Well, the intended shopping trip went by the board today. One of my biggest strengths and also one of my biggest weaknesses is probably being impulsive.
I have been just that today. Armed with monies sent to me by relatives for Christmas (even though without a new card I can’t actually get it right now - oh, how I long for the days when I used to open birthday or Christmas cards and find a ten shilling note inside!) I decided I would kill two birds with one stone.
There’s somewhere I want to visit and of course I have to fete Alice otherwise all she’ll see are the supermarket and my place! As far as I know Alice has never flown so it may well be three birds. Next Friday we are going here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfgOUFwtxxk
I have booked and paid for flights to and from (it worked out just 70y more than train tickets but the flight is an hour in comparison to 3 hours on the high speed train) and a deluxe room for two nights in an hotel which has been highly rated online. Total cost so far is just under 1,000y (or around £100). Add in probably 200y maximum for ancillary travel costs, hinting that Alice should pay for dinners in Zhangye (breakfasts are included in the room price) and that’s more or less the cost of a trip I wanted to make anyway but which will be much more fun (and I won’t spend as much time sitting in the bar moaning about having to walk) because I will have company.
I am keeping it a secret from her. Well, not the fact we are going away but the destination and our means of travel. I can keep the latter secret until we have to go and buy train tickets to the airport and the former obviously only until check in. At last, something I can really look forward to here. I have felt all term that I was just marking time.
There is now however (remember, it’s ME involved!) in that Ctrip just called. The hotel is unsure whether they have the authority to register foreign guests. They are checking with the hotel now, armed now with the information I supplied that the first two reviews on their site appear in fact to be from foreigners and also that if it helps they can put Alice as the primary guest. If not then I will find another hotel, albeit it will be more expensive. If Hilton or Holiday Inn were there I would book like a shot but no such luck.
1830
No idea who wrote the reviews in English for the hotel but I have been refused the room. It makes me angry given that I am using the English site for foreigners, the hotel should not even be listed - a fact I pointed out and I will hopefully see it removed in short order. This happened once before, in Nanjing I believe.
So I looked at other hotels on offer. Breakfast is a must, not for me especially when I know it’s going to be Chinese but Alice will 100% want one. Also, being a creature of comfort, I need an airport pickup service to save farting about with rip off taxis or bus trips with a three mile hike at the end. That somewhat limits the number of hotels to choose from. I have now been even more impulsive and plumped for a deluxe suite (twin beds) costing twice as much but the bill is still under 1,500y. Alice is definitely paying for the bloody dinners!
I may break the habit of a lifetime for that price and swallow some steamed dumplings for my early morning meal.
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