What a story, Malcolm!

Glad all was at peace with the world at the end of the day!

John Rodgers

On 9/3/2010 4:00 AM, Malcolm Stebbins wrote:
> 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
>
>
>
>
>