Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

I know - this is the one you are waiting for.

This really isn't blonde compliant, tikay. Shame on you.

OMG - I never saw that! I just "lifted" it off google images, never read the words. Floppy's version does not say that, does it? I've Deleted my Post.

Good job we have all quoted it then 

Unlucky Boyo. The Deletion removed the original Pic.

[Nakor]

I know - this is the one you are waiting for.

This really isn't blonde compliant, tikay. Shame on you.

OMG - I never saw that! I just "lifted" it off google images, never read the words. Floppy's version does not say that, does it? I've Deleted my Post.

Good job we have all quoted it then 

Just incase the Staff get bullied.  QFT.

[Colchester Kev]

Sigh .... it still shows on mine !!!

you run good old man.

[snoopy1239]

I know - this is the one you are waiting for.

This really isn't blonde compliant, tikay. Shame on you.

OMG - I never saw that! I just "lifted" it off google images, never read the words. Floppy's version does not say that, does it? I've Deleted my Post.

Good job we have all quoted it then 

Unlucky Boyo. The Deletion removed the original Pic.

Not in mine. I copied and pasted the pic myself in case you decided to remove it.

[Ironside]

tikay just give me the word and i will nuke the pics

[The_nun]

Just for Snoops.

[snoopy1239]

Just for Snoops.

You can't have Cannon without Ball.

Click to see full-size image.

[gatso]

when bored I like to dress my dog up as a dog

[tikay]

I'm trying to catch up a week's backlog of diary & it's taken me 6 hours to do a day & a half......

Note to self. Waffle less.

So, the highlight of my Friday sortie to Harrogate was The Old Swan Hotel. It might be the nicest Hotel I've ever stayed in anywhere in the word - ever. And it cost me £70 for a huge room, with a giant bed, & a bathroom bigger than most hotel rooms. The bath would fit three.

The address? "Swan Road". All decent hotels should have the road named after them. I drove up the immculate drive, & noted the clipped ivy clinging to the front walls. And lichens on some surfaces.. A lichen 100 years old is still in nappies, lichens are extraordinary.

Upon arrival at the Reception Desk, the Lady was serving someone else - but immediately called out - "Jane, front desk please, now, we have a Gentleman waiting". Good start!

Then I realised something was odd - there was no muzak - happy days. No music! At Planet Hollywood in Vegas last year -  surely the world's worst hotel - the music was everywhere - public areas, restaurants, toilets, lifts. It drove me bloody barmy. I'm fine with music, but I like my music, at my volume, when I want it, on my terms. I don't care to listen to what someone else foists upon me.

Anyway, the peace of this Hotel was so refreshing.

The young Lady receptionist said "Hello", gave me eye-contact, smild, & asked if my journey had been pleasant.

Suitably booked in, I made for my room, via a creaky & jerky old lift, & along deeply-carpeted corridors with squeaking floorboards to find my room, which had the old-fashioned panelled door.

I went for a wander, & found the Library Restaurant, & the Wedgewood Dining Room, both beautiful. The Dining Rom had crisp white tablecloths, & each table was laid out, military-style, with gleaming cutlery.

I ventured into the Coctail Lounge, totally silent, & I was the youngest in there by a good 20 years. It was the kind of room where even the most cretinous of ill-mannered hobbity-hies would not dream of taking a mobile phone call. You whispered if you spoke. I was discretely looking for a wall socket to plug my Lappie into. (The BedRooms did not have Wi-Fi).

"Can I assist Sir"? said a venerable old buffer in a waistcoat.

"Err, no, I'm fine thank you, thank you. But I'd like a pot of Tea if I may, please".

"OK Sir,  if Sir wishes, he can plug your computer in just by the window, there" he said, motioning me to a particularly deep burgundy leather armchair next to a polished mahogony coffee table. I would not dream of setting up a lappie on such a beautiful table, so I went outside, & took the air.

They have lawned areas all around - it sits in 5 acres of gardens - & they had wood pigeon the size of chickens, blackbirds a-plenty, robins, rabbits, & one solitary mallard.

It was just bliss.

I determined to bring forward my Saturday morning alarm call by an hour so I could experience brekkie in the Wedgewood Room.

The Hotel has been there, in it's current form, since 1840 or thereabouts.

I happened to mention this Hotel to Norman Pace on Saturday, & he immediately mentioned the Agatha Christie connection with The Old Swan.

Story has it that Agatha Christie was discovered there, after mysteriously disappearing n 1926. The story goes like this.....

 The search for Agatha Christie in 1926, created the biggest man-hunt of the time. When Agatha was 36 and already a successful writer, she mysteriously dissapeared after marital problems and the recent death of her mother.

On the 3rd December 1926, Agatha left her home in Sunningdale at 9.45pm leaving her car to be found hanging precariousley over the edge of a chalk pit. It was said, after crashing her car, she travelled to London and boarded a train bound for Harrogate. Agatha took a taxi to the Swan Hydro (now Old Swan) and checked in under the name of Theresa Neele - the name of her husband's mistress!

A nationwide search ensued with over 1,000 police and civilians being called in to scour Agatha's local area. It was in fact the first search in England to use aeroplanes.

After 10 days, Bob Tappin, a local banjo player, recognised the author and alerted the police. Colonel Christie was informed and immediately came to collect his wife. Agatha kept her husband waiting before joining him for dinner, putting her dissappearance down to total memory loss caused by the car accident. Many people speculated that the dissapearance was either a publicity stunt or just a genuine sign of unhappiness.

In 1977, the film 'Agatha', starring Dustin Hoffman and Vanessa Redgrave was shot on location at Old Swan and in the Harrogate area.

I nicked a little booklet from my room telling the history of the Hotel, but I can't remember where I put it now.

[The_nun]

I think you need to take a PA with you to these places Tikay. 

[tikay]

A bad picture of The Wedgewood Dining Room. The light level in there - natural light, through the glass ceiling - is astounding. I could read a newspaper without my bins on.

A Grand Piano sits in one corner.

Breakfast, not quite as spectacular as I'd imagined, was, even so, piping hot, way too hot to eat. Eat your heart out Travelodge. "Tea or coffee Sir, Toast? - white or brown".....

Quality.

[tikay]

Detail is important - to me, anyway. (China cups & silver spoons, sugar bowls & milk jugs at DTD mean so much).

The fitting out at The Old Swan - refurbished very recently - is superb, in that they've retained the period feel.

Go into most modern Hotels these days, & you need a degree to work out how to turn on the shower, or bath taps.

The long-established tap design was called "Upright Pillars". They are functional, ergonomic, & anyone can easily use them. Why change?

[tikay]

I think you need to take a PA with you to these places Tikay. 

Good idea. But would they be prepared to, well, "pay the bill"? And would I survive the ordeal? I'm not a young man you know.

[Ironside]

changed taps because 1 tap combined to give out both hot and cold water means alot less of a value resource (metal) is used in the creation of said tap

[tikay]

Afternoon Tea & Scone at The Old Swan. Proper civilised. Might even beat Bettys Tea-Room.