Whilst my Mistress was away, she stayed in a hotel for her final night. She decided that rather than be her usual antisocial self, she would go and sit in the bar and read her book. She opened the hotel services directory and found that there was a choice of two bars. There was one that was open in the ‘summery’ season, but despite the nice mild summery weather, it didn’t seem to be open. Then there was the bar that was on the seventh floor and was open ‘seven days a week’. She went to the lift and pushed the button for the seventh floor but nothing happened, so she rang reception thinking that perhaps the lift was not working. However, it seems that Sunday and Monday are not two of the seven days in the week as she was told that the bar was closed on those days.
Instead she went out and found a Hippopotamus steak house quite close to the hotel. Having had a good meal in one before, she went in to ask for a table. She stood and waited for someone to serve her. After a considerable wait, a lady came and explained that the fan in the kitchen had broken so they could only serve cold meals. My Mistress definitely wanted her steak cooking, so she left and went to find somewhere that turned out not to be nearly so good. It just goes to show that all in all she’s better off staying at home. The pub is at least open six days a week and the food is excellent and on a Monday she can always eat and drink at home.
The other thing that amused my Mistress while she was away was the large poster warning about Swine Flu. It advised against visiting public locations where lots of people gathered and was displayed in the busy station concourse at Gare du Lyon.