if it was crap in Dantes, we'd head back to the party. Unfortunately whilst saying that, he'd knocked back half a bottle of wine.
Cautious of getting into the car after that, I made the call that he was ok, if not legally so, so it sounded like a plan. Until the weed came out. Now, I've always been anti drugs. Always have, always will be. Two smokes later and he's ready to go, so we head off. I'm already not amused, but what can i do on NYE? With nowhere else to stop, it was a case of being pretty much stuck. Much like the situation with Wayne in Philly I'd put Es and me in the hands of a mate, and they'd shat on me. Not happy.
So.. we land at Dante's, and it's quiet. Like, 60 people max quiet. 2 hours(ish) later and with only 3 tunes having been played we knew I was starting to feel a bit of an arsehole myself. It was me who really wanted to be in Dantes, and it was, frankly, crap! Phil and his lass were looking bored, and in fairness so were Es n my good self. So, we said sod it, lets head back, drop the car off at Phil's, and go to the house party. landing back at Phil's he took a call within which he repeated, " you've got a load of drugs" . Again not amused I collared him about it. He said I must've misheard. He would never put us in a position where there was stuff like that going on. So, off we trundled. We arrived to maybe 7 people in the house. And in the kitchen... a big assed bong, which i only noticed cos I saw Phil on it! By this time I'd had enough. I collared Phil and said we were leaving. If he'd have had anything about him, he'd've come with us, or even suggested leaving first. We'd flown over from Holland ffs. Imagine if the jolly old plods had come a calling. Es with her Dutch passport would've been the instant suspect for the dealer, and just being caught with stuff like that in the house could've lost her her job, and subsequently us our house.
So we left, walked back to Phil's, then at about 7am took the walk into town. From Shavington. Arriving at the Waverley I've no idea how much later, we grabbed a room for the length of our stay. We could relax! New years eve had gone tits up, but at least we knew we had a bed for the next few nights. Albeit at a cost not factored in in the budget!
Crewe is much as it was. I took Es round the old pubs on Earl Street, discovering that Hamish lived about my mates house was amusing. I slung a note through his door saying " I'm in the pub", but there was no sign of him after an hour so we left. I subsequently found an inbox saying he was working. We were in Crewe for 5 days. There was no attempt at any other contact. That's not necessarily a bad thing I guess. Much like a bunch of other people, if he/they can't be arsed to come to me and Wifey to say " Hi", it's a resounding case of "Sod you then". I've given up with expending energy chasing friendships and relationships which are not there. My number hasn't changed in nearing 9 years.
On saying that, we had a great evening out with Mike and Sarah, and a good chuckle in the Hop Pole with Mr Myers, even if he did forget we were still there! Was good to catch up. Also we managed to get to Cheshire Oaks, but bought diddly squat there aside from one jumper for me. It's a nice jumper mind.. lol watched Arse beat West Ham in the cup too in the Imp, and grabbed a good meal in the Bombay on High Street Crewe.
So, time comes to head home, and we wake up to snow. Lots of snow. Not cms but inches! More in hope than anything else, we headed back up to Liverpool airport. Things looked good for a while.. and then.. more snow. Visibility disintegrated and the flight was cancelled. Now, as this is classed as an "act of god" Easyjet were not obliged to refund us the ticket. However, they said because of the extreme circumstances... they would, either that, or transfer and fly tomorrow instead. So... tomorrow it was then! One hitch. Where to stay for the night? We trotted off the airport into the now 6inch deep snow at the airport to be told, "All public transport and taxis are not running". Nice! So, where to go... and how to get there? There was a hotel across the road from the airport, but the city was 9 miles away. Off to the hotel it was then. One hitch. Our flight was a reasonably late flight, there had been many before ours. Many which had cancelled. So the hotel was full. Hmm,... must be another hotel close by. So off we set, heading back the way we'd come, through lots of snow a temp of -6 not including wind chill, and having tried another hotel which was full we wound up 2+ miles down the road, frozen, at The Crowne Plaza Liverpool Airport (John Lennon). We landed on their doorstep, and into a queue. having waited in reasonable good humour, we got to the desk, and asked for a room to be told "We have none.". Es by this time was not in the best of states. Cross tired and angry women rarely are in the best of states, and the attitude of the girl behind the counter did nothing to help as she looked down her nose at us. An exchange consisting roughly of, " you're kidding me" ensued, followed by the lass mysteriously finding us a room. A room at £120!!! Stuck with the choice of heading back out into the rapidly dropping temperature and snow, or being ripped off, we chose ripped off! As we hit the bar I saw someone else who was due to be on our flight... who had secured a room here (Crowne Plaza Liverpool Airport (not Crown) for the search engines and review seekers!) for £69. Really not amused now!
So, bar done, we headed to our room and watched some footy, then slept. Next day, reports from all over the country came in. 16inches of snow in some places, -21c temps... and I knew the plane was never going to go, especially as we'd taken an afternoon replacement instead of an evening one. Time passed, and at about 12 mid day we were told yup, flight was never going to go, and we could do the same as yesterday, transfer the flight, or try and get home another way and they would reimburse us for the costs. As it happened I had my thinking head on, and had a shufti at the National Express site, which said coaches to Amsterdam were still running. All ways round we couldn't stay stuck at the airport, and there was no affording another night in the Crowne Plaza! We decided to take our chances. taxi's had begun to run again and eventually, after a 40 min wait in the blistering cold, it was off to Liverpool!
First things first. Food and Drinks. Time to think, and to plan. Having badgered a person for the directions to the coach station I set off leaving Es in the pub to see if there were still seats available, only to be thwarted by ice. The coach station was up hill... and I literally took 3 steps forward, then slid 5 steps back on the ice. Mildly embarrassed I had to turn tail, and came back to Es to tell her I was stuck and needed help! lol Oh dear. Suffice to say we got there in the end, and the coach was indeed running, leaving at 11.35pm that night!! So.. a day stuck in Liverpool, which was basically a ghost town as no traffic, and no person, could really move without risking life and limb. In the end we killed time by grabbing an indian, watching a decent film in the cinema, and sitting in the pub right by the coach station!
The road trip back was actually quite doable. Grabbed a beer in Brussels, and got off at Den Haag, landing home at an almost decent time. All in all i think enough was done to put Es off the UK for good, but i think she saw a side of me which possibly made her realise quite what i'm made of, and how I deal with things. Cool. Calm. Collected. It's something which I do tend to pride myself on, and oddly, the exact opposite is expected from me from family, which I suspect says more about them than me.
And so we are home. I was having issues with some things over here before we went away. People attitudes. My own attitude. I was making "friends" for the sake of making friends. People who I'd not normally be associated with, or rather, spend time with, were becoming people I did both with. I hit breaking point a few days before heading to the UK with a few of them, walking out of the pub which I had been asked to go down to, not because they wanted me there, but because I had a lead to link a pc to a tv. The story needs not be repeated here, but I'd had enough. Walked away as I do, rather than really lose my temper. but now I'm home again, and I can't help but think that things are wrong in some way here. We went over to the UK for a holiday as such, and went out of an evening for a chat and a laugh and a drink with people. So basically... what used to be the leisure part of my life, my time to let off steam after work etc, is now classed as a holiday. And as if to rub it in, we went into town yesterday for a couple of hours, had 3 beers and a coke, and it totaled €27+ which I find obscene! Es earns a stupid amount of money for a 4 day week job, but yet we honestly can't even afford to go out once a week! And if we DID go out, she has no circle of friends to go out with, and to be fair neither have I so where would we go? And besides that, even if we could afford it, I'd spend too much time moaning about €5 pints to have fun most of the time.. lol. There is nothing social at all about Holland in my experience over 3 years of exposure. It would be far easier to hate the "culture" here than to ever love it. Instead I put effort into remaining disapprovingly indifferent. And then I read this as I write it and hope I can maintain that self control. I don't hate it here. I do however, hate certain aspects, and I think what really really makes this hard to deal with, is not my opinions about those aspects, it's the indigenous people's complete acceptance of those aspects as the norm!
Chuckles... so I was late with this blog. I think size wise I made up for it. Speaking of size, I remain under 12 stone! Now that at least is one goal reached. Always good to end on a positive! December 27 Up early!So, a new year beckons. What to expect? To be honest I'm not sure. It's been a strange 12 months. Just a quick scout over the blog says that much. I've not actually written as much this year as I normally do. Maybe i'm losing my edge? I don't know. I suppose the most significant thing to have happened is Julia's death. Mid 40s is no time to die. They say you should always expect the unexpected but I tend to lean towards expecting stuff that, to me, sounds plausible. Ju not being around at the end of the year, simply doesn't/didn't fit that description. 7 years a constant, removed without so much as a "By your leave", is kind of so out of character for her that, it does incite the reaction of, there must be some mistake. Unfortunately there isn't. Here in Holland things have remained much as they were. The interaction with Esther's family has pretty much drawn to a halt. I think the tally of two visits in total from her mum / dad / sis / brother is appalling but then apparently it has always been like that. Which, it seems, makes it ok in Esther's eyes, but not in mine. We have visited on numerous occasions, up until an incident around her mothers birthday, and from then on, its been left alone. I think I have come to accept that this is just the Dutch way. I however, won't change my mind that it is wrong. Or rather, their treatment of her is wrong. At least I know it's not my fault that they are not visiting! I suppose that's better than them actually visiting, and visiting to get to know me, rather than spending time with Es! Grins, down that road, resentment lies! The turning down of the management job at the pub seems to have worked out in my favour. The idea was sound, the practicalities and application, were not, which is a shame. The final outcome of this is that, the person who I would've worked for has left and moved back to the UK, and the pub was, at last viewing, closed completely over Xmas and New Year, the two times where custom is virtually guaranteed! Who can say how it would've turned out if I'd've taken the job... but from the outside now it looks like I chose the right option. Life-wise over here has turned into mostly mundane stuff. Day to day piffle is as it was yesterday, or last year, etc. I still get very frustrated at the fact that people here, really, honestly, seem to be ok with being absolutely ripped off monetarily. 33% income tax i still beyond a joke. I sat and worked out the figures only a few days ago regarding costs of living. If a person here earns E39,000 a year, after tax is the same as roughly earning E33,000 in the UK (29k in pounds). That's nearly a straight E6000 loss purely from tax! Add onto that your obligatory insurances, and the fact that the house here costs between 2 and 3 times the price and I think it equates to about 25k (E27,000) so logistically it is a E12,000 loss just for living here! I suppose job security is something. It's almost impossible to fire you over here! And then there are the medical costs here. Utterly abhorrent! Must..... not.... rant.....! People-wise... well that's a curious state of affairs. Being a Brit in a foreign country when you don't speak the language, kind of limits your choice of friends to the people you can communicate with. In a small community you can tend to "make do" and forge relationships with people who, in the UK, you'd probably not spend time with. Forge. Interesting choice of words. I suspect I have done just that! However, the time has come to purge this I suspect. People for peoples sake is not good. I suppose in a way I might have been looking for a sense of community, a common bond if you will, which would obviously mostly consist of "We're not in the UK anymore", whereby you can insert any country other than Holland into the UK slot. Turns out, for me at least, that's not really enough. I think I'd rather go to somewhere like Brothers of Beer in Leiden and not really speak to many people, but enjoy the music, than go to where I have been frequenting, and compromise myself by acquiring acquaintances rather than friends. People go to Brothers I think for the love of the music, a positive, if you will, rather than the people who go to the Kings who the majority (i think.. lol) go there because of a negative, a missing of what it's like in the local pub back "home". Perhaps for some, that convergence is enough, and that's fine, but for me, I guess I just don't get the nourishment I want. Oooh.. interesting.. I typed Need and then deleted it! What would Freud say? lmao! It will be nice to see the New Year in in the UK and catch up again with a few people. Assuming all goes to plan we're staying with Phil for a few days. Snow Ice and whatever else the elements can throw at us might mess with that though. A little bit of weather and countries grind to a halt. Baffles me. Not like we've never had bad weather before. I have at least attained one thing. I've got to, and stayed under 12 stone! Another half a stone off would be nice. Reading back, I injured my shoulder at the back end of July, and it's never really gotten better. The gym therefore has pretty much been just Esther's thing in the latter half of the year, which is a shame really. Eyeing a weights bench again to see if I can get back to something like I was a few years back. It would be nice to get back to that stage but I wonder if it's even doable all these years down the road. My shoulder serves as a reminder each time it goes CRUNCH that I am indeed much older now. Such is life. Anyway... enough of my musings. Coffee calls! |
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