Our First ‘Blog’

Compare and contrast

Case one.

After 5000+ miles and going through many checks, counter-checks, customs and security scrutiny by various bodies I thought that I was pure and innocent enough to be eligible for sainthood at least.

How wrong I was – going through customs at San Francisco airport (herein after called SFO, make up your own acronym) I was approached by a tele-tubby who had found that I was carrying not one but two 200ml plastic bottles of “Head and Shoulders” in my sponge bag.

A heinous crime in itself but I had compounded the felony by also having an un-opened tube of 30 strength sun tan lotion. Everyone knows that this is the most powerful combination in the known universe able to stop the sun’s rays even after 93 million miles and kills all the dandruff in Europe just by adding water.  Clearly I was a direct threat to the “American Way of Life” – and the products were confiscated.

My only explanation for the actions taken was that California is in debt and Arnie has a car-boot sale every Saturday selling off these dangerous substances to raise a few bucks.

Case two.

After two weeks (a fortnight in old money) we had taken nearly 900 photographs – don’t worry I won’t add them all to this site – spotting a Sony shop in a Victoria shopping mall I decided to invest in some extra memory for the camera, 2Gb for 20 bucks (Canadian) not a bad price on holiday.  On the strength of such a bargain we thought a cup of coffee was needed, shopping makes you thirsty.

Suitably refreshed and able to take more snaps we left to see more of this most photogenic city.  As we sauntered through the streets I spotted a scene which cried out to be captured by our trusty Cyber-Shot I reached into the bag – horror of all horrors – the camera was missing!  We were both stunned, all those gems and Canadian mountain scenes loving preserved for our delight, gone forever.

Luckily we had not got far and quickly retraced our path back to the mall and the Sony centre.  Imagine our thoughts to find that we had not left the machine on the counter as I had supposed – what now?

We dejectedly walked to the food hall to see it the camera was still on the our table and asking a server (North American for waitress) if it had been handed in, but she said nothing was at the cash desk.  She suggested we try at the customer services desk on the lower level.  Iris went down the escalator in search of the office and I wandered around. Another server approached me and said it indeed been found and sent to the lower desk.  I was so pleased to hear this that I promptly kissed her (much to her surprise) and dashed off to join Iris who I found beaming with delight and with the camera in her hand.  So we were able to walk off happily to continue our exploration of Victoria.

Talking over our good fortune later that evening and the honesty and friendliness of the natives we realised in our relief at getting the camera back we had forgotten to thank the staff in the food court.  Be assured that we will be writing to the shopping centre and enclosing a small reward and a very large thank you to all the people concerned.

Two very different treatments by the locals and two memory strands – both with emotional effects and resulting in stories which are part of holidays.