Chapter 1 - Have a little sniff of US dollars and get excited
Wednesday April 29th
OK, so I know I’m not the only one who does this – we all pick up our US $$$ and immediately sniff them, don’t we. Don’t we? OK, so maybe it’s just me. So what has that got to do with the price of fish? Well, I had this clever idea (actually, it was Kim’s idea) to use the titles from the pages in my Waldo Pancake Travel Journal as the chapter titles for our trip report. Today’s title was “Have a little sniff of suncream while packing and get excited”. While suncream doesn’t do it for me, there is nothing like the smell of fresh, crisp $$$ to get me excited for our trip. So that became the title of Chapter 1. I can’t promise the rest of the titles will be as creative.
The day had finally dawned; today was the day we set off on our Panamanian adventure. Well, today we would get as far as Heathrow airport at least. Gary got up as usual and went off to work and Daniel was despatched to school, despite complaining that he had a sore throat and needed to stay home with his Mummy (cue much fake coughing and sniffing).
Mum and Charles, having arrived the day before, got up and had breakfast and we popped into town to get some last minute necessities:- Lee Stafford dehumidifier spray and a travel size moisturiser to take on the plane. After paying a cheque into the bank for Gary – and being told off for knowing his PIN – I treated Mum and Charles to a coffee in Costa, a small price to pay for free childcare for the next 2 and a half weeks.
Back home, I did online check-in. Tony messaged me to say that he had been unable to complete online check-in for some reason but didn’t know why. I think he was secretly hoping that he and Tee had been upgraded to 1st class. I killed some time by putting the final touches to my nails and printing off some cruise documentation.
Soon, it was time to pick Daniel and his friend, Holly, up from school. Gary arrived home shortly after we did and we set about packing the last few bits into the suitcases. Gary couldn’t find the portable luggage scales, which he swore he had left on the windowsill in the spare room. After a few minutes of searching, they were eventually located just inside one of the suitcases. Apparently I must have put them there….
After we finished the final chores – black recycling bin out, salt for the water softener in, Mum’s laptop updated – then it was time to leave for the airport. At 5.45pm on the dot! The M4 was quiet (which was lucky since it had been closed for hours the day before) and we were making good time. When checking my phone, I realised I had a missed call from Tony, who had left me a voicemail asking e to call him back. He sounded pretty serious and I instantly panicked that there was something wrong – everything from family problems to expired ESTAs and passports ran through my head. Never let it be said that I over-react to minor issues. I phoned him back with shaking hands and beating heart. Apparently he and Tee had arrived at the hotel and wanted to know what time to book the table for dinner. Doh! After chastising him for worrying me half to death, I updated him on our position and ETA and we agreed on 7.30.
Just after 7.15 we arrived at the Premier Inn Bath Road and checked in. I explained to the receptionist that I wanted a top floor room at the back of the hotel (after a bad experience last year) and, after checking, she confirmed that is exactly what we had. We popped up to the room to drop off our bags and freshen up, and found a card on the dresser, which had been left for us by Sue and Richard (a couple from the UK who were on the same cruise as us, who had stayed there the previous night before flying out to Miami earlier that day). Inside was a message wishing us a safe trip and saying they were looking forward to meeting us. A lovely gesture from a lovely couple!
Downstairs, we arrived in the lobby at the same time as Tony and Theresa. There were big hugs all round and Tee and I did a little huggy dance of excitement. It had seemed like this day would never come. At the restaurant, we joined the queue to get in. A very rude man pushed his way past from behind us and marched to the front, explaining that he had a reservation. Tony got a bit annoyed and pointed out that we had a reservation too but at least were polite enough to stand in line. We were seated very quickly after that and ordered drinks – Diet Pepsi all round; talk about pushing the boat out. We had bought the meal deal along with our room reservation, which included a two course dinner plus a soft drink or glass of wine. After perusing the menu – otherwise known as chatting for ages until the waitress came back to take our order and realising we hadn’t actually looked at the menu and forcing us to make a rapid decision – we settled on the following:
Tony – Garlic mushrooms followed by a mixed grill
Tee – Mixed platter (chicken wings, ribs and ???) followed by fish and chips (with new potatoes and garden peas)
Gary and I shared a starter of ribs, followed by a mixed grill for Gary and a plain chicken burger for me.
The starters arrived quickly and they were pretty tasty. The waitress took away our plates and brought out the mains. Unfortunately, this is where things began to go wrong. My burger came out with mayonnaise on it, when it was supposed to be plain, so the waitress took it away to rectify it. Tee cut into her fish, only to discover it was completely raw in the middle. The waitress, apologising profusely, removed that too. Gary and Tony’s steaks were not cooked as ordered, although we think that the waitress perhaps just mixed them up when she put them on the table.
Eventually Tee and I got our meals and dug in. The manager visited our table to apologise again, and offered us a drink on the house. Tony opted for another Diet Pepsi. We joked that we should have ordered a bottle of champagne. Tee’s meal still wasn’t entirely correct as she had ended up with mushy peas, instead of the garden peas she’d requested but, by this point, none of us wanted to make any more fuss – we’re so British!
We still had a dessert to come with our meal deal and opted to share a Rocky Road Sundae – anybody who knows Gary will realise what an achievement this was since “Gary doesn’t share food!”
Tony was persuaded by the waitress to indulge in Caramel Apple Pie with custard (Terry, take note – this is what custard should look like).
Gary and I also ordered a Rekorderlig each – Mixed Fruit for Gary and Strawberry Lime for me. We had our first picture of the holiday (although Tee was sadly on the wrong side of the camera).
After we finished dessert, we decided we would have a game of pool in the bar. We asked for the bill, only to be told that all the extras were on the house, due to the issues we’d had. Bargain! Gary and I won the pool, despite some disastrous shots from me.
We retired to the room around 10.30. Gary watched TV and I read my Kindle for a while. There was a little bit of noise from the corridor but it didn’t last long and we settled down to sleep just before midnight.