POSH

Orna and I had a most lovely weekend in Haifa. This after a not great start. There I was all weirded out by things going too smoothly, when I got a call from my travel agent demanding to know why we weren't in Haifa yet. Seems there was a massive misunderstanding. Somehow the reservation got made for Thursday and Friday and I was sure it was for Friday and Saturday. I was sitting in the sun not far from her office killing time until I could pick up the rental car. I flew to her office and after a bit of talking it was agreed to change things to Fri-Sat and that I would pay 400 shekels as they had no available regular rooms and we'd have to take a suite. As the cancellation fee was 500, I jumped at, and went to get the car. The drive to Haifa went fine except for two minor wrong turns. No big deal. We found the hotel and entered a whole new world. The suite had two bedrooms with king size beds, a living room, kitchenette,TVs in every corner, and balconies accessible from every room except the bathroom. We had views of the Med from every window. As neither of us had eaten breakfast, never mind lunch, we headed for the lobby bar for sandwiches. They were so huge we couldn't finish them, so we took the leftovers to the room and had a rest before dinner.
Dinner was a huge buffet affair and very nice. Assistant managers kept coming over to ask if we needed anything, and if all was well. As it should be with guests in suites. Poor Orna had never seen anything like it, but quite enjoyed her new role as royalty! As I was completely knackered from the drive, we gave the evening entertainment a pass. After I climbed into bed, I discovered that we'd left the water in the car and I needed it to take my pills. Orna volunteered to get it and went wandering out in her jammies. That left me in gales on laughter. Her jammies are proper flannel ones that could not possibly be anything else. She arrived back with the water, I took my meds and tuned into the news. I was fast asleep before it was over. We woke up at 0645 or so and went down for breakfast; a coffee emergency having been declared. Another huge buffet, then, back up, I parked myself on the balcony and Orna went exploring. After a while I went in to read in bed and woke up when Bat Chen called. Orna had returned from her adventure (fully dressed this time) and we got ready to go down to meet Bat Chen who came to have a birthday celebration with us in the lobby. They had coffee and cake, I had coffee. We went up to show off our suite to Bat Chen who was properly impressed, then saw her off and went to the other building for dinner.
Another early night and some idiot woke up at 0530 and decided it was 0830 after looking at the watch without glasses. We packed up and went for breakfast at 0700, checked out and headed for home. About 15 minutes out of Haifa proper, something went 'click' and I was driving again. Until that point, I wasn't 100% comfortable driving. I was doing ok, but the old 'this is right' feeling wasn't there until then. It's a bit odd driving with the ball on the steering wheel, but, now, it's ok. I relaxed and we got home in plenty of time to get the car back. The whole weekend was marvelous and Orna had a blast. I think my best moments were reading the texts from Cab/Kiri Two Legs. I love her texts so much. Of course, I'm busy trying to convince that Christmas will be on Feb. 13 this time, as that's the day we leave Bournemouth for Wales, and as she's going home for Christmas, it might as well be when I'm there too. Plan *B* is for her to stop here on her way to or from Indo. I so want to see her.
It's time to get out of here and get my international drivers license. Watch out UK! I'm on the way.