Holiday Highlights Past and Present - Part Two

 If the number of holidays were difficult to count then the number of people who I have met during my travels is an impossible task to ascertain. Many have been just nodding acquaintances but there have been some very notable people that I’ve gotten to know quite well. They range from Nashville musicians to a Canadian author and various others but once again the choice of the nicest and most interesting person was an easy one.

Her name (yes, a woman. Isn’t that a surprise?) is Anna-Marie and she lives in Surrey and was, and still is, a school teacher of English. Pat and I met her and her companion Michael when we were on a Two Centre holiday, one week in St.Lucia and two weeks in Barbados (even now it makes my mouth water. The holiday not Anna Marie. Okay, just a little bit). Our hotel in St. Lucia was quite small so it wasn’t difficult to get to know almost every one on some level or another, although it was nearly to the end of that week before we made proper contact with her. Our friendship with her and Michael blossomed when we reached Barbados and a number of our after dinner evenings were spent in their company, me with Anna -Marie and Pat with Michael. Anna- Marie was particularly interested in the short stories I had written and the book that I was still in the process of writing and offered to review and edit it when it was complete which she has done. We have maintained email contact with each other but, as yet, have never got round to meeting up face to face again which I would love to do. A good chat over lunch/dinner/drinks is far more conducive than emailing can ever be. What I find so attractive about her is that she is intelligent in a down to earth way, can talk with some authority on a number of subjects and knows lots of people who don’t conform to the norm. She has been involved in charity work and has even been invited to Downing Street. Oh yes, did I mention that she is also very attractive? I hope our relationship continues for a long time but I must stop being tardy and not leave too many spaces between my emails. Big fault of mine.

On the other side of the coin is the most invidious person I have had the misfortune to get involved with while on holiday and these situations can be very difficult to extricate yourself from. Pat and I were staying at the Rocco Negra hotel on Gran Cañería  recently when we met Tom, but let’s not use his real name and call him Fred. My initial contact with him was at breakfast one morning. Pat was late getting ready and I was sitting at a table on my own when Tom, sorry Fred, came in and couldn’t find a seat, so having recognised me from the tour meeting, he asked if I minded if he joined me. Me being the convivial and amiable person that I am said “sure, no problem” three little words than can have a greater impact than “I love you”. At around the same time we had got to know Carol, I’ll use her real name because she was quite a nice person. Somehow the result was that the four of us would have dinner together and have drinks afterwards. At first it was fine but slowly the real Tom, sorry Fred, started to emerge. He was what I term as a ‘shepherd’ but it was not sheep he collected but lame ducks. What does that say about myself and Pat?. Slowly, one by one, these extra people got added to the group which neither I nor Pat was pleased about. We consider we are quite sociable but neither of us likes to be in large groups. The second problem arose when he started to organise things without our knowledge and the s…t really hit the fan when the four of us went to a local restaurant and he was continuously on his smart phone and breaking into conversations when he found something he thought was interesting. I made it clear that I considered he was being very rude  but it was wasted on him. I swear that phone was welded to his right hand and it was the last straw as far as I was concerned. We had two choices which were to either just blank him from thereon in or to place the phone and his hand firmly up his….left trouser leg. Pat opted for a subtle blanking (my second names being subtle and diplomatic) that was easy and the message got home to him very quickly. It could have ruined our holiday but it didn’t, although trying to continually avoid someone is not easy or comfortable.

                           Part 3 to follow. Try to keep awake.