The Vacation Day that Wouldn’t Go Right: 
 
We decided to make the best of our time as we awaiting the repair of the van’s 
wheel-bearing and with the best of intentions, we were up early in our Camping 
Jonjio campsite in Catania (Sicily) in order to get to the "must see" fish 
market that finishes by 11 a.m.  That means forgoing a cooked breakfast and 
instead having cold cereal in order to speed our arrival at the much touted fish 
market. 

 
We waited an inordinately long time for the bus, but then again it was Sunday, 
so we can forgive that one.  Once on the bus, we were not sure where to get off 
the bus, we decided to err on the side of conservancy and got off the bus at, 
what turned out to be, about 10 blocks shy of our destination.  Not a problem as 
a good brisk morning walk is invigorating, right?
 
Jamila used a combination of fractured Spanish with Italianized French/English 
to ask for directions to the fish market.  Can this be true:  It's closed on 
Sundays .... Not what Lonely Planet says!!  Well, let's make of the day what we 
can... There must be a museum around ..... Let's see one is closed on Sunday and 
the other closes at 11:30.  It"s now 11:15, drats!
 
So we sat down in one of the few open cafes and had a cup of tea in an effort to 
gain some perspective and sooth what was becoming frail nerves;  It worked, and 
we read in the Lonely Planet that there is a North African restaurant called 
Marrekesh, that serves excellent Tagines and Couscous.  It's been nearly 6 weeks 
since Jamila has had good Tagine or Couscous, so I offered to treat her to a 
nice lunch ...  and it's within walking distance, let’s go.   mmmmmm   According 
to the map, it should be about …….. here ....not in sight .... let's look around 
a bit;;;;;;;;  OK now it's time to ask.  The answer comes back that the 
restaurant is no longer in business and has degenerated into a Pizzeria (joining 
the other 10,000 pizzerias in town).
 
Even for a Sunday, the town is deserted as everyone is in having their 1 p.m. to 
5 p.m. lunch & siesta, so let's go back to the campground and salvage what we 
can by doing laundry;  The campground had graciously provided us with a laser 
printed map of the bus routes that serve the campground:  935, 534, 448.  we of 
course had folded the map and the laser ink had chipped off so that 448 looked 
like 443.  We walked to the bus station and asked where to catch 443 and they 
were very helpful ;; only 4 blocks away.  We boarded the bus and after about 30 
minutes it became evident that we were heading in the wrong direction.  Jamlia 
asks again, and is informed that if we stay on the 443 bus as it completes its 
ENTIRE round of the city, we can get back to bus 448;;;;;; Deep Breath  ;;;;; oh 
well, a nice cheap tour of the city's back streets.  Once on 448 we DO arrive at 
the campground 1.5 hours after we first decided to return to the campground.  
Out comes the laundry & soap and off I go to do the laundry;  Just as I was 
going to put the soap in the machine, a woman started hollering at me in 
Italian:  NO, NO,  NO  Through the international language of Charades, seems 
that the cost of the machine includes the soap etc. as indicated by all of the 
hoses hooked up to the machine.  So after she straightened me out about that 
one, I proceeded to put the Euro coins into the machine's slot.  NO, NO, NO! 
again;  seems I must buy a token for the machine.  She took the 5 Euros out of 
my hand and soon returned with a token.  As the song goes:  "I'll get by with a 
little from my friends."
 
So with the cloths in the machine and Jamila having no tasks for me, I took my 
notebook computer up to the men's washroom for some badly needed electricity so 
that I could back up all 11 gigabytes of photos (if you are a photographer, I 
shoot in RAW & jpeg);  As I worked on some of the photos, I of course stayed in 
the men's washroom as I'm not about to leave a computer in the washroom.  After 
about 15 minutes Jamila bursts into the men's washroom exclaiming:  "Malcolm 
I've done something TERRIBLE!"  As I reeled around, I see a chocolate covered 
digital camera that, under the chocolate; looks a lot like my EXPENSIVE Sony 
R1!!!  I immediately surmise that Jamila is correct: "Something Terrible".   
mmmmmm
 
As background as to why I did not get upset, about 4 weeks earlier, I had 
inadvertently dunked the very same expensive Sony R1 in a stream and while it 
had recovered about 99% of it's function, I had already decided to buy a new 
camera on my next trip to N America.  So, (back to the story)  I could see no 
reason to NOT just put the camera under the faucet to wash off the chocolate - a 
terrible waste of chocolate.  Jamila is feeling horrible, but we focus on the 
task at hand;  Film cards out and washed, battery out and washed, and back to 
concentrating on getting the chocolate off the camera.
 
As the story came to light as to what happened, Jamila was trying to prepare a 
nice surprise for me and was preparing HOT chocolate to go along with dinner, 
and as she as mixing the chocolate into a paste in our tall insulated cups; she 
put the tall cups on the front table and then inadvertently, ever-so-slightly, 
nudged the table and my camera was innocently sitting on the passenger's front 
seat right under the table as the overturned cup of hot chocolate paste spilled 
directly on top of my camera.  She then did the only thing she could think of:  
Grab the chocolate toped camera and RUN to Malcolm ......... in the men's 
washroom!
 
Jamila returned to the van to clean the chocolate off the front seat (before it 
congealed) while I continued to clean up the camera.  As I returned to the van 
to help Jamila, after about 3 minutes, as I was putting the cleaned camera out 
to dry, I remembered that I had left the battery and 2 film cards in the men’s 
washroom.  As I returned… the men’s washroom was still there, but not the 
battery nor the 2 film cards.  I went to the reception desk ….. someone had 
returned the battery, but no film cards were turned in ….  mmmmmm.  Not to 
worry, as I had just transferred all of the photos to my computer, and mere 
money can replace the film cards, right?
 
As we went to bed, we had fun recounting the events of the day and thinking of 
how many people around the world would love to have had our ‘problems’, such as 
they were.
 
As a post script, the camera regained about 98% of its functionality, and I have 
donated it to Jamila’s nephew and I have replaced the camera with another Sony  
R1.  Malcolm & Jamila